THE PICTURE HOUSES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 22 November 1927, Page 9

THE PICTURE HOUSES

COSY DE LUXE.

Gary Cooper, Paramount’s new star in western productions, e." ly qualifies as filmdom’s tallest se.*,n luminary, registering a height of six feet two inches—without his tenf gallon hat. In “Arizona Bound,” lis first starring vehicle, now at the Cosy, Cooper makes his debut in a fast-moving tale of a frontier town, and appears as a reckless, hardriding cowboy, who fights against the suspicion of the townspeople, the intrigues of two warring bands of ruffians, and the frowning disapproval or the prettiest girl in the village. “The End of the Trail,” famous painting of the pathetic drooping figure of the Indian astride his pony, is posed by Buck Jones and his horse Silver in the opening scene of “Desert Valley,” also being screened at the Cosy to-night MUNICIPAL “For the Term of His Natural Life” will begin at the Municipal Theatre to-night, and should be received by the picture-going public very kindly. A film based on a great and well-known book is, it treated in the. same spirit as the author wrote it, always assured of a generous measure of success, and ■’The Term” has been no exception to this rule. It is a photoplay that throbs with life. It ranges the whole gamut of human emotions, mid it plays upon the heart-strings as a virtuoso upon his instrument. Pictures like this excellent production hold an appeal for every taste; they leave an impression that lingers long after the theatre is deserted, they compel respect as well as ad. miration. “The term” is engrossing and intensely human, supremely tragic with a classic force, and remarkably honest and truthful where it deals with the old prison methods at Botany Bay and the convict settlement there that made the very name hated throughout the entire world. That hatred was well deserved. Tn the nineteenth century, it is difficult to believe that such fearful customs were observed in prison circles; that such barbarity was rampant. Man's inhumanity to man is given a’ portrayal in its rightful hues in “The Term,” and it becomes all the more vivid and powerful and peculiarly engrossing when it is remembered that Marcus Clarke wrote the truth and nothing but the truth, ‘ The Term” is essentially a drama, and though a tragic drama to the superficially-inclined, there is plenty of that romantic interest in the story to hold out a bait to those who look for a roseate tint in the most futile and pathetic of plays. Many players well known to the Hastings public appear in this film. Eva Navok has the chief female role, while Mayne I.vnton, recently here in “The Ghost Train” also appears. George Fisher and Bey North are algo cast in big parts.