TALKING PICTURES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 63, 26 December 1935, Page 3

TALKING PICTURES.

CHATS ABOUT THE CINEMA. (By “Spotlight.”) To-day, with the passing of the storm of criticism that last year .shook the film capital to its very foundations, Hollywood is facing two major problems. The first of these concerns the excessive taxation imposed upon the industry by tho State of California —so excessive, indeed, that the film magnates are seriously considering a move from Hollywood to Florida or New York; the second problem is the coming of colour—for most are agreed that come it must. Natalie M. Kalmus, the only colour director in America, who with her husband, Herbert T. Kalmus—the inventor of technicolour—is an authority on this new motion picture medium, is in a measure reassuring to those already established on the screen, yet indirectly indicates that it will mark the doom of •certain stars of to-day. Fredric March, Charles Laughton and Sir Cedric Hardwicke head the brilliant cast of “Les Miserables,” Darryl Zanuck’s 20th Century production of the Victor Hugo classic, which comes to the St; James Theatre next Saturday. March is seen as the hero, Jean Valjean, who spends five hitter years in the galleys of a French prison .ship for the theft of a loaf of bread, and finds liis whole life is shadowed by this petty crime. Laughton is cast as Javert, the fanatical detective who hounds him, and Hardwicke plays the beneficent Bishop Bienvenu whose kindness and trust launches the brutalised convict on the road to a nobler life. Richard Boleslawski directed “Les Miserables” from a screen play by W. P. Lipscomb. The distinguished pair worked in the same capacities on Zanuck’s recent production of “Clive iii India.’'

Rochelle Hudson, Frances Drake, Florence Eldridge—who is Mrs F redric March in private life—Jessie Ralph, and little Marilynne Knowlden head the feminine contingent of the supporting cast-, while John Beal, who scored in the title role of “The Little Minister,” and Ferdinand Gottschalk, are prominent among the supporting males in this Joseph M. Schenck presentation released through United Artists. Advice has been received to the effect that the British and Dominions production “Esckpe Mo-Never,” starring Elisabeth Bergner, won the award for the best foreign production showing Italian scenes at the recent International Film Exhibition at Venice. Whilo making “Modern Times.” Charlie Chaplin has used five bowler bats, six. pairs of baggy trousers, four coats, six bamboo canes, four striped shirts, and three pairs of shoes, size 13’. Nobody lias kept count of the number of false moustaches.

Uproarious Comedy. “Are You A Mason?” the uproarious British stage success, conies to the St. James Theatre on New Year’s Eve as a, screen riot. No better east could have been chosen to ensure the success of this great laughing picture than Robertson Hare and Sonnie Hale. “The London Era” and “Photoplay” both laud it as being one of the most delightful farces that has ever come out of England. The whole story is liteiallv crammed with comedy situations that are displayed to the fullest advantage. “Are You A. Mason?” was translated from the German, and was first produced on the English stage in 1901, at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The story deals with the attempts ol Frank Perry, a young married man, to obtain money from his mother-in-law, and tlio comedy situations arising from the fact that both he and his father-in-law have pretended to become Masons in order to please their wives, when really they have spent tlieir evenings on wild parties instead of attending their masonic meetings. Sonnie Hale plays Frank Perry in the screen version of “Are You A Mason?” and J. Robertson Hare lias his usual role of the brow-beaten husband who gets knocked about physically and mentally by his wife. Also included in tlio east is that perfect female impersonator, Lewis Shaw, who adds in no small measure to the hilarity of the production. Maurice Chevalier’s next starring picture for Metro-Golclwyn-Mayer will be “The Cardboard Lover,” according lo announcement from the studio. I his is the comedy by Jacques Deyal in which Jeanne Eagles and Leslie Howaid appeared on Broadway several seasons ago. Neither cast nor director have been announced as yet. Chevaliei last film was “The Merry Widow, with Jeannette MacDonald. A kissless bride craving affection—starts the grandest fun since “It Happened One Night,” with the same star. Claudette Colbert, grandest, now m her greatest, as the love-lorn secretary m “She Married Her Boss,” opening at the St. James Theatre next Thursday. After her marriage to her employer, the battle rages with no holds barred except kissing in clinches. And the secretary’s disappointment when she discovers the romance she dreamed about was merely a dream, and liow she eventually makes it a reality, create .some of the most intensely humorous situations, making the picture one of the most outstanding on the screen this season. In support ol Miss Colbert are Melvyn Douglas and Michael Bartlett, featured players, and Edith Fellows and Katherine Alexander. The picture was directed by Gregory La Cava, for Columbia. Phillip Reed was borrowed by Paramount from another major studio for the juvenile lead in “Accent on Youth in which (Sylvia Sidney and Herbert Marshall are featured. Holmes Herbert and Astricl Allwyn are also in the cast.