THE EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1916, Page 6

THE EMPIRE.

A SENSATIONAL PICTURE SUCCESS "FIVE XJGTITS," BV VICTORIA "2HOSS. Tlie Empire Theatre was again packed to the doors last evening, when the widely-read novel, "Kite Nights," by Victoria Cross, -vas presented for the first time. The picture ?hows bow Trevor Lonsdale, a young artist, on a pleasure cruise, arrives in his yacht in the Arctic mining town of Sitka. A friend takes him to the Chinese quarter, where he meets a da'nty Mttle Chinese woman named Suzee Suzee makes love to him, and his artistic mind is interested in her quaint manner and dress. She is showing him her jewellery and petting him when Hop Lee, her husband, arrives. There is a fight, but Trevor holds off the old Chinaman with his revolve/, and finely leaves, promising to see no more of Suzee. He returns to London, and commences work oil a masterpiece, hut is unaHe to find a suitable model. 'He is in despair when his cousin Viola visits him and offers to sit for the work. He has Ion? been in love with Viola, and at first refuses to allow her to undertake such an arduous task. But she persists, and the painting is commenced. The two are deeply in love, but Viola will not b"ar of marriage, as she considers that marriage stifles art. In the course of t.'me Trevor has to employ another mode! for a different class ox picture, and t"is woman makes love to him, and in a moment oi weakness Viola finds him with the model in his arms. Viola angry at his unfaithfulness, goes away, but later returns, to find Trevor half-crazed and in despair at losing her. she <?ees to him gladly and they live contentedly until one day Trevor finds a note saying that she is leaving h'rn, but will return at the end of the year. Trevor, greatly disturbed at her desertion o? him, goes abroad, and in the course of events again meets the little Chinese girl Suzee at Chinatown, San Francisco. The artist returns to London and strives to dispel the cloud over his life. In the course of time V.ola returns and they forget the past in the happiness of reunion. Viola explains her absence by placing a 'bonny infant in his arms. "Five Nights" will be repeated jto-nijAt tor the last occasion, TO-MORROW AND SATURDAY. HENRY HQT.-KER, IX "THE WARN-, ING." 1 m the new change of programme, to be submitted at the Empire to-morrow evening, a picture of an unusually creditable conception of dramatic perfection, unmistakably ihe highest ideals of screen art, entitled "The Warning," holds foremost position, featuring Henry Kolker, who plays the role of the "man'' (Robert Di-mnan), wli3 meet 9 the woman who smiles, succumbs to her wiles, loses his place, and is laughed at by her when she seems hint down and out. His friends leave him, his. wife divorces him, he becomes a beggar, and dies in the gutter. His soul goes into the depths 'which make- him recoil in fear, and meets others >vho have been slaves to vice and indulgence At last it entreats its Maker for one more chance, and the prayer is heard 'and drives home the great ,'esson of "The Warning." For the proiucfon of "The Warning" Director Edmund Lawrence and a company of jilaye's journeyed to mammoth eaves of Kentucky, and while there staged a 'lumber or scenes representing the experience of the victim in Hades. Stalactites, stalagmites, grotesque land gyrations, and the myriad of queer freaks of underground tunnels and grottoes, all lend thenr enhancing atmospherical detail to i series of weird and startling climaxes and dramatic situations. "The_Warning" delivers a powerful moral, yet none of the "preachy" type. Four hundred gro-tesquely-costumed players are used in'a number of big scene;, which are included in five stupendous acts and SI 7 scenes. There will be a matinee performance of "The Warning" on Satuijlav at 2 p.m.