TIVOLI AND EVERYBODY’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 77, 22 June 1927, Page 15

TIVOLI AND EVERYBODY’S

“SORROWS OF SATAN” What were the sorrows of Satan? The popular conception of Satan has usually been that of a sinister individual who derived great pleasure frjm the work of conducting a subterranean rotisserie. 'Worries, cares and sadness have always been foreign to his supposed make-up. Marie Corelli gave him a new description in "Sorrows of Satan." She decided that to be effective, temptation must be attractive. So she made Satan a tall, powerful, graceful, polished man of the world. Unlimited wealth was at his disposal. Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a prince with a mysterious realm somewhere, who knew everybody worth knowing, but about whom little was known. He moved in the highest social circles. Paris, .London, Berlin, Moscow were all familiar to him. Some say Miss Corelli chose the title because it was effective and sensational. Others insist she wanted to be different and vindicate the reputation of a personage badly in need of it. Anyway, the author produced one of the world’s best sellers.. She chose to emphasise the ancient idea that Satan was a fallen angel. Throughout, when he pursues his occupation of putting temptation before weak characters he is saddened by success. It delays the time when he can return to the angelic state. Those are his sorrows! The central characters are tl.e Prince. Mavis Claire, a novelist, supposed to be Marie Corelli's idealisation of herself; Geoffrey Tempest, a young writer, and Lady Sybil. Adolphe Menjou as Satan,. Ricardo Cortez, Carol Dempster and Lya de Putti are featured in this D. W. Griffith second Paramount production, "Sorrows of Satan," which comes to the Tivoli and Everybody’s Theatre to-morrow.