ARLISS AT PLAZA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20453, 5 November 1934, Page 3

ARLISS AT PLAZA.

Fourth Week of “House of Rothschild.”

“ The House of Rothschild,” the outstanding film featuring George Arliss, began the fourth and final week of its remarkably successful season in Christchurch at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday, capacity houses again ruling. It is little wonder that theatre-goers speak of going to “see George Arliss ” rather than to “ see “Bhe House of Rothschild.’ and a fitting tribute to the remarkable personal triumph he scores in what is, in itself, an absorbingly interesting story. The story—the origin of the “house” in the Frankfurt ghetto (the Jew Quarter) and its rise to a commanding position in the world of European finance—covers one of the most interesting periods in history, that of the Napoleonic Wars, when the famous figures of such men as Napoleon, Wellington, Metternich, Talleyrand and Bleucher played their colourful parts in shaping the destiny of nations. The historical interest of the period lends itself admirably to pictorial treatment but it is its Jewish aspect and the power of gold that furnish the most arresting features of the picture. Here the dominating personality of George Arliss holds the stage, and, whether as the old man Mayer Rothschild, the money-lender of Frankfurt’s ghetto, or as Nathan, the son and subsequent head of the powerful family of international bankers, it is on Arliss in his family intimacies and his contacts with the outside world upon whom attention is concentrated—a fact that demonstrates his remarkable ability as an artist and the magnetism of his personality. The part of the “villian of the piece”—a thankless job for any actor—is ably played by Boris Karloff, as the sneering, forbidding and masterful Ledrantz and'the hearty dislike which he inspires in the audience is no mean tribute to his ability. The “shorts” are excellent.