BERNARD'S PICTURES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 205, 27 February 1914, Page 3

BERNARD'S PICTURES

A new programme will bp screened to-night nt the popular "His Majesty's Theatre," when Madame Bernard will present as the principal feature a highly dramatic photo-play, entitled "A Prince of Evil." The authors of cinematograph dramas find new settings and new heroes for the thousands of films that are required to satisfy the craving of the public for novelty, excitement, and picturesquess, and the film conveys to the brain in a few minutes what the book-writer would take a whole novel to compass. Picture films are tabloid novels, and yet there is included in them a wealth of detail which no scene depictcr could convey to the mind of the reader without the aid of the camera. In "A Prince of Evil" the story is one cif exceptional interest, abounding in sensational incidents. The story runs thus:—The j leader of a band of smugglers, Prince Detainer?, in need of more money to finance bis enterprises, proposes to Josephine Chester, who refuses him. Oorgia Kivers, her sister and wife of James Kivers, a prominent business man, lias a passion for gambling, and is heavily in debt. She determines to offset her previous losses by a bet on a racehorse, and while talking on the telephone to a friendly bookmaker, she is overheard by Prince Delamere. The horse loses and she is in despair, and does not tell her husband. The Prince offers to help her, proffering her a cheque large enough to pay all her debts. She consents to take it. Then the trouble begins. Prince Delamere by subterfuge gets Josephine to his rooms, and sends for Trent, her fiancee. Hearing a step on the stairs, and thinking it is Trent, Delamere seizes Josephine in liis arms. Tt is not Trent, but De-

teetive Hamiere, who arrests the Prince as- leader of the smuggling gang. Josephine manages to escape through the window. Tlie rest is easy and happy.