ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1926, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

I i OPERA HOUSE. “LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY.” Mary Pickford again drew large audiences at the Opera House yesterday and last night. Combining comedy and drama, smiles and tears, children’s gang battles and a pretty love story, “Little Annie Rooney” is the type of play in which the public loves to see Mary Pickford, and the type she can do as no other actress can. “Little Annie Rooney” is as Irish as its name, and as Irish as the curly-haired little ragamuffin who plays the title role. It deals with the young daughter of an East Side policeman, whose playmates are about thirty young boys, and who enters into the gang fights and rows of these tenement lads with all the vigour at her command. Unexpected tragedy stalks into the policeman’s family, arid the girl is suddenly faced with some of the grim realities of life that seldom come to a child of her age. Through the gang battle sequences Miss Pickford romps gloriously, a leader, of the dirty faced hoys and the idol of her “gang.” In the dramatic scenes she does some of the finest and most convincing work of her whole screen career. “Little Annie Rooney” shows again this afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Opera House, and for the last time to-night at 8 p.m. Seats may be reserved at Collier’s. EVERYBODY’S. FINAL SCREENING OF A WONDER FILM. To-night presents the last opportunity of seeing Hoot Gibson in his latest and greatest romantic Western action-drama “The Calgary Stampede,” which is one of the most impressive outdoor productions yet seen. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales lent his beautiful ranch in Alberta to the Universal Pictures Corporation during then - filming of some of the sequences of the picture. Included in this epic of the West are the sports of the cowboy and the Indian, the packer, the prospector, and the stage coach driver, such as wild horse riding, calf roping, riding of wild range cows and steers, wild cow milking, handling of wild horses and wilder cattle, fancy and trick riding and roping, and the famous wild horse race. In fact, the festival includes evely kind of amusing and thrilling sport known to the Canadian North-west, participated in by genuine inhabitants of the West, not as a show, but as a genuine competitive tournament. Altogether it forms one of the most interesting and thoroughly gripping backgrounds to an outdoor drama yet presented on the screen, while the dramatic and romantic element goes to make up splendid entertainment. A brilliant cast of players is to be seen in the various roles. There is an excellent supporting programme and pleasing music by Everybody’s orchestra. THE PEOPLE’S. A COMEDY DE LUXE. “The Fair Cheat,” a comedy-drama of unusual charm and distinction, with beautiful Dorothy Mackaill as star, is one of the most laugh-provoking pictures full of mirth that has ever been shown on the screen. If you are interested in love strategy, if you like to see bright comedy tinged with romance, don’t miss “The Fair Cheat,” which unfolds a tale that will make all picturelovers laugh and sit up and pay a whole lot of attention. To-morrow’s change offers another great attraction in “The Sunshine Trail,” starring Douglas Mac Lean.