Round the Shows

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 338, 25 April 1928, Page 14

Round the Shows

EDENDALE

“PAJAMAS” ‘‘Pajamas,” starring Olive Borden, is the principal picture to be shown at the Edendale Theatre to-night. Miss Borden is cast as the daughter of a New York millionaire. She is wilful and vivacious, paying little heed to her father’s admonitions, until Johr Weston appears upon the scene. Weston (Lawrence Gray) has come to the Wade home to discuss a Canadian business transaction with Angela Wade’s father. In a series of exciting and amusing situations in the Wade home, Weston gives Angela and her apathetic sweetheart (Jerry Mi ley) a tongue-lashing Angela, seeking revenge, disguises herself as an air pilot and starts for Canada with Weston This leads to dramatic episodes which imprison them in the Rockies and bring, about a anrnrisine- 1

auuuu <x surprising climax when a rescue party invades the mountains. The second feature on the programme is “What Every Girl Should Know,” starring Patsy Ruth Miller.

EVERYBODY’S

“THE KING OF KINGS” The reproduction of the Hill of Calvary for Cecil B. de Mille’s ‘‘The King of Kings,” now being shown at Everybody’s Theatre, and the convulsion of nature that coincided with the death of Jesus, constituted an enterprise needing skill. Calvary, or Golgotha, was, a bare hill outside the walls of Jerusalem, the word Golgotha meaning “the place of a skull.” On this execution hill, seen far and wide by the assembling throngs, the crosses of condemned prisoners were set up. Prom the top of Golgotha the towers and turrets of Zion can be seen across the intervening valley. Looking the other way, the ascent to the summit is difficult, ravine-streaked, and cluttered with boulders. Thousands of people of all kinds, perched on the rocks or found footing in the crannies to see the sentences carried out. When the earthquake shook and rent the hill and the hurricane and lightning broke out of a darkened sky, the panic-stricken spectators fled in every direction. No expense or trouble has been spared to ensure a suitable musical accompaniment for this picture. The special symphony orchestra is under the baton of Mr. Howard Moody.

“VERY CONFIDENTIAL”

COMING TO MAJESTIC A thrilling automobile race, staged in the mountains, and photographed under all the hazards of professional racing, is one of the numerous dramatic sequences in Madge Bellamy’s “Very Confidential,” showing at the Majestic Friday week. In order to add realism to the production the director used striped racing cars, capable of 115 miles an hour. Miss Bellamy, piloting one of these roaring speed buggies along the Rim-of-the-World drive in the San Bernardino Range of Southern California, declares she has never had a greater thrill. She also has a hair-raising motor-boat dash in which she upsets the craft and finds herself floundering in the icy waters of Lake Arrowhead. There are many comedy situations, and the story is well-knit throughout. The supporting cast includes Rat Cunning, . Mary Duncan, Joseph Cawthorn and Marjorie Beebe.

“West Point,” William Haines’s newMetro - Goldwyn - Mayer picture, will be shown shortly. This story is a vivid romance of life at West Point, with William Haines in the role of a cadet, and Joan Crawford, who played opposite Haines in “Spring Fever,” is the heroine. Much of the new play was actually filmed at West Point, with the entire cadet corps participating in the film.

NATIONAL AND LYRIC

BIG PROGRAMME TO-NIGHT Sparkling with the modernism of the younger generation and tugging at the heartstrings with its poignant romance, “The Lovelorn,” the new picture which will be shown to-night at the Lyric Theatre, bases its appeal on its intense humanness and faithful portrayal of the workings of youthful minds and hearts. The unusual story is an intensely human one abounding in romance, humour and heart-throbs. It concerns the lives of two sisters —one of the ultra-flapper type, whose jazzy attitude toward life worries the other more serious-minded elder sister. Seeking a solution to her troubles, the older girl writes to Beatrice Fairfax, a writer of the San Francisco “Examiner,” who in turn advises both girls how to solve their love problems. The second feature on the programme is “Sharp Shooters,” starring George O’Brien and Lois Moran, in a story of American sailormen in the Orient. The story has a picturesque background of Morocco, New York and the United States Navy, enhanced by the sweetness of Miss Moran, as a nautch girl, in a foreign cafe and the subtle comedy of O’Brien as the hardened sailor. O’Brien, who has proved himself a comedian as well as a master of the serious drama, has again risen to the heights of comedy as the handsome, devil-may-care bailor. This is the second picture in which Mr. O’Brien has handled the portrayal of a sailor with humour and feeling. These feature films form one of the strongest programmes yet presented at the National and Lyric Theatres.

GRAND

LON CHANEY’S LAST NIGHT Lon Chaney in "London After Mid- i night,” will be shown for the last I time to-night at the Grand Theatre. \ A strange old haunted castle in England, over which hang sinister leg- ; ends of long ago and astounding vampire superstitions, still believed in by many—particularly the peasant class — concerning the “un-dead” which haunt graveyards and wander, between life and death, as malevolent avengers—these form the background of this weird and powerful story. Chaney plays a role different from any in his career, for instead of his usual sinister character he appears as a Scotland Tard detective, who, with a scientific trend, utilises hypnotism as a weapon against ghosts and ap- | paritions in the haunted manor.

ROYAL, KINGSLAND

“COLLEEN” Madge Bellamy plays the role of a demure and lovely Irish lassie in “Colleen,” the picture now being shown at the Royal Theatre, Kingsland. The story of “Colleen” deals with an impoverished Irish Lord, his son, plaved by Charles Morton, their wealthy neighbours, the O’Flynns, the father played by J. Farrell Macdonald, and the daughter by Miss Bellamy. There is a great deal of humour in this picture in the scenes between the two irrascible fathers of the young people and Miss Bellamy’s and Mr. Morton's love making under difficulties. “Colleen” is the name of the racehorse with which the Kellys expect to recoup their fortunes in America, where they come, followed by the O’Flynns, who follow them to enter their own horse against “Colleen” after a quarrel between the two families. Ted McNamara, Sammy Cohen, Marjorie Beebe, Sarah Padden and Tom Maguire are all in the cast.

Greta Garbo, famous Swedish screen beauty, has her greatest emotional role as the unfaithful wife in “Flesh and the Devil,” a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer special production, which will be released shortly. John Gilbert and Lars Hanson are also featured in this picture, which is literally taking the world by storm.