STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 143, 7 September 1927, Page 14

STRAND

A FINE PROGRAMME Thr big double programme at the Strand Theatre is attracting large audiences daily. The first big picture shown is “The Little Irish Girl,” starring Dolores Costello and John Harron. Miss Costello plays the decoy for a band of grifters, half grafters, half lifters, who scheme to trim a country boy and his grandmother of their hotel and valuable mineral springs. John Harrcn is excellent as the honest and attractive hero, and Gertrude Claire* as always, a delight as granny. Mathew Bettz, the leader of the gang, threatens to kill Dot (Miss Costello) when she finds she cannot go through with the deal because of her love for John Harron, and it is granny who finally saves the situation by outwitting the city slickers and aiding the young lovers to get married. Roy del Ruth directed this entertaining comedy of crooks, mystery, and romance, which is based on the C. D. Lancaster story "The Grifters,” and which is one of the l est of the current season’s screen offerings. The street scenes in “The Auctioneer,” Fox Films* version of the David Belasco-David Warfield stage success, produced the direction of Alfred E. Green, were “shot” in New York. Days were reuired to successfully photograph one scene, ingenuity and patience being essential to cope with the numerous handicaps of getting a genuine metropolitan background. George Sidney, Marion Nixon, and Gareth Hughes have the leads. Charles Klein and Lee Arthur wrote the play, which was a sensation. The Strand Symphony Orchestra renders a delightful musical programme, playing “Irish Melodies’* as its overture. The Strand Magazine is one which should delight the sportsman, for it contains scenes of many of the biggest sporting events in the Old Country and abroad.