“SON OF THE SHEIK ” WILL BE KEPT ON ALL NEXT WEEK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 6

“SON OF THE SHEIK ” WILL BE KEPT ON ALL NEXT WEEK.

GREAT MELODRAMA DRAWS BIG CROWDS.

Owing to the enormous popularity of “The Son of the Sheik,” the United Artists’ production that has had such a phenomenal success at the Grand Theatre all week, it has been decided to extend the season until next Saturday. This is the last picture made by the late Rudolph Valentino. Great interest is always attached to the pictures of this star, no matter what role or what types of character he is portraying, but the fact that this film is a sequel to “The Sheik,” the drama that brought him no ephemeral fame, should be an added incentive to its popularity. Every attribute of modern drama, with the modern twist to boot, is blended together in this picture by the vibrant personality of the star. Whether tense drama is holding the stage or lilting comedy or the thundering thrills of desert life, everything is glamorous and insistent with his insistent influence. But primarily, even considering the'occask>nally rugged and Son of the Sheik ” is emotional drama. That must necessarily be, for Valentino is now numbered among the great lovers of history. Ho and Vilma Hanky constitute as decorative and effective a pair of emotional artists as has ever appeared before a camera. There is a restraint about their romance that net'er interferes with its picturesqueness, and at all times is Valentino the masterly male so beloved of the feminine iveart, for some will have it that it is only man the master than women will heed. At all events, he has left all Ills other characterisations far behind, and with an abandon, a courage, a zest, be enacts the varied emotions and shades of a role that is full of profound possibilities. His talent, after all, is so boundless, that lie can afford to be. profligate. But. although the star in the title role, commands one’s first interest, Vilma Hanky, as leading lad.y, is just as interesting and effective in her part. It is not by her beauty alone that Miss Hanky scores so heavily. She possesses a. cultured talent and an old-world personality that are. somehow, in delightful harmony with the character she plays. She lends an artistic stability to the picture that would be entirely lacking without her. “The Son of the Sheik,” however, does not cofitent itself with a wealth of histrionic talent aod fictional interest clone. It is an

Oriental story, not the stereotyped Arabian Nights kind, but the bounding, adventurous drama of the desert, ami as such is made on a lavish scale. Sets of extreme beauty and magnificence lend poise and dignity to the pictun?. and, taken as a whole, the production is one of the few really noteworthy films of the year. The Grand Quality Orchestra will play a special orchestral programme of music during the sessions. Box plans are at the Bristol Piano Company, where seats may be reserved.