LYRIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 490, 20 October 1928, Page 14

LYRIC

“THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO” Tlio public never outgrows its liking for melodrama when it is real melodrama, and “The Girl from Chicago,” shown last evening at the Lyric Theatre is just that. While it is made up of a thousand thrills it has a background of human affection and daring and danger gone through for a purpose. *- Mary Carlton leaves her Southern home and her before-the-war-time father to conic to the city to free her brother from the clutches of the gang which has placed him in danger of execution. Keen, impelled by her great love, Mary enters the underworld, becoming known as “Molly, the Gal from Chi.” Here she meets and is loved by two men, both of whom sho beileves to be crooks. One is dapper and well-fav-oured. Handsome Joe they call him. The other is Big Steve Drummond, who is in reality what Molly believes him to be. Characters of the city surge about Molly, and the pathetically weak figure of the brother whose life is. at stake. The old father, back in Dixie, must be kept in the dark as to his son’s distress, and the boy must be free. After many hair-raising adventures Molly accomplishes all she set out to do, winning incidentally the heart of the dapper gentleman, who. is not a crook after all.

Myrna Loy gives a marvellous characterisation. Conrad Nagel, who for a large part of the play is in the guise of a bad man—plays with his unfailing rhanlihess and power, and William Russell, as Big Steve, is masterful. Tihi McCoy, the great outdoor star, provides the maximum of thrills, romance and adventure in “Riders of the Dark,” which was also shown. It is a story of one soldier against a gang of lawbreakers, with Dorothy Dwan as the beautiful girl in the case.