BLANCHE SWEET AND BEN LYON PUT BEST INTO GREAT DRAMA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17890, 5 July 1926, Page 7

BLANCHE SWEET AND BEN LYON PUT BEST INTO GREAT DRAMA .

“ NEW COMMANDMENT ” AT EVERYBODY'S IS OF j GREAT INTEREST. What is the new commandment? It can be made and given according to one’s disposition, but rarely is it heeded. Like the warning of an angry conscience a First National picture, based on Colonel Fairfax’s great novel, "Invisible Wounds,” and entitled “The New Commandment,” comes to Everybody’s this week. It is not an indictment, it is not an accusation, it is a simple statement of accepted facts, j courageous and even ruthless, intense- j ly dramatic, but with a softening balance of. idyllic romance. Set in Paris ! during the most momentous period of j European history, tragic and care-free by turns as is the custom of Paris, engrossing in its plot and eminently thrilling in its situations, “The New Commandment'’ possess every attribute of a good and in its artistic and lavish settings has everything needed for a good production. It is not merely the Paris of the boulevards and the Champs Elysees. Running as it does the gamut of human emotions and ambitions, it also threads its course through every walk of life, and the result is that the picturesque and romantic corners of Raris are visited along with the salons of the city*, and all the colour and atmosphere of a typical Bohemia are included in this great picture. In harmony with the dramatic trend of the film is the accomplished acting of the two leading artists. Blanche Sweet and Ben Lyon appear in the leading roles, and in portrayals that call for subtlety and finesse in an inordinate degree, they* both do the best work of their careers. Supporting the big picture is an amusing comedy-drama, “The Average Woman,” starring Pauline Garon and Harrison Ford. The average woman has been the subject of many solemn pronouncements, thoughtless enough to be funny but sufficiently ponderous to be troublesome, so it is a pleasant change to see that baffling person being accepted in lighter mood. According to one facetious satirist the average' woman opens' loc'ks with hairpins,

adds postscripts to letters and is afraid I of mice, but this picture is not treated in so biting a vein, and as a consequence has the balancing influence of j something deeper. I Select Orchestra, under Mr W. J. Bellingham, F.S.M., will be heard in special orchestral numbers, j including the following:—“Victoria" (von Blon) ; symphony, “New World” j (Dvorak) ; suite, ‘<L’Arlesienne” (Bizet) ; song suite, "Wanderer's Song.” “Lotus Flower," “Dedication,” “How . Like a Flower” (Schumann) ; “La Korrigane” (Widor) ; entr’acte, “Andantino" (Bizet): new fox-trots, “Give Me Today*” (Bell), “Silv’ry Stream” (Moret), The box plans are now open at The Bristol Piano Company*, where seats may be reserved.