STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 17

STRAND

MARY PICKFORD IN “COQUETTE” ! The new Mary* Pickford is delighting all hearts at the Strand Theatre in the film version of the successful Broadway play, “Coquette.” “The World’s Sweetheart” has gone forever. | Little Mary Pickford of the screen J crossed the bridge leading from childhood to ■womanhood. Poised, cultured, intelligent and charming, the Mary of private life has long represented the essence of gracious womanhood. Only on the screen did she revert to childhood. She has been in pictures almost 19 years and has been one of the great stars of the screen for that entire period. No other star in pictures has such a record, and it is of even more interest now, after having been shorn of her golden curls, she has produced a picture that has created for her a new public and made her as popular as ever. For her first picture she has selected “Coquette,” the story of a little Southern girl who found a tragic womanhood in overwhelming love and tragedy. As Norma Besant, the j daughter of an old-fashioned father, ! she laughs her way in and out of I countless love affairs. Then came the day when she met a care-free, hotheaded youth, who refused to become another victim to her wiles. From that moment the life of the little Southern girl was beset with heartache. The little '“Coquette” will live in the memory of all who see her, as a gallant little figure fighting bravely for her love against overwhelming odds. The gay little care-free Coquette had at last bruised her shining wings, and she herself suffered as she had caused innumerable others. The story is set in the Southern States of America, and to keep the story within its frame of the South, Miss Pickford and her company adopted a Southern accent —a peculiar characteristic of the Southern people. Among the enjoyable talkie items on the remainder of the programme are two selections by the Flonzaley Quartet, who have been called “the world’s foremost string ensemble”; a novelty item by Ruth Glanville, an American saxophonist, who is accompanied by the Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra, another comedy by George Robey, the eminent London comedian, the latest edition of the Fox Movietone News, and a U.FA. gem entitled, “Ancient Art.” -