PRINCESS AND TIVOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 280, 16 February 1928, Page 17

PRINCESS AND TIVOLI

“THE LIFE OF RILEY” “The Life of Riley,” a First National comedy, to be shown at the Princess and Tivoli Theatres to-night, is described as one of the most hilarious of the year. E. M. Asher produced the film for First National Pictures, and William Beaudine directed it. Splendid comedy characterisations are provided for George Sidney and Charlie Murray as police chief and fire chief! respectively, of a small town. Myrtle Stedman enacts the role of a charming widow to whom they both pay court; Stephen Carr and June Marlowe carry on a pretty junior rorance; Sam Hardy is a picturesque sharper and villain and Edwards Davis has an excellent supporting part. Myrtle Stedman is the prize for which the two famous comedians and the official villain, Sam Hardy, strive, and another interesting role is enacted by Edward Davis. The picture has a riot of background colour which includes parades, circus, carnivals, fires and other “big events” in its small town locale. Seldom have there been screened such scenes of royal splendour as. some of those seen in the film version of “The Prince of Pilsen,” featuring Anita Stewart and George Sidney, which will also be shown. The sequences laid in the throne room of Thorwald Castle, picturing a royal marriage, between Myrtle Stedman, as the Princess Bertha, and George Sidney, as the pseudo Prince of Pilsen, are especially lavish, even in these days of elaborate motion pictures. The gigantic setting was filled with court dignitaries, palace guards in their striking military costumes, and guests from neighbouring principalities. There was also a display of strikingly fantastic gowns, and then an ecclesiastical procession headed by an archbishop of the church, immediately preceding the entrance of the bride, flanked by bridesmaids with flowing trains of. pearls.