STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 534, 11 December 1928, Page 17

STRAND

“THE DOVE With another' excellent programme of balanced pictorial items, music and stage prologue, the Strand Theatre is maintaining its reputation for highclass entertainment. The musical side of the programme is particularly good this week, commencing with an overture by the Strand Symphony Orchestra under Eve Bentley, followed by “Vanite," a saxophone solo. Irt the musical prologue Miss Mary Cofield, soprano, sings “My Heart's Desire’’ (Coningsley Clark). Among the smaller but no less interesting pictures there is an Aesop Cartoon. a Strand Magazine, and a great air travelogue, “40,000 Miles with Lindbergh.” Then comes the main pictorial attraction, “The Dove.” A cabaret in a colourful South American republic, a gorgeous dancing girl, a bragging bully, and a romantic Romeo are the main ingredients in “The Dove,” which is Norma Talmadge's greatest success to date. Site appears as a dancing girl, who earns the title of “The Dove”- because of her quiet gracefulness. She is loved by Johnny Powell, a young American gambler, played by Gilbert Roland. But Senor Don Jose Maria y Sandoval, as wealthy as he is egotistic, and styling himself “the best damn caballero in all Costa Roja,” is also violently smitten. He rules Costa Roja with a rod of iron, and to get Powell cut of the way he has hint thrown into prison. Midnight duels, bribery and intrigue follow, and the ending is as unusual and dramatic as one expects from a Norma Talmadge picture. Noah Beery gives a wonderful characterisation of the cabalerro. Sympathy musical accompaniment is accorded by Eve Bentley’s orchestra.