ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 150, 1 December 1914, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EMPIRE PICTURES. To-night, the management present Messenter's up-to-date 8000 ft. melodrama "Orders under Seal," which takes approximately one hour and a half to unfold. It is a film which sustains interest, boasts fine photography, contains many unique and original effects, and gives opportunity for really human acting, which the actors concerned are credited with making the most of. Briefly put, the story is this: "War is in the air. Upon its declaration, Rear-admiral Van Houven arranges the order of attack and hands over the sealed orders relating thereto to his son. From this point '•there are rapid twirls in Fortune's wheel.' Through an extremely tragic series of events, the sealed orders fall into the hands of a spy. He copies them and sends the copies by carrier-pigeon to his own chief. The pigeon, however, is shot by a Government and the treachery discovered. The Rear-ad-miral suspects his son. The young fellow is court-martialled and ordered to be shot. How the execution is delayed by the prisoner's little son is one of the exciting episodes of the play. Beats may be reserved by ringing 'phone 365.

JULIUS KNIGHT IN "A ROYAL DIVORCE." This morning, at 8 o'clock, the box plans will be opened at Collier's for the production of the stupendous Napoleonic military dramatic spectacle, "A Royal 1 Divorce," in which the popular actor, Mr. ; Julius Knight, will make his farewell appearance here on Thursday night next. 1 Anticipating the same large demand for . seats here as in Christchurch, the mani agement will have a staff of ushers in 1 attendance from an early hour to form a i queue, which will ensure that the earliest , arrivals shall have the first choice of seats. Although "A Royal Divorce" lias , been revived again and again in the Do- , minion, during the present tour its triumphs have been simply extraordinary. This may be accounted for by two facts—firstly, that it is signalising the farewell to New Zealand of Julius Knight, and, secondly, the general atmosphere of the drama, with its picturesque and realistic war tableaux, presents playgoers with an idea of what the battlefield is ireally like. The tableaux are special features of the representation, showing us as they do Moscow blazing in the distance, with Napoleon and his dejected staff amidst the snow in the foreground; Napoleon, 011 his white charger, directing the attack at Waterloo, with a second picture, in which, issuing from the canopy of smoke, the British cavalry in scarlet appears in its irresistible rush upon the French lines, and at the last the Emperor gazing from the barren rock at St. Helena across a breadth of turquoise sea, into which the blood-red sun is seen slowly sinking. It is as if, far removed from the tide of pomp that beats upon the high shores of the world, "that lonely figure'watched the waning glories of the sky fading like his own fallen fortunes into the darkness of night." It is generally regarded that Julius Knight is now giving an even better characterisa- j tion of Napoleon than when he por- ! trayed the role in New Zealand. It is 1 also stated that the supporting com- 1 pany, which includes that brilliant | actress, Miss Irene Browne, the talented young Australian artist, Miss Lizettc ! S'arkes, also Miss Emma .Temple, Eardley I Turner* Leslie Victor, Herbert J. Bentley, and Martin Lewis, is easily the i strongest yet sent on tour by the J. C.' "Williamson, Ltd., management. The j whole production will, it is said, br ' staged on a scale absolutely unparalleled in the history of the stage in the Dc- ' minion. I