THE LORGNETTE

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 44, 10 July 1915, Page 6

THE LORGNETTE

[By Prompter.]

AT the Opera House on Thursday night a patron who has bet £5 about it will find out whether Madam Marion really does impersonate seven people in the remarkable lightning change playlet she is doing. The management will pay a large cheque to the Hospital Fund if she can't do as she claims, and the patron will Jose £5 to the same good cause if Marion wins. Anyhow, it is a smart turn. The new programme went up last night. The Ascots danced ashore ex Riverina, and put on their terpichorean specialty, which is a gay variant to all dancing stunts seen here to- date. A good brisk, clever turn- full of novelty and vim. Barnes and Hamilton, a comedy pair, tickled the composite funny bone of a large and representative audience, and dropped a number of new andf valuable gags and whimsicalities. Jessie M. Miller, of the piano-aecordeon, assisted by sister Dolly, made that instrument do the duty of a large band, and got on terms of artistic affection with the cognoscenti of the audience. People who abominate the bushman's instrument will ever after admire its mellifluous bellows should they, hear Jessie on, it. She is billed as "the world's champion instrumentalist," and I don't challenge her. Arthur Douglas, a Scots comedian, straight frae the land o' cakes, whusky and parritch, empties his wealth of treasures into the ears of an entranced multitude. Eileen Floury, the gay/ ihlttle comediieiiiiie with the sparkling legs and nimble way, is also an impersonator of merit, whose methods have the saving grace of novelty. Tozart, the vagabond artist, fills the stage with pictures in a rapid and efficient manner. People who have already won the hearts of the populace are still -at it, and include the clever Lumley and Rhodes, the adept Rhodesburys, the excellent Nellie KoUe (male impersonator fame) and the sparkling llozeal and Ross.

At the Globe the compelling feature is a detective story, "Following a Clue," wherein a girl disguised as a man, and looking more like a girl than ever, runs to earth a large mob of "crooks." Her millionaire lover has taken charge of the police "to be near her." It is not comedy but drama which includes slow fuses and quick gunpowder. "The Heart Punch" is a pathetic story of love and revenge and pugilism, wherein is featured Jess Willard, the cowboy puncher who outed Jack Johnson, the ebony pugilist, last April. Mr Willard is a good movie actor, and the story compels the bashful tear. "Ambrose's Little Hatchet" is a Keystone comedy in, which "pictures on the blind" are the basis of the story, and the usual complications follow when Ambrose "murders" a milliner's lay figure. Of very great interest is "With the French Army in Alsace," in which the ally who is bearing the brunt of the great war is shown exhibiting its incomparable cheerfulness and its magnificent efficiency. The pictures are intimate and excellent. "Cupid in a Hospital" is a bright, cheery little comedy with novel features, and featuring that clever movie artist Billy Ritchie. The Pathe War Special is worthy of the long line of illustrious war specials that has preceded it.

"The Trey of Hearts" is over, and the last trump in this remarkable series has been played at the Princess. Alan Avas about to marry Rose when the whole lot were struck by lightning, and Rose and that

naughty man Trine killed. Alan cheers up and marries Judith, and the series fades with a couple of faces kissing each other. The striking feature of this series is the extraordinary trouble that has been taken to obtain effects. The Trans-' Atlantic Company would hire a continent and a slice of the moon to make an effective picture. The other big story is "Woman," produced with the stately magnificence and diaphrammiic breathing for which this Italian company is so notedi. The - story takes one by the heartstrings and makes your emotions bubble. It tells the old, old story of woman's sacrifice and the perfidy of man, and is acted with a wealth of the determined gesture so striking a feature of our new allies. Of great local interest is a wonderfully good record, of the great patriotic procession of last Saturday, showing Auckland in gala dress, and good humour—an imperishable record of a unique occasion. Other pictures more lightsome leaven the tragedy of "Woman" and "The Last Trump," which, however, are notable samples of the truly great in cinematography.

A startling pictorial adaptation, "Three Weeks," Elinor Glyn's much discussed "sex" novel, is drawing hugely to the King's Theatre. The hook, as all readers are aware, is a romantic statement of Elinor Glyn's conception of the love between the sexes, and really maintains the right of a woman to 'abandon her legalised mate for her so-called "soul mate." In this instance the parties are royalties, and when the debauched idiot king is dead a foreign prince is placed on the throne. A son from the "soul mating" of the exile queen and her lover. There is the murder of the Queen, the dleath of the King and so forth. The exiled Queen's soul mate ultimately sees his son crowned King. The argument is very fine. It is the complete art of Elinor Glyn—and the pictorial representation is much better worth seeing than the book is worth reading. It is acted amid magnificent surroundings by most capable people, and is indeed a long spectacular sermon on the relationship of the sexes. It is followed with the greatest eagerness by the audiences— .aid is well worth following and studying as a thesii? by a modern woman who is perhaps representative of a growing class. The supporting pictures are well worthy the high reputation of this favourite house.

The Lyric bill bulges with good pictures. "Good-bye Summer," suggested) perhaps by my much discussed friend Tosti, is a medium length drama in which heart interest and heart burn are judiciously blended, so that although one may smile sometimes, one feels that sorrow has a ju-jitsu hold on most picture play people. "Making a Rifle," being even more important than making a speech nowadays, is of potent interest, when one considers that every one made is likely to lessen the chance of New Zealand becoming Hun-inhabited. "A Thief in the Night" is good, strongly flavoured drama bristling with incident, an(7 winding up beautifully with virtue a winner and the tote paying a heavy "div." "The Clothes Count" is a sartorial dissertation comically contrived, and detailing the adventures of a quaint person whose bizarre acting is highly refreshing. No. 6of the "Bully Boy" series of cartoons is as interesting as the five instalments already done in a lightning manner for the camera. "The Handicap of Beauty" depicts the sorrows of a lady whose loveliness was too pronounced ,and the magnetic results in regard to men. "Love in Armour" is a fine Keystone comic.

The Queen's Theatre, always noted for its choice of forcible films, has a particularly subtle creation in "Her Bargain," the object being to interestingly show the force and power of a woman when her deepest affections are concerned, audi her duty lies straight before her. Powerfully put and adequately acted, "Her Bargain" is high art, particularly as even the slow mind will grasp the

essential reason for each diverse development. "Slim the Brave" is an Essanay comedy dealing with the doings of a comic hero, his adventures, his rise, and—most of all— his falls. There is a good deal of stumbling over real scenery in this deliciously humorous morsel, which is one glad cackle from label to dark. "Children of Chance," another Essanay of another sort, is dramatic and refined, alternating with strong meat for those who like their drama highly flavoured and gentle emotion for those who love the luxury of a hot throat and a ready handkerchief. "Art Pottery" is good educational'stuff, the Eclair Journal touches the war in all the new spots, and the Auckland Gazette has that splendid patriotic procession. ;?i. oa, £&

Most likely the Town Hall will be too small to hold all the people who want to hear the Bohemian Orchestra concert to-morrow evening (Thursday), for the booking has been brisk. The orchestra, plays the things the people like to hear, and the people who sing choose songs that the people who hear care about. Mr Colin Muston, L.R.A.M., will, as usual conduct the concert. .Madame Bella Russell will sing ' 'Rejoice Greatly," from Handel's "Messiah," audi also the exceedingly beautiful scena and aria of Weber, "Softly Sighs." Mr Laurie Kennedy, the 'cello player of the favourably known Kennedy Family will play Saint Saens' "Le Synge," and Popper's "Tarantelle" (Op. 33). The orchestra at the present time is in magnificent fettle. © © 6ft

A "London Opinion" par:—New Zealand singers resident in London are well to the fore at the moment. In the delightful revival of "Tales of Hoffman" at the Shaftesbury are two richly gifted artistes from tlie gallant little Dominion — Nora D'Argel and Rosina Buckman—and now a third! from the same fair land —Frank Foster—has been engaged by Alfred Butt to sing some of the beautiful tenor music of Massaruet's "Mamon" in "The Passing Show of 1915" at the Palace, where, by the way, Ernest H. Mills is to be seen giving a lightning impression of Beit Thomas's famous " 'Ar fa Mo,' Kaiser" drawing. ' ,

"Neptune's Daughter," the photoplay in which Miss Kellerman has returned to her rcative land, has just finished a second record run in Sydney, within six weeks of its first season, and is now booked till the end of July in the Sydney suburbs. Frederic S'hipman, the manager of this picture-drama, states that a second copy is breaking records in Queensland, while a third copy will open in Melbourne within a few weeks. So great has been the success of "Neptune's Daughter" that the New Zealand tour has been postponed three times, as it was impossible to spare a copy of the film from Australia. Two additional copies are, however, now en route from America, so that very shortly the beauteous Annette will be disporting herself as a mermaid in five places simultaneously.