RIALTO AND REGENT, EPSOM

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 14

RIALTO AND REGENT, EPSOM

“FAUST” Hans Kyser, who wrote the scenario of “Faust,” has gone back to the very sources to which Goethe turned when he wrote his poetical drama: and while the author of the film story follows the original drama in many essential points—for instance, the wonderfully dramatic story of Marguerite’s love adventure, his version deviates in many respects from that of the great classical poet.

In the U.F.A. production, Lr. Faust does not sign away to the powers of damnation his immortal soul because of an indomitable greed for power, or because of a scientist’s burning desire to arrive at the end of all things in the universe. He is tempted by the powers of darkness, just at the moment when he is in despair over the sufferings of his plague-ridden fellowmen, and his own impotence as a physician to put an end to the black terror that is around him.

This and other incidents in the film version, differ somewhat from the common interpretation usually associated with this ancient traditipn. Supporting Emil Tannings in the super-production which Cinema Art Films Ltd. is releasing, are Camilla Horn, a screen “find” of the director, F. W. Murnau, who made “The Last Laugh,” Gosta Ekman, Sweden’s greatest actor, and Y'vette Guilbert, the distinguished French diseuse.