THE GRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 107, 27 July 1927, Page 14

THE GRAND

THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG The fascinating story of John Lee known as "The Alan • They Could Not Hang,” comes to the Grand Theatre on Friday. The big picture makes a powerful drama and the theme is original and gripping. In 1884 a woman named Emma Whitehead Keyse was found murdered in her cottage at Babbacombe, a suburb of Torquay, in the South of England. Xo money or plate was missing, and the motive for the crime was unknown. A young man, John Lee, who was in the woman’s employ, was arrested for the crime, and after a sensational trial which aroused intense interest throughout Great Britain, he was sentenced at Exeter Court to be hanged. On February 23. Lee stepped on to the scaffold to meet a murderer’s fate and three times the trap, through which he was to drop into eternity, failed. According to British law he could not be placed on the scaffold again. Thus was Lee saved from the gallows, but the authorities decided that he should serve 20 years’ imprisonment for a crime of which ha still protested his innocence. After serving his term, Lee became a highly-respected citizen, and it is said that he is still living in England. There were many peculiar circumstances about the case. “DANCING DAYS” PRINCESS AND TIVOLI TO-MORROW One of the most realistic and spectacular automobile crashes ever filmed furnishes one of the big thrills in "Dancing Days,” a Preferred Picture presented by J. G. Bachmann and based on the widely popular novel by J. J. Bell. This film will be the feature attraction at the Princess and Tivoli, commencing to-mororw. The scene supplies one of the absorbing climaxes in the film which deals with the ancient triangle in an entirely new light. There is no popularly patterned vamp in the picture. A cast of unusual interest portrays the principal roles, its players including in addition to Miss Chadwick and Mr. Stanley, Lillian Rich, Robert Agnew, Gloria Gordon, Thomas Ricketts and Sylvia Ashton. The picture is the work of a newly arrived director, Albert J. Kelly, formerly assistant to Cecil De Mille. Matheson Lang, the hero of “The Island of Despair.” the new British film which will also be shown at the Princess and Tivoli on Thursday, is the star of .many fine British productions. notably “Mr. Wu,” "The Qualified Adventurer,” “White Slippers” and "The Chinese Bungalow.” In “The Island of Despair” he plays the character of a sea captain who desert 3in the hour of her greatest need the woman he has grown to love. Why he does so this capital story of the sea reveals in a series of stirring scenes. PARISIAN DANCE CLUB RETURNING TO ARTS HALL Patrons will be pleased to learr. that the popular dances held under the auspices of this club will be again held in the Society of Arts Hall, Kitchener Street. On Saturday the re-opening night will be celebrated by a Parisian Carnival, with appropriate scenery anc special innovations. The P ings will be enlivened by the irresistible and syncopated music of the Boston Dance Orchestra under the leadership of Air. Roy Matson.