The Night of Love (United Artists) (1927)

More Advance News “NIGHT OF LOVE” A ROMANTIC SPECTACLE With hand to hand fighting be¬ tween dazed Spanish grandees and courageous outlaws; with a Moorish Bacchanalian orgy featuring beauti¬ ful women dancing to the cracking music of a Spanish bull whip; with fights and duels and a marvelously impressive “miracle”; tender love scenes and a dozen spectacles rolled into one, the George Fitzmaurice production of “The Night of Love,” which comes to the.theatre .should please everybody. In a big scene of the picture Ron¬ ald Colman faces death at the stake with the lighted fagots already flam¬ ing around his knees. In one of the opening scenes, the beautiful Vilma Banky hurls herself over a 500-foot cliff, rather than suffer at the hands of the bandit. The picture is replete with thrills enough for a dozen productions. It opens with a gypsy wedding cere¬ mony staged in the style, beauty and color of four hundred years ago. The first thrill comes when the ban¬ dit-outlaws, under the leadership of Ronald Colman, storm the castle of the duke and kidnap their duchess (Vilma Banky) on her wedding night. There is hand-to-hand fight¬ ing on the steps of the huge castle with bandits and Spanish noblemen hurled through seventy-five feet of space as they are shoved over the edge of the ramparts. In one of the most unusual scenes ever staged for any production, Ron¬ ald Colman serves dinner to the duke and duchess whom he has kid¬ napped on their wedding night and taken to his outlaw stronghold. The situation becomes as tense and dra¬ matic as any ever made by such skilled artists as Mr. Colman, Miss Banky and Montagu Love. Then there are scenes in the cellar of the castle, grim and ghastly tor¬ turers and executioners, and sword fights amid settings redolent with menace and peril. The orgy sequence, staged as a “stag” party for the duke in the grand dining hall of the castle, is in itself enough to lift the audience from their seats. It opens when a dozen beautiful women clad in scant costumes flee down a broad staircase pursued by the stinging lash of a giant bull whip wielded by a gigantic Moor. Dodging to and fro to avoid the lash, the girls scream in sim¬ ulated fear while the drunken rev¬ elers roar with laughter. The “burning” scene, staged in the courtyard of the castle before an audience of thousands of soldiers, nobles and peasantry, will thrill any audience. Surrounded by four masked and hooded executioners Colman is car¬ ried in and bound to the stake while the soldiers pile fagots higher and higher around his body. As the flames shoot up, the crowd pushes closer toward the protecting cordon of soldiery. The denouement, portraying the impressive miracle playing on the religious frenzy of the over-wrought peasantry, will long be remembered, and the riot which follows, ending in the rescue of Colman, the reunion of the lovers, will be eminently satis¬ factory to all who see this greatest . of medieval romances. COLMAN AND VILMA BANKY IN THIRD FILM Men, could you fall in love with the same girl three times in one year—and do it differently and charmingly each time? Girls, could you fall in love all over again with the same man three times a year—and always look and feel as if it was really and truly the great adventure? That is what has been demanded of two of the most popular people in America, Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, and they have suc¬ ceeded perhaps better than any other so-called “team” that ever played in motion pictures. Three times in the past year, Mr. Colman has met, wooed and won Miss Banky. Three times Miss Banky has thrilled for the screen at Mr. Colman’s approach, has played tender love scenes and at last succumbed to his peculiar charm. And each time they have played the scenes better than ever before. In their last picture, “The Night of Love,” which is soon to come to the . Theater, their love- making reaches a height perhaps never before attained on the screen. And they love doing it! “Mistair Colman is ze perfect lover,” says Miss Banky. “Every time he is different, so different. Like a new man, and each time I am thrilled and inspired—for the screen. “Marry him? Ah, no! He make the love too well. But I adore him —on the screen.” “Miss Banky is a marvelous co¬ partner,” says Mr. Colman. “I never in my life have met a woman who responds as perfectly and in¬ tuitively to my acting. BRIDES WORE WEDDING RINGS ABOUT NECKS A bride of 400 years ago! What sort of wedding ring should she wear? Would it be a plain gold band, a figured design, a novelty, a platinum diamond—or what? Surely there should be no doubt concerning this most important event in a girl’s life. And that there should be no doubt, George Fitzmaurice, director of “The Night of Love,” the Spanish romance opening at. on., commanded the re¬ search department to go to work and uncover all possible material on this important detail of what was correct in wedding rings four cen¬ turies ago. For days the research department delved into historical particulars, to see what Miss Vilma Banky as the Princess Marie should wear on the third finger of the left hand when she marries Duke de la Garda (Mon¬ tagu Love). The history of wed¬ ding rings was traced down from the earliest periods, and many interest¬ ing and hitherto undivulged facts were uncovered. The first wedding rings were heavy bands about the neck, and were symbols of servitude. When a man took a bride he placed on her some sort of a token which would denote his superiority and author¬ ity, generally a ring about her neck or through her nose which he could grasp. In the feudal period of Spain, the wedding ring was a heavy band of gold, about twice as thick and broad as the ring in use at the present time. So upon the marriage finger of Miss Banky’s hand may be seen a broad band of gold. “NIGHT OF LOVE” LAID IN FEUDAL SPAIN “The Night of Love,” George Fitz- maurice’s delineation of feudal life which comes to the.theatre .is in reality a tribute to old Spain and to days that are gone. Staged among scenery exactly du¬ plicating certain localities of Spain, and with sets designed from authen¬ tic Spanish edifices of four hundred years ago, the picture may be called faithful in every detail. “The Night of Love,” which fea¬ tures Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, is real romance in an histori¬ cal setting, and throughout the pic¬ ture it is the ebb and flow of tense and throbbing love which the spec¬ tator follows with suspense - filled interest. Feudal Spain is there, before your eyes, with its courtly grandees, beau¬ tiful women, adventurous vagabonds and soldiers, each character drawn and etched by the master hand of Fitzmaurice. T,he love story is the paramount theme of the picture and romantic love surely has never been better portrayed—nor has the hot blood of Spain ever pulsed more passionately than in many of the scenes between Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. Miss Banky as the beautiful Prin¬ cess Marie is intensely alluring yet only subtly voluptuous. Colman is the perfect lover, strong, manly, and fired by a genius for love-making. Kidnapping Miss Banky on her wedding night, Colman finds himself hating and fearing and at last lov¬ ing the woman he has sworn to de¬ stroy. From her attitude of proud dis¬ trust in the early part of the picture Miss Banky slowly changes her characterization until at last she be¬ comes a willing victim of the urge that has crept into her heart to con¬ quer her. Through the whole story runs the thread of beauty and romance, pic¬ turesque settings, colorful scenes, brave men and fair women—which will make “The Night of Love” a picture to be remembered. TOOKER SPANISH AMBASSADOR IN MOVIES William Tooker, prominent New York stage and screen actor, plays the role of the Spanish Ambassador in the George Fitzmaurice produc¬ tion, “The Night of Love,” which comes to the.The¬ atre .. Tooker recently completed fea¬ tured roles with Pauline Frederick in “Her Honor the Governor” and with. Richard Barthelmess in “The White Black Sheep.” He has been on the stage for more than twenty years. The role of the Ambassador offers him an opportunity to turn his tal¬ ents into a new channel, as the part offers a vivid opportunity at char¬ acter delineation. The cast for “The Night of Love” includes Ronald Colman as the Spanish bandit, Vilma Banky as the duchess, and Montagu Love as the duke.