STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 126, 18 August 1927, Page 17

STRAND

NEW REVUE PROGRAMME Only to-night to see the last performance of the Bon Bon Revue’s second brilliant programme, entitled “Helter Skelter.” To-night is also the final screening of H. G. Wells’s popular novel, “Marriage,” starring Virginia Valli. This great writer tears aside the veil of marriage, showing it in its most civilised and its most primitive states. Owing to the tremendous success of the Bon Bon Revue Company, the management has arranged for a third wonderful week, commencing tomorrow. An entirely new programme will be shown, and as last week’s was better than the first, so the third promises to be better than the second. Comedy will be the keynote, and there will be delightful dancing and musical turns as well as brilliant sketches and colourful ensembles. “Liquid diamonds” occupied an important place during the production of Women Love Diamonds,” Metro - Goldwyn-Mayer’s sensational new drama of modern society, coming tomorrow to the Strand Theatre. Perfumes valued at more than £6O0 — some of them so rare that a tiny bottle was worth a fabulous sum, were used to grace the boudoir of Pauline Starke who enacts the role of a social butterfly, in the new production. The story is from the merciless and brilliant pen of Edmund Goulding, who also directed it. It is a vivid and compelling drama. The cast is a notable one, including Miss Starke and Owen Moore in the leading roles, Douglas Fairbanks, Jnr.. Lionel Barrymore and others of note. Among the famous players are Gwen Lee, George Cooper, Cissy Fitzgerald, Dorothy Phillips and other equally well-known. Spectacular scenes in fashionable apartments, in the estates of millionaires, and other elaborate detail mark the production; gorgeous costumes, jewellery and reproductions of many of the pet fads of society to-day are used as embellishments for a powerful narrative that lays bare human souls. Goulding, the author, is famous for his portrayal of modern life in sophisticated drama of which this is an example. Among his stage successes are “Dancing Mothers,” a notable hit of the season. Incidentally Constance Howard, star of this production on the stage, plays an important role in “Women Love Diamonds.” Among the most elaborate scenes are those in the estate of the millionaire, a beautiful example of modern landscape- rdf nine.