PLAZA AND TIVOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 499, 31 October 1928, Page 16

PLAZA AND TIVOLI

“THE COSSACKS” TO-MORROW This evening will mark the final presentation at the Plaza and Tivoli Theatres of -Hard-boiled Haggerty. . !ril p aviation story, with MilJ ’stns and Of “Laugh Trouble,’ S latest comedy. -The Cosssacks” will be shown at these theatres to-morrow. This is a vivid drama of the Russian steppes with John Gilbert in the leading role nf a young Cossack soldier. Gilbert who plays the role of Lukashka, son 'of Ivan the Cossack chief, is a coward, scorned by the soldiers and despised by the women, who know only the virtues of war and brutalised lives. His sentimentality and courtesy are interpreted as evidence of femininity, but whereas he is a coward in manhood, it is because his early love of beauty stimulated a complex of fear and hatred of the ordinary associations of his life. Maryana, a vigorous peasant girl, loves him in spite of the scorn her mother pours upon her. But one day, when Lukashka hesitates to save an old man from wildly galloping horses, she turns away from him in disgust. Cossacks who have witnessed his cowardly action dress him in women’s clothing and drive him through the village in public shame, pelting him with refuse. His father, who treats his mother and dumb daughter brutally to relieve his feelings at having such a cowardly son, waits for Lukashka to reach the house, intending to whip him. The youth, raging under the shameful treatment, appeals to Maryana to release his hands. She slaps his face. But when he reaches home, Lukashka suddenly turns on his father and beats him, to that worthy’s mixed pain and joy. Renee Adoree plays the heroine* and Ernest Torrence* Neil Neely, Mary Alden, Dale Fuller, Paul Hurst, Yorke Sherwood, Joseph Mari, and others of note are in the cast.

‘‘Thanks for the Buggy Ride,” a merry comedy based on the old song, will be the second feature. Laura la Plante has the leading role, and is supported by Glen Tryon.