THE EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 February 1917, Page 6

THE EMPIRE.

A WOXDROUS, BEAUTIFUL PICTURE. "HYPOCRITES/ A great deal of interest, and not a littfc controversy, lias been aroused t?>>oii<;)iont the liominion by the screening of tlio wonderful picture "Hypocrites." This film has been (lie subject oi liuieh questionitig by censors, and its screening in some instances lias been proli.biteil. The picture has parsed the i\cw Zealand censor, however, and has received his sanction for its display, and that it is a popular decision was proved by the crowded house at the Empire last evening. The producer of "Hypocrites'* is Miss Lois Weber, and the leading lady Miss Margaret Edwards. Ir. licr defence of Hie picture the latter says: "The moving pictures are an art. If the nude gives offence in one art, why should it not do so in another? Just as one cannot compare an indecent card with one of these masterpieces, neither car: one compare the vice-ridclen productions of the many sensation-seeking companies with such a film as the 'Hypocrites.' " And, indeed, the picture has nothing in it that can call forth one iota of protest' against the standard, of its morality. The whole production is real ly the screening of an allegorical story, in which Truth is symbolised in the ethereal form of a beautiful girl. A devout monk carves a figure of marble, which lie regards with almost sacred devotion, but when shown to the populace, whose sense of the beautiful is far from developed, the people kill the monk and destroy his work. The picture then depicts a modern preacher, who takes hypocrisy as his subject, but his sermon touches so closely upon the life of each member of his congregation that he is to be askcil to resign. The preacher then takes the form of the monk, and an allegorical story is screened, showing the refusal of modern civilisation to accept Truth into its life, and the concluding scenes are laid in the church, where the minister is found to have departed from this life even while his hands clasped :i Sunday newspaper. And then the people express themselves shocked that he should have been reading a newspaper on the Sabbath, which only provides another instance of modem hypocrisy. A good supporting programme is also shown. "Hypocrites" will he shown again to-night and to-morrow, but'will not be screened at the matinee performance.