ROYAL PICTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2393, 16 February 1922, Page 2

ROYAL PICTURES.

Ambition, the desire to forge ahead, to be somel)ody, or, as Webster has it: “A seeking for preferment ; a consuming desire to achieve some object or purpose, as to gain influence, distinction,” etc., is the power that keeps the wheels of civilisation turning. The road of ambition is generally not an easy one to travel. But desires that are easy of accomplishment are not appreciated as much as things that have to be striven for. This is the keynote of “The Road of Ambition,” to be shown to-night, and never has a photoplay carried a more inspirational theme than this Selznick pic-, lure, starring Conway Tearle. Extra : “The Phantom Butler,” a true story of the Secret Service. Prices, fid and Is Id.

The starring attraction at the Royal to-morrow is “The Bells,” with Frank Keenan in the role of Mathias, a role that has been made world-famous by Henry Irving on the stage proper. The story is too well known to need repetition, but to recall it to the thousands who have read the .-dory, and the many who have seen tlie original play, all will remember the inn-keeper who murdered the old Jew, Koveski, for his gold. Then forever haunted by the sound of the bells of the murdered man’s sleigh, he dies at last in a paroxysm of fear brought on in his sleep as the result of seeing the powers of Gari, the hypnotist, the night before. The character portrayed by Mr Keenan in this feature gives him one of the greatest opportunities, which he plays with the hand of a master.

On Saturday the greatest of James Fenimore Cooper’s stories, “The Last of the Mohicans,” will be shown.