MAY M’AVOY STARS IN “ THE LITTLE SNOB.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18623, 27 November 1928, Page 7

MAY M’AVOY STARS IN “ THE LITTLE SNOB.”

May M’Avoy, always dainty and cap- • tivating, now has an opportunity to be more than that in “The Little Snob,” which will be shown at the LibertyTheatre throughout this week. The problem of the play is that age-old tragedy of the barrier which unselfish parents are apt to build unwittinglybet ween themselves and their children. Maizie Banks’s father is proprietor of the “ Kentucky Derby-,” a Coney Island show. Dressed as a jockey, she easilyinveigles crowds to her father’s place. Across the way big Jim Nolan “barks" for a side-show. He “ard Maizie are pals. But Banks wishes Maizie to get an education and be a lady-. His savings 'make it possible for her to go to a fashionable boarding-school, where she rooms with two rich dappers, and gradually becomes disillusioned with her rough-and-ready old friends and dazzled with her new. She carefully- avoids revealing the fact that

her father is a showman, and in due time meets a sophisticated fortunehunter, who makes, her wonder that she should ever have cared for Jim. School over, .she visits New York with her friends, and, making an excuse, hurries down to visit the island. Jim is infuriated by her uppish airs, but urges her to stay, which she refuses to do. Her friends later suggest a trip t 6 Coney Island, and while there begin to ridicule her father. Suddenly the fine side of the girl’s nature gains the ascendancy, and she denounces them. Then, leaping to the platform, she be gins the old “ spiel ” which used to draw- the crowds. Afterwards came the fortune-hunter to her father’s home, < and the solution of the situation is j fought out in an energetic and roman- ] tic fashion. * r

College life and all that it implies, interestingly told, is embodied in “ Col- >• lege Days,” the other feature. The great event of the picture, a football game of the American variety-, is as exciting as it is strange and unfamiliar. The story is from the pen of A. P. Younger, who adapted the famous, story, “ Brown of Harvard,” for the screen. Jim Gordon, on his way to the University of Southern California, stops at the University Club to bid his father good-by-e. Their parting is witnessed by three of Gordon, sen.'s, friends, all of whom are very proud of Jim, and although they know- that he is taking a lot of football talent to college, they do not admit this to Gordon, sen., who defends his son against their raillery. Arriving at the University-, Jim sees a very- attractive girl, and greets her cordially-. Mary is puzzled, and suggests he has made a mistake, but Jim secs her name on her bag—Mary Ward. Jim asks for her ’phone number, and Mary-, giving him that of a Chinese laundry disappears. Jim meets his room-mate. Larry Powell, a shy- youngster, and they- like each other immediately. Time goes on, with plenty- of incident to carry things along, until the day- when the love interest gets really strong. Expulsions, road-house nights and motor accidents follow-, Mary being seriously- hurt. Finally Jim wins a great football match for his college. In making the last score he is injured, and his love affairs are brought to a successful conclusion when the ambulanec takes him to the same hospital that Mary lies in. A pleasing repertoire of classical and popular music was played by- the Liberty- Orchestra, under the baton of Mr Ernest Jamieson. The overture was “ That’s My- Weakness Now-,” and the entr’acte was “ Jeannine,” cleverly arranged by the conductor and artistically played, especially the ’cello solo byMr Keith Werry-. Both overture and entr'acte were encored. Other numbers included “'Symphony- No. 2” (Beethoven), Florodora r ' (Stuart) and “ Songs Without Words ” (Mendelssohn).