MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“MARE NOSTRUM” Since the opening- performance last Friday at the Majestic, the Rex Ingram production, “Mare Nostrum,” has been attracting record houses. The war years of the Mediterranean supply the motif of the theme which deals with spy machinations and the luring of a Spanish sea captain into the service of the Central Powers because of his intimate knowledge of the sea in which they are planning an intensive submarine campaign. He succumbs to the charms of Freya Talberg, a beautiful Austrian agent, who exceeds her instructions by falling in love with him. It is her battle between love and loyalty to her country that provokes the sensational episodes that precede the big climax. The final scene, a war-time sea mystery, is one of the most powerful sequences ever filmed, and solves the problem of what happened when the armed “Mare Nostrum” steamed into a lonely spot of the Mediterranean in search of a certain submarine and failed ever to return. A particular feature of the cast is the. predominance of talented European artistes, although the principal parts are taken by Alice Terry and Antonio Moreno, well known to screen lovers. Much greater realism has been secured by using the Continental players, as they fit more naturally into the European backgrounds among which the picture was actually filmed.