“THE SACRED FLAME”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 936, 1 April 1930, Page 15

“THE SACRED FLAME”

"W. Somerset Maugham, who has Written many strong, virile dramas, lias contributed “The Sacred Flame," as a screen play for the lovely Pauline Frederick to star in. The picture, which opened at WarnHollywood house recently—it frankly stated in the advertising—was not meant for juvenile consumption. However. “The Sacred Flame” is a controversial plot, a situation that has been in the public prints for uuite some time. Has anyone the privilege to take the hfe of another to relieve misery or suffering? The audience meets Lila Lee and fonrad Nagel, as Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Just married. Director Mayo did not clearly define now the husband became injured in nis airplane, hut the girl was left, practically at the altar, enslaved to a helpless cripple. As a result she sacrifices every Pleasure for the man, until his brother, * planter, comes to visit. The husband, wishing to be unselfish, urges uts wife to be entertained by the v sitor while he enjoys their happiness in thought. The result was they *< l H in love. Enters the mother of the two men. , “O loves her daughter-in-law Cor her loyalty to the son, but when the romance with her other boy occurs sue finds herself torn between her desire for each son’s happiness. The cripple dies in his sleep and his widow 24 suspected temporarily, of the crime, until, the mother reveals her promise to the dead boy—to administer an overdose of medicine, which kills him. A nurse, also in love with the cripple, nolds the key to the situation, but the doctor, the * nurse and the mother eventually take the law into their own hands and just conclude that it is o.k. Put the sick man out of his misery. A nis attitude, of course, is a danger°ua thing to propagandise. Faulino Frederick, as the mother, is ' harming, lovelv and in several scenes •nterprets her role in a way that is Almost inspired.