MODERN DRAMA AT EVERYBODY’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 5

MODERN DRAMA AT EVERYBODY’S.

ORIGINAL STORY AND SPLENDID ACTING.

“Everybody’s” star picture this week, “What Fools Men,” is perhaps one of the most powerful modern dramas that has been screened in Christchurch. This First National Picture is a tense, and dramatic story with an original atmosphere about it that stamps it as one with a strong and insistent appeal. The story is livened with tasteful and fitting comedy which helps to make the picture assume the atmosphere of ordinary every day life which really grips the audience, and takes away that sense of unreality which tends to mar so many of the so-called “Super Films.” The characters are so real that one can place one’s self in their position and so derive the greatest benefit and enjoyment from the play. The part of Joe Greer, the brilliant inventor whose affairs are shattered by the ruthless magnate with whom he enters into partnership, was admirably played by Lewis Stone, that veteran artist of the silver screen. Shirley Mason is seen at her best as his

temperamental daughter, who scorns the society into which her father wishes her to enter, and ultimately becomes the bride of the handsome chauffeur who, as she said, was the only gentleman she met in society. The part of the secretary, Jennie M’Arthur, was played by Ethel Terry, and was in itself a real materpiece. Others in the cast were David Torrance and John Patrick. The main picture was supported by “The Way of the Girl.” starring the talented and vivacious Eleanor Boarclman, and is the thrilling story of a girl who didn’t mind who made the speed laws as long as she could break them; not only motor car speed laws,

'nit any edict that called for decorum and convention. The scenes change with intriguing speed and unexpectedness, and the story runs through the prize ring, and the exotic atmosphere of the artists’ ball, and finds a thrilling climax in the secret cave of two fugitives from justice. Here the girl gets her surfeit of excitement, and her hitherto rather tame fiance makes the running, and does it properly. The story ends in wedding bells and reconciliation, as every good story ■ should. The musical programme was of a very high order indeed and those who went to the theatre expecting the usual high standard were the reverse to disappointed. Everybody's Select Orchestra, under Mr W. ’ J. Bellingham, F.S.M., gave a programme of orchestral music, ineluding the following: Overture. “American Patrol” (Zamechik) ; suites, “Ron- j do alia Zingarese” (Brahms) ; “Baja- . derentanz” (Rubenstein) ; ballet music, “Copellia” (Delibes) ; Slavonic Dances, “No. 6” and “No. 16” (Dvorak) ; entr’acte, “Broken Melody” (Van I Biene) ; light selections, “Belle of New I York” (Kerker) ; “Katja” (Gilbert), j,