Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-01-24 | Page 7 | Mary Garden in Great Film Play at Salt Lake

Mary Garden in Great Film Play at Salt Lake THAIS." in which Mary Garden, the famous diva, makes her debut in 'the motion picture held, bgan a four days' engagement at the Salt Lake theater the-ater yesterday afternoon. Thais, it will be remembered, was the Athenian courtesan who accompanied Alexander Al-exander the Great on his Persian expedition expedi-tion and who later settled in Alexandria, the "Golden City," to become the idol of Its pagan inhabitants. By the witchery of her beauty and her vampirish manners she became the queen of Bacchanalian revels and won notoriety for her numerous numer-ous love affai rs. The action of the story begins shortly after the introduction of Christianity into the pagan world. A wealthy young man, named Paphnutius, who has shared in most of the gayety of the city, begets a fondness for books and the. study of philosophy. He is introduced to Thais and, leaving her home one day, he kills a jealous rival in self-defense. Hawng previously become a convert to Christianity, Chris-tianity, his crime rankles in his heart as a sin against Heaven, and in his remorse he becomej a monk and goes out into the desert to expiate his sin. After three years of meditation end fasting he hears a call to go again to the "wicked city" to convert Thais, who has by this time sunk the inhabitants into the lowest debaucheries through the evil influence she has exerted upon them. When he presents himself at the sump- i tuous and magnificent abode of the dancer dan-cer in his coarse monk's habiliments she is at first amused. He follows her everywhere ev-erywhere until she yields to him and his entreaties to forsake her evil paths. She destroys all her earthly possessions and follows him into the desert. Time passes, and Thais repents fully of her sins. Paphnutius, in spite of his high resolve, has fallen madly in love with Thais. He goes to her. madly embraces em-braces her, Just as she breathes her last. He hears from her lips that she is 'consecrated 'con-secrated to God, a sinner who has become i a saint, while he proves a saint who becomes be-comes a sinner. The film is elaborately and magnifi-. cently staged. The photography is excellent. ex-cellent. The story is from the book of Anatole France, the French author, who gave his permission for photographing the tale, provided Mary Garden, whom he had admired in the operatic form of the story, should play the part of Thais in the screen production.