PALACE THEATRE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10320, 1 February 1927, Page 6

PALACE THEATRE

“HAVOC” Once each season a motion picture comes to town that stands head and shoulders above all others. On this occasion it is “Havoc,” the William Fox supreme attraction which commences at to-day’s matinee at the Palace Theatre. There are many reasons for this. First of all it will beatify the most fastidious and cynical patron of the silent drama from a standpoint of pure entertainment. Secondly, it is a faithful reproduction of a great international stage success, which took Condon, Paris and New York by storm. But more important is the fact that llowland V. Lee, whom William Fox selected to direct this photoplay, evidently was thoroughly familiar with the subject in hand when he started making it and the result is a mighty, authentic, Cum an document, dealing with the havoc wrought, not b ywar, but by a woman—a woman without a soul. 'The story is not so much of the war as it is of the effect the war had on the world. It shows London, masking its sorrow and bitterness beneath an exterior of scintillating gaiety ■ ;a mad whirl of night life w T ith conventions cast to the four winds. And it shows a woman who brought havoc to innumerable lives—a twentieth century combination of Salome, Cleopatra, Dußarry, Delilah, Semiramis, Lucretia Borgia and the other celebrated .sirens of history. Margaret,Livingston who, although she has won popular favor in previous pictures, leaps to the forefront of portrayers of this tvpe of woman by her exceptional ehanctemation in the role.of Violet Dooming in “Havoc.'” George .O’Brien as tire handsome young army- officer: gives the' : ffne«t eharactens'attiom ~a£ his career. ’ Welter -ilicGrotl. Leslie Fenton. JVfadgo Bellamy. D’asid .But„ler and the" others of' the: east also win' new' lauj>elg in this sprcen drama, .