TALKING PICTURES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 68, 2 January 1936, Page 3

TALKING PICTURES.

CHATS ABOUT THE CINEMA. (By “Spotlight.”) It seems as though Mr Paul Robeson, the famous Negro actor and singer, will be busy for a long while in Hollywood. The other day we were able to state that he will be engaged in a new version of “Show Boat.” Now comes the news that Universal Pictures are about to make yet one more screen version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and that Mr Robeson will probably be cast for the part of Uncle Tom. This will be a new departure for the actor who has always appeared as young and athletic. The usual make-up of Uncle Tom with white hair and the assumption of an aged voice will be a strange experience for Mr Robeson’s innumerable admirers. Snub Pollard, famous comedian of silent days, returns to the screen in RKO Radio Pictures’ Australian musical romance, “Stingaree,” co-starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. “Reckless.” Jean Harlow and William Powell are co-starred for the first time in tho dazzling new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayev musical extravaganza, “Reckless,” which opens on Saturday at the St. James Theatre. In the new production Miss Harlow appears as a singing and dancing star for the first time on the screen. She dances to the hypnotic rhythm of original music composed by Jerome Kern who wrote tho song hits of “Cat and the Fiddle,” “Show Boat,” “Music in the Air” and dozens of other successes. Franchot Tone, direct from his success in “Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” heads the supporting cast of “Reckless,” which also features May Robson, Ted. Healy, Nat Fendleton and Robert Light. Colin Tapley, the young New Zealander who is under contract to Paramount Pictures, has been assigned roles in two forthcoming productions—- “ Peter Ibbetson,” which features Ann Harding and Gary Cooper, and the Last Outpost,” with Claude ltams heading the cast. “Stingaree.” The most lovable screen rogue to live on the screen is said to be poitrayed by Richard Dix in “Stingaree, RKO-Radio’s romantic melodrama. “Slingaree,” according to word iiom Hollywood, was a mischievous, adven-ture-loving highwayman who terroiised Australia in the Seventies, a ciook with a bent toward the aesthetic and beautiful women. Between crimes lie improvised beautiful music and when lie needed an audience he thought little ol : kidnapping it. Mis career came to an end when lie risked his Hie and lost bis freedom to help a poor girl gain fame in the operatic world. The climax of the film is a story of triumphant love, and “Stingaree’s” rebirth. Irene Dunne is co-starred with Dix. “Stingaree” comes to the St. James Theatre next Tuesday. Lewis Stone was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is a striking type, sft. lOin. tall, with grey hair and hazel eyes and a wonderful personality which registers on the screen. He made his stage debut in a stock company in Canada, later becoming well known as an actor on Broadway. Subsequently lie made his screen debut for “Essanay.” During the war he served as an infantry instructor, resuming his screen career after tho Armistice. “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” “The Big House,” “Madame X,” “The Secret ISix,” are a few of his best known pictures. His latest is “Shipmates Forever.”

Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are again co-starred in the new Cosmopolitan drama, with music, “Shipmates Forever,” which opens at tho St. Janies Theatre,. Ashburton, on January 11. Tho famous screen lovers who made their first hit in “42nd Stiecfc, following it with “Gold Diggers of 1933,” “Flirtation Waltz,” and other screen successes, appear in their most pretentious picture in “Shipmates Foiever,” a thrilling drama of midshipman’life at the American Naval Academy. More than a thousand cadets take part in this film, and there is a talented supporting cast, including Lewis Stone, Ross Alexander, Dick Foran, and the songs were written by the famous team of AY arren and Dulcu. May Robson is the only greatgrandmother on the screen. Her grandson is Robert Hobson Gore and her greatgranddaughter is May Robson Goie. Neil Hamilton is to play in a French picture, “La Vie Parisicnnc,” opposite Conchita Montenegro. Gene Stratton-Porter. Betty Furness made her screen debut in 1932, under contract to RKO pictures She reached the height of her earlier career with the feminine lead in the Monogram picture, “Beggars in Ermine,” which starred Lionel Atwell. Subsequently she was placed under contract by M-G-M, which lent her to Monogram to take the leading part in “Keeper of the Bees,” Monogram s picturisation of the famous Gene Strat-ton-Porter novel, which comes to the Majestic Theatre on Saturday. The featured players are aided by the supporting cast of excellence, including Neil Hamilton, Emma Dunn, Hobart Bosworth, Edith Fellowes, Helen Jerome Eddy, Marion Shilling, Janies Burtis, Barbara Bedford, Lafe McKee, George Cleveland, and William Worthington. Christy Cabanne directed.