THE PEOPLE'S PICTURES,

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16311, 11 December 1918, Page 2

THE PEOPLE'S PICTURES,

TO-MORROW AND FRIDAY. SESSTJE HAYAKAWA. In “the Honour of His, House,” com' raencing at this theatre to-morrow, Sessue Hayakawa gives a wonderful performance as Count Ito Onato, a Japanese scientist. The story opens on board a Trans-Pacific Japanese liner, and deals with three of her passengers, Lora Horing, a beautiful 'young professional dancer, with Japanese blood' in her veins; Count Onato, a wealthy Japanese scientist ; and young Robert Farlow, an American scientist with a remarkable record in chemical achievements, but a victim of the drink habit. Farlow has just lost his professorship in Tokio on account of his weakness for drink, and Lora is drawn to him in pity. Shortly after the liner is wrecked, and by some strange trick of Fate the three characters named were cast upon a desert island. Both men are in love with Lora, and Farlow, deprived of drink, regains his better self. “The Honour of His House” is a tale of sacrifice, and herein Hayakawa, with that dramatic instinct that is part of his character, draws a picture that is at once ennobling and pathetic, and supplies the only possible ending to a situation which at first glance shows no way out. Here it is two men, representative of types of two entirely different races, both in love with one woman. The great element of love works through the whole story, bringing in the end happiness to two, a happiness, however, sanctified and hallowed by the greatness and the self-sacrifice of the other. A fine Mack Sennett comedy. The Battle Royal,” and gazette, are also on the hill. .