“MICHAEL STROGOFF”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 17

“MICHAEL STROGOFF”

A FAMOUS FILM The boundless scenic and spectacular possibilities of the screen as compared to the material and physical limitations of the theatrical stage were never, perhaps, more forcefully contrasted than in the Universal Film-de-France production of Jules Verne’s famous melodrama, “Michael Strogoff.”

To quote the somewhat flowery* bat nevertheless sincere language of a famous Paris cinema reviewer upon witnessing the initial performance of the picture in that city:—“Meagre decorations of the theatre, what are you compared to the ball at the Imperial Court of the Czar; the invasion of the Tartars, the camp of the Grand Khan, the sensuous dancing of the bayaderes in the tent of Feodor Khan, the Siberian city of Irkutsk, encircled by a burning sheet of naphtha floating on the surface of the river Angara? What are the limited number of supers in the stage presentations of years gone by compared to the thousands upon thousands of Russian soldiers who defend with their last' breath the city of Tomsk against more thousands of fierce Tartar cavalry?” Add to this magnificence and magnitude the further fact that the principal scenes are in full colour, that the acting of the principals, including Ivan Mosjoukine, Europe’s idol of the screen, in the title role, is unsurpassed. Certainly no lover of the famous old book, “Michael Strogoff,” which still retains its popularity after 50 years' service in book and play form, will hesitate to say that in the coming production he, or she, for the first time, has an adequate conception of the romance, adventures and perils of the “Courier of the Czar,” in his dangerous mission across the wastes of far Siberia.

It has been well said that in this colossal presentation the possibilities of his masterpiece have been visualised in a manner that would stagger the mighty imagination of Jules Verne himself.

“Michael Strogoff” will cemmence its Auckland season at the Rejrr-nt Theatre next Friday, and its screening will be enhanced by a unique prologue presentation identical with that given at the initial world performance at the Albert Hall, London. Miss Valma Leich, who was the principal dancer in the London presentation, has been specially imported to produce the prologue in New Zealand, and will appear personally as the premiere bayadere (Tartar gipsy dancer).