LYRIC PICTURES.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 March 1918, Page 2

LYRIC PICTURES.

—Thursday Evening—

" Reckoning Day " —Gideon Winfield, a Bank employee, steals money to pay his gambling debts. He marries Clara Worthington, the daughter of a financier, and asks the father-in-law to pay the remainder of his losses. The theft of the Bank's funds is discovered, and Winfield leaves tovrn. Clara's father, to escape notoriety, pays the defalcation. Some time later Clara hears that her husband has been killed, and she remarries. He is really alive, but is killed by a burglar as he is entering Clara's home to blackmail her. Clara is accused of the crime, but at the last moment is saved by the burglar, who confesses. The cast is composed of E. H. Calvert, Elizabeth Burbridge, I Ernest Maupin, and Sydney Ainsworth. The supporting programme includes a good comedy. —Saturday Evening— Greater Vitagraph are still outdoing their already fine productions, and in >' " The Chattel " the standard is higher than ever. • Peggy Hyland, as the heroine of this fine play on a marriage problem, is dainty and effective and full of charm. E. H. Sothern is the foremost actor in modern America, and gives evidence of the fact in the difficult emotional role he" has to play in this drama. The title of the cleverly suggests the plot. A rich financier wants a wife, and, in the manner usual to his kind, Selects a well-known beauty, pays her attention, marries her, and as though satisfied with th<* purchase, goes about his business career quite in the normal way. Peggy Hyland wears a series of wonderful dresses in the play, which is set in the luxurious' homes of a smart modern society set, a»d the general investiture of the film is sumptuous in the extreme. The climax is tremendous in its intensity, when the. man realises that he has lost his beautiful wife, apparently, for all time. ~ ' —Tuesday Evening— " Peggy"—Billie Burkes entry into the moving picture world bids fair to make many of the recognised queens of the film look to their laurels. Her winsome beauty is known in every large capital of the Old World, and her I American successes made her the talk of that whole continent. In this play, specially written for her debut, she has a role which provides an opportunity for seeing everyone of her alluring moods. She is unapproachable in combination of womanly qualities and boyish deviltry which join together in " Peggy," and it is hard to say in which scene she is the most lovely. In man's clothes she is very alluring, but still more graciously sweet in her own pretty frocks. A fine piece of character acting is done by W H. Thompson as dour old Cameron! Peggy's Scotch uncle. The star, by the way, received a salary which works out at £231 per day for this production, and • she is well worth it. The first episode of "Gloria's Romance, featuring Billie Burke, will be acreened at the Lyric,in about a fortnight's time. #■ ■