"HIS SECRETARY."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18896, 11 January 1927, Page 13

" HIS SECRETARY."

MILTON SILLS IN "PUPPETS."

FIRST-CLASS FARE AT EVERYBODY'S,

They do "do" you well at "The Beauty Shoppe" at Washington, and do it so smartly and so reasonably. In some such phrases one imagines Miss Ruth Lawrence summing up her experiences. In New York the junior partner said that he "would not kiss that face for a thousand dollars," the iiiorrsjikl face being that of .Miss Lawrence, one of the stenographers who acts temporarily a3 his secretary. Being a woman, and a woman in love, Miss Lawrence determines to make the junior partner "cat his words." "His Secretary," the sparkling, "peppy,'' and piquant comedy which was one of the attractions of the j:ew bill at. Everybody's Theatre last night, kept the capacity audience in a ripple of laughter that practically was continuous. "His Secretary" ha 3 been described as proof that business and romance are not incompatible: from another angle it may be described as an adaptation of the old-time fairy tale, Ugly Duckling"—that wasn't ugly! The comedy gives Norma Shearer an opportunity, which she takes advantage of to the full, to show that some women have a lively sense of the comic and know low to represent it. In the opening scenes she is the dowdy, angular, and seemingly ancient stenographer, whose attire brings forth caustic comment from the freckle-faced office boy. But her chance comes vhen the senior partner takes her to Washington, and she learns of the magic worked in "The Beauty Shoppe," from which she emerges radiantly beautiful and irresistibly charming. The senior partner at first fails to recognise her, and, back again in ISew York, the junior partner—finely played by Lew Cody—is completely swept off his feet, and ultimately finds himself compelled to pay a thou«and dollars for a kiss. Countless humorous incidents, including the senior partner's philandering with "hlfl" eccretary—who owns up that she is rather a "slow-worker" with the pencil, but is particularly swift in the use of woman's wiles—at! keep the audicnco intensely interested and tremendously amused. A fine humorous touch was contributed by the orchestra, when, prior to the wondrous transformation effected by (he "Beauty Shoppe," Miss Lawrence is sitting disconsolate in tho hotel lounge. Selections from "Tho Belle of New York" emphasised the reverse in tho case €•' "His Secretary." The picture is good, clean comedy, admirably presented. In "Puppets," . featuring Milton Sills and Gertrude Olmsted, thero is a mixture of (lie tragic and tho comic. The story is woven of the love adventures of an Italian "mastor of puppets," or marionettes, as they are sometimes called. There is love, and jealousy, near tragedy, war, and withal a goodly sprinkling of hurnour. Milton Sills as Nickcy, the. "master of puppets," has a strong dramatic part, almost equalled in its emotional intensity by that of Angela, represented by Gertrude Olmstcad. and both acquit themsjlves splendid'y. Uthcr characters that stand out are Niekey's father and mother-rtypical Italian-Amoricans. The latest Gaumont Graphic and a further interesting episode in tho "Epic of Everest" complete a hieh-class programme. Everybody's Select Orchestra, conducted by Mr W. J. Bellingham, contributed appropriate and pleasingly-rendered music.