THE EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1917, Page 7

THE EMPIRE.

MARY: PICKFOBD AS "TIIE FOUNDLING." 1! Refreshingly wholesome and delightful lv human was the Famous Players' picture "The Foundling," thrown on the (screen for the first time at the Empire last evening. Only such an artiste as Mary Pickford could have made the picture such a memorable one as it must have been to the large audience present last night. The foundling is Molly-O, 'and when she first makes her appearance in what is to he for her a very troubled world her mother dies. The father, an (irtist, declares he has no lovo for the child since the mother is dead. Molly-0 falls into other liands and eventually finds herself among a host of little parentless sisters in a homo for orphaned children. Molly-0 a 9 the champion for right in the Home makes herself loved by her little sisters. At night they flock round her bed in the dismal dormitory and listen enthralled to the pictures that Molly-0 paints them of a loving mother who will come for them '"some day." This dav comes for Molly-O, and great are the lamentations among the little orphans of the Home. But Molly-0 receives a shock in her new home, for her new mother ia no believer in affection. She makes a housebold' drudge of Molly-O. How Molly-0 goes on in this misery to eventually find lier father and win his love makes a pathetic and pretty little story. In the nam: part Mary Pickford is immense. Here a touch of pathos and here a touch of quaint humor, and all through her delightful little .presence makes her. performance one of rare charm and power. The dormitory scenes are as natural and as amusing as could be imagined. "The Foundling" will be screened again tonight and for the last time to-morrow night.