ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1917, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

MATINEE AT THE EMPIRE TO-DAY.

A strong programme will be screened at both matinee and evening performances at the Empire to-day. The chief feature is a Metro photo-play, "Big Tremaine," from the book .by Marie Van Vorst. In this story a man is accused of a crime committed by his brother, even his own mother suspccting.him. But the man wins out in spite oi the shadows surrounding him. Jt is a simple story, maybe, but its very simplicity makes it overpowering in its dramatic, appeal Other star items of a star programme will be the second episode of the wonderserial, "The Secret of the Submarine," and the latest Charlie Chaplin Mutual comedy, "Behind the Screens." In this picture Charlie is shown as the assistant tsage hand in a big motion picture studio, his many disagreements with the principal hand and the comical way he buts into many scenes cause even more merriment than his old Keystone comedy "The Property Man." ALICE BRADY AT EVERYBODY'S TO-DAY. "THE ANGEL OP MERCY." This thrilling drama of darkest Russia —Russia in the days 0 f Czardom and corruption—gives that beautiful and charming actress, Miss Alice Brady, ample scope to display her undoubtedly great histrionic powers. A young and beautiful Jewess and an exquisite violinist, she sympathises strongly with the revolutionists, of whom her brother, a well-known writer, becomes one. How she refuses to play the Russian National Anthem at a great social function; how she is in consequence literally lashed in public by the chief of police, in whose home the function is held, and is sentenced to ten years in the Siberian mines; how, in the mines, she proves herself a veritable angel of mercy, and thus wins her pardon, is wonderfully well illustrated in the picture being shown at Everybody's to-day and to-night. The play abounds in dramatic situations, and there are strange cross-currents of romantic interest. It is admirably staged and mounted, the Siberian scenes being particularly fine. On the same programme Charlie Chaplin appears in his latest "Mutual" comedy success, "Behind the Screens," in which Charlie makes a huge success as assistant in a motion picture studio. Another popular attraction will be the second episode of the fascinating serial picture, "The Secret of the Submarine."

"INTOLERANCE" FOR NEW PLYMOUTH. EVERYBODY'S THEATRE NEXT THURSDAY. To the thousands in this country who have not seen "Intolerance" it will be good news to know that J. C. Williamson, Ltd., have arranged for a twonjghts' season at Everybody's Theatre, New Plymouth, commencing next Thursday evening. It is safe to state that no picture has aroused such exclamations of wonder and astonishment at its theme and gigantic, spectacles as has "Intolerance," while a section of the clergy have even denounced it, for what reason it is hard to believe when one has seen it. However, the major portion of the press in New Zealand and Australia have written nothing derogatory of the picturequite the reverse. It is interesting from an industrialist point of view to reprint what Mr. H .E. Boote, editor of the Sydney Worker, wrote of "Intolerance": "It is hard to believe that this amazing play has been conceived in a modem brain and realised by modern ingenuity. Griffith (the producer) must have lived in all those places. How else could he make me know Belshazzar (King of Babylon) as I know Jones and Robinson? How else could he familiarise me with Jerusalem and its motley crowd till I am on the same intimate terms with them as with Woolloomooloo and its blokes and donahs? I have seen them with these actual bodily eyes of mine. I have fled through the filthy alleys of old Paris pursued by the merciless mercenaries of Catherine of Medici. 1 have followed the barbarous mob of Romans and Jews hastening to the sights on Calvary. I have seen the wedding feast at Cana and Christ sitting among the guests. I have been present at the shaming of those who took the woman in adultery, when no man dared cast the first stone because he was not without sin. I have seen the stupendous perspectives of a city that was mistress of the world when the peoples who were to produce the great nations of to-day still hunted with stone axes and made their homes in caves. I have seen the enacting of the foulest tragedy in the annals of France—thirty thousand victims falling in a. bloody saturnalia of seven days and night. And I have seen the injustice and despotism that carry on their devastating work behind the Statue of Liberty in the greatest republic of all time. I have seen it. For this is not a story. It is not a play. It is a revelation. It places it side by side with the present, and we look from one to the other bewildered, for the past is the image of the present: the present a replica of the .past."- "Intolerance" can only be shown here for two nights and a matinee, commencing next Thursday, while popular prices will he charged. The box plan is open at Collier's as usual. A matinee will, be given on Friday at 2 o'clock, when children will be admitted half-price.