ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 174, 31 December 1914, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS.

ROYAL PICTURES. d There was n very fair audience at the el Royal Picture Theatre last night to 0 I witness one of the best programmes f ever staged in New Plymouth. These ~ pictorial gems are to' be repeated to- , night, and ought to draw a crowded ,1 bouse. A striking- drama, entitled, ''When tile Night Call Came," depicts very forcibly, the lieroic conduct of a j' strong man within the .power of an ;, American blackmailing gang in league s with his wife. "Luncheon for Three" is a pretty American comic in which a" merry fat. man and an extremely pretty girl play their funny parts, "Maria Marten" is the star film. The scene „ takes place .in the earlv days of last century, at Polstead, a,' peaceful little 5 Suffolk village, about six miles from ™ Kadleigh, a place of calm and quiet 3 beauty embosomed among rural scenery 1 as lovely as can be seen anywhere in ; England. Roger Deaves, Maria's lover, i r enlists and goes away to the wars. ' White he is fighting the French, William i Corder, a gentleman farmer, tries to ■ supplant him in the affections of 'Maria, ; hut for a time with ill-success. l\"\ 7 0ule i gallantly sacrificing himself to enable his . leader to make off with despatches in a little frontier skirmish, Roger is taken prisoner. His captain believes him dead and carries the news to • Maria, who quickly falls in love with Corder. The lust mentioned, though an ardent lover, balks at the marriage hurdle, and the poor girl's life is made bo miserable that at last she agrees to dress in men's clothes and elope with him. The assignment is .made for a lonely barn, and Corder, after making love to her there, coolly murders and buries her. Hut retribution is on his path, and Roger Deaves is the means of bis being delivered to justice and exe-. tuted. The story, whicjh i* pressive and easily fSP>ted**lieia the" undivided attention of the audience. ''ln La;iglikrid," which concluded the performance, was some strikingly good and amusing work by a clever', rapid sketch artirt. There' were other fine films shown.