STRAND THEATRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 532, 8 December 1928, Page 14

STRAND THEATRE

“THE DOVE” AND “LINDBERGH” The presentation at the Strand Theatre last evening of Norma Talmadge’s latest triumph, “The Love,” must go on record as yet further evidence of the unfailing acumen of the management in sensing just what kind of picture play a discerning theatrepublic most appreciates. The screening concluded, the large audience made no secret of its approval. A definite and merited success had been achieved. The theme round which “The Love” is woven is simple and sweet. Its plot is vigorous, tense, and dramatic. The setting is Spanish —colourful, and spectacular. The drama is enacted in Costa Roja (Red Coast), and concerns the young employee of a gambling emporium, a vibrant girl who sings gloriously to the music of a guitar, and the most egotistic man who ever toasted women and himself. The story tells how young Johnny Powell, played by Gilbert Roland, is drawn nightly at dinner-time to the “Yellow Pig Cafe” by the wondrous charm of the little singing dove, into which parts Norma Talmadge steps, as alluring and fresh as in “Camille.” Then the coarse and vainglorious face of the caballero Lon Jose Maria y Sandoval intervenes hideously. Who else than Noah Beery could have approached the part! He plays it to perfection. This stupid, wealthy, gigantic ass. Seeing Lolores, the dove, Lon Jose is violently smitten. But Johnny is a stumbling-block. He must be removed. • Jose’s cousin, Gomez, will shoot quick. But on the fatal night in the casino, Johnny is quicker on the draw. The vain gentleman, however, is resourceful. Johnny is arrested for murder, escapes from prison when Lolores bribes the commandant, but at once falls into the gloating hands of the caballero. The plot whirls tensely on. After further escapes and re-arrests, Johnny faces a firing squad in Lose Jose’s hacienda. Lolores de-

mands to die with her lover. This and Johnny’s bravery, appeal to the crowd Don Jose, nevertheless, orders the exe cution to proceed. Then, in an inspired oration to the mob. Dolores ridicules the Caballero for ordering out an armv to shoot a defenceless boy. His soulconsuming vanity welling up and flowing over, Don Jose, to salve his seliassumed reputation as the “be*=t gentleman in Red Coast,” releases Johnny, and sends the lovers away in his finest carriage. The public never tires of aviation pictures. Accordingly the screening of “Forty Thousand Miles With Lindbergh” was followed with the closest interest. The fascination of the story of Lindbergh to British people lies in the extreme modesty of the youthful airman. This is truly a great spectacle, and one that will quicken the air-sense wherever it is screened. A superb programme is completed with a genuine Aesop fable cartoon, and a gazette depicting among other interesting the launching of a new P. and-O. liner, and a devastating fire in Manchester. By way of a prologue to “The Dove,” Miss Mary Cofield, a young soprano, gives a pleasing love song. Eve Bentley’s orchestra is heard in music of "The Strand" standard.