Round the Shows

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 459, 14 September 1928, Page 14

Round the Shows

STRAND “SUNRISE” If ever a picture was built to occupy an evening to the exclusion of everything else that picture is ‘‘Sunrise,” the William Fox production which is now showing at the Strand Theatre. Selecting a theme from one of the novels of Herman Sudermann, F. W. Murnau, the director, has told in his inimitable fashion a simple story which he calls “the song of two humans.” Striking a tragic note for. his opening, the director proceeds to play upon the emotions of his audience, increasing the tempo, gradually at first and then faster, as the hearts of his characters grow lighter, suddenly indulging in an orgy of gaiety, and winding up in a delightful ending. _ With a breath-taking sweep “Sunrise” swings from a scene wherein a man is on the point of murdering his wife, to another scene of carefree joy in which the same couple are convulsed at the spectacle of a drunkei pig in an amusement park. Just as amazingly—and logically—it swings back again, rushing to *a climax of remarkable feeling and power.

The age-old triangle situation —a peasant, his wife and a city woman—is here set forth once more, but with a touch that renders it all quite new and which makes “Sunrise” the outstanding picture of the year. In all of his scenes Mr. Murnau has studiously avoided suggesting any particular locality. His theme is universal and the events of his picture might happen anywhere. Prior to the screening of “Sunrise” a special stage prologue is presented, and a special musical score is played by the Strand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Miss Eye Bentley.