KING'S THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 18, 22 January 1924, Page 3

KING'S THEATRE.

"The brightest star in the camera, firmament,"' is what the critics called Mary Philbin, after witnessing her performance in "Merry-Go-Round," now showing at the King's Theatre. The part of the hero, a high-born Austrian count, is taken by Mr. Norman Kerry, one of the most finished actors of the day. The whole cast is of unusual calibre. The Universal Super-Jewel spectacle feature, which was in the making for many months, tells of the love between a peasant girl of the Prater, the famous Coney Island district of Vienna, Austria, and a young count of the Emperor's highest staff. The recent World War knocked the foundation out from under Austria's proud aristocracy and left a ponderous emptiness where before there had been splendour and pompous idleness. Now members of noble families work, no better than the peasants they once despised. In the ranks of the street-sweepers in Vienna to-day there is a former count, who was a favourite at the court of Francis Joseph before the war. But with the nobility a thing of the past, and with nothing else to turn to in an effort to secure food enough to keep from starving, this former noble, whose knowledge and training had to do with war, was only fitted for this menial work. Truth is stranger than fiction, yet this exact condition of affairs was foreseen when Universal began the filming of "Merry-Go-Round." The programme, which also includes an International News Topical Budget, will be repeated each evening this week. A delightful musical programme is played by the King's Orchestra, under the directorship of Mr. L. D. Austin.