MAORILAND PICTURES.

Shannon News, 4 January 1928, Page 3

MAORILAND PICTURES.

ORCHIDS AND ERMINE. COLLEEN DEFENDS MUCH MALIGNED TELEPHONE GIRL. The most fascinating role _ she lias played on the screen is depicted by Colleen Moore in "Orchids and Ermine,'" coming to the Maoriland Theatre to-night. The little telephone switchboard ojerator in the lobby of a huge New York hotel is the heroine of this humorous and romantic story. "The telephone operator is one of the interesting persons in the United ■ States of America," says Colleen, who spent several hours daily for three weiks in a Los Angeles main exchange practicing for the part she plays in the picture. "She must be fast think-, ing and fast acting. She must have the disposition of a saint. She must have unlimited self-control. In fact, v she must be a very nice and a very un- ■ usual person. " A large capacity for trials and thrills is demanded of the operator in, "Orchids and Ermine" by. its author, Carey Wilson. Jack Mulhall heads the supporting cast.

TRAIN SMASH. REALISTIC .-REPRODUCTION .FDR PICTURES. Perhaps the most sensational train wreck in the. history, of motion pictures is that provided by Cecil B. De Mille in his first personally directed - picture. A firm believer in the screen doctrine that the end justifies .the - means, Mr De Mille caused to be built a duplicate of the K-l passenger en- . ginc with twelve driving wheels seven feet in- diameter and a length overall of eighty feet. As far as is known, . no ponderous engine such as this had ever been made especially for one scene in a photoplay, butlhe results achieved fully justified Mr .«&• Mille »s . insistence upon realism' despite exPe lTe storv of "The Road to Yester•lav " which features Joseph Sclnldkraut, Jetta Gondal, Vera Reynolds . William Bovd and Julia Faye, and which comes to the Maoriland Theatre on Thursday and Friday, is one of un- , usual dramatic powers. The principal character,; are travelling 'in « Pu l " man' coach and at night, suddenly cones a crash, the hiss of escaping steam, dense smoke, shrieks of terror and as this chaotic scene fades away, it is replaced by the peaceful quiet of an old English tavern of the early seventeenth century on "The Road to ■ Yesterday. " Reincarnation is the theme ot tju storv and it has been handled by Mr. De Mille with all the subtle artistry for which he is famous.