ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1922, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EVERYBODY’S. “HOMESPUN FOLKS.” Tears vie with smiles in the story of “Homespun Folks,” Thomas H. Ince’s tremendous triumph for the Associated Producers, Inc., which will be shown at Everybody’s to-night and to-mor-row. Perhaps no photoplay in recent years has had such a vast wealth of appeal containing human interest, comedy, and melodrama. It tells of a country lawyer’s fight against crooked politics, and as a modern picture of small town life holds the mirror truthfully to the real thing. These are the high lights of “Homespun Folks”—its realness, its truth and its simple honesty. The characters are real, the plot is a story of human people and the direction is chock full of master touches. Lloyd Hughes, as the youag district attorney with a conscience, makes a definite step upward in his screen career, breadth and scope being apparent in his characterisation. The bill includes gazette, comedy, and “Lure of the Circus.” The matinee to-morrow commences at <2 p.m. THE PEOPLE’S. LAST NIGHT OF VIOLA DANA. “Life’s Darn Funny,” is the expressive title of the comedy-drama in which Viola Dana is starring and which is now showing at the People’s. Miss Dana enacts the role of a struggling little violinist who, after many years of trials and tribulations, sacrifices her ambition to attain the pinnacle of success in the music world in order to find happiness in another way. The bill includes gazette, comedy, and “Fatal Sign.” To-morrow’s change presents Marion Davies in the latest Selznick picture, “Getting Mary Married.” It is the best thing Miss Davies has ever done. It so completely eclipses her previous productions that there is no comparison. Miss Davies has seized an opportunity to show her sterling worth, and under Allan Dwan’s capable direction she has exceeded even the highest expectations of her most ardent admirers. The matinee to-morrow commences at 2 p.m. ELLA SHIELDS. EMPIRE THEATRE WEDNESDAY. Miss Ella Shields, who made such a favorable impression at her opening performance, entertained another large audience at the Grand Opera House last evening (says a Press report). The artist wins through by sheer charm of her personality. She moves with airy grace in perfect fitting male attire, and wins her audience before she opens her lips. Like Annie Laurie “her voice is low and sweet,” and when she sings as Bertie, or Archie, or Jack, the effect is just the same. Her “Burlington Bertie of Bow” is a finely etched study of a decadent dude of a type that was wont, in pre-war days, to frequent the Strand and Piceadily. It is because the type is a real "one that Miss Shields has been able to sing it in year in and out for a decade—and still the public love it. If restraint is the keynote of art then Ella Shields is art. Whether as the shabby genteel Bertie, who camps on Rothschild’s and incidently gets his fingers crushed while replenishing his cigar case; as the blithsome middy, or as° the refined cop, who avoids strife and ogles the nurse maids, the English comedienne does not strike one false note. Though always busy, she is never boisterous. Her points are made sans effort. An inimitable shrug, a dainty flirt of the hand, a little trick of voice inflection, a leaven of jauntiness, an indescribable swagger, that is Ella as she wins her way into the hearts of the audience. To fault her is to pick motes from the rainbow. This clever artist will appear at the Empire Theatre next Wednesday night, supported by a full company of world famed artists. The box plan opens at Colliers this morning.