STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 431, 13 August 1928, Page 14

STRAND

SUCCESS OF MARY PICKFORD That the popularity of Mary Pickford, eloquently and aptly described as “the World’s Sweetheart,” has not waned during her long absence from the screen, was amply shown both on Friday and Saturday, when the Strand Theatre was packed to the doors by delighted and enthusiastic picturegoers, viewing “My Best Girl.” In her new picture Mary Pickford plays the role of Maggie, a little shop girl in a cheap store. Mr. Merrill, the owner of the store, decides that his son Joe should learn the business from the bottom and starts him in a lowly position under an assumed name. In a very short time Joe and Mary fall madly in love, although Mary is not aware of Joe’s real identity. To please his mother, Joe has become engaged to a wealthy girl of the Merrill’s social set, a girl for whom he has plenty of affection but little real love. Joe’s father is not in favour of the engagement, but conforms to his wife’s wishes in the matter, while Joe himself begins to realise that he cares more for Maggie than for his fiancee. Mrs. Merrill plans a surprise dinner at a fashionable cafe to announce the engagement, but Joe, now wholly in love with Maggie, fails to attend, bringing Maggie to his own home for dinner instead. “The Tiny Tots in Movieland,” a miniature revue produced and devised by Mile. Valeska, is another treat. Over thirty-five talented little players appear in this remarkably clever stage novelty, each of them representing a popular screen artist. A grand finale to the revue is “The Wedding of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.” There is nothing quite so dear to the heart of a child—and that includes the grown-up children, too—as a good circus. And with that fact to work on, the genius responsible for the never-ending fascinatons of the “Our Gang” comedies has produced “Barnum and Ringling,” the rascals latest gloom-chaser. Never in all your career have you seen anything like the circus staged by “Our Gang” in this hilarious comedy of childhood days. To relate the story, would be to spoil the pleasant anticipation with which everyone looks forward to these comedies.

Eve Bentley’s Strand Symphony Orchestra plays delightfully “Children’s Overture,” by Roger Quilter, and provides a special orchestral programme to accompany the picture.