ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 182, 4 May 1925, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

FULLERS’ VAUDEVILLE. An entirely now programme will be presented at Mis Majesty's Theatre tonight. The new bill will contain some of the 'best features in. vaudeville. Several new performers of outstanding merit have been engaged, and prominent amongst these will be Miss Estelle Rose, who is described as an international impressionist. This artist’s stock in trade consists of humorous songs and stories, of which she, is said to be possessed of an inexhaustive repertoire. Another act of outstanding merit will bo that of Paul Warton arid Co. who will appear in what is described as a whirling exhibition of spring-b >ard flying. This act is said to be of an unusual nature and the performers display great temerity. The Alton Sisters, wire walkers, are said to do something very much out of the ordinary. According to a northern exchange, the ease and grace with which these young ladies carry through their performance is responsible in a large measure for the success of their turn. Max Sandrisi and Rita Copelli will give interpretations of a number of fantastic French dances. Videau and Kirby, English burlesque sketch artists. will bo seen in a now sketch entitled “A Double Turn.” Miss Videau’s costumes are said to be a revelation and were designed Im La Fayette of Paris. Air. Ernest Pitcher will provide another of his well-known comedy characterisations. Mr. Charles Sherman, the versatile entertainer at the piano, will render a new repertoire of humorous songs, stories and Hebrew sketches, and Miss Curly Sherwood, soubrettc, will feature a number of the latest American and English song successes. A fresh repertoire of songs and child impersonations has been prepared by Miss Amy Rochelle, whose last nights are now announced. In addition, the latest topical budget will be displayed. HAWAIIAN TROUBADOURS. AU the charm and romance of the South Sea Islands is found in the music played by Kaul's Hawaiian Troubadours at the Grand Opera House, where “A Night in Honolulu” continues to draw enthusiastic audiences. The music of the steel guitar and the plaintive ukulele combine delightfully, with the sweet voices of the performers, who have an almost limitless repertoire of songs about their native islands. Characteristic dances of the Hawaiians are given, and the settings make the performance most realistic. The artists tn the latter portion of the performance combine to form a. jazz band, and their efforts are highly entertaining. The performers seem to enjoy the entertainment as much as do the members of the audience. The programme will bo repented to-night, tomorrow, and Wednesday. DE LUND THEATRE. "Smouldering Fires” is drawing exceptional business at (ho De Luxe Theatre, and intending patrons are urged to honk or attend early so as to avoid disappointment. Commencing next Friday, popular Thomas Meighan will lie seen in “Tongues of Flame.” It is stilted that Thomas Meighan picks his own stories, and the picture ('Tongues of Flame,” to bo screened next Friday, proves again that he is a good picker. Imagine a Star who is in a class by himself. a novel that ranks among (ho best ever written, and a director world famed. Here is a combination on which is founded the claim that “Tongues of Flame” is an outstanding photoplay. There is action—plus comedy, drama, and heart appeal in this picture. Patrons are promised that Meighan Ims never been seen to greater advantage than in this attraction. The story is taken from Peter Clarke Maefarlane’s celebrated novel, mid the. cast inclmlcs Bessie Love and Eileen Percy. The story deals with a conspiracy on the part of a grasping capitalist to swindle a tribe of Indians out of their valuable reservation. Tom Jfeiglian lias the role of Hell Fire Harrington, an easy-going young lawyer, who is at first the tool of the capitalist, hut later discovering a big swindle fights for right and succeeds. A big supporting programme is arranged, ami, as usual, a musical programme that will delight all. A matinee will be hold on Saturday at 2.30. The box plans are now open at the Bristol Piano Co., Aitken’s Book Arcade, or ring the theatre telephone, 23—080. KING'S THEATRE. The old story of tho “cross pull,” the person with two warring individualities, the one puritanical, and the other craving excitement and companionship at all costs, is well told in “Sandra, at tho King’s Theatre, where Barbara I.a Marr gives an emotional presentment of the sorrows that fill to those with this peculiar temperamental curse. Her husband, the sort of man any woman would choose for a life mate, is a quiet, trustworthy fellow, with as much imagination as k bullock, nnd ho utterly fails to realise tho irresistible appeal ’ which excitement has for his wife, or the acute remorse that assails her other self after her escapades. A rich bachelor, always on the look-out for fresh adventures, attracts her, and she decides to stifle her better natve, and take the winding road to happiness. But in Europe she finds that without some man to really protect her, life is full of pitfalls. At last, alter some very salutary experiences, she returns to hvi husband, satisfied that of the two natures she cannot separate, the home-lov-ing, sedate part of her is the safest to cultivate. Beautiful gowns, nnd some verv fast life in the capitals of Europe, make trie film interesting. Thera is a brilliant prologue by twelve of Miss Kathleen GTlrieii’s youngest pupils, who expound cabaret, Apache, and toe dances. “Lonesome.” a comedy of the reallv laughable kind, is a support, and ‘the King’s orchert’a supplies the best of music. EMPRESS THEATRE. Few comedies are so prettily screened as “Squibs’s Honeymoon” at tho Empress Theatre. The opening scenes are devoted to the lives of Squibs and her family before the great event. Squibs is the director of a successful milk business, Father is a thirsty soul who fills in. a place at the b'oakfnst table, Iloneybunn the fat ami wheezy secretary, and Miss Fitzbulgc general overseer. Tho wedding is a beautifully photographed little studv. Then the fun begins. All goes well'till tho bride and bridegroom leave the boat at Calais, but Squibs misses her husband’s bag in the carriage, am! tho train goes off whilo she is looking for it, leaving her behind. It is a nonstop train, too. Squibs goes io Paris after him. and of course he returns hotfoot to Calais after her, and this sort of thing goes on till her rascal father comes over to assist. lie enters a plot with a bargee io secure the .£lOO reward which hubby has offered far Squibs’s safe return, and they kidnap her. She escapes from the barge, anil is on her way to England, having had enough of honeymoons, when she collides with hubby, who is trying to race a train to her. Betty Balfour makes a delightful Squibs. The supports include an,excellent “Movie Chat,” a *opieal. ami a comedy burlesque!ng Communist Russia that achieves by direct action what Squibs's honeymoon docs by conventional methods. Glimpses of the English cricket eleven in Sydney arc very interesting.

QDEI'N’S THEATRE. "The City that Never Sleeps,” at the Queen's Theatre, is a story of New York cafe life, and, strangely, a tale of mother love. Mother O'Day has the one eafe in the Bowery where, one is always sure of a drink under prohibition. and she reaps a rich harvest, because she does not object to anything. As her little daughter grows up she feels that the atmosphere of the cafe is not the best for her, and she arranges for her adoption by socially select, but poor people. The freedom of social codes, however, is such when the girl reaches budding womanhood, that her set make her mother's cafe, their headquarters. The daughter does not know her parentage and the mother is shocked to see her the leader of the cocktail drinking, smoking, jazzy set. There is the further complication that the girl lias become engaged to a rascal. But whatever the girl thinks sho knows, her mother knows tiio world better, and saves her by a series of clever bits of work. Louise Dresser, as Mother O’Day, gives an escelIrnt characterisation. A travelogue of Australian life and a comedy ("The Hayseed") are supports.

“THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB.” “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.” to bo sewne'd at the Empress on Friday, awakens many old memories. Fergus Hume, tho writer of tho book, was a Dunedin boy, and it was not until lie had lived in Melbourne for some time that ho developed a literary bent. Seizing on tho hansom cab murder as a subject, lie wrote “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,” and it became at once one of the world’s best .sellers, while Fergus Hume literally woke lo find himself famous. Arthur Shirley, wh« has adapted tho book for the screen play and plays the principal character, has played opposite Mae Murray, and has also appeared with “William S. Hart, and other of the loading stars of the day in pictures. Arthur Shirley has made a picture which is said to mark a now standard of Australian production. Fortunately Mr. Shirley was backed financially by a strong corporation (Pyramid Pictures), who allowed him a free hand in every way. The result is that the settings and tho whole production are just as lavish as the imported production. Tt has received eulogistic criticisms throughout Australia, and more recently in Auckland. PARA MOUNT TH EA TRE. An overflowing house was charmed and thrilled with “Love and Sacrifice,” the 1925 production of D. W. Griffith, nt the Paramount Theatre last Saturday night. The huge audience was spellbound with the masterly way in which the plot of this epie has been woven, with its many dainty touches of pathos, its dramatic tense moments, with its little rills of comedy, scintillating and sparkling throughout, all well measured and well balanced. Patrons cannot fail to recognise the masterly touches of a master mind and creative brain of a great producer. The box plan for this production is at the Utility, next to tho theatre. TIVOLI. THEATRE. On Friday next, the initial screening of Beaumont Smith's production “The Digger Earl” will take place at the Tivoli Theatre. “The Diggei- Earl” Is a film full of human interest with a leavening of good, clean comedy. Tho story is briefly about a young scion of the English nobility, who, tired of things generally, starts on a voyage round the world. On the schooner coming out to Australia, he meets Bill, n dved-in-the-wool Digger. A friendship eventuates, and on arrival in .Sydney the earl induces Bill to change places with him. From this point the story advances in a series of humorous, but very human, scenes, which all end happily. Bill is played by Arthur Tauchert, who will be well remembered as the Sentimental Bloke, whilst Gordon Collingridgo is the carl. Two very pretty girls in Lotus Thompson said Heather Jones are also m the cast. ORGAN RECITAL. The 'Town Hall was fairly well attended last evening on the occasion of the organ recital by Air. Bernard I. Page, city organist. The iiyogrammo comprised: Choral-Prelude (<)]>• 122. .No. JI) (Brahms); Andante and Variations (Mozart): Andante (from Siring Quartet) (Debussy): Fountain—Music and Duet (from '.Act IT. Scene 11. "Pclleas and Melisande” (Debussy): Elegiac Romance (John Ireland); Fantasia (Op. 117) (Sila*).