“DARBY AND JOAN.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2320, 25 August 1921, Page 2

“DARBY AND JOAN.”

Film productions come and go, but it is not every day that the creation of some master mind is flashed oil the screen, to leave behind it u feeling of satisfaction and an impression that something out of the ordinary has been achieved.. “Darby and Joan,” screening at the Royal Theatre to-night, is an adaptation of Sir’Hall Caine’s famous story, and it can truthfully he claimed that it. is a masterpiece, a gripping story of human life with no impossibilities. The noble example oi ilve two young people of the story, clinging together through starvation and defying their parents in their soulless efforts to part them, is one that might he copied in these days of much separation and divorce, and the tragedy which follows, just as the first stage of their happiness is reached, is an incident which would make the strongest falter. Through this, and even greater trials,'the couple go bravely on. and in a manner in which the producer enlists the sympathy of the audience as the wonderful life story is unfolded, can only be recognised as a stroke of a genius. It is gratifying to be able to claim that picture-goers are indebted to a British producer for this extraordinary high-class entertainment. During the screening the songs “Darby and Joan” and “Silver Threads Among the Gold” will be sung. The programme for to-morrow night will he “The Purple Cipher,” a weird and thrilling story of ’Frisco’s mysterious Chinatown, in which there is as much excitement as is usually seen in fifteen episodes of a serial. The story has fine dramatic value, and Earle Williams takes the leading role.