GREATEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1916, Page 2

GREATEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR.

MARTYRDOM OF NURSE CAVELL, AT THEATRE ROYAL TO-NIGHT. If ever there was a case deserving of magnanimity, even in these seemingly 'iivadent days of chivalry, that of Nurse Cavell was indubitably one. But the heart of the Hun was not equal to the occasion. Despite her tender care and solicitude for the wounded of both enemy and friend alike this noble Englishwoman, whijse fault was that she had assisted her friends to escape backto their lines, .vas done to death in the foulest and mc*t cowardly manner conceivable under military regime. This sad tragedy is the burden of a most graphic photo-play, "The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell," which will be the "feature" of the i.ew programme at the Theatre Royal to-night. In order to give breadth and incident to the subject the producers have evolved a charming story which forms a basis for the grim reality of the .pathetic episode. Nurse Cavell is introduced ministering to the maimed and battered soldiers in the Brussels Hospital. She is invited to the wedding of George Renard, a Belgian lieutenant, and Yvonne Loudet, intimate friends of hers. While at their house she Meets Herr Cries, a German military spy, posing as a medical student. Owing to Cries bestowing his unwelcome attentions upon Yvonne, trouble ensues between Cries and Renard. The spy vows vengeance. Renard is captured while carrying despatches, but succeeds in escaping through overpowering 'his guard and borrowing tlie Hun's uniform. He , is rendered assistance by Nurse Cavell, and, through her instructions, is able to obtain a passport which enables the young lieutenant to escape through the Prussian lines. The spy tracks Renard, and, suspecting the nurse, he goes with an armed guard to her hospital. There lie discovers a letter incriminating , her. The nurse is arrested, and, notwithstanding the pleadings of the U.S.A. Ambassador, is led out to her doom at ' 2 o'clock in the morning. The enact- ' ment is convincing, yet liandled with delicate sympathy. The box plan f«r the season is at Collier's.