TALKING PICTURES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 80, 16 January 1936, Page 8

TALKING PICTURES.

CHATS ABOUT THE CINEMA. (By "Spotlight.") Sylvia Sidney has rejected' an offer from Paramount to make three pictures a. year, at £IO,OOO a picture. She has hitherto been making live pictures a your for them, at a regular weekly salary of £SOO. The problem of a man over forty who finds himself in love with a girl half his age is faced by Herbert Marshall in Paramoimt's "Accent on Youth," which opens on Saturday next at tlio St. James Theatre. Starred opposite Sylvia Sidney, Marshall plays the leading masculine role in the picture as a playwright. Unable to tell his sec-rotary how much he lores her, lie gives her the leading role in his play, written about just such a life situation as he'faces. As she falls in love with the handsome leading man, Phillip Reed, Marshall watches her with mixed feelings. As a dramatist, bo is satisfied with the working out of his plot in life, hut as a man, he is unhappy at the prospect of losing her. Because Reed is awkward in his approach, Marshall coaches him in making love to Sylvia Sidney. She finally accepts Reed and marries him. But that docs not end the photoplay. Her marriage to Reed finally convinces her that she really loves Marshall. In the witty and amusing final sequences, these three extricate themselves from their romantic problems in a totally unexpected manner, and Marshall finally wins Miss Sidney.

Ronald Colman has completed his work in the filming of Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in which he plays Sidney Carton. Comedy in Mystery. Singly, Edna May Oliver and James Gleason have been responsible for side-splitting comedy that has won each a wide following. Together they are probably the most hilarious couple on the screen. In "The Penguin Pool Murder" and" "Murder on the Blackboard," they were, .respectively,, as the fans will remember, the nosey schoolmarm with . a Sherlock Holmes complex and the fast-talking, know-it-all police inspector. The companion production, "Murder on a Honeymoon," also an RKO-Radio picture, coming to the St. James Theatre Tuesday next,' finds them in the same roles. Their word battles over dues, their absurd dilemmas while prowling about Catalina Island, background for the new mystery-shocker, and the hinted romance between the dumb cop and antiquated teacher combine to furnish tlio most mirth-provoking picture seen recently. But good as it is, the comedy must share honours with the suspense, spooky atmosphere and spine-tingling thrills, with the light-nino'-fast action starting among the passengers on a 'plane bound from Los Angeles to Catalina Island. A strong cast of comedians and dramatic performers is in support of the detective team. }lr David A. Croll, Ontario's Ministor of'Public. Welfare, has rejected Miss Mary Pickford's offer of '£sooo for the first appearance of the Dioiinc quintuplets in a film. Miss Pickford s offer—which extended to £7OOO for a second film and £IO,OOO for a thirdfollowed Mr Harold Lloyd's offer of £SOOO for the appearance of the quintuplets in his new comedy, "The Milky Way" Mr Croll stated: "It is hard to have to refuse Mary. She was very persuasive, but I could not consider -a film contract for the Dionne babies until Dr. Dafoe, their physician and guardian, .is satisfied that such a venture will not harm them." A New Team. "Ono-New York Night," the Majestic week-end attraction, produces a new team to the public—Franchot Tone and Una Merkel. The picture itself possesses the box-office elements that carried "Tlio Thin Man" to such successful heights. The suspense of seeing a murder mystery unfold from the first reel to the surprising denouement is lightened throughout by clever comedy. And it goes "The Thin Man" one better by having a delightful romance which culminates blissfully at the fadeout. This picture has every box-office element a production could possibly boast—and it AVill please audiences from. Spadook to New York. "The Human Side," one of the most delightful comedy-dramas of &ie season, starring Adolpho Men jMI and featuring Doris Kenyon, Betty La#ford, Charlotte Henry, Joseph Cawthorn and a cast of outstanding players, opens at the St. James Theatre on Thursday next. Wholesome, extremely funny and punctuated with some of the most'humanly dramatic moments seen on the screen in a long time, Universalis "The Human Side" can well be regarded as one of the outstanding films. The plot is beautifully constructed, twisting from situation to situation in surprising fashion. Just when one dramatic episode is ended, Menjou finds himself involved in another and more serious one. At the end, just as everyone's happiness seems hopelessly entangled with no one getting what they want, the children straighten the entire affair out.

The picture has charm and » great deal of humour which submerges from time to time as the lender and dramatic moments of the piece assert themselves. Its wholesomeness and its hilarious humour are among its outstanding (raits, and the acting of everv member of the casi.

"Glorious'' has been announced by Warner Bros, as the second Marion Davies Cosmopolitan production. Dick Powell, who also- appeared opposite Miss iDavies in her first film for Warner Bros., ''Page Miss Glory/' will again play opposite the famous comedienne. "Glorious" will be directed by Frank Borzage.