MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 353, 14 May 1928, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“THE BLOOD SHIP” Another excellent programme, combining the best in pictures, music and stage attractions, is being offered to Auckland picturegoers at the Majestic Theatre this week. The principal attraction, “The Blood Ship,” has captured all the vivid romance of the sea, when windjammers were in their glory. Hobart Bosworth is starred with Jacquelin Logan and Richard Arlen. It is one of the most satisfying films that has been seen for some time. Real action, perfect characterisation and wonderful photography make this an outstanding production. The story, with its background of elemental passions run riot, holds the interest from the very start. Its deft handling by the director. George B. Seitz, enhances the sheer power of the plot, and develops every bit of value in the continuity. That a good comedy contributes much to the enjoyment of an evening’s entertainment is eloquently proved at each screening of “The Battle of the Century,” starring “the disciples of mirth,” Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In “The Battle of the Century” Laurel plays an unsuccessful pugilist and Hardy his ambitious but unlucky manager. It is replete with fun and thrills and has a climax which is guaranteed one of the most amusing yet screened. Another very popular item on the programme is the New Zealand scenic, “Christchurch;” “the Cathedral City of New Zealand,” showing scenes of the banks of the Avon, the busy city’s thoroughfares and the famous “Bridge of Remembrance.” An interesting Majestic Magazine, with scenes of a British fair at Birmingham and H.M. British Industrial Fair, the launching of the H.M.S. Sussex, sledging at St. Moritz, a wreck on the Cornish Coast and the Eton College Steeplechase, together with an amusing Aesop Fable cartoon, concludes the pictorial programme. Meanwhile the musical side of the programme has not been forgotten, and Mr. Whiteford-Waugh, the popular conductor, and his Majestic Orchestra, present an incomparable musical programme. ln addition to the special orchestral score, these talented musicians play “The Flying Dutchman” (Wagner) as their musical interlude. A very effective stage prologue is staged by the renowned Majestic Quartet. Against an enchanting seascape background, the quartet render in their own inimitable way, several sea shanties.