MARY PICKFORD AT HER BEST IN “LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY” AT QUEEN’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17836, 3 May 1926, Page 7

MARY PICKFORD AT HER BEST IN “LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY” AT QUEEN’S.

STORY OF CHILDHOOD’S JOYS, SORROWS AND HOPES

The Queen's Theatre again provides a programme of artistic and entertaining pictures this week, films that will appeal to all tastes. The chief attraction is "Little Annie Rooney,” Maffy Bickford's most human and humorous picture, a story that combines all the joys and sorrows of childhood, its ambitions and hopes, friendships and enmities. It is the type of picture that this little actress excels in, a child’s diary, with its chronicles of gang bat-

ties, its hero-worship, its whimsicalities and general appeal. Mary Pickford was never so young, so energetic, so

tomboylike as she is in this picture, the fighting, ragged daughter of Officer Rooney of the old song. “Annie Rooney” is a genius of acting and direction, the insight into the child mind beng a triumph of motion picture art. Joe Kelly, Annie’s hero, is splendidly portrayed by William Haynes, and the rival gangs are acted by children of experience and talent. “Classified,” a First National production in which Corrine Griffith and Jack Mulhall are the stars in the second picture, and is a problem play of the first order. Occasionally the picture-goers like to have a film set before them that calls for an answer, and this is what “Classified” does. Presenting the ambitions of a working girl who seeks to rise higher than her source, the story deals in a forceful manner with the pitfalls that beset her, and although the theme is mainly dramatic, humour of a superlatively good brand is supplied by the girl’s father, who is completely mystified by his modern daughter’s ways. The veteran actor, Charles Murray, takes the part of the father, and is, perhaps, the most outstanding person in the brilliant cast. Charlie Chaplin in “The Pawnshop,” and the fourteenth episode of “Samson of the Circus” complete a particularly enjoyable programme. The box plans are at Webley’s.