PRINCESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 244, 5 January 1928, Page 15

PRINCESS

“ROSE OF THE GOLDEN WEST”

The most romantic era in the history of this continent —the nearest approach to the golden mediaeval days of gallantry—is to be found in the period when Spain ruled California. It is in this colourful span of years that “Rose of the Golden West,” the George Fitzmaurice-First National production is based, and the gay and colourful atmosphere of the time has been fathfully reproduced in the spectacular picture, which will be shown at the Princess Theatre to-night. Spanish dons, nobility equal to the barons and dukes and earls of Europe, ruled the land. Tlieir kingdoms were the enormous land grants given by the Spanish Crown to those who had distinguished themselves by some means in the conquest of the New World. The Spanish dons of that era, however, were not a thrifty lot. They loved luxury and ease and merrymaking. They could not be concerned with work—even with making their menials work. Consequently large sections of these enormous grants remained idle, while only a comparatively small area was farmed. To live they sold the grants, a section at a time, to the Americans. The result of this was the gradual decay of the early nobility and the slow but constant rise of a new leading class. The basis of many tremendous fortunes of the West were started at this period, and many of the most prominent Californian families of today trace the beginning of their fortune to some thrifty emigrant anct s tor who came west and acquired the enormous tracts of land originally acid by the favoured subjects of the Spanish Crown. “Rose of the Golden West” deals in romantic and spectacular fashion with the colourful age when the powerful Spanish dons held sway in California Mary Astor and Gilbert Roland play the featured roles in the picture, with a supporting cast headed by Gustav von Seyffertitz, Montagu Love, Flora Finch i and others.