“MY OLD DUTCH.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1571, 1 July 1916, Page 3

“MY OLD DUTCH.”

FULLER’S PICTURES. On Monday and Tuesday the London Ideal Film Company presents an epoch-making production, featuring Albert Chevalier and Company, including Miss Florence Turner, in “My Old Dutch,’’the epic of the Coster in five reels of motion pictures; We’ve been together now for forty years, An’ it don’t seem a day too much; There ain’t a lady livin’ in the land As I’d swap for my dear old Dutch. The following is a brief synopsis of the picture:— Down by the Walsh ’Arp, and Whit Monday! Costers in great force. Parlies everywhere. Singing and dancing and laughing—everything merry and bright! The costers are there in force and so are their donahs, and a fine jolly old time it is. But one happy couple has left the giddy throng. Joe and Sal are homeward bound. Scenes are shown of their courtship and proposal of marriage, together with the preparation for the wedding. Then Joe and Sal are man and wife at last. THEIR FIRST SORROW. A year passes. A little baby blesses the humble homestead. One day the little one turns ill. The doctor is called in, but there is no hope. Joe passes from the room and chokes down Jiis sobs. Sal comes in. They embrace, and are comforted in their own love for the first sorrow that has stolen across their little home. yVlore time passes, and one day as Joe is hawking his goods round the town, ’Brb stops him and whispers something in his ear. He hands his mock to his pal, and runs home. Another child has been horn to comfort the heart of the simple pair. The baby grows to childhood. THE COSTER’S AMBITION. There is something of refinement in Sal’s face that haunts one from the start, and we arc not over-sur-prised to see ’Brh run in one day with a newspaper, which indicates that Sal has inherited £5,000 from a branch of her family of higher social standing. What terrific excitement there is in the coster household when the news is brought! What a time they give the lawyer, all speaking together! But what a heart they show behind their uncouth exterior. Will they take the money and spend it? Not at all. “Every penny of that ’ere money,” says Joe and Sal, “is going to be spent to turn onr nipper into a gentleman.” The picture traces the young hopeful with private tutors through his college life and among the flash set of “London Bloods,” and keeps a. fine artistic balance. The truth is made known to Joe and his wife of their boy’s behaviour. “You have broken your mother’s heart,” Joe exclaims, and I could curse the day that you were horn.” But Sal just kisses and pats the lad. “1 am done with being a. gentleman,” he says, “I am going to try and be a man.” Gradually the poverty of Joe and Sal increases, only one friend remaining—‘Erb, who bestows what comfort, he can. Sickness brings the hospital, and eventually the workhouse.

The son is at the goldfields, and fortune is smiling upon him. He has written home to his parents, but they never receive the letter. He returns, to find the old home deserted, his parents heaven knows where. How fale places him on (lie road of their whereabouts, and what he does to arrange their happiness is magnificently told. The story is too fine and big to be crystalised in to a handful of words. It stands out in its interest, humour, sincerity, and quality as the best drama of its kind ever shown.