The Picture Houses

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 19 November 1927, Page 15

The Picture Houses

COSY DE LUXE. Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. November 19th, 21st and 22nd. "Arizona Bound" (Paramount), with Gary Cooper and his almost human horse Flash, in a thrilling Western classic, packed with pleasing scenes of ranch life, "Desert Valley” (Fox), starring Buck Jones and his troop of dashing cowboys in a wonderful story of the safe-brush lands. Entertaining supports. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. November 23rd, 24th and 25th. "After Midnight” (Metro), a romance of the big city life that gives Norma Shearer the finest role of her life. It’s a pleasing story filled with comedy, romance and traedy that yoir-s enjoy. Pleasing supports—Comedy, Film Variety, N.Z. Scenic, Pathe News.

MUNICIPAL Saturday and Monday. November 19th and 21st. "Hey! Hey! Cowboy’’ (Universal), a side-splitting laugh generator of the Western plains, with Hoot Gibson in the leading role. Chapter No. 6 "The Silent Flyer” (Universal). Added attractions—Comedy, Gazette, Travelogue, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. November 22nd, 23rd and 24th. "For the Term of his Natural Life” (Master Production). Marcus Clarke’s world-famous novel makes the screen’s greatest historical romance. Its settings are of unparalleled magnificence. Also screening—Entertaining Comedy, Gazette.

"DESERT VALLEY." Starting on Saturday at the Cosy de Luxe. Silver, Buck Jones’ horse, which appears with him in "Desert Valley,’’ Fox Filins release starring Jones, which will have a showing at the Cosy de Luxe Theatre, is temperamental. Performing before a camera isn’t easy work for a horse, according to Buck. A human star has his intermittent off-days and it is only logical to suppose that a "screen” horse has his as well. At any rate, Buck has ob-. served a contrariness on the part of Silver on certain days, that is entirely absent when he is in a good mood. In “Desert Valley,” Silver does effective posing among the picturesque canyons in the Mojace desert, where the exterior sequences were allot. He is also called upon for no small amount of riderless action, which he. does with almost human intelligence. ♦ * ♦ * "ARIZONA BOUND." Saturday night's star attraction at the Cosy de Luxe. "Arizona Bound,’ ’the headliner at the Cosy de Luxe, is not, for one thing, a twig of the family tree of all other westerns, it is, quite candidly and unblushingly, one of the post-war aristocracy, and made its money, not out ot soap, but out of cacti, or maybe coyotes. It is gloriously new, and revels in its youth, but it has far more reason to revel in young Gary Cooper, who is the latest star in pictures, the engaging young fellow who attracted such attention in "The Winning of Barbara Worth," and who made his admirers almost forget Ronald Colman in some of the scenes in that picture. The hero of this drama is not the cocksure, gun-bedraped, picturesque creature of the average western, nonchalant, hard-riding, hard-boiled, a man to be retrieved by the willing heroine, and just how the lady goes about things ensures the humour of the piece ,and the gentleman’s resistance to the influence of virtue, the drama. An old relic of Buffalo Bill comes into the story, not a material relic, but a humorous trick of gunmanship ,and this introduction of an old frontier trick about epitomises the entire plot and action of “Arizona Bound,” which is adventure and still more adventure. It is amazing what a clever company of players and a clever director can do to the old, familiar desert, with its equally familiar props of hoary veterans, strange speech and a veritable armoury of antique weapons. Cleverness alone has made this entertaining picture as worth-while as it is, and, as Gary Cooper can act an emotional role as quick as he can pull a gun, the chances are that patrons will decide quickly in the new star’s favour. ♦ * * * “HEY! HEYI BOWBOY.” Showing Saturday and Monday at the Municipal Theatre. Another comedy-drama of the wide open spaces comes to the Municipal Theatre with Hoot Gibson in the starring role of "Hey! Hey! Cowboy,” a Universal-Jewel production directed by Lynn Reynolds. This picture is built around the adventures of a be-chappedi and bespurred Western prototype of the master detective made famous by Conan Doyle. Cast in the role of a cowboy crime detector, Hoot Gibson gives a thoroughly enjoyable performance in his attempt to unravel the casus belli of a red hot feud between neighbouring ranchers. Gibson makes a typical entrance upon the scene of his labours. It is commonplace, it is an everyday occurrence along the right-of-way of any railroad, yet, it is so naively accomplished one cannot help but sympathise and laugh at the same time. ♦ * ♦ ♦ "AFTER MIDNIGHT." Wednesday’s Great Attraction at the Cosy de Luxe. An amazingly powerful drama of those who live and love benear the midnight starts. "Live for to-day, Kid! Never mind to-morrow!” Youth! How its hot-lipped kisses and defiant philosophy irresistibly dictates the pleasures of society, It tramples on the code of yesterday and works to the rules framed by Necessity. Such is the way of the world that works after midnight in club and cabaret and seeks its pleasures in the same places. "After Midnight” is a pulsating story of two sisters who earned their daily bread and met a tensely dramatic destiny between midnight chimes and the all-revealing dawn! Beautiful Norma Shearer, the Canadian screen genius, ravishing star of "The. Waning Sex,” plays the leading role. Gwen Lee takes the part of her jazz-mad sister. And handsome Lawrence Gray is the young tough who wins Mary's heart.

"FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE."

A WONDERFUL ATTRACTION. Starting on Tuesday at the Municipal Theatre. When local residents see Marcus Clarke's immortal story, "For the Term of His Natural Life,” on the screen they will not find anything lacking in realism. Many scenes containing plenty of punch was taken in Tasmania, but the biggest mob scenes yet filmed' in Australia were "shot” at Dundas, near Ryde, N.S.W., and involved over 500 men. At seven o’clock in the morning an enormous crowd of males was seen at Fort Macquarie waiting to be absorbed as extras by Producer Norman Dawn for the big riot scene which was to be taken the same day on the banks of the Parramatta river. Five hundred of them were taken by boat and car to the scene of the location. A huge dressing-room to accommodate them had been prepared all in readiness by the Technical Department of the Union Master Studio at Bondi Junction. In this shelter the men changed into convict rigout, with the exception of forty, who were retained to act as warders. Naturally this crowd contained some splendid "types” of the nature required of the scene. The extras have not yet got over the novelty of being paid so highly for this class of work, which was a great deal to their liking, as many of them were from the ranks of the unemployed. They appeared to take the matter a little too humorously at first, until they became more accustomed and educated to the requirements demanded of the roles they were playing. Certainly it is something quite new in Australia for a movie company to pick up 500 deadbeats at a moment’s notice and give them one pound per day for eight hours’ work, with tucker and transit thrown in. Appearances in a few more films, however, should break them into the parts well, and in a short time Australia should be able to boast of five or six hundred professional extras, just as she is now able to boast of her professional artists.