ENTERTAINMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1232, 14 April 1914, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

municipal PICTURES.

The programme for to-morrow night is one of the most fascinating that has yet been screened locally. The star film, “A Message from Mars,” is one that should draw a crowded house. This play has bad a phenomenal run wherever shown and the film seems to be going in the same direction. Space will not permit of a full description but briefly it tells how Horace Parker, utterly yet unconsciously selfish, is engaged to a girl whose love closes her eyes to her lover’s besetting sin—selfishness. At the opening of the story, Horace is under promise to convey his fiancee and her aunt to a dance, but noticing that the night is cold he says he is really too tired to think of it, so they are escorted by an American gentleman who happens along at the crucial moment. A tramp, whose enemy is alcohol, enters Parker’s apartment and relates to him the stoiy of his downlall, but the selfish fellow is callous and cold as marble. The tramp, emptyhanded, goes forth into a raging snow-storm. Parker lolls in his comfortable chair and soon sinks into deep slumber, when occurs a vivid dream, “A Messenger from Mars” appears to Parker and proceeds to inculcate the lesson that there is none so cruel as the unkind. He emphasises the enormity of Parker’s habits of life, and in punishment transforms him into a man like the tramp he has just spurned. He falls into the lowest depths of poverty and consorts with the poor and downtrodden. The crux ot the great lesson is reached when Parker is seen struggling with the tramp he had spurned. Thenceforward Horace begins to feel for the sorrow of others. The fertile soil, and the regeneration of the formerly selfish Horace Parker is complete. The Messenger leaves this sphere for his home in Mars. Horace now awakes from his dream, so indelibly has the lesson of the wonderful vision been impressed on his mind, that he casts all selfishness aside, and orders bis future life on the teachings of “A Messenger from Mars.” Mr Charles Hawtrey, who takes the principal part in the above is one of the most renowned English actors, and to see him alone is worth the price of admission. The first half of the programme, as will be seen from the advertisement, is composed of an all-round assortment.

Do not forget that “(Juo Vadis” starts at 7.30 p.m. sharp at the Municipal Pictures ou the 22nd inst,, and no extra charge.

BARTON BROS’CIRCUS

There is a firm in Australia (which, by the way, Is the largest in Southern Hemisphere), who have a registered motto which reads, “ While I live I’ll grow.” Barton’s Circus appears to have a similar prolific attainment. Mr F. J- Barton the controlling director ot the firm, knows just the class of entertainment which suits a circus-loving public. From the opening-dancing parade on horseback to the final item of a lengthy programme there is not a dull secoud. The bill is buoyant with new high-grade special features and spectacular attractions, these in conjunction with the mirthprovoking antics of a squad of irrepressible clowns and dummys headed by Happy Jackies, who keeps the audience in a state of amazement and laughter throughout the evening. The most conspicuous among the “ stars ” are the Waldorf Troupe of statuistes and gymnasts, who hail from Fillis’s great African Hippodrome. This act is submitted by a group of shapely girls arrayed in such a manner that they appear as real statues and present a truly remarkable performance. Another novel act which attracted much attention is supplied by “ Wild Australia.” Queensland Harry is recognised as Australia’s champion buckjump rider. The horse that be cannot conquer has not yet been born. The circus will appear on Thursday next.