THE LORGNETTE

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 51, 28 August 1915, Page 6

THE LORGNETTE

[By Prompter.]

HILARITY should reign at the Opera House to-night (Thursday), for the Charlie Chaplin contests are on, and will) continue on Friday, on Saturday's matinee and Saturday's soiree. All competitors have to give a representation of Charlie Chaplin, not exceeding three minutes on the stage. A competitor may have two helpers, the audience is the judge, and two finals willi be played on Saturday night. The management advertises that it will give cash prizes to winners. A man who should have a big run next week is Lutes, an armless American who has an extraordinary facility with his feet. Mr Lutes can chop wood, use a saw perfectly; drill a hole, drive nails, play musical instruments, shoot the buttons off a jacket with a rifle. He is a motor boat builder and a licensed) driver. He can pull weeds with his feet or use a typewriter. The present programme is fine. Paul Stanhope's Revue Company are doing right well. Mr Paul Stanhope, as usual, was the mainstay of the company, and throughout the time he occupied the stage the audience was in high good humour. His eccentric "make-up" and his fund of jokes were keenly appreciated. Mr Les. Bates was another member of the company who was very hard worked. The dancing and singing of the ladies of the company was again well received by the audience, while the " 'Frisco Male Quartette's" new items were distinctly good. The Eclair Twins and Billy Wells, who appeared, in the first half of the programme last week, were seen with the Stanhope company last night, a dancing act being specially introduced into the revue. Among the new artists who appeared in the first half of the programme were the Girard®, who were responsible for a riovel acrobatic performance. There were three performers in the troupe, a mian andl two ladies. Each member of the trio was a clever acrobat, and their turn, which comprised several new and astonishing feats, was heartily applauded. Another new comer was Lew. Hoffman', an American "tramp" juggler. He proved himself an expert manipulator of the most awkward articles! from, a juggler's point of view, and incidentally he found opportunities for introducing into his act many humorous and unexpected' inicilents. His work was neat and sure. The Three Ruddies commenced 1 their last week in Auckland with a new acrobatic act, the youngest member of the trio •againi giving a laughable imitation of Charles Chaplin. New items, were also given by Frank Herberte, the Australian entertainer, who will bring his Auckland season to a close at the end of the present week. Ernest Pitcher, the comedian, was responsible for several new jokes and stories.

A truly magnificent patriotic movie drama is being screened at the Lyric Theatre. "The Lion's Cubs" is a story that will send a thrill to the heart of every mother who has a boy scout in the family, for it declares in tense pictures the marvellous way in which the "Be Prepareds" nosed out the German spies in London. The story really has a basis of fact, for a young London scout was responsible for the breaking up of an intensely dangerous organisation in Houndsditch. Possibly the real fact gave the writer of "The Lion's Cubs" bis cue. Some good views of the Australian Navy, which has justified l its existence, are welcomed with great warmth. A Thanhauser drama, "The Refugee," contains some poignant and topical episodes, and

among other things suggest what New Zealanders have escaped, thanks solely and entirely to the Navy. The latest Gaumont Graphic has everything available to date in military movements and events in Britain and elsewhere. A highly comic story is told in "The Professional Scapegoat," a comedy built on broad but clean lines. There are a number of other dramatic, comic and educational films, and the attendances keep up a splendid average, thanks to the invariable excellence of the programme.

At the Globe Theatre an excellent picture tragedy, "The Understudy," is shown, which features Maurice Costellb and a number of people who are better players than he, but without his reputation. The story tells •cf an actor whose rejection by the leading lady causes him to become mundlerousi. In the play he is a burglar, and 1 has to "kill" the actress. He therefore substitutes bulleted cartridges for blanks, but in the meantime he gets drunk, has a fight with his understudy, and is not ion tap when the call boy yells. The understudy grabs the gun and rushes' on to take the part. The understudy (Maurice Costello) shoots himself by accident, and the tableaux shows the police with the intending murderer fast heldl. "Our Dare-Devil Chief" is a Keystone in which Ford Stirling, the man with the restless face, is a police officer. Mr Stirling is copying Charles Chaplin's feet. Otherwise he is very much like himself, andi falls on an average a hundred yards per picture. Screams of laughter. "The Actors' Boardinghouse" gives a comic impression of the antics of the grease-paint fraternity when off the boards, and their well known insistence on paying their way. "Haunted, Memories" is a drama dealing with a darksome paist which keeps cropping up in a most unpleasant way. It is a lesson to you not to have a past, or to have had one that is clean and neat and tidy. "Bill's New Pal" has the excellent Billy Ritchie in it, andl Billy is a movie player for whom one must entertain a deep regard. The Pathe War Special shows soldieirs, soldiers every, where, and generally puts a photographic finger on the affected area, so to speak.

"Bairnaby Rud'ge" in pictures is a novelty. There is no writer whose works are more difficult to "set to pictures" than Dickens, and perhaps his great story of the Gordon Riots lends itself better to cinema work than any others, but it is absolutely and entirely impossible to pourtray the actual Dickens characters, which were creations—not real types. It's at the Queen's Theatre, and should be seen by all Dickens lovers, if only to observe where the picture man failis. The story is told with splendid skill, and the part of Barnaby himself (the creation was a compound) of lunacy and genius) is exceedingly well played. The intensely! dramatic features of "Rarnaby Rudge" lend themselves excellently to the samera. The book teems with characters, and the picture shows modern conception of the immortal works of genius. "Where There's a Will" is a comedy of a really quaint pattern. It is the situations and not the accidents that are funny. Most pictures are funny because- a man falls out of a six-storey window, or walks splay-footed, or has eggs mashed' on his face. This picture is funny because it's humorous. John Bull's Sketch Book is a continuation of an already famous series of pen and pencil comment on the war—clever, clean and crisp. The Auckland Gazette is of particular interest. The big massed band! demonstration at the "Shore," the Auckland-Tara-maki football match, a record of the "Hinemoa" Maori actors and actresses indulging in hakas, poi® and other native exertions, and Mounted Rifles l ib tr'aininig aire shown. There are a number of other truly excellent pictures—dramatic, comic, educative and spectacular.

"Hearts in Exile" is quite a marvellous picture play. It is showing at the Princess. Oxenham'e fine story is peculiarly human, as it ex-

presses with tragic force the feelings of a beautiful woman who is married' lawfully to two men. The idea is as extraordinary as the working out of the ultimate destiny of the woman. Remarkable effect is obtained' in the setting of the drama played l out in' the Siberian snowfields, and though I shrewdly suspect that the excellent Cossacks are made in America, and that Siberia is Uncle Sam's land in winter time, the whole effect spectacularly and dramatically is superb. The play is full of extraordinary incidents, vital to the telling of the story, and following exactly the current of the written story. Incidentally there is •an introduction to the Russian life which we believed to be the real Russian life before the Russ. was our ally. Our ideas change, don't they ? The play is in five acts, so it gives a long and continued thrill. However, there are other pictures in support ,including a varied collection of comedy, drama, scenery and war pictures. However, for opulence, magnificence and the splash of many thousands of pounds in the production of a masterpiece "Hearts in Exile" will take some beating. The large audiences, both in the day sessions and the night, have been fascinated by the thrilling and' in many respects heartrending story toldi with masterly skill.

Charles Chaplin has appeared in so many farces under the Keystone banner, where he learnt the art of being picturesquely funny, that no one can say off hand just what was the first photowfarce that the clever comedian appeared in. Mack Sennett, the Keystone producer, informed a pressman; last month that the inimitable Charles Chaplin's first picture was "A Film Johnny." It was taken at the first cycle car races given in Southern California. Chaplin, had a part of a picture enthusiast, who was always wandering out in front of the cameras that were trained on the race. The first picture Chaplin produced himself was called, "Out in the Rain."

A correspondent writes' to a Kawhiia paper:—"Weird stories of voices from the unseen have been frequently recorded during the war, accountable probably to maternal anxiety for sons at the front, and are by some attributed to psychic telepathy. Some have declared positively that they have received unmistakable calls from bo 3's now in the firing line, synchronising remarkably with some notable incident—a wound or what not. Discussing the point, an old resident related to me that while walking down the street one afternoon he distinctly heard his name called. No one was in sight, but voices and mirth were proceeding from an adjacent building. "Did anyone call me?" he asked the occupants. "No," replied' the one presiding (he with the cork-screw) "but you are just in time!" And some people aver that such instincts and) King ountry faculties cannot be developed! Anyway, another proselyte can be added to the believers in the transmission of psychic telepathy." (Continued on Page 11.)

(CONTINUED.)

Students of Scripture will remember the charming story of David and Jonathan ,and think of all it typified. In modem life, too, there is this kind of affection. It is expressed very well and with deeply emotional effect in .a picture play entitled' "Brother Officers" now starring at Fuller's King's Theatre. The play contains every element except the grosser one of modern military life, it rubs i nthe fact that a man can have a friend who "sticketh closer than a brother," even though there is a garJ in the case. In, most respects the military atmosphere is accurate and impressive, but the chief appeal is in the emotional quality which canonises the human, virtues which are as much the attribute of the peasant as the prince. A very good' Vitagraph comedy i§ "Mysterious Mr Davy,'' filled with a frank hilarity highly diverting, and having nothing to offend even the most sensitive. "Mr Dickson's Diamonds" is the use of an old device in a new way by the serious people who are employed by Mr Edison. There are some tragic incidents in this excellent and dignified story. The latest War Gazette is of a most military character, and covers much ground. No. 5 of the Eclair war series is shown, and there is a wholly delightful glimpse of delicious Italian scenery which is very restful after the din: of battle and pictorial crime and

Louise Mack, the war lecturer, encountered some amazing specimens of German Communiques during 'her short and sensational stay in Brussels. The war news was ■placarded] in French, Flemish and Ger- ' man. in practically every main street of the capital, and) immensely diverted a populace long since deprived of other sources of amusement. A constant succession of German victories flowed! out each day, with details of Allied losses in millions of men and thousands of guns. Many well informed Bruxellois, kept advised of Allied movements by smuggled newsr papers, merely ignored' the war reports, but the" less inhabitants treated the news in a manner that was funny to see. During the night time audlacious youths altered the reports, changing names and numbers, and making the communiques a wild farrago of nonsense. For instance, when the Germans calmly announced the capture of Warsaw last year, some street wit altered' a report to read: "We have captured Warsaw with a loss 1 of two men and Marshal yon Hindenburg's dag. Over 6| Russians were killed, and we captured 4,789,645 guns.

Talking of "compliments" lately, Gaby Deslys, the well known French danseuse and actress, told this one: "My very finest compliment was paidi 'me by a little boy at a children's party. I had danced at this party, and afterwardis in mv dancing dress I sat amongst the children. I asked the children what they were going to be when they grew up. One said he wanted 1 to be an enginedriver, and' another an! aeronaut, and so on. But when it came to one little boy's turn, he said he would whisper what he wanted to be, and standing on tip-toe he clasped my neck with his small arms, and breathed softly in my ear: 'Your husband.' " A poor child that seeks trouble like that has an awful future in store.

Many German opera singers are so hard up as a result of the war that they are living on the poor charity provided by various musical interests. The management of the Richard Wagner stipend at Bayreuth lately handed over 27,000 marks for the relief of the necessitous cases.

The Lord Chamberlain's Department, London, is keeping its oye on some of the revue productions in the big metropolis. It is alleged that

some of the dressing in these shows is rather underdone, while some of the jokes are not quite nice; wherefore, the department aforesaid is issuing to the managements concerned ultimatums insisting on greater modesty in the matters mentioned.

The New York papers are still busy discussing the spy drama, "The Man Who Stayed at Home," staged in that city as "The White Feather," since one or two of the proGerman papers 1 have adopted the attitude that its prloductikwi violates the neutrality of the United States. The result is a seething controversy in the Press, and packed houses at every performance. The title "The White Feather" is derived from the fact that "the man who stayed at home" instead of going to the war is handed a white feather, the badge of cowardice. It is unknown at the time that he is engaged in unearthing a nest of German spies on the East Coast of England, and some thrilling incidents are enacted before the sensational climax is reached. The play will shortly be staged here.

Mrs Robert Brough, who left Australia for England over eighteen months ago, was recently playing a big part in the London production of "The Man Who Stayed at Home." The spy play has had a big success in England,'where the real menace of the German, espionage system is beginning to be appreciated and understood. William Le Quex, the cosmopolitan novelist who, by the way, represented the midget republic of San Marino for some time in London is largely responsible for the enlightenment of John Dill on the subpect of the Kaiser's secret service system.