Cinema News and Property Gazette (1913)

82 FILMS.— Supplement to THE CINEMA. January i, 1913. R. PRIEUR AND CO., LTD., 40, Gekkard Street, \Y. Phone: Gerrard 9115. Releasing :— LUX, NESTOR, POWERS and SAVOIA Films. " BILLS BANQUET." [Lux.) Hill has developed the " restful '' habit, and meets Indolent Willie, a gentleman who is also in the " restful " line of business. They partake of wine, and then part company, Bill taking with him a supply of provisions calculated to last him during his wanderings. Indolent Willie becomes possessed of information regarding the absence of the Joneses from their residence, and accordingly visits the house at midnight, and proceeds to lay the tablecloth and prepare for a sumptuous meal. Hill also learns of the absence of the Joneses, and makes his way into their residence. He prepares for a banquet. Having laid a knife and fork on the table, he exits through a door on the right. Enter Indolent Willie through a door on the left, with several bottles of wine. He is greatly surprised to find a knife and fork on the table, but does not allow the matter to trouble him, as he is quite sure that the house is unoccupied. He exits on the left, and Bill re-enters, but he also cannot trust himself. Thus the mystery grows deeper and deeper. At last, when Indolent Willie is alone, he hears a noise, and, in his fright, hides under the table. Bill enters, and also takes fright at an unexpected noise. He dives under the table, and comes face to face with his old pal Willie. All their fears being set at rest, the two friends sit down to enjoy their banquet. " MAUD MULLER." (Nestor.) Mid sylvan scenes, sweet Maud blooms in her simple beauty, but she allows her eyes to stray to the distant town, and a disquietude fills her innocent heart. She is filled with a longing for things beyond her station, and the first seeds of discontent are sown. The Judge, taking his morning ride, meets Maud, and is smitten by her beauty and simplicity of manner. They meet again and again, and love for each other enters into their hearts. Maud longs for the declaration of her wealthy lover, whose eyes convey to her the message he leaves unspoken; but the Judge remembers his ambition and the hopes of his relatives, steels his heart, and rides away. Later, the Judge marries a woman of his own social standing, whose sole object is pleasure. Night and morning she pursues her social round, leaving her husband to go his own way. The Judge gains more and more power, until at last he lives solely to acquire power over his fellow-creatures. Poor, deserted Maud marries a country boor, uncouth in his manner and intemperate in his habits, but ofttimes she allows her thoughts to stray, and dreams sad dreams. "KIDNAPPED BY GIPSIES." (Savoia.) A band of gipsies find that they need a little child to excite pity when they are begging and interest their audiences when they are performing their buffoonery. For a long time they watch for a favourable opportunity to secure one, but at last their chance comes, and they steal little Irene, the only child of a fond widowed mother. The gipsies take the child up to the top of the mountains, and throw her clothes down a deep ravine, in order to make her friends believe that she has strayed upon the mountains and met with a terrible fate. Irene's mother is grief-stricken when she learns of her little girl's death, and henceforth life becomes a dreary blank. Ben of both husband and child, the poor widow is left to inhabit this cold world alone. Years k.11 by, and Irene is little no longer. A life of drudgery and ill-usage has falfen to her lot since she fell into the bands of the gipsies. At last she arrives at an age when her nature revolts against this treatment, and she runs away. That nighl the chief of the gj returns intoxicated. In his muddled condition he sets fire to the gipsv encampment, and he and his companions perish, with the exception of Gitania, the old gipsy woman who was chiefly responsible for the kidnapping of Irene. Homeless, she wanders on until she sinks at the gates of a lar^e mansion, utterly exhausted. By a strati idence, this pi the house from which she Stole the rhild. The servants of the take the poor woman to their mistress, who treats her kindly. This kindness makes such an impression the "Id gipsy that she inquires the reason of her benefactress's sorrow. She is told, and then realises that she has been the cause of it all. She reveals her secret to Irene's mother, whose anger at first is very great, but finally she allows her to go again into the countryside. The old gipsy goes in search of Irene, and finally finds her, but the poor child imagines that she has come to take her back again to her old tyrannical masters. She plunges into a river, from which Gitania rescues her at the risk of her own life, and restores her to her mother, who is overjoyed at the sight of her beloved child. "THE SUPREME POWER." (rowers.) A young mother, whose husband is a drunkard, gives birth to a baby, which is suddenly taken ill. The angel of death •appears to carry away the spirit of the child. The mother frantically fights, pleads, and prays to the picture of Christ showing the scene depicting " Little children, come unto Me." The angel of death, realising the sorrow of the young mother, depicts the life of the child as it goes through manhood, and the temptations in his path. After viewing the various scenes, showing the downfall of the child, the mother willingly and gladly tells the spirit to take her child to the Kingdom of God, as the soul is now pure. The father staggers in as the last scene of the life of the child is shown, and, realising the wreck he has made of his life, resolves to turn over a new leaf, and we see the angel departing with the spirit of the child, and the father's resolute face turns towards a new and better life. " PURSUED BY A LIONESS." (Lux.) Pierre Marchant is a quarrelsome fellow, who is no favourite with his fellow settlers, in a little out-of-the-way French colony. Robert Mordant, on the other hand, is very popular. When he and Marchant fight a duel, in which the latter is killed, all the sympathy of the colony is upon Mordant's side. Before the matter can be hushed up, however, the mounted police arrive upon the scene, and Mordant is taken prisoner. As the police have strict orders to make an example of any person who is found to have killed another in a duel, they proceed to shoot him, as martial law exists in the colony. Before they shoot their prisoner, the police agree to allow him to go and visit his old mother. Mordant's mother lives a few days' journey away, and his friend Marcel Revere agrees to act as hostage for him as a guarantee that he will come back. It is agreed that if Mordant does not return by a certain time, Marcel shall suffer in his place. Mordant safely crosses the desert, and pays his farewell visit to his mother, mounts his horse, and starts on the return journey. His path leads through a wild country, infested by wild animals. Suddenly he is thrown from his horse, the horse bolts, and he is left to continue the journey on foot. Undaunted, Mordant sets out, as he has still time enough to reach the station on foot ; but he is suddenly pounced upon by a leopard, which has been hiding in the undergrowth. A fierce struggle ensues, in which man and beast wrestle together, but finally Mordant triumphs, and throws the beast off. He resumes his journey, but next encounters an enemy who will not be thrown off. A hungry lioness pounces upon him. He gets away, but the lioness follows him. Mordant takes refuge among some rocks. The lioness holds the key of the situation, and simply waits for her victim to appear. Meanwhile the precious moments are fleeting by, and Marcel will have to^ answer for his friend's absence with his life. Knowing this full well. Mordant takes his first opportunity to escape the vigilance of his four-footed foe, and goes to meet his death at the hands of the police. He arrives just as Marcel is about to be shot. The police listen to his story, and are so impressed by it that they agree among themselves to let their prisoner escape them. Mention THE CINEMA when dealing with any of our Advertisers. . .