THE PICTURE HOUSES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 14 November 1927, Page 9

THE PICTURE HOUSES

f MUNICIPAL. George O’Brien, in the titie role of ••The Ma.n Who Came Baek,” plays * one of the most picturesque party ever assigned to an actor. He is the ne’er-do-well son of a millionaire New Yorker and his fall and rile are pictured with telling realism. Dorothy Mackaill, as a dance hall girl, who finds the man of her heart in a low Shanghai dive and who saves him from himself, has the most powerful piece of work in her eviable career on stage and screen. Carrying the audience from New York to San Francisco and thence across the Pacific into the Orient, the picture is faithfal in every detail not only in its fidelity to the book, but in its human qualities as well. At the risk of shucking those unfamiliar with the ways of the Oriental underworld, this picture presents scenes in Chinese opium dens which are startling in their realism. The narrow slimy streets, the criminal characters who infest them and the depths to which a white man may sink are pictured vividly. Those in the cast with O’Brien and Miss Mackaill are Walter Wilkinson, Brother Miller, Cyril Chad | wick,' Ralph Lewis, Emily Fitzroy, Harvey Clark, Edward Piel and David Kirby. ’ All of them play their roles with realistic effect. A further episode of “The Silent Flier” is also shown. \ H COSY DE LUXE. Lawrence Gray is credited with •’scoring” in Herbert Brenon’s new Paramount production, ** The telephone Girl,” along with his fellow players—Baxter, Madge Bellamy and May Allison. Larry portrays Miss Bellamy’s sweetheart. According to the scenario, he is unable to marry her because of his father s opposition. r But everything comes out all right, in the end, because she gets hold of some information and proves so plucky in withholding it from aim that Gray’s parent just has to succumb. With Reginald Denny in a picture •—any picture—comedy and excitement is bound to occur. And with /Denny in “The Cheerful Fraud,” a story which so perfectly fits his cap abilities and affords him such excel!lent opportunity to be the comedian, the result is not laughable—its’ roar r able. Fans of the popular Reginald are declaring that it is his funniest farce. Its plot gets off the beaten track of most farce comedies, and its work manlike treatment speaks worlds for the ability of William A. Seiter, who directed the production. Gertrude Olmstead, Otis Harlan, Gertrude Aastor Emily Fitzroy, Charles Gerrard and others are prominent in the supporting cast.