WESTS PICTURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 69

WESTS PICTURES.

Those desiring novelty, thrill, mirth, tho beautiful, the picturesque, with the moral that adorns even a bioscopic tsle, founcl ample enteitaiument at His Majesty's Theatre on the 10th when West' 9 Pictures and L D© Groen's Vice-regal Band commenced their season in Dunedin. West's Pictures have found favour throughout Austraha, and prestige was the facior that filed the theatia with people expecting a great deal, but, in. contradiction to the proveib, by no means doomed to disappointment. The " house " had every reason to be pleased with tha pictures. Except for a little impatience at a brief delay caused by Mr West and tha pictures unavoidably airivmg late in Dunedin, everything went merrily. The *iceregul Band consists of 12 musicians, jvhosu playing is a feature in itself. Out of consideration to the nationality of the audience, llerold's " Zampa, ' promised on the programme, was not rendered, a selection of Scottish pieces being substituted with a remarkably happy effect, as it turned out. "A! Novice on Horseback," " A Visit From Mother-in-law," " Baby's First Outing," etc., weie, as their names obviously implied, comic pictures, and caused general hilarity; and it was evident that if the mother-in-law joke has, as so often stated, expired, ill ha? not yet been buried. " The Corsican'a Daughter " is a vividly dramatic sequence of events. There is the clandestine meeting by the old we'l, the arrival of the husband, two shots, and as the bodies of a man and a> woman are carried away by the neighbours a hunted man, with the brand of Cain on his forehead, make 3 for the hills. Here his little daughter brings him tood. and incidentally the gendarmes, who follow her. Thes arriTe to find him sleeping- The little girl snatches up his rifle and drops the foremost, but the Corsican leaps to his feet to fin«t hin:self covered by a dozen carbines. Her* Corsican btood asserts itself, andi lather that^ be taken alive he kisses his child, turns hi< rifle against himself, and falls, as the pic< ture vanishes. " Tobogganing at St. Moritz " is a very interesting and lengthy film dot scriptive of a way they have in Switzerland^ There are mountnins and snow and proces< sions of people fleeing down endless slope* face downwards on toboggans. Of course, there is a feaiful accident, wherein an extra impetuous toboganner swoops up an inclina and over a cliff witb disastrous results. " Red Russia " is incidental of the Reign of Terror in the bomb-stricken land of the Muscovite. A governor is assassinated, ancl then men. women, and children are shot like rabbits by an in discriminating soldiery, which almost reconciles the audience to another high official making a rapid journey skywards, together with smoke and fragments of his study furniture. Some fine coloured views of the Tock-scored gorges, waterfalls, and. scenic beauties of the wonderful Yosemite Valley are shown in " Beautiful California." The most stirring picture nanßtive is " Daniel Boone," a story of tha pioneer days of America. Two men ride away from a shanty in the woods, which is sooi^ afterwards surrounded by Red Indians. Within, the mother and two children are busy loading for the father, who fires through the cracks. At last the ammunition Js all spent( The last shot is fired. A paneT^bf the doo* is beaten in and frames the hideous face o( a red man in war paint and feathers. . Thj father and mother are tomahawked anq .scalped, and the girls carried off to the wig* warns away from the burning home. A! variety of thrilling incidents intervene before their recapture. Ihere is 3 deal of straight shooting, and a victim at the stake of torture is released by his hbise biting the thongs through The evergreen story of Cinderella is told in pretty pageantry, andl " Picturesque Japan " gives an insight into life in the land of the chrysanthemum. AIB the films in evidence were good, and the mechanism left nothing to be desired. The management announces that it h<ts suel» a variety of films that there be no necessity for Tepetition, and patrons will be treated to nove lies every night during the season.