AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 30 April 1912, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE

Despite the wretched weather, there was a splendid house at H;s Majesty’s Theatre last night. The attraction, of course, was “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,” a picture which comes up to the highest expectations, [t is a genuine thriller, and beyond question a magnificent film. The secret of the intense realism which is imparted into “The Mystery” may be found in the fact that it is founded on a genuine story. Fergus Hume, a brilliant writer, used it as the foundation of his novel, whose popularity lias been as great as the translations into other languages are numerous. The dramatised version is a wonderfully vivid ponrtrayal of this celebrated story. The drama opens with Mark Frettleby sowing the wild oats of bis youth. A secret marriage, is among the thrilling episodes leading up to the stirring events which follow. Mark hears of the death of his w'fe, and remarries. He is now a millionaire, hut wealth does not bring him happiness, for a scheming scoundrel is aware of bis past, and that bis first wife is not dead, but alive in Melbourne. Whyte is determined to ruin the chances of Brian Fitzgerald, the favoured suitor to the baud of Madge, the daughter of Mark Frettleby, and his .first wife. Blackmail is written large over the early chapters of ibis entrancing mystery, but a now and deeper note is struck, when Whyte, intent on ruining Frettleby, is turned out of the Orient Hotel, and is seen to enter a cab with a man. Who was this man? That is the secret of the mystery, and in that secret is the immense and unbounded popularity of this film. To-night it will lie screened for the last time, and on Wednesday night six now pictures will take its place. Among these is the “Christmas Carol,” a drama which will commend itself to the public for the excellence of its production and the human interest which its story arouses.