TALKING PICTURES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 98, 6 February 1936, Page 8

TALKING PICTURES.

CHATS ABOUT THE CINEMA. (By “Spotlight.”) With tiie lofty splendour of the Seirras as a background, W. V. Van Dyke is shooting spectacular scenes tor the operetta “Rose Marie,” in which Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy arc starring for Mctro-Goldwyn-Mayei on location at beautiful Lake Tahoe. “ ’Arty and ’Arriet.” “ ’Arvy and Arriet,” the talking picture version of “Squibs,” screening at the St. James Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday next, is a film that is all pure delight. Racy, packed with Cockney humour, sprinkled with tuneful melodies, it is a fine example of how the right choice oi: actor lor a particular story can elevate a film to the first rank of'its class. This film offers a portion of English life, the life of the Cockney people of London. Those who have visited the Empire’s metropolis in the flesh and in the imagination will recognise the truth of the atmosphere and the characters. Betty Balfour, as “Squibs,” the little Piccadilly flower seller, is alive and vivid, untrained and unschooled, she makes no attempt to conceal what she thinks. Her guards are her native wit and her independence. Sam Hopkins (Gordon Harker) is her father, a lazy, ne’er-do-well, with a sense of humour, interested to his downfall, only in the races. Harker is perfectly cast. Stanley Holloway appears as Charley Lee, the policeman. He has the great gift for an. actor, of self-possession, which lends a fine air of seriousness to his comic role. There is not one of the supporting cast that is not absolutely in character. If one deserves mention more than another, it is Margaret Yarde, as Mrs Lee, Charlie’s mother, a Yorkshire woman who disapproves of “Squibs,” whom she regards as the personification of the “high and mighty” attitude of London folk.

Max Fleisher, producer of the “Papeye” and “Betty Boop” cartoons, claims to have perfected a third-dimen-tion process. He will use it lor the first time in a forthcoming colour cartoon called “Sinbad.”

“Dark Angel.” Fredric March, Merle Oberon and Herbert Marshall play the three lovers tossed helplessly about by tho relentless tides of life in “The Dark Angel,” the new Samuel Goldwyn production which begins on. Saturday next at tho St. James Theatre.

Bet in a lovely, quiet corner of rural England, the story, which Lillian Hellman and Mordaunt Sharp adapted to the screen from a play by Guy Bolton, reflects the conflicts and triumphs in tho life of Kitty Vane, a beautiful English girl who, sinco childhood, lias been loved by one boy, Gerald Shannon (Marshall), while she loves his cousin, Alan Trent (March). Months in the trenches bring to Alan the realisation of his love for Kitty. Home on leave, he confesses his Jove and they ecstatically arrange to marry on the morrow. An order cancelling all leave shatters their dream, however, and they spend their last hours together trying to forget that they may never see .each other again.

The story proceeds from this point to a powerful emotional climax and, after many vicissitudes, the lovers are reunited to face the future together. Sidney Franklin, directed “The Dark Angel” for release through United Artists. The supporting cast is headed by Janet Beecher, John Halliday, Henrietta Grosman, Freda Inescort, Claude Allister, George Breakston- and Cora Sue Collins.

Michael Bartlett is to play opposite Grace Moore again in “Cissy.” They were together in “Love Mo Forever.”

Patrons of the St. James Theatre will he treated to the beauties of Gene Stratton Porter’s' popular story, “A Girl of the Limberlost,” next Thursday. It is a lovely romance, beautifully interpreted by an excellent cast headed by lovely Marian Marsh, Ralph Morgan and Louise Dresser. The director was Christy Cahanne, who made the magnificent “Bon Hur” of the silent days. Since IMrs Porter wrote this story it has been revealed! by an estimate read before the Institute of Arts and Science of Columbia University that no less than 1,700,00 copies of the hook have been sold and probably more than 12,000,000 people have read it.

Claude "Rains, who was never astride a horse until reouired to ride for Paramount’s “The Last Outpost,” is now one of the film colony’s most enthusiastic equestrians. Accompanied by his wife, he rides each morning in the Hollywood Hills.

“Xell Gwvn,” recently completed at the British and Dominions Studios at Boreham Wood, must rank as one of the most ambitious pictures ever sponsored bv a British company—even at a time when super pictures are being made in England on a scale never before attempted.

The subject, based 1 on the historic love affair of Charles TT. and the pretty orange girl and Drury Lane actress, Nell Gwvn. is one of instantaneous appeal. Tt the added attraction of being a pioturisation of events which have actually happened, and it brings back to vivid reality one of the most picturesque and romantic periods in English historv.

• A. strong cast has been assembled, including such well-known artists as Anna Neaglo and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Herbert Wilcox, the producer, is well known to picture fans, for it was he who produced “Paddv The Next Best Thing,” “Clm Chin Chow,” “Madam Pompadour,” etc. “Nell Gwyn” comes to the Majestic Theatre Saturday next.