ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 284, 4 May 1914, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EMPIRE PICTURES. There have been many Kalem dramas shown at the Empire Picture Palace, but "The Chinese Death Thorn" screened as part of itflie new'programme <on Saturday night stands alone for fearless handling of a new and interesting subject. It is not a very pleasant subject, but is one which cannot be too often dealt with—that of the under-world, of a great city with its hideous vice, its dens of iniquity, its opium ihouscf* It is with one of these latter that the drama, in part, deals. Moi Ling, a ghoulish old Chinese opium den proprietor, is connected with a Ghinese crime syndicate, and he ?n----feraps a young girl, one of the slum visitors who seek to do good in an> underworld of sin. A dramatic rescue' is effected by an opium fiend, and in the exciting and intricate plot which follows, a bank raidj a "run on the bank," a blown-up vault, and a painful suicide are all means to an end. The drama re-, ecives its name from the "death thorn" (one scratch ft-oro which means death), with wliich the Chinese fiend treatons bis victims, and which he ultimately turns on himself. It is a powerful drama and is faithful in line and letter. The supporting pictures are fittingly strong. "Plants and Flowers" is a beautiful colored'study in nature. "The Lucca Cavalry" presents a magnificent spectacle of a wonderful horse brigade, and "The Gusher" is a Keystone comic with all the attributes of films by that mirthful company. The' programme will lip screened ag."in to-night and to-morrow night.