ROYAL PICTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2056, 18 November 1919, Page 3

ROYAL PICTURES.

“THE BETTER ’OLKA TO-NIGHT.

Local picturegoers have been looking forward to the screening of "The Better ’Ole” locally, and there is no doubt the Koval will he well tilled tonight when this great picture will he shown. To say that "The Belter ’Ole” is England's masterpiece, of Him production is no exaggeration. The play, made world-famous by the Bairns father cartoons, has had a run of conspicuous success everywhere on account of its wonderful appeal to humanity at home, from humanity in the trenches, as represented by (lie symbolic characters, A If, Bert, and Old Bill, and all 11ml limy si and fur. The Him goes further than the play, it being easier to reproduce more faithfully Ihe incidents depicted on the screen, where all nature is the slage, Hum in a theatre where production is limited by mechanical devices and imitations. The story, while being woven into the romance of Qld Bill, is plentifully besprinkled with those wonderfully lifelike incidents of adversity which Bairnsfalher so humorously depicted for the delectation of the whole world. The characters which have become so dear to British hears seem to spring to life, and are henceforth true beings, hitherto existent only in the imagination. The Oil's, Berts and Old Bills will now live in every home, and will embody that spirit of emulation and sacrifice, that love of fellow-kind, and above all that infinite sense of humour and the ridiculous, which enabled them to "keep on carry in’ on.” In the face of unknown and hideous adversity they rose triumphant, with Ihe selfsame joke ami smile that they wore on the portals of the Great Beyond. While “The Better ’Ole” brings the tears of sympathy, unshamed, to the eyes, it also charms them away immediately with flashes of scintillating wit, like glistening dewdrops in the early sun-rays.

To-morrow night the programme to be screened includes ‘'The h rozen Warning, featuring Charlotte, the famous queen of the ice, who created a sensation when she headed the ice ballet in the New York Hippodrome a year ago. It is a six-reel number produced by (tic Commonwealth Pictures Corporation. There is approximately five hundred feet of ice skating scenes, for the most part with Charlotte holding the centre of attention. She cuts fancy figures and pirouettes on the (ip of one skate, and twirling so fast without moving her position on the ice that she resembles a top more than anvthing else. She clearly demonstrates her right to be heralded as the most spectacular skater the world has discovered. There will also be shown the second instalment of the latest and best serial, “The Railroad Raiders."