ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 244, 24 March 1915, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS.

. EMPIRE PICTURES. The management of tliu Empire Theatre has scored a further siu-cess Willi the pictorial presentation of (/hades Dickens's works, in ''Tim Chimes'' which mouth last night. This masterpiece of Dickons' has a strong appealing force, ami the story readily lend:; ifclf i.r; film production. The taie deal.-, v. ill: the days of England when the poorer classes'were greatly oppressed, and the object Dickens had in mind was the bettering of the conditions of tile less lortunate class. Trotty Veek, a messenger, is the principal character, and the chimes of iSt. Dunstairs Church ring out to him in Christmas Eve, giving a message which he thinks-is real. The spirit of the chimes shows him successive picturesof tin' hardships likely lo come u> his daughter and to his best-loved friends if the then conditions co;i?.-ui;.>. to exist. Trotty Yeck wakes from the dream' with a linn determination to make the following year one of special ell'ort in the direction of watching- the welfare of those' he loves. The acting was splendid, and the scenes taken in the old English, settings so connected with tlie works of Charles Dickens. To lovers of the. great novelist, seeing the film, is a happy way of renewing acquaintance with the many well-known characters of the story. A noble film was one entitled, ''Does it End Right?" Tiles tory told of a beautiful girl who lost her sight, married a man who had been horribly scarred for life in a fire) then hag her sight restored onlv long enough to see her 1,-il.y. in it mil to'se ■ he; husband's scarred oomitciiMnce. The question asked by the film, "Does it en,! Right?" is a difficult one to decide without seeing the picture. ''The Mini in the Dark" was a strong drama, showing how a wealthy and respected young man drifted to degradation and poverty because he lost faith in the woman lie was going to marry. Other good films were! "Deled ivo and Matchmaker. - ' "lie Wanted an Eye." ''Oaumont Oraphic." and .'■Villenour," a magnificent scenic. The programme will be repeated this evening.

TTTE (!1>A1) EYI'

The new company of English comedians which- Beaumont Smith will introduce at the Theatre Koval on Tuesday next includes Kthel Dane, who was the "Kiki" of 525 London performances. "Kiki," is the main feature of the "(Had Eve" and "in her glance there is distinction.'' "Kiki's" habit of gi,- 'ig the glad eye leads to all sorts of absurdities and the comedy quickly becomes ,- merry-go-round of wildlv comic situations'. Mr Ivlward Lar.dor, a e.oted English character actor, will play Ch.r.i-e'J;.-. a bogus spiritualist's no'limn Mr Frank S!icifoid and Mr II -nry I, F„d an-, two new-comers with big English reputations. They play the gay husbands who make so much trouble for themselves. Others, include Miss Alice Hamilton, described as the best dressed woman on the Australian stage, Claud Vernon, Reginald Kenneth. Sinna .St. Clair, and Evelyn Har.-ey. The box plan opens at Collier's on Monday next.

WAR LECTURK HY FRANK MOiITOX

On Wednesday, March .'slst. in the Theatre Royal, local residents will have iin opportunity of hearing New Zealand's most gifted journalist in a brilliant and witty lecture on the present war. Frank Morton owes much of his success as a journalist and critic to the fact that he never writes on nuurer.s he tloes not understand, that he is in no degree enslaved by conventional opinions and ideas, that he is absolutely candid and courageous in the expression of his thought, and that he is in every way rather different from other people. In the minds of most of us the Croat War is still a great confusion. Wo extol the Allies and d the Kaiser.- geuerally witliout knowing why. In this lecture Mr. Morton summarises the war as far as it has gone, and lie is enabled to tell the whole truth as he sees it—for the spoken word is still independent of the censor. Prices of admission have heen fixed at .Is, 2s. and Is, and the box plan will open at Hoffman's next Saturday