ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1922, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EVERYBODY’S. DEVIL TO PAY” AND “THE BEAUTIFUL GAMBLER.” “The Devil to Pay,” a Pathe special attraction, is 'billed to head the programme at Everybody’s to-night. Adapted from the novel by Frances Nimmo Greene, it is one of the most original and striking mystery dramas that have ever been screened. The feature has one of the most unique themes ever selected for the silent drama. The principal character is a leading banker in a small town, who has committed a crime and caused another to be sent to the gallows to suffer for his guilt. A most peculiar thing happens, however, for he is resuscitated by the gaol physician, and the man who was supposed to have been hanged hounds his accuser even to the court room, where, in one of the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed upon the screen, he turns the tables on hi« accuser and helps the district attorney win his case. On the same bill beautiful Grace Darmond appears in her big Universal production “The Beautiful Gambler,” a rushing drama of life and love on the flaming Alaskan frontier.

EMPIRE THEATRE. “LIVING LONDON” TO-NIGHT. London has always appealed to the New Zealander, not alone as a city of millions and marvels, nor as the centre of the greatest Empire of the earth, but most as the capital of his own native land. From the time when, as the lowest crossing of the Thames, it became a necessary town, and saw the sails of the Dane, to when the Zeppelins searched for it in the lampless dark, it has possessed a fascination of its own. Not a street hut has its history, and it has the beauty of many buildings. A nation in itself, compounded of all nations, not New York nor Paris can outrival it in its display of wealth, pomp and power. Such is the romance of the great metropolis, and its stz/ry is forcibly presented in the film “Living London,” which is being screened/ as the chief attraction to-night at the Empire Theatre. At a special screening of the film in Wellington there were present the Prim?. Minister (Mr. Massey) and nearly all the members of the Cabinet and Parliament. The “Living London” season is limited to three screenings in New Plymouth, to-night and to-morrow night at 8 p.m.. and at h special matinee to-morrow afternoon at 3.15, at which school children will be admitted for sixpence. The picture of “Living London” occupies the screen. for .fust over an hour, and it will be interesting news to local residents that all the pictures included are right up to date, as the whole series of pictures were taken during last year. The box plan is at Collier’s.

THE PEOPLE’S. LAST NIGHT OF BUCK JONES. The People’s Theatre will seem very quiet after to-night, when “Bar Nothin’,” the Fox production, ends its run there, and with Buck Jones, its strenuous star, departs for other fields. One line in the story of “Bar Nothin’ ” suggests the action in the picture vividly: “It’ll be hotter later on, when Dulce Smith (Buck. Jones) and that infernal gang of cow hands gets in town.” On the same bill popular Shirley Mason appears in a delightful domestic romance entitled “Queenie.” Fox Australian and American gazettes are also on the bill. An English photo-play is always welcome. Good as the American film may be, there is something in it that cannot appeal to British or overseas Dominions’ audiences. The temperament of the American people calls for more sickly stuff than is entirely appreciated by New Zealanders, wrth whom sentiment is a secondary, not a primary consideration. “Sob” matter is beloved of the American producer, who knows what kind of an attendance he has to feed in the American “movie” shows, but it is not often that he succeeds in totally convincing New Zealander© who want to see pictures that are real, true and not forced. Such a picture is “Bars of Iron,” from the novel by Ethel M. Dell, •popular novelist, which is to be screened at the People’s Theatre to-morrow and Friday of this week. A decided feature of the play, although he appear© only in the early stages, is the acting of Leo-

pold McLagan. His fiame is well known to New Zealand. In 1915, after having been wounded at Mons, he came out to the Dominion as an instructor of jiujitsu and bayonet fighting. As “Samson” Denys, the drunken bully, he gives a splendid characterisation in the play. The plot is good, and the cast is good. The scene is first laid in Australia, and then changes to England, where many delightful spots are shown. Patrons may reserve seats at 'Collier’s.