ROYAL PICTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2288, 11 June 1921, Page 2

ROYAL PICTURES.

“The Sporting Duchess,” which will be shown at the Royal to-night, - a screen version of the spectacular melodrama of the same name, vhicb was produced at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. The film cer-hm. made by Vita.grap!:. with Dice Joyce appearing in the stel';:r role, abounds with beautiful locations, exquisite interiors, and appropriate atmosphere. A. race furbishes one of the picturesque backgrounds and the story is punctuated .vith dramatic thrills which keep the spectator at strict attention. As in most Drury Lane melodramas, the • ction revolves around blue-blooded aristocracy and red blooded horses, and tells how Muriel, the Duchess of Desborough, becomes the prey of a crooked gambler. The latter separates Muriel from her husband, and causes the Duke’s horse “Comet" to be sold. The Duchess is disgraced, but manages to buy the horse, and enters him in the Derby. Step by step she tights her, way back, and wins the position she lias lest.

On Monday there will be a double star programme. The first is a William Russell feature, which provides excitement aplenty in his latest William Fox picture, “The Challenge of the Law.” In this picture Russell gives a striking portrayal of Captain of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, whose assignment has been to stop a desperate band of fur smugglers from taking their furs across the border into the United States. This he does in the typical Russell style. How the fur smuggling is stopped, and the Cap ; tain gets the girl lie loves is developed in some thrilling scenes. Louise Lovely appears m the second feature, “The Little Grey Mouse,” from the pen of Barbara LeMarr Deely. The story is a strong dramatic tale of a talented woman who, because of the love she has for the man she marries, .allows herself to become a victim of self-sacrifice in everything for this man —who in the end proves himself worthless and a cad. The" story is well developed to the last.