THE STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 17

THE STRAND

TWO EXCELLENT PICTURES Possessing variety and of the usual good quality, the programme being screened by the popular Strand Theatre at present offers exceptional entertainment.

Two magnificent pictures of the great outdoors head the programme, "The Besert’s Toll” and “Steele of the Royal Mounted.” Glaring action pulses madly through to the last foot of “The Besert’s Toll.” Red-blooded thrills leap and dart in every scene, with the painted desert of Arizona for a background. Baring feats of horsemanship by the new romantic outdoor star, Francis Mcßonald, electrify one’s senses. The story, the scenic effects, the dramatic action, all breathe of the great outdoors. A stirring battle of wits and skill for the possession of the map of a hidden gold mine is the story, briefly. A girl enters, and fate leads her to the wrong party, so that she betrays the man who is fighting her battles for her. From here the story takes an intensely dramatic turn, and the clashing of emotions and passions amid a surrounding of grim hills and pitiless desert lead to a climax of mighty thrills.

James Oliver Curwood is one of the few novelists whose stories gain in effectiveness when portrayed on the screen. “Steele of the Royal Mounted” is a story that follows the trail of the lone trooper on the track of the criminal through the perils of the wilderness. It is an old theme for picture-goers, but as worked out in this production it seems amazingly fresh and new. Bert Lytell, in the

>le of Steele, dashes through this peril, and others, with a fascinating recklessness that sets the blood tingling. Playing opposite him is the lovely Charlotte I'Jerriam, who makes an adorable heroine.

In addition to these two fine pictures, there is an Aesop Fable, and the Strand Magazine, which gives some very good scenes of the Welsh mine disaster, and the late Sir Parry Thomas. A musical interlude, “Catharine,” by the orchestra, is a pleasing feature.