ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1922, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

EVERYBODY’S. “WHY GIRLS LEAVE HOME” TO-NIGHT. Why Girls Leave Home” is up-to-date in its various situations, setting and technical details. This is a picture that we approached rather sceptically, with the idea that it might develop into a moral lecture, a pictorial preachment, with a deal of maudlin melodrama. However, it is quite a feather in the respective caps of producer and director, that they have made a first-rate entertainment from a- play, the theme of which has been worked to death upon stage and screen. After the first few feet, the offering strikes ite stride and builds a drama, the appeal of which carries much force and realism. Pictured with considerable insight, the perspective is as clear as sunlight, and the result is that the feature entertains beyond all expectations. What takes place could reasonably happen, and is undou’btedly happening, in hundreds of homes every day. The theme simply goes back to the principle of rearing a child and. serves to teach parents the delicate task of bringing up children in as- human a way as possible—which is to play with them and enter into their confidences, appreciating the fact that the undeveloped mind of youth is highly impressionable. There is no recourse to platitudinous preaching, nor false sentiment. “Why Girls Leave Home” is screening to-night and tomorrow at Everybody’s at popular prices—D.-C. 2s, Stalls Is 6d and Is. Seats for either night can be reserved at Collier’s. THE PEOPLE’S. “BROKEN BLOSSOMS” TO-NIGHT. Undoubtedly one of the greatest dramas on the screen is the presentation of “Broken Blossoms.” A picture which holds the breathless attention of the audience for over an hour must be a good one, and there is no imagination an the statement that the first showing of this great film picture proved that in every respect. The opening scene is delightful., depicting scenes in China. The one in the Budhist temple, where the young Chinaman (the hero) is receiving the blessing of the priest before he sets out for Western civilisation as well as instructions as to his behaviour in the countries to the Anglo-Saxon race, in his mission to bring peace to those addicted to the barbarous methods of war. is particularly striking. The drama is then transferred to the wellknown Limehouse quarters of London—the slum of slums —where poverty, wretchedness, Chinese shops, tragedies, and horrors live cheek by jowl in their uncanny surroundings. Here the yellow man’s youthful dreams of peaceful conquest, single-hearted charity, and help to others, come to wreck amidst the sordid realities of the London slums. The villain in the piece is a prizefighter of the worst type—brutal and selfish—admirably depicted by Donald Crisp. The prize-fighting episodes, especially the rounds between Battling Burroughs and the Limehouse Tiger, will all challenge the criticism of experts. “Broken Blossoms” shows tonight and to-morrow night at the People’s. Seats for either screening can be reserved at Collier’s.