MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 522, 27 November 1928, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“HANGMAN’S HOUSE” A fine picture and brilliant orchestral music is the offering at the Majestic Theatre this evening. The picture, “Hangman’s House,” is a really outstanding one. Victor McLaglen plays the stellar role of Citizen Hogan and June Collyer and Larry Kent have the featured romantic leads with Hobart Bos worth and Earle Foxein strong supporting parts. Based on Bonn Byrne’s best-seller, “Hangman’s House” is typically Irish and, in common with virtually all pictures directed by John Ford, is packed with human interest and bristles with action. Briefly the story is that of an adamant old Irish Chief Justice who, as “Jimmy the Hangman,” insists that his one daughter shall wed a man she dislikes rather than the man of her choice, in the person of Larry Kent, who is cast as Dermott McDermott. When her father dies, shortly after a midnight ceremony in the chapel of “Hangman’s House,” June Collyer, as Connaught O’Brien, suffers untold agony as the unwilling bride of John Darcy, as depicted by Earle Foxe. Darcy, who is concealing a checkered career, is traiLed to Ireland by Citizen Hogan, played by Victor McLaglen. Connaught wonders why Darcy fears the mysterious Hogan, but is kept in doubt until the day of the annual steeplechase in which Connaught has entered her favourite horse, The Bard of Armagh. Darcy, betting against The Bard, is infuriated when Dermott rides The Bard to victory. Darcy shoots The Bard and is exposed by Hogan as the man who has wronged Hogan’s sister in Paris. Gripping sequences pile up in preparation for a smashing climax. This is the most satisfactory picture shown here for some time. The Majestic Orchestra, one of the finest picture theatre orchestras in the Dominion, again presents a brilliant and varied accompaniment. Mr. J. Whiteford Waugh is on holiday. Mr. Haydn Murray, the first violinist, hag taken charge and has chosen for the musical interlude a selection of Gilbert and Sullivan airs. A comedy, an intensely interesting nature study, a New Zealand scenic, and a gazette complete the pictorial programme.