STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 15

STRAND

FROM COTTON TO SILK Vivacious little Bertha had her own ideas about life, and although born to cotton, she was determined to progress, through as few stages as possible, to silk. A bold ambition this, but, being in the pictures, it was realised, and then only after encounters with brutal, preying, employers; arguments with uncomprehending parents; and, most difficult of all, strife with a sturdy and seemingly unimaginative beloved. As a lingerie display alone, “Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl,” has interest, but the good patrons who rallied at the Strand Theatre yesterday were rewarded also with a screen play which, in spite of absent subtlety, had sound homely qualities, enough to make it attractive. Possibly a girl’s ambition to rise from cotton to silk has been used as a theme for film drama, but then, of course, Aristotle’s absurd restrictions make this inevitable. But to desert pale aesthetics for vivid realities, let us come to Bertha again. The dear winsome little Saul grew tired of the sewing machine life, and decided that the yearning of her ambitious Saul would be partially appeased if she became a mannequin in an A grade lingerie store. The “push” that faith in destiny gave her got her the job, but soon she was beset by the ogling eyes of her libidinous employers. The junior shipping clerk in the store preached at her, but she scorned his words, having her mind set only on the realisation of her dreams. The most scoundrelly employer of all lays a trap for her, and Bertha, poor lamb, steps blithely into it, and is saved only after a long, exciting chase, by the shipping clerk, who is really the owner of the business. Then, of course, the marriage bells tinkle. Madge Bellamy plays the engaging part of the sewing machine girl. In “The Exquisite Sinner,” Conrad appears as a pampered young Frenchman, who refuses to become the inheritor and director of a great industry. No! It was the great broad way, and the vagrant life, that appealed most to him. By feigning madness he obtained the freedom he yearned for. and incidentally found that the love of a gipsy girl was the only thing for him. Renee Adoree made that appear to be a reasonable enough decision. A Gazette, and good music, round off the programme.