AROUND THE MOVIES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1383, 26 October 1916, Page 35

AROUND THE MOVIES.

Globe. Acting on the principle that a laugh is a good thing these nerve-wracking days, the management of the Globe Theatre are starring a Keystone triumph in “The Waiters’ Ball.” In this picture Roscoe, or “Fatty” Arbuckle has made his greatest comedy. Without exaggeration it is one of the readiest laugh-makers the Keystone has produced. The cafe scenes are incomparably funny, and to hear the interpretation of orders is a scream in itself. AL St. John and Kate Price take a hand in affairs, and make things more lively than ever. Then follows the ball, and to see Fatty in woman’s clothes at the dance puts the finishing touch to hilarity. The dramatic side of the programme is of superlative value in the presentation of “Rupert of Hentzau.” Elaborately staged and lavishly mounted, with its theme of romance and adventure, it is a fitting follower to the “Prisoner of Zenda,” and has aioused unsurpassed interest. “The Littlest Magdalene,” a story with an unconventional setting, will be screened during the latter part of the week. fl * & * Lyric.

The war as it is to-day is being glimpsed at the Lyric Theatre in a magnificent series entitled “The Battle of the Somme.” “All must see it,” said Mr. Lloyd George, Secretary for War, under whose direction these pictures were screened in 40 London cinemas simultaneously, and hundreds of copies were sent all over England, causing sensational excitement, and arousing intense patriotic enthusiasm everywhere. They convey a most astonishing impression of the vastness of the offensive organisation. Nothing could be so effective as the sight of mile upon mile of bursting shells and shrapnel on the enemy lines. Many magnificent pictures show our great guns in action, pounding the enemy before the advance. Altogether it is an awe - inspiring production, vividly bringing home the realisation of the war with all its terrors and its splendours. * * * ♦ Princess. Offer a Metro, and there is no trouble about filling houses. “Her Reckoning,” or “Tables Turned,” the present attraction at the Princess Theatre, is well up to the standard of previous productions. It tells with dramatic intensity of the loye of two men for one woman. OnS’ of them, Howard Sherbrooke, goes through what he believes is a bogus marriage with Ethel Stratton, but as a result of the other man’s (Dick Leslie) intervention, it is really bona fide. All goes well for a time, until Sherbrooke wants to marry an heiress, and subsequently deserts Eth§l on the ground that hers was only a hoax marriage. However, the latter turns up at the church to denounce her husband and swoons during the ceremony. Her faithful lover, Dick, explains the situation. There is great consternation, and the bridegroom, rather than be branded as a bigamist, shoots himself. The final scene shows Dick and Ethel happily married. $ * # ♦ Grafton. Life in the trenches “Somewhere in France” is truthfully portrayed in a notable war picture entitled “Verdun.” Included in its features are deadly German gas attacks, machineguns in action, curtain of fire as French shells set the German trenches on fire, hand-grenade attacks, famous 75’s in action, big 12in. mortars firing their deadly shells and ripping up the German trenches. An additional attraction is the Fox photo-play, “The Two Orphans,” which concerns the destinies of two beautiful sisters, one of whom is blind. An abduction and a duel keep interest at fever point. * * * * Queen’s. “The Garden of Lies,” adapted from Justin Miles’ famous novel by Louis Reeves Harrison, is proving a strong draw at Queen’s Theatre, and shares attention with “Verdun,” a gigantic war picture disclosing 4000 ft. of real action centred round the colossal battle. , i

Grand. “Martha’s Vindication,” a Triangle production, is having a most successful screening at the Grand. Expressive Norma Talmadge takes the leading part, and makes a dominant appeal in a virile drama. Support is given in a varied and entertaining selection. It is worth remembering that all patrons to the dress circle during day sessions are entitled to a dainty cup of tea free. * * * * Everybody’s. The War Office film of the “Battle of the Somme” is our realisation at last (wrote a reviewer in the London “Daily Mail”). If there are shrinking people who may say that some of these pictures are too heart-rending, the answer is that the sensitiveness of the spectator of these pictures is so little lacerated compared with the identical human sensitiveness of our heroes of the “real thing.” These stern pictures are good medicine. The squeamish few can stay away; the great public whose hearts are beating for their boys at the front will pack the kinema theatres for this enthralling and terrible visualisation of real war. Monstrous howitzers nose vast muzzles in air and vomit their huge she’ls; smaller pieces, rapidly

firing from hidden emplacements, look like venomous black snakes striking and recoiling. “Plum puddings” hurtle from trench mortars. Machine guns join in the inferno. More than ever the wonder and awe is felt that men can live and endure under modern artillery fire. Then comes the attack; the last nervous moment, the word, the clamber, the leap-—and two men fall under the very eye of the camera. At last the civilian sees War. Such is the great picture showing at Everybody’s Theatre. A Danish actor who is in America has been talking interestingly about film censorship in various European countries, and makes the statement that with the exception of Russia, America has the most liberal censorship in the world. In Germany, he says, no woman is permitted to appear in a picture attired in a decollete gown or a night robe, and scenes with artists’ models are prohibited. Russia’s censorship is purely political. Britain and France, he says, have tighter censorships than America. sS si: -n * “The Whip” is being done on to films by the World Company, and “Bought and Paid For” is also beingproduced. * * * ♦ Daisy Jerome, who has left Australia for America, may shortly join the ranks of the "movies” artists.