STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 407, 16 July 1928, Page 14

STRAND

“ANNA KARENINA” “Anna Karenina,” starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, a great picture from the pen of a great writer. Count Tolstoy, is now being screened at the Strand Theatre, where on Friday evening it opened to an enthusiastic and delighted audience of many hundreds. Edmund Goulding, 'dramatist ancf screen director, scores a distinct triumph in his direction of the Russian masterpiece, and the cast is well-nigh pelling figure as the stern old Grand Duke, and Brandon Hurst is a sometimes sinister but always interesting character as Count Karenina. Emily Fitzroy’s characterisation of Countess Betsey leaves nothing to be desired. Little Philippe De Lacy plays the heroine’s son in a -well-balanced performance. Court functions, military manoeuvres, the snow scenes, and other brilliant details embellish the huge production, one of the most lavish screen plays the present season has seen. A brilliant Russian dance prologue, “The Coppelia Ballet”—perhaps the most, colourful and beautiful of all Russian ballets—introduces the picture. The story is taken from “Tales of Hoffman,” by Offenbach, and the music is writen by Delibes. All the emotions human nature is capable of are expressed by “the poetry of dancing” in this ballet, to the accompaniment of perfect orchestral music by Eve Bentley’s Strand Symphony Orchestra. An orchestral programme that has captured the intense beauty and romance of “Anna Karenina,” is played by the Strand Symphony Orchestra. A merry comedy, “Rainy Days,” with that clever little band of juvenile actors, “Our Gang,” “Thrills in Many Lands,” and a Strand Magazine are included in the programme. !