ARCADIA PICTURES.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 6 February 1923, Page 7

ARCADIA PICTURES.

TO-NIGHT. MARY PICKFORD. LITTLE LORD FANTLEROY. Miss Pickford Uses Great Care to Get Proper People to Portray Parts At no time in her career has Mary Pickford given more care to the choosing of a cast or to the assembling of suitable types than for her next United Artists film offering, “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” which will be the feature at the Arcadia Theatre beginning Monday, for two nights only. The leading character role that of the gouty and irrascible old Earl, of Dorincourt, is played by Claude Gillingwater, footlight veteran whose most recent success was as the grouch in ‘Three Wise Fools.’ Mr Gillingwater has many other triumphs to his credit, having been on the speaking stage for more than twenty-five years. This represents his first venture in pictures. Joseph Dowling, who registered the pinnacle of cinema fame in “The Miracle Man,” is playing the part of Havisham, the dignified, understanding and shrewd solicitor whose analytical mind does much to help solve the great difficulty which forms the climax of the story. Those three loveable characters, the grocer, the applewoman and the bootblack, are portrayed in their respective order by James Marcus, Kate Price, and Fred Malatesta, Marcus played Hobbs, the grocer in the original Fauntleroy cast on the stage in 1888. Kate Price is recognised as one of the greatest delineators of Irjsh character parts on the screen. As the mother in Mary Pickford’s “Amarilly of Clothesline Alley” she was a tremendous hit. 'She also appeared in Miss Pickford’s last production, “Through the Back Door;” also with Douglas Fairbanks as Mrs Canby in “Arizona.” The Lasky. features that Kate Price has appeared in are far too many to enumerate, and she was one of the first stage actresses to take up picture work. Fred Malatesta has shown to splendid advantage in the following features: “The Mask,” in the part of Enrico Korala, for First National; “Big Happiness,” as Raoul Bergerac, for Robertson-Cole; ‘The Sins of Ros a nne,” in the role of Revanal, a* Lasky play. Malatesta is expected to give an excellent impersonation of the Italian bootblack who was one of the New York cronies of the little Lord. Dose Dione will play Minna, the adventuress who challenged Lord Fauntleroy’s claim to the title. Miss Dione has done excellent character work in many productions; most conspicuous perhaps are “Suds” in which she played Mme. Didire; Goldwyn’s ‘The Great Lover,” in which she interpreted the role of Mme Sabatini; ‘T‘he World and Its Woman,” where she took the part of Irena. The role of The Stranger, husband of the adventuress, will be taken by Arthur Thalasso, who will be remembered for his work as Joe Sylva in Allan Dwan’s “Forbidden Thing;” also as Svengali in Lasky’s “A Dollar-a-Year Man.” Miss Pickford’s custodian of personal wardrobe Mme Bodamere who began her picture career in “Through the Baek Dood” will have a very good part in ‘Little ord Fauntleroy.” She will be Mrs Higgins peasant woman and mother of a brood of twelve children. Bevis the scapegoat son of the Earl will be portrayed by Colin Kenny whose excellent work added much'to the “Tarzan” stories. Kenny also won honors for himself as the dope fiend in Goldyn’s all-star picture, “The Girl from Outside.” As the minister who pleads for the welfare of the Earl’s tenants, Emmett King who has appeared with such stars as Pauline Frederick, Zazimova and Mildred Harris is expected to give a convincing and sympathetic interpretation.

Much human interest will be added to this elaborate Pickford play by the appearance of a very beautiful St Bernard’s dog named Douglas, as. the constant companion for Little Lord Fauntleroy in Dorincourt Castle Matinee will he held on Tuesday afternoon.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY. ROMANCE. Everyone who remembers Kathleen Mac Donnell in the stage play “Romance” will be delighted to learn that the story has at last come to the screen with Doris Keanh wEo appeared in the original . '

sion in London and America. The New Zealand public will also recall the fact that Kathleen Mac Donnell created a sensation in this country in the pay which appeared here some time ago l . The production is re markable in its every detail and is beyond compare in artistry of detail with any motion picture production of the last decade. Great' care has been taken to faithfully portray the environment of New York in which the production is laid and the picture will go down in motion picture history as one of the epoch making pictures of the age. Note. —Nearly every “Digger” saw the original stage play, with Doris Keane in London, also that the play created a sensation in New Zealand with Kathleen Mac Donnell.