“THE CRYSTAL CUP”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 12

“THE CRYSTAL CUP”

COMING TO AUCKLAND SHORTLY Jack Mulhall and Dorothy Mackaill are again co-featured in First National’s tine picturisation of Gertrude Atherton’s clever novel, “The Crystal Cup,” and prove their versatility in this departure from the usual comedy vehicles they appear in. Each has a tensely dramatic role, Mulhall as a young physician who succeeds in overcoming the prejudices of the girl, who, having undergone an unfortunate experience in early youth, is brought to loathe men, and to escape their attentions. makes herself as masculine as possible. A very unusual and dramatic plot, probing the inmost secrets of a fastidious girl’s nature, and fine production values makes this one of the most outstanding pictures of the year. A very tense drama with some lighter moments to brighten the plot, and leading up to a most unexpected climax, a production that calls for some clever work on the part of the principals and the supporting cast, which includes Rockliffe Fellowes, Jane Winton, Edythe Chapman and others. A daring expose of a subject that should interest all adults. Dorothy MacKaill as the very athletic girl is ideally suited to the difficult role. “THE ADORABLE OUTCAST" VERSATILE NORMAN DAWN "The adorable Outcast” proves Norman Dawn’s versatility in a convincing and thoroughly complete manner. In two productions he jumped from a period picture centring rotmd 1840, to modern life in the Fiji Islands. “For the Term of His Natural Life” gave him ample opportunity to express his flair for the spectacular and his power of understanding a novel that is so distinctly Australian, thus requiring an Australian method of treatment. That he obtained that Australian atmosphere is now a known fact. But the adaptation of Beatrice Grimshaw’s famous novel, “Conn of the Coral Seas” requires a different kind of treatment, and ever emphasising the power of actual settings, the entire company was shipped to Suva, where in gorgeous tropical settings, all the exteriors were made. There in the silvery curve of tropical beaches, the humid breathlessness of inland swamps and limpid clearness of jungle-matted creeks, some of the most beautiful scenes ever shot by a movie cameraman were made.

Tom Elliott, amateur heavyweight champion of the West, who recently knocked out the national champion, plays a football player in “Pigskin,” directed by David Butler for Fox Films, and prefers pictures as a business. Elliott recently turned down an offer of £ 6,000 to sign with a Pacific Coast manager as a professional boxer.