AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 February 1920, Page 1

AMUSEMENTS.

POLLARD'S PICTURES.

A CHEAT ARTIST AND A GREAT PLAY MONDAY. “Infatuation,” a great (i-aet story starring the world’s most ravishing beauty and dancer, the far famed French artist Gaby Deslys. To see Gaby Deslys in “Infatuation” is to see one of the most piquant of all personalities of the stage. “Infatuation” is a six-reel special feature from the story by Marcel L’llerbier, and is directed by tht most famous of French producers Louis'. Mercanton. It is pictorially beautilul, and possesses strong dramatic value. Gaby’s beauty and costumes take one’s breath away, and she realises all the expectations one has conceived concerning her. Although she stoutly denies the rumours that some years back connected her with the downfall of a European monarch, the famg..that she achieved at the time can never be entirely disassociated from her rise to fame. The super-feature in which she makes her initial bow to New Zealand audiences, “Infatuation,” shows clearly that whether a ruse on the part of her press agents, or" whether some measure of truth lies in the rumours that connected her with King Manuel, her remarkable beauty of face and figure, and the enticing seductiveness of her bizarre costumes, together with her ability as an actress and dancer, have entitled her to the fame she has gained, either with or without that undesirable publicity. “Infatuation” is an extravagant and luxurious setting for a rarely beautiful and extravagant woman. It justifies all one’s expectations and some of the wonderful scenes go much further. French in story, caste, settings, origin, and dirtetion, it is more welcome on account of its novelty and difference to what we have become, accustomed. The old hackneyed plots and situations, the everlasting presence of the expected are absent. The oth episode of “The Lightning Raiders, r ’ and the 19th episode of “The House of Hate,” will be screened in conjunction with the star picture.

PL! IN CESS THEATRE. COMING SOON. “DAMAGED GOODS.” Eugene Bricux’s strong play witli a purpose—a play which caused so much discussion in England and Australia is to be shown at the Princess Theatre next week. As a result of the world’s great upheaval, the leading scientists, both in the war none and out of it, have by their attempts to combat venereal disease educated the public mind to regard the important subject dealt with in the play “Damaged Goods,” which waS'jStaged. in Christchurch some time ago, in a serious and straightforward way. Eugene Brieux’s novel was banned in New Zealand some few years back by the authorities, but it is quite safe to assume that, with the experience the war has brought, the novel would now be gladly received, not only by the medical faculty but by those visioned workers who have come out in the open and insisted upon this terrible scourge being attacked and stemmed in the same way as consumption has, and is being fought throughout the world. It is said that in the treatment of the film reproduction of “Damaged Goods,” and crude details occurring in the book or play have been eliminated