ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3104, 7 June 1917, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Last evoning thcro was again a good audionoo at His Majesty's Theatre. Tho programme this week includes some excellent singing items, foremost amongst which aro those of Violet Trcvcnyon, Dora Oberman, and a number -of others mbro or less humorous. Tho two mentioned aro exceptionally good, and head tho bill. Arthur Croxon, a comedian of no moan ability, wiles away a happy quarter of an hour. Charles Edenury, a balancer, also ranks high on tho bill. The bill is being ehown each night, and a special matineo will be given on Saturday. THE ENGLISH PIERROTS. Another crowded house greeted the Pierrots' entertainment last night. Tonight an entire change of programme will bo submitted. Miss Elsa Langley will feature a new song entitled 'Tiose Petals." A nautical scena will complete the first part, and "A Musical Court Case" is said to be a screamingly funny burlesque. Patrons are advised to reserve their seats to avoid disappointment. "INTOLERANCE." This great film spectacle with the noncommittal name was shown for the third time in the King's Theatre last . night, and again there was a crowded houseful of people. Tho idea of tho picture is an extremely ambitious theme, perhaps tho most ambitious that any producer has ever yet attempted. These are • exactly the Bort of ideas that the great D. W. Griffith takes up, and he has achieved a certain, dofinite, it' limited, fame by his success with them. Ho is th'e producer of "Intolerance," and there is a Big brain and a lot of knowledge and imagination behind this effort. As the name would indicate, the film sets out to teach some sort of a lesson, or to .moralise after some sort of plan. That lesson will escape most' people who see the film, uven ihose very rare folk who might perchance wish to learn. Some 1 of the evils of intolerance which the picture exposes are egregious, too obvious to need elucidation—and, besides, they do not occur in this land, perhaps not in. any laud on earth in the same egregious degree in which the producer has depicted them. There are some hints rather than stressed opinions in the film about other questions, and the hints will arouse the ire of partisans on these questions. For instance, there is a suggestion that prohibition is an evil of intolerance, and the suggestion is strong enough to be unpleasant to tho prohibitionist. But if Mr. Grillith really meant to say that prohibition and the prohibitionists were bad, he 6aid it very feebly. There are hints, also, about the and warfare. This film wa3 made in America at the time when America I was not m the war; at a time when tho noisiest people in the nation were saying "Don't." So the film hints that warfare, the trial of strength between nations each desiring to impress its will upon the other, is intolerance, and the suggestion is uonvcyed that warfare is bad. Lest an injustice should be done to Mr. Griffith, these dubious questions aro raised not so much in tho photograph as in the explanatory script in the film. These are very nearly all the bad' things that can be said about the production. It is true that it tells stories ot ruthless cruelty, of wicked passion, and of vice uncloaked, but in no l oae of the stones is the unpleasant feature unduly emphasised.- It must be remembered' always that the story is American, and is aoout Americans, and for American consumption. And as for the picturo as a spectacle,- it is on the pinnacle of kinctna. success. There are four parallel stories—of Babylon, of Galilee, of France in the days of the Hugiienot massacre, and' of to-day in America. Uf these, Babylon is the biggest effort and the biggest achievement. Whether the film is history or legend or fiction, it is a buperb creation in this section, and this section has in it nothing but jure' art—no lessons, no suggestions- of anything. The representation'of the attack of tho hosts of Cyrus on the city walls is the biggest thing any man has ever conceived for photographing, and the result is magnificent. '"•'" EVERYBODY'S 'THEATRE. For Scanty and really clever characterisation, Enid Bennett, the Australian girl starring in "The Princess i>f the Dark" at Everybody's Theatre, must bo givoit a premier position amongst tho screen's best artistes. In this picture sho is a littlo blind girl, who recovers her sight only to learn the tragedy of worldly realism,, instead of «n imagined fairyland. Thu Triangle Company have put their .usual artistic finish to the picturo. Billio Burko is excollcnt m "Tho. Murderer at Bay.' EMPRESS THEATRE. . Tho wonderful popularity Clara Kimball Touiig has achioved/Sinco sho came under the direction of the clever Frenchman Oappeianl is evinced by tho crowded stato of tho Empress Theatre at all Bcroemugs of "Tho .Foolish Virgin,''' her present starring vehicle. The drama tells tho tragedy of a hasty marriage. In acting, setting, and realism it ranks with the finest picturo-plays Miss Young has done since '"Tho Common Law," and-tho cast is practically tho Bamo as was used for that great film. "BABY MINE." Tho "Seven Keys to Baldpate" Comedy Company passed through Wellington en route to Christchurch yesterday. In the southern city they will inaugurato a now tour of tho Dominion, with Margaret Mayo's screaming farce-comedy, "Baby Mine."

KINEMACOLOUR AT TOWN HALL. At the Town Hall, commencing on Monday next, for a short season only, a combined programme of raro merit is promised in kinemacolour by Mr. William J. Shophard, entitled "The Wonderland of New Zealand" and "The World Reviewed." By the kinemacolour process the subjects are all photographed in tbo colours true to nature, and are decidedly different to tho ordinary picture. The pictures deal not only with the famous beauty 6pots of New Zealand, but the lii'o of tho country, the people, cities, industries, sports, and pastimes. Rotorua, with its wonderful geysers, is given special attention. Tho scenes in Wellington, it is said, are full of interest. The success of theso pictures in Australia is said to have been phenomenal. "The World Reviewed," forming part of the sanio entertainment, is a collection of subjects in the Old World. Eoyaltv is seen in some spectacular events in England, nnd the section devoted to Ireland is described as beins very fine. Tho Royal Horse Show and a fino series of a sia% hunt in Devonshire are seen. Canadian scenes show tho famous Niagara Falls, and present some wonderful effects in.tho sister Dominion, -with a quaint sories of an alliKitor farm added. The pictures are specially taVen for the Government of New Zealand, end are shown by special arrangement with them. Seats may bo reserved at tho Bristol. ■