MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 970, 13 May 1930, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“SEVEN DAYS’ LEAVE” Gary Cooper is ably supported in '‘Seven Days’ Leave,” the picture nowplaying a return season at the Majestic Theatre, by Beryl Mercer, veteran character actress, who plays the lovable role of Mrs. Dowey in this alltalking version of Sir James M. Barrie’s famous play, “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals.” This is the second part Miss Mercer has played in talking pictures. Her first was that of Mrs. Gubbins, the crafty little Cockney would-be pensioner in “Three Live Ghosts.” Miss Mercer has been on the stage for 43 years. She made her first public appearance at the age of four in the Drury Lane Theatre in London, and has been acting continuously ever since. She was born in Spain, her father being a member of the Spanish Embassy, but together with her parents she removed to London at the age of two. Gary Cooper is starred in this story, which, by the way, has been called “the most human story ever written.” It is a story of war-time, but it is not a war story in the sense that “Wings” and “Legion of the Condemned” were war stories, 'in “Seven Days’ Leave” there is but one brief and fleeting war scene. The plot deals with a childless old woman's affection for an orphan lad whom she adopts in order to prove that even she can make a sacrifice for England. It is a tense, dramatic document of human love and pathos, with a fine thread of natural humour to give it a real balance. The powerful romantic film, “Dangerous Paradise,” from Joseph Conrad’s novel, “Victory,” and starring Kichard Arlen and Nancy Carroll, is also being presented on the same programme. The Majestic’s current programme also includes a number of enjoyabletalking and singing items.