NATIONAL AND LYRIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 6, 29 March 1927, Page 12

NATIONAL AND LYRIC

“A REGULAR SCOUT” The influence of the Boy Scouts on the salvation of a man is the theme of “A Regular Scout,” starring Fred Thompson, which is coming to the National and Lyric Theatres next Thursday. Fred plays the role of a man bent on revenge. Through Silver King he becomes intimately associa-, ted with a troop of Scouts, and* gradually his overwhelming interest in their ideals and splendid hopes affect him so that they prove responsible for his eventual redemption. Much of the Scout life is revealed during the unravelling of the story, and as it was made under the guidance of a Scout Executive, it is an accurate and powerful account of the activities. The cast includes: Olive Hasbrouck, Mary Carr, T. Roy Barnes, Buck Black, Margaret Seddon, William Courtright, Bob McKim and Harry Woods. The story, by B. F. Oxford, was made into continuity form by David Kirkland, who also directed the picture. On the same programme will be found “The Keeper of the Bees,” when for the first time in the history of motion pictures, so far as is known, the character created by a great novelist may be seen in the flesh, just as she was when her personality inspired Gene Stratton-Porter to write her into a novel. Or rather, she may be seen on the screen—not in the flesh. For Gene Stratton Monroe, eleven-year-old grand-daughter of the famous author, is appearing in “The Keeper of the Bees” in the part which the late Mrs. Porter wrote around her —the “Little Scout.” It was the hoydenish, tom-boy, lovable personality of Miss Monroe which originally caused “The Keeper of the Bees” to be written; and literally millions of readers who followed this fascinating tale in McCall’s Magazine may now know just what the “Little Scout” looked like and compare her with the mental pictures they have drawn of her. It is brilliantly cast, directed by Leo Meehan with the distinction which characterised “The Girl of the Limberlost”; and more than adheres faithfully to the spirit and letter of the original story.