AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 February 1926, Page 1

AMUSEMENTS.

EVERYBODYB PiGTURES.

WONDEKFUL LONDON’’—TONI GliT.

The public will, or should, bo forever grateful to the pictures for assembling .such a production as “Wonderful London,” even if the debt of gratitude to this twentieth century art is not already beyond redemption, 'liio.se who crowded into Greater Crystal J’alaec at Christchurch to seo London .had been toyed up to great expectations by a week of judicious newspaper "puffs,” They luil-.t conless that the picture, S) far from having any element of disappointment for them, exceeded all they had read about it. The truth is that "Wonderful London” cannot he adequately described in cold print any moie than the most skilful and gifted pen can describe the manifold, sometimes ineffable, fascinations of the wonderltd city itself. The photographers, the directors. ami the guides in this picture have worked so well in their separate departments and have eo-nridnated their efforts with such inlinite mastery of ideas and details that the films and the photography vanish in the first feufeet of reeling, leaving in the eye only streets, buildings, mansions, gardens statues, and moving crowds of all sorts and conditions of people going about their daily affairs. It would lie Imrdly correct to say own that it is the next best tiling to a visit to London. It is, in some respects, better than a visit, as here, apparently, almost all that is worth seeing of London may lie seen in a couple of hours, at the total expense of the price of admission to the theatre. One of the most impressive features of the picture is the way in which it slides swiftly from scene to scene, bringing the end quite unexpectedly. This result is achieved by artfully running through it. in u way those who see it do not realise at the time, a hidden thread of a kind of a story. It is by no means a heterogeneous collection of scenic photographs, bill it homogenous production, admirably condensed, concise, and so convincing as to leave a vivid and lasting impression. Its most inexplicable feature, perhaps, is the success with which it screens the city’s soul. It takes people through London’s different worlds, from the quaint times of Pickwick. Sam Weller, Hill Sikes, ami Little Nell, to the majesty of modern civic pomp and pride. Here, also, are London’s worlds of comedy and of tragedy, the world of the Hyde Park orator ami the world of Rotten Dow’s devotee of fashion, the world of the rich and the world of the poor, the world of the great and the world of the humble. Old London rubs shonldcd with new London, the London of a hundred songs with the London’of the practical, hard-headed, Anglo-Saxon concentrating on buisness, commerce and material progress. The range and quality of “Wonderful London” are well summed up in a. short description of it published Inst week “it makes London all that is and all that it means to British people all over flic world.” Usual prices will be charged. On Saturday a Paramount picture starring Pula Negri in “Men” will be presented, also further chapters of the new serial “Beasts of Paradise.” starling William Desmond.