ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 185, 23 December 1912, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EMPIRE PICTURES. An excellent programme was. screened at the Empire Pictures on Saturday night hefore a large and appreciative audience. The Eclair Gazette was full of interesting items, including a laughable sketch of the meeting of the Prince of Wales and President Fallieres of France, when the -former was invested with the Order of the Legion of Honor. ''Their Hero" was a first-class Edison drama, shewing the love two lads bore for the, school hero, and the way in which their worship continued in after life. The Ambrosia drama "Arabian Treachery" received great applause, the hungry lions trying to batter down the frail door of the hut in which the mother and child had sought refuse being most realistic. A Lubin drama, "The Stolen Ring," was beautifully staged, and the moral was obvious. The great picture favourite, Maurice Costello, made a very good costermonger for a story of the lower class Cockneys, and the drama also showed the rise and fall of the fortunes of the parents of the young coster's sweetheart. A scene picturing the Solnhofer marble quarries was of a very interesting character, giving one some idea of the enormous amount of work put into a slab of marble before it is fit to decorate. A quartet of very comic films were also screened, ''Tontolini's £1 Outfit" producing roars of laughter from the audience.

THEATRE IK)VAT, PICTURES. The very poor attendances 'of the public at the Theatre Royal certainly does not warrant the management showing the magnificent programmes that are screened at tliis -house each night, It is not the fault of the orchestra or the pictures themselves that the house is not crowded each night, as tlie former is a fine combination of talented musicians', and the latter could not be bettered even in tlie large city houses. A glance at the Wellington papers will bear out this statement, as many of the pictures shown at the Theatre Royal during the past few weeks have afterwards been shown insome of the foremost picture houses 'of that city. Tonight the management introduce another complete changp, and as usual it is a brilliant collection of the finest pictures obtainable. Foremost is an Edison feature '[Nerves and the Man," from the book by Philip Oppenheim, and a Selig masterpiece, "The Girl at the Cupola," featuring everybody's favourite, Miss Kathlyn Williams.