THE LORGNETTE

Observer, Volume XXXVII, Issue 25, 24 February 1917, Page 6

THE LORGNETTE

(By Prompter.)

REVTJE booms loudly at Fuller's Opera House, Bert La Blanc and his merry people committing a number of droll extravagances under the sign, title, or nomenclature of "In Watts,." The divertissement is 'based iiipon the ground that a number of people who explode into song and dance on the faintest provocation lay claim to a town, and run its various activities in a novel manner. The municipal programme is interrupted by the local bodies on the stage, who dash into melody or break into footwork while the votes for the new town pump are going through. Bert La Blanc, on whom falls the largest civic burden, is a Hebrew wanderer with a grouch on society and a "pain under hiis. pinny," and, as the expressive Bert is. a comedian of some calibre, his right to be laughed at is not disputed. As a fellow wayfarer in sound health, Mr Jake Mack also presses his thumb on the joke button, Carl ton Chase number three of the droll trio helping to thread the jokes liberally. Miss Nellie Fallon hops about like a beautiful bird, twitters delightfully, and is adored by the audience (although they're all over military age.—not a word!), and Miss Maud Miles is a widow of the ty,pe we have all known so well and admired so much oh the stage since 1860. All the ladies sing the very latest songs, which touch the heart or cause the sunny smile. In the first part of the entertainment Leonard's dog» pint up their educated stunt, the acrobatic acts especially appealing to people who never threw a back flip in their lives. Early and Laight and Miss Glen Echo continue their interesting researches into the realm of poetic imagery and music, while Miss Gwen Hasto and Mr Walter Emerson, with their jewelled comedy turn, enhance equally. ® © @> If you want yer heart to beat with the size of the lump in your throat and the tear in your eye, sure 'twill pay you to see "Shamus O'Brien" done into drama by the BrandonCremejr people at the King's. The Celts were there ih hundreds, but divil a head was really broke throughout an interesting evening. Everybody is aware of the life history of poor Shamus, the patriot who had the same "set" on the landlords of 1798 as his successors have in 1917. The history of the "Gfreen RJbbott League" (They're hangin' men. and women for the wearin' o' the green, etc.) is told in the play. How the O'Finns and the Murroughs thried to destroy the patriot, and how Pat did riot sure enough, and how Shamus was doomed to swijng, and. the Lord Lieutenant or whoever he was reprieved him, is all told with great vividness. And the, 8.-C. people do Shamus and Co. to a marvel, and if you're Irish you're sorry that so much good fight's going to waste without you having even a shillelagh in it. • ♦ Mr Brandon-Cremer announces his next production as. the popular Melville drama, "Married to the Wrong Man." The company have played many of these plays, including "The Bad Girl of the Family" and' "Her Road to Ruin" and others, and each of those has been most favourably received. The management intended producing this play some few weeks since, but for several reasons were obliged to defer it for a time. Mr BrandonCrenier is now applying himself to its presentation with: the thorough-

ness for which he is remarkable. "Married to the Wrong Man" is a human drama dealing with real life characters, and working out a plot of intense interest. Miss Kathleen Arnold will be seen as Rose O'Connor, and Mr Maurice Tuohy as Captain Gladwyn, and Miss Mabel Hardinge as Ruth Manners, while that bright little comedian Mr Frank Neil will have a part in which he scored a .striking success in a recent Australian production. Recent concessions in Saturday prices had the effect of filling the theatre early on Saturday evening. A drama in which pathoe and humour are. cleverly blended is "The Woman Next Door." It vitalises in a special way that famous book "The Autobiography of a. Slander," and tolls you how a tattlin-g tongue in the mouth of a venomous person will become a "snowball" if you roll it long enough. You may see "The Woman Next Door" and what it stands for in any Auckland suburb, and if .you knew personally the tattle that is circulated about yourself you'd wonder why you weren't in gaol. It is a fine, exposition of a common human failing. A pictorial record of the doings of Allied troops in Macedonia is instructive and deeply interesting to .students of the great war. The last lap of "The Mysteries of Myra" is flitting across the .screen', and it is. hoped the sweet you'iTg thing won't be haunted in her married life by weird Chinamen, signs, .symbols, poisonings, murders, "astral bodies" and gentlemen instantly manufactured out of a "quart of blood." <-■ '#■ ffi "God's Half Acre" is an extremely touching drama of goodness showing at the Princess Theatre, and I am convinced that there is no better business than building dramas with a distinct religious flavour, providing it, is done with the requisite reverence. Mabel Talapero, who is a clever actress, is. cast as a girl whose unselfish ministrations to the aged and infirm in a home gives her the title of "angel." Angel's, wings are not only welcome to the infirm, for there is through the warp and woof of a beautifully pictured story a charming romance that does not leave "Angel" mateless. "It Never Got By" is a Drew comedy, based as iisual on a trifling incident in daily life, the best of all foundations for fiin—of the harmless variety. No girl would be ashamed to take her mother to see a Drew comedy. A gorgeous travelog., done in the sumptuous Metro, way, extends the acquaintance of the untravelled to the furthest realms. ®> @ ® "Reggie Mixes In" is an amazing film. There's more beautiful man to man scrap and wrestle in it than you see in the Lobby of the House in ten sessions. TJie "Strand" has it. Douglas Fairbanks is Reggie, a society youth who just hates hanging round like a lap-dog and being sinfully rich. He hikes out, and finds himself "bouncer" at a low down town joint where gentlemen push each other's faces in, and where a lady who is a teetotaller is rarer than a New York politician who doesn't "graft." There is, however, a sweet little dancing girl in the joint who is "a good girl," and the attentions of the "bad men" to her get Reggie fighting hot. The amazing way that Fairbanks ultimately throws men. as, big again as himself out of windows, down stairs, over hunches of tables and s.o on., is a dream. There is a real fight in a closed loom that could not be simulated, and is the most beautiful scrap I ever saw. Reggie fakes a yarn that the little girl's Australian uncle has left her £100,000 of the best—so they meet on equal terms, and there's a wedding. A way up Billie Burke chapter of "Gloria" shows her lost in the jungle, and when she's, found she's wearing men's dungarees. g& (9> Ani action that has made some stir in theatrical circles in New York is that of Miss Ethel Barrymore, the noted. American actress, in announc-

ing that she has. abandoned the speaking stage, and will appear only in motion pictures. Although Miss Barrymore lias appeared in several ■ pictures, they have been .secondary to her Broadway work, and have been fitted in between her theatrical engagements. Miss..Barrymore helongs to a great theatrical family whose members have always been leaders in the dramatic history of the country. Her grandmother, Mrs John Drew, mother of the present John Drew, was the most famous comedienne of her time, and a .successful actress-manager, a combination virtually unknown at that time. The success of this far-sighted woman was due largely to her progressive policies and her famous granddaughter is showing her vision by following in her footsteps. Miss Barrymore's next picture will probably be the picture of Margaret, Deland's great classic of American life, "The Awakening of Helena Richie," considered by many to be the greatest American novel; produced by the Metro Company. © ® © The recent death of the well known picture actor, Mr Arthur Hoops, will leave a gap in the ranks of picture "villains" hard to fill. For some time Mr Hoops has been the "bete noir" of Olga Petrova, and his polished, easy style, so different to the swaggering, cigarette-smok-ing, black-moustachiod villain of melodrama, has been no mean consideration in the success of the Metro pictures. Mr Hoops;' death was unexpected and sudden, and due to heart failure, although he seemed in the most vigorous health, and was in the prime of his. life, being only forty-four years of age. ®. & $> News recently reached Sydney that Mr Mario Majeromi, a son of the tragedian Majerorii, well known on the Australian stage a couple of decades , back, and who went to America about ten years ago, is supporting Mary Pickford in kinema work. # & % A movement is on foot to introduce Dennis's "Sentimental Bloke" and his "Doreen" to film students. If tilie scheme Ipomes off (writes "Glen H." in the "Bulletin"), "Ginger Mick" will follow—though to me at least there appear to be greater pictorial possibilities in the story of the "gallant genlteman" of Spadger'e Lane than in that of Bill and his cliner. $? $5 ® Another film corporation has been formed in America under the name Super-pictures Incorporated. It is capitalised at £2,000,000, and intends to carry out the business of releasing and hiring pictures without regarding the producing side of the industry. The firm claims to be interested in the Famous Players, Paramount Triangle, and Lasky Corporations. <® #? ® • A number of the stories which have appeared in the McClure publications in America have been filmed by a newly formed film company known as. McClure's Publications, Llifmited. T(he publishers have (an interest in the venture. The players appearing in these new pictures will include Nance O'Neil, Charlotte Walker, H. B. Warner, Ann Murdock, and Holbrook Blinn. ® W ® "Ransageki," or a combination of stage and screen drama, is all the rage in Japan. It seems that all the sentimental parts—lover's farewells, proposals; in fact, anything in the way of "sob-stuff"—is given in dialogue. But when it comes to thrills, down comes the screen and the camera holds sway. ® ® & Dustin Farnum, brother of "Big Bill," who has been for a long time one. of the brightest stars at the Morosco-Pallas Studios, has gone over to Fox. "Big Bill" has gone to the same? studios; so also has Farnum's director, William D. Taylor. (Continued on page 18.)