TWO THRILLERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 665, 17 May 1929, Page 14

TWO THRILLERS

PROGRAMME OF MYSTERY TIVOLI AND EVERYBODY’S Every so often a motion picture produces that chilling 1 , creepy sensation one gets from reading a weird ghost story on a stormy night while alone in the house. That is the way “Seven Footprints to Satan," the mystery thriller now at the Tivoli and Everybody’s Theatres, affect one. It’s a case of gooseflesh and cold sensations along the spinal column. At the same time it is sheer delight, ■fust rpnriinp -

just like reading the “Arabian Nights” only more so, for the film treatment of A. Merritt’s best seller simply transports the audience to a world of wonders where all kinds of strange figures appear and disappear where things are not what they seem and where every dark corner

eveiy uai iv lui conceals a fearsome creature. A hideous creature called the Spider, played by Sheldon Lewis; a dog-faced professor played by Wm. V. Mong; a rather interesting lunatic interpreted by Dan Crimmins; a queer dwarf, a witch, and then some nice people, such as the hero, Creighton Hale, and the heroine, lovely Thelma Todd. Also Laska Winter, a delightful cerature and queen of Satan’s harem.

The story is all about the adventures of the two young people—Eve and Jim —who are kidnapped and taken to the mysterious abode of a man calling himself “Satan.” What befalls in the house of horrors would beggar the descriptive powers of a Poe.

The settings are exceptional, varying from the most up-to-date home interiors to strange scenes such as the throne room of Satan’s palace. Benjamin Christensen directed this film which, for sheer entertainment, cannot be surpassed. A big cast of characters, many extra players, a harem of . lovely girls—and some of the most unusual makeups ever seen in a picture—are all in “Seven Footprints to Satan.”

When properly handled, the newspaper theme is also one which is most potent for the making of really exciting screen fare, and “Freedom of the Press,” the second feature at both theatres, is such a picture.

Motion picture critics, being newspaper writers, always look for technical flaws. “Freedom of* the Press,” despite the fact that most of it concerns a newspaper, has no flaws, so we are able to judge the picture from the standpoint of entertainment alone. Lewis Stone is the star and that means, immediately, that the rest of the cast must be good, too. Stone gives a powerful picture of an underworld leader who is a respected member of society, giving parties for his ward and donating large sums to charity, while at the same time being the boss of the crooked political world intent on a land grab of a big citv park.

Marceline Day is appealing as his ward and the other half of the love interest is supplied with feeling by Malcolm McGregor, son of the newspaper editor who has set himself against the boss.

Nine pictures in one year with leads in eight of them is probably a record It is held by Sue Carol, who has given a leading role in “Girls Gone Wild,” now being made by Fox Films