MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 17

MAJESTIC

“HIS LADY”-TO-MORROW • To-night the big Laughter . Programme, headed by Syd Chaplin's greatest comedy, “The Missing Link,” now # being screened at the Majestic Thea'tre, will have its last presentation at that theatre, for to-morrow a big event in the history of the Majestic will take place. Screened for the first time in New Zealand will be an immortal photo-play of romantic drama, produced on a scale .of unparalleled magnificence, with the greatest cast of stars ever assembled for a. single production. There have been many fine pictures presented at the Majestic, but no picture so lavishly praised by the critics of many countries as “His Lady,” has ever before been seen in Auckland. Even without its absorbing story, Warner Brothers* production of “His Lady,” starring John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, would be a great picture because of its sheer pictorial beauty. Besides its many appeals to the imagination, it is an everchanging delight to the eye. No expense was spared in the erection of the gigantic settings, perfect and realistic in every detail. The costumes of a naturally colourful and decorative period are of unparalleled magnificence and variety. The photography of these by the master who filmed “The Sea Beast” and the famous “Don Juan” accentuates them and suffuses them with a romantic glamour which enchants the mind and gives the spectator the illusion of utter reality. “His Lady” has as its setting the gay and dissolute Paris of Louis XV., when love and the chases were the chief occupations of the few and dire poverty the lot of the many. Never has Barrymore essayed a story of more power and appeal than this one, and Dolores Costello, the adorable heroine of “The Sea Beast,” has. arisen to even greater dramatic heights. Of special interest on the supporting programme this week will be the film of “New Zealand News and Views,” with scenes of the grand fireworks display held recently at Alexandra Park, the Australian athletes at Wellington, Maori sports at Rotorua on New Year’s Day, Rotorua motorists’ camp, the summer racing meeting at Ellerslie, Rapier racing for the Auckland Cup, and last, but' not least, scenes of the beautiful Fairy Springs at Rotorua. A highly diverting comedy concludes the pictorial programme. This week’s musical programme has every promise of being of the high standard generally provided by Mr. Whiteford-Waugh’s famous Majestic Orchestra. The orchestra will render as the overture, “The Belle of New York,” which has been specially requested by one of Auckland’s many Among the many musical gems rendered in the incidental music will be “Viennese Melody” (Kriesler), “Nocture” (Karganoff), “Melodious Memories” (Finck), “Serenade” (Schubert), “Song of the Rhine Daughters” (Wagner), “Musical Gems” (Tschaikowsky), and a “Midsummer Night Suite,” by Mendelssohn. Another musical attraction will be a panatrope exhibition of Mr. Ernest McKinlay, the well-known Dunedin tenor, singing “Waiata Poi.”