CAPITOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 192, 3 November 1927, Page 18

CAPITOL

“HIS NATURAL LIFE” Excellent entertainment is the Capitol Theatre in Norman Dawn’s production of “For the Term of His Natural Life.” The picture possesses many spectacular thrills. The big riot scene, where the convicts overpower their warders, is realistically done, as is also the burning and blowing up of the powder ship Hydaspes, which catches fire on its way out from England with a load of convicts for the prison settlement at Port Arthur, Tasmania. The numerous escapes of Rufus Dawes and other prisoners add plenty of daring adventure and tingling suspense. Interesting, indeed, are some of the scenes of the prisoners working in chain gangs. Long rows of “human ploughs” are seen, with convicts harnessed to the yokes of the ploughs like bullocks to a timber train, forced to drag the heavy tilling instruments and turn the earth for the sower’s seed. There :s not one single detail in the whole book that has lost any of its significance in its translation to the screen, for all the characters have been recreated with astounding reality. “The Auctioneer,” starring Marion Nixon and George Sydney, is also being shown at the Capitol Theatre.