ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 150, 12 November 1912, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EMPIRE PICTURE PALACE. To-night is the last opportunity offered picture-goers to view the unique Kalem production "Fighting Dervishes of the Desert," also the second series of the "Adventures of Dick Turpin," in which Dick covers himself with glory and saves the life of liis King. Amongst the other interesting pictures to be shown for the last time to-night are "Trout Farming in Surrey," ''German Gymnastics," and "Through the Valley of St. Blaison." Tomorrow night the usual mid-week programme will be introduced, including the latest from the leading film studios. THEATRE ROYAL. Quite the best programme yet screened in the Theatre Royal was shown for the first time last night. "Forgotten" was a beautiful vitagraph "child" drama, of a very pathetic nature. It featured some very clever child-acting, and met with a very favourable reception. "A Lodging for the Night" unfolded an exciting and fascinating story of the old south-west. Dick Logan, a "young writer in search of local colour, stopped at a little border town in the South-west, and engaged lodging at a Mexican inn. Two tramps saw the money he had and planned to secure it. In the town he befriended a Mexican girl, and that night, to while away the time, he played faro and broke the bank, which greatly augmented his already large amount of money. Retiring to his room, he was awakened by the efforts of the two tramps to obtain admittance. He stole out and asked for lodging for the night at a near-by house, which happened to be the home of the Mexican girl and her uncle. Here he got real "local colour," as the tramps had followed him, entering the room through the window, while the Mexican, who also coveted the money, entered through the door. The girl, however, after a series of breathless situations saved him from harm, and thus Dick found a real heroine for a real romance. "Lucky Card" was a typical, rollicking Western drama, while "The Maniac" depicted the fortunes of an escaped lunatic who presented himself to a girl as hen "long lost father." On the strength of this she broke off her engagement with her lover, and subsequent events were as complicated as they were amusing. "The First Woman Jury," a Vitagrapli comedy, opened up a wide range of possibilities to he taken into consideration by our legislators, should they ever contemplate increasing woman's sphere of usefulness in the direction indicated. On the scenic side, some glorious landscape and water scenes were revealed in a beautiful study, "Bergen." A screaming farce was also shown in the shape of "Zigoto the Laundress.'