ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 293, 14 May 1914, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

THEATRE KOYAL PICTURES.

Tlie Theatre Royal Picture Co. lias been to the fore with some excellent programmes, and we are advised that another fine change will be given to- ! night, when picture admirers will have (heir appetites for good variety well | satislied. "The War-makers,'' by the great' Vitagraph Co., should gain a host of Admirers, boing a clever diplomatic drama of 2000 ft. An ambassador receives a cablegram from his Government commanding him to secure certain official war plans. He gives a .dinner to j the diplomatists, to wliich Johnson, Sec- | l'etary of the Navy, and Calhoun, SeeI retary of War, are invited. Through a forged letter supposed to come from I Johnson, Calhoun is requested to bring the army and navy plans to thcMlinner, TJie ambassador enlists the aid of throe I spies, Rosa, a Russian woman, Tolstoy, I an exiled scientist, and Boris, a young | assistant in the Embassy. Tolstoy mixes a secret potion which lie calls '"the sleeping death." Boris pours this into the wine, and the guests fall senseless 011 the tables. . From this on a very exciting story is given till the recovery of the plans. An instructive film - will be seen in "The Renovation of Buckingham Palace," the (iaumont Co. having obtained special permission to take a picture of our King's great London residence. The scenic of the programme is a charming colored scene of ''The. Ain." Two 1000 ft comedies, "The Cat Came Back" and '''Match-making Dods" will supply the laughs for the evening, and with other excellent subjects the collection should reach the high-water mark of the Theatre Royal Picture Co.

EMPIRB PICTURES. The star offering in the, new programme screened «t the Empire Picture Palace last night deals with rather a new subject, although it embodies the old otory of the ruffled course f>f true love. "Ilie Open Door," as the big (ilm is called, ia largely the story of work in the sflumn of a great city "but it deals also in an effective manner with that queer kink, in human nature called hypocrisy, which urges a man to seek fame by ostentatious giving while he neglects the call of common charity at his own back door. It tells of John Blair, a rich man who revels in any form of large cliarity, but refuses to help a movement to extend the work o; the Church to the needy and 3e>w ostentatious portions of his own town. The love sterj ig supplied by a plucky young parson, who when he seos the nature of the man he has to deal with, resigns h;position, and, with the -rich man's daughter., whom he marries despite her father, builds up a mission in the heart jof llostou, called "The Open Door." The reconciliation which is inseparable from moving picture dramas, is brought about through the agency of Blair'* sun, who, driven from liis home, drifts down the primrose pa-th of unrighteousness till he finds the "Open Door" mi-sion his only hope. The setting of the story good, and the, acting excellent. The leaven of .comedy .is supplied by the inimitable "Wiffles." this tini" a married man but the victim of a charming widow. A wrongly addressed letter tangles -the situation and causes' much hilarity. These, films are well supported by comedies, dramas, and scenes prominent among the latter class 'bein." some fine scenes of Calcutta. The pviv gramme will be repeated to-niirht and to-morrow night.