THE MAORILAND THEATRE.

Shannon News, 7 February 1922, Page 3

THE MAORILAND THEATRE.

I “A MESSAGE FROM MARS” TOMORROW NIGHT. One of those famous stories that are unanected by the passage of years 1 will be screened at the Theatre toI morrow night in “A Message From ! Mars.” The outlines of the action are I familiar, but treated on the screen the | story gains in effectiveness, as there I is an opportunity of introducing efj fects not possible on the ordinary j stage. | “WHILE THE BILLY BOILS” ON j FRIDAY, j Henry Lawson’s stories under the title “While the Billy Boils,” have been made into a remarkable picture [ by Beaumont Smith, and this will be ; screened on Friday night in Shannon, i Briefly told, the story is a chronicle of I a widowed father and his two young , sons the elder of whom is the hero of ' his grief at the loss of his best friend—his mother —lead to an angry ! parting between him and his father, ! and the boy wanders away far back ' into the Never Never Land. As the ! years go back he hearkens to the call • of his people, and he returns to the j old homestead. There is no killing ■ of the fatted calf, for he carefully con--1 ceals his identity ,and, under the | name of Bob Brothers, he is found over the board of his father’s own shed. His meeting with the orphaned I ward of his father —the Ruth of Law- ' son’s fascinating story—opens up a delightful love interest which is set in : the hurly burly of the strenuous station life, and interspersed with humorous and dramatic incidents. These have an early culmination in a sensational robbery. The guilt of the crime is fastened upon Bob Brothers; for the sake of the girl he doves —for he believes that she loves his youngest brother, who is the actual thief—he accepts the burden. His sacrifice carries him way back again into the great Australian desert. In ! a hopeless search for water the thirst- ■ crazed man wanders further and fur- ; ther into the wilderness, and the grim ■ desert is credited with another victim. The search of the father for his lost boy is fruitless, but he little dreams that when he does meet him it will be in a prison cell, with a heavy charge hanging over The head of the son he has learned to love so well. Of course things right themselves in the end. This can best, be left for the picture to explain. Comedy relief is afforded by a station courtship, and through the part taken by an Australian native. The supporting pictures will be found to contain further excellent material. There are the usual topical, scenic, arid comedy features.