TALKING PICTURES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 165, 26 April 1935, Page 8

TALKING PICTURES

CHATS ABOUT THE CINEMA. (By " Spotlight.") Acting has not always been the forte of many of the screen's most prominent stars and players. When Joe E. Brown, starring in First National's "Six-Day Bike Rider," which will be released in Ashburtoai early, returned to Toledo, Ohio, in the summer of 1910 after a season of trouping, he decided to take up motor-bike racing as a. profession. He purchased a motor-cycle and had it geared so that it was the second speediest in the country. The day before a scheduled Toledo race, Joe filed his entry application and fee. He was entering the competition as a dark horse. On road try-outs, those in charge of the race got their first glimpse of him. Fate entered the game at this point. The "first glimpse" was to rue that Joe was toi remain an actor. As'the star himself describes it: "I was such a sorewy. rider that the judges feareH there would be serious accidents, so tbey barred me from the race."

/ Can you imagine Wallace Beery strumming, a guitar by the light of a tropical moon? Or singing a sentimental love song? Believe it or not, it happens in "Viva Villa!" Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's spectacular story of life and loves of Pancho Villa, Mexican war lord and revolutionary general. Beery plays Pancho Villa. And Villa, it developed during production of the picture, was something of a gay blade with the ladies. Which makes it incumbent upon Beery to sing the song arid 1 strum the guitar in romantic mood. The baritone voice which once charmed audiences in the New York Theatre is somewhat rusty, Beery found when he .started to sing for the first time for the screen, but it still works. The guitar'was easv; Beery is an accomplished musician. "Viva Villa!" is one of the most spectacular pictures the screen has seen in many a day. Filmed largely in Mexico, with thousands of peons taking part in many scenes, it assumed epic proportions.

Josephine Hutchinson, the latest addition to the roster of First National screen stars, who is now appearing in the feminine lead opposite Dick Powell in "Happiness Ahead," has the longest name in pictures. Even though the 19 letters may crowd the marquees of the world, the, name will not be shortened. It is already established as a name of importance on tho American stage, and the nation's moving picture theatre fronts will just have to be enlarged enough to hold it. The picture is a thrilling romance spiced with hilarious fun, based on the story by Harry Sauber.

Dance experts rate George Raft, Paramount star, as the best dancer en or off the screen. Among Baft's pupils is the Prince of Wales.

On© of the most distinctive pictures of the year is "Great Expectations," the Charles Dickens novel Universal so faithfully and entertainingly transcribed to the screen. Of all the Dickens stories, "Great Expectations" is acknowledged to be the best its author ever wrote-. It is to the credit of Universal to have turned out a masterly production of this highly interesting story. A story that embodies every phase of narrative, from high adventure to seething emotion. It is a picture for everyone in the family, from grandpa to grandson. The most important thing about "Great Expectations" is that it is unique and highly dramatic entertainment. A truly superb cast headed by Henry Hull, Phillips Holmes, Jano Wyatt, Florence Reed, Alan Hale and George Breakston makes this one of the really outstanding pictures of this or any other time. Hull, foremost interpretive actor of the American stage, is astonishing in his many and varied characterisations. He gives a memorable performance. Individual honours are scored by Holmes, Miss Wyatt, Miss Reed and others in an exceptionally large but noteworthy cast. Stuart Walker, the director, has performed! a difficult task with painstaking care and fidelity to the story.

; Pauline Lord, celebrated American stag% star, makes her screen debut in "Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch " Paramount's adaptation of Alice Hegan Rice's play, written, in collaboration with Anne Crawford Flexner, which will shortly be seen in Ashburton. Directed by Norman Taurog, the film, which has preserved all the homelv lovable philosophy of the novel and play, also has W. C. Fields, Zasu Pitts, Evelyn Venable and Kent Taylor in the principal roles. The parts of the famous "Wiggs brood" are played by capable Hollywood child-players, and the story tells the struggles and heartaches that come to this poor, struggling family, whose father "thinks too hard to be bothered with work."

Baby le Roy, who appears in Paramount's "The Old Fashioned Way," had earned more money before he was two than most college graduates earn in five years.

All the delightful romance and intense drama of Sir James Barrio's play are contained in the outstanding film, "What Every Woman Knows." The whimsical note so noticeable in the famous author's works is recaptured in the film, but the chief feature is the flawless acting of the principal players. The beautiful Helen Hayes, who was seen in splendid roles in "The Sin of Madelon Cfaudet" and "Arrowsmith," rises to the occasion and gives her finest portrayal.

"Since women have found and tasted their freedom I don't believe that they will ever give it up. I don't think that women will ever go back to the old pre-war restrictions on their freedom of thought and action." So says Norma Shearer. "Women to-day are having careers, going places and doing things, but they still are managing to be good i wives and mothers. A few years ago such a thing would have been impossible," she says. "And. I really believe they have given up their grand and glorious attempt to imitate the masculine sex. They have discovered that they can ibe independent but still feminine. So I don't thing that there is any chance of a return to the old standards. Women have tasted freedom and they like it."