AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1920, Page 1

AMUSEMENTS.

POLLARD'S PICTURES. | NORMA TALMADGE TO-NIGHT. “The Devil’s Needle” a startling indictment against the drug habit featuring Norma Tahnadge a s the model will ho presented by Pollard’s in the Princess Theatre this evening. “The Devil’s Needle” is a daring item against the use and effects of drugs on a man and a girl. The star is an. artist’s model ,and is addicted to-a drug. She recommends it to an artist as an incentive to inspiration. Ho succumbs to the habit and becomes degraded and useless. The girl cures herself, then sets out to redeem the man she started on a downward path. Norma Talmadge makes a lovely and appealing picture in the role of the model, while Tally Marshall is responsible for very fine characterisation in the part of the artist. His acting is at times more forcible and truthful than pleasant, but the slow disintegration of a talented mind through a pernicious drug is hardly an atractive sight at any time. The picture by its very forcefulness points a strong moral, and while being unsuitable for exhibition to children, is a charming indictment of an existent evil. The 14th Episode of the “Lightning Haiders completes the Bill. On Thursday, Pollards will screen the great Australian production “Satan in Sydney.”

McLEAM’S PJCTURES,

BILLIE BURKE, FRIDAY. Billie Burke in “Good Gracious Annabelle !” a film version of one of the most amusing plays ever produced in America or Australia, will be the attraction at the Princess Theatre on Friday. Clare Kunnncr, authoress of such successful comedies as “A Successful Calamity,” and “Be Calm, Camilla!” wrote “Good Gracious Anhabelle!” and the play contained a lot of humorous dialogue. “Good Gracious Annabelle!” is her best play to date, and the reason for this will not bo bard to distinguish after one has witnessed the picture. A husband and wife who didn’t know each other! Can you imagine it? Good Gracious! Mar-, l ied for years, she a> sweet young girl of charming appearance, piquant and delightful, married to a miner—more, a bearded miner! Can you imagine it. It happened in “Good Gracious, Annabelle!” that is to say, in which Billie Burke takes the part of Annabelle, who didn’t know her husband’s name and didn’t recognise mm when she saw him. Nor did be recognise her. “Good Gracious, Annabelle!” is one of Billie Burke’s" spiciest comedies. The supporting items include Fatty Arbuekle in his new two reel comedy, “A Desert Hero.” “A Desert Hero”, is laid in a wild west- 1 ern town, where sheriffs are killed every ten minutes of the day by the boisterous population whose hang-out is a dance hall, of which a giant bully is the proprietor. “Fatty”.lias made a fortune in a desert mine, and goes to the town to enjoy himself. He enters a dance hall to change gold into currency,’ and discovers it a hotbed of crookedness. The star dancer, Molly, a girl so innocent that she wouldn’t pick Avild fioAvers, refuses to enter into a scheme to separate Fatty from his money, and she is thrown out into the street. Fatty decides to pick this brand from the burning, and after giving an exhibition of proAvess, he is elected sheriff by acclamation. Then the fun begins.