GRAND THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 637, 15 September 1933, Page 2

GRAND THEATRE

TO-NIGHT. The magnificent plot, fine characterisation and beautiful love story are among the outstanding reasons why Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Ben Hur" has gripped the imagination of the world. In the marvellously sound synchronised p-icture which opens tonight at the Grand Theatre, the splendid portrayals of Ben Hur by Ramon Novarro, Esthe by Mdy McAvoy, Moth'er of Hur by Claire McDowell, and Tirzah by Kathleen Key, add to the effect and enhance the romance. These players live the romantic side of the story, which is just as engrossing as the sea battle or even the chariot race, both of which are ten times more stirring in sound.

Miss McAvoy is a charming Esther, daughter of the Merchant of Antioch, who secretly has saved the Hur fortune for the young heir, and Ramon Novarro -in the Ben Hur role is handsome, valiant, marked by s-incerity, depth .and range of feeling. Perhaps the deepest note is struck after Ben Hur and Esther set out to find his lost kin, wh'o have been immured in a forgotten Roman dungeon and (unknown to him) finally released as outcasts. Mother and Tirzah find the youthful Ben Hur asleep on a bench outside the disused palace of Hur. The sister kisses his shoe but the mother does not dare to -touch him. Silently they go away to save him from the ruin which is theirsw There are few dry eyes during the enactment of this scene. But the sorrow is turned to joy after Esther discovers the outcasts in the Vale pf Hinnom, takes them to the Divine Healer, whose benedietion cures them, •and the happy four are reunited.