GRAND SHOWS “FAZIL"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 16

GRAND SHOWS “FAZIL"

Charles Farrell has a totally different type of characterisation in the title role of “Fazil,” now at the Grand Theatre.

In this production, Farrell, cofeatured with Greta Nissen, portrays a man of great self-will, but it is quite distinct from the cocksure confidence of Chico in “Seventh Heaven.” The self-assurance of Chico was the ingenuous and infectious conceit of a lowly sewer workman, who believed that some day he would reach the heights. The masterfulness of Fazil is the inflexible assurance of the man who has arrived, the superb arrogance of a prince. For Farrell typifies a Sheik of the desert, a leader of his people whose family has “belonged” for centuries, and who is constantly, but not annoyingly aware of the fact. The intensity of his personality is heightened by the immutable traditions of his race in which he is steeped. At the same time he has a youthful impetuousity. He woos a French girl in a headlong courtship. He is a strange and arresting combination of boy and man.. In this screen adaption of Pierre’ Frondaie’s play, “L’lnsoumise,” he is made the motivating force for a dramatic struggle between the convictions of east and west. He moves through Venice, where he captures the first woman who has ever moved his hear£; through Paris, where he takes her on his honeymoon, and through Arabia, where the conflict that inevitably ferments between them moves to its end. Greta Nissen portrays the part of the pleasure-seeking Parisian girl. The Grand Theatre will be closed from Monday until Friday of next week for the installation of a talkie equipment.