AMUSEMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, Issue 17690, 2 July 1927, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS.

FULLERS’ MAMMOTH PROGRAMME.

FOR TO-NIGHT ONLY. Sixteen thousand feet of film and a) vaudeville speciality will be the Theatre Royal attraction for this evening only. “Eve’s Lover,’ ’the Warner Brothers' picture is fine, solid dramatic entertainment, excellently acted by a cast that include* Irene Rich, Bert Lyteli, Clara Bow and Willard Louis. The story J concerns a millionaire business woman, who, at JO, finds herself in love with a dissolute Baron. She learna to love him in turn with all the pent-up fervor of an emotionally barren life. Their marriage is happy until the treacherous scandals of the Baron’s prematrimonial career reach the wife’s ears. Then slio returns to business, and it is not until the Baron has an opportunity to rescue Jter, and her steel plant, from a frenzied mob of strikers, that she realises lie loves her worthily. Irene j Rich is the heroine, Eve Burnside, and she plays with a. repressed force that carries dramatic effect. Incidentally she never looked more lovely. Bert Lyteli plays the Baron, Eve’s lover, and lie makes the fascination that conquered all female hearts fully understandable. It is in rakehelly roles like this that Mr Lyteli is at his best. Clara Bow, as a tigerish little siren, and AVillard Louis, as a big business man, afford delicious comedy relief. Feature number .two, Harry Hangdon’s latest laugh riot, “The Strong Man,” is a hit the whole family will like. “If you like to cry, ‘The Strong Man’ will stop your breath with a hoarse catch, will send the tears rolling down your cheeks, and quicken your pulse with pathetic sympathy for the wistful, moonfaced, lonesome boy who strolls across the screen in the appealing personality of Harry Langdon.” Peculiar, this comedy is. If it had been an actor who considers himself an emotional dramatist playing the role of the ex-Belgian soldier searching for his American guardian angel, “The Strong Alan” would have been hailed as one of the most poignant and heartcatching of T.he year’s films. With the inimitable Harry Langdon in the title role we have a curious, yet attractive mixture” of the shrillest laughter and the softest sobbing. Chaplin has a. rival, at last for pathos-humour. The “Pathe. Gazette” will also be sereeneu. The clever vaudeville duo, the Campbell Brothers, will make a last appearance, and will offer titbits of musical successes from their extensive repertoire. The ' entertainment is timed to commence at 7.45, and will conclude at 10.25. Seats may be booked through phone 570. The usual matinee will take place this afternoon.

REGINALD DENNY AND TILTON AND WEST. . There is no- better example of farce comedy well done than u lhe Cheerful Fraud,” the Universal-Jewel production. starring Reginald'Denny, which opens here at the Royal Theatre on, Alonday. Any farce must necessarily start with the star becoming involved in an embarrassing or difficult situation, and getting In deeper than ever when he tries to. straighten it out. And if you think anyone ■ has ever had • troubles, just go and see wliat happened to Air Denny in “The Cheerful Fraud.” The whole production, plentifully sprinkled with novel situations and superb “gags” is a tribute to- the directional skill of AVilliam A. Seiter, who gets credit for making the production. There are no big mob scenes, lapses of time or spectacular settings for comedy. Instead, there are only six persons spending a week-end at a country home l and from this modest situation, the diI rector has wrung a wealth of comedy I to. move one into almost dangerous of laughter. ! The management also announce the

special engagement of a further vaudeville novelty in Tilton and West, the Joy Boys, who come fresh from the J. C. Williamson's and Fuller Theatre. They feature the latest popular song numbers and provide a fund of clever humour.

“THE CANADIAN PIONEER.”-

A POWERFUL FILM. Based on Somerset Maugham’s play “Tito Land or Promise,” and played by a capable cast with Thomas Aleighau m ihu leading role, “The Canadian Pioneer,” which heads the current programme at the Grand Theatre is a powerful drama stirringly told. It is a picture wilii a moral, and it has about it a human element that grips the attention and holds it. It toils a story ot brave people who loi.ott lull'd far behind the scenes' of civilisation with its crowds and its eomiorts, its silly conventions,- its hypocrisy and pride. Nora went there to her brother to help him on his farm. She went because the only alternative was to starve. Sho hated the fields. She hated the shack they called a house out there in Nortli-AVest Canada. She hated the people, hated them all and could not help lotting them know it. She was a misfit. Though she did her best, though she resignad herself to her fate and endeavoured to become one ot the family, tried hard to iorget the city with its bright lights and the old life, | with its servants, its gaiety and its fun, she was a hopeless ladure. She was continually lading out with her brother’s wile. Gertie was a woman who had never known the life- from which Nora had come. She had worked hard from early girlhood. That in Nora’s eyes was nothing to her credit-, and indeed formed the basis of many a nasty gibe. Then one day came the separation that was inevitable. Nora decided to leave. Her brother’s hired hand was about to go to his own little farm a few miles away. Nora asked if he would marry her and take her with him. it was the move of a woman in desperation. She saw no other way out. She did not love the man, but she must ho away irom her brother’s house, must be out of the sight of Gertie ; it was the only way. Gertie was surprised. So was her husband, but tlie hired hand took it calmly and a creed to marry the city girl and take her with him. Then began a new life for Nora. She experienced the bitter side as she had once experienced the sweet. It was a tumble-down shack that she lived in, a shack surrounded for miles with a great expanse of uncultivated land, with never a human being, never another shack. To Nora it was a great trial, hut sho learned her lesson. From the time that the new’y-weds arrived m their unpretentious home in the wilderness, things began to move. They moved with amazing pace until the end. There is about “The Canadian Pioneer” an element -of surprise that cannot fail to appeal. It is admirably played, and delightfully mounted. Supports Include Two Gazettes, comedy, and an Australian Educational. Seats may he reserved as usual. ‘Phone 486.