STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 559, 11 January 1929, Page 14

STRAND

“TEMPEST” PREMIERE “Tempest;” the John Barrymore screen masterpiece that New York, acclaimed, will bring America’s most distinguished actor to the Strand Theatre this evening, in a romance of Russia’s revolution, Camilla Horn and Louis Wolheim appearing in chief support.

The “New York World” thought “Tempest” “the finest, most genuine motion picture John Barrymore ever made,” and “one of the most glowing film dramas which have come out of the West.” John Barrymore appears in his first modern story in „ five years in “Tempest, for the action of the picture begins in 1914, and concludes in 1919. Camilla Morn, the German actress, who was brought to America by Joseph M. Schenck, appears as the Princess Tamara, beloved by Barrymore, a peasant officer. Miss Horn was the Marguerite to Emil Jannings’s Mephisto in “Faust,” made by F. W. Murnau for U.F.A. in Germany. In “Tempest” she makes her American film debut. Louis Wolheim has a prominent part in “Tempest,” so that comedy is assured. Indeed, in many scenes John Barrymore himself reverts to a comic talent revealed in earlier films. George Fawcett, Boris de Fas, Ullrich Haupt, and Michael Visaroff likewise are prominent in the cast. Sam Taylor, director of Mary Pickford’s “My Best Girl,” was director of “Tempest,” which is based on an original screen story. John W. Considine, jnn., supervised the entire production. Charles Kosher, Mary Pickford’s cameraman, was loaned to the Barrymore unit for camera work on “Tempest,” and his photography has been described as the most beautiful camera work in the history of America’s films. The high-lights of “Tempest” are scenes of passionate fury between a princess of the blood and a peasant, between royalists and revolutionists, betw-een generals and pedlars, and love scenes so convincing that the “New York Telegram” calls the picture “the answer to the modern movie maiden s prayer.” A beautiful stage prologue has been arranged for this evening’s programme, with Miss Stuart, contralto, as the soloist. The supporting items include a Strand Magazine and comedy. An excellent musical accompaniment has been arranged by Miss Eve Bentley for her Strand Symphony Orchestra. Paris went crazy with excitement over the M.G.M. movie-tone in “White Shadows in the South Seas,” which opened recently at the Madeleine Cinema. The reception accorded the picture has never been equalled in the history of the French capital.