Films and Screen Stars

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 5 (Supplement)

Films and Screen Stars

FIRST RELEASES IN AUCKLAND. WEEK COMMENCING JULY 19. ..-."Jw" Feature. Star. u . --«• <i-ri pi. _ „ Make. Distributors. The Chinese Parrot." Marion Nixon n • i ~ . National. "Something Esther RoUton""'' 1 ' Mctro-Goldwyn-M.yer. Motro-Goldwyx-Moyer. F. lm „ "Th. College Widow." Dol.ro. C.«oMo. UCU °°" fcSfcE Film.]

Anita Stewart makes her debut as a Columbia player in "The Way of the Strong."

Marion Davies has the title role in the ■creami ugly funny production, "The Patsy," adapted from the Xew York .ptage play.

Herbert Brenon, director of "Sorrell and yon," lias announced that he will film lannie Hurst's novel, "Lummox." Louise Fazenda will probably be borrowed from Warner Brothers io pky the Reading role.

Olive Borden, feature player, who has not worked in pictures for some months, has been signed by Master Pictures to •tar in a production, the title of which has not yet been decided upon. Miss Borden is a further twinkle to the list •of Master Picture stars.

laking with them special equipment ior the filming of a toboggan race in "Beau Broadway," the Lew Cody-Aileen Pringle Company has gone to Lake Tahoe, California's most famous moun-tain-top resort. The cast includes George O'Hara, Jack Cummings, Hugh Trevor, fieinie Conklin, and Kit Guard.

Ab her first starring appearance for United Artists, Vilma Bauky will make, ''The Innocent," a story of Alsace-Lor-raine during the late war. Victor Fleming, Paramount director, will play opposite the Hungarian star, according to an announcement made by Mr. Samuel Goldwyn. One, and possibly two other players will be chosen from European fields.

"Turkish Delight," a First National release, is a new type of entertainment, embodying rip-roaring humonr with the tinsel and glitter of a Turkish harem packed with beautiful women, and punctuated with a thousand laughs. Rudolph Schildkraut has the role of #asan, a rug dealer in the Turkish quarter of New York, with Julia, Faye as Zelma, his American-born neice.

The famous Scottish ballad, "Annie Luurie," has been converted to the screen In a particularly lavish picture, with Lillian Gish taking the role of the Scottish Joan of Arc. This pieture is said to be the mightiest and most colourful romance brought to the screen. The supporting cast includes Norman Kerry, Hobart Bosworth, Creighton Hale, Patricia Avery, and other labourites.

Tiie latest Emil Janninga' picture for Paramount is titled "Tho Man Who Never Miased." This is taken from the magazine story of Mildred Gram, "The feeder." It deals with the subject of life in a four-a-day vaudeville, which, while being of a novel nature, provides great scope for the dramatic interpretation of which Janninga is a master. Lethar Mendes, well known as a Paramount director, has this picture in hand.

Raoul Walsh has begun production on '"Me, Gangster," his twenty-fourth picture for Fox Films. This is being made from the Charles Francis- Coe story of the same name. Prominently cast are Don Terry, a new "find" in the screen world, June Collyer (Warnpas Baby Star of 1928), Anders Randolf, Claude Gillingwater, Arthur Stone and Burr Mcintosh.

Pola Negri's latest Paramount production ia based on the famous Btage play "Fedora." It is interesting to note that a quartet of well-known male playerß are included in the cast, namely Lawrence Grant, Jack Luden, Otto Mattie«on and Bodil Rosing. The famous German director, Ludwig Berger, charge of production. He was brought to Hollywood by Paramount specially to direct Pola Negri.

David Butler, Fox Films director of film dramas and comedies dealing with ybuth, is expected to return to the home fold shortly from Culver, Ind., where he has been for a month making "Prep and Pep," with David Rollins and Nancy Drexel in the leading roles. The story has to do with a youth who tries to live up to his father's reputation as the greatest athlete of the prep school, «nd he runs into some healthy obstacles before he wins out.

Co-operation between authors and tiiose engaged in the production of their stories often helps materially in the success of a motion picture. Zane Grey, noted Western author, recently paid a visit to the set in Hollywood, where his latteat story, "The Vanishing Pioneer," is being filmed. There he conferred with director John Waters and the star, Jack Holt. After overseeing the production of certain important sequencer, he attended a special screening of the "rushes" of scenes taken on location, and expressed hia complete satisfaction on the film Interpretation of his story.

Beryl Mercer has arrived in Universal City to play the part of the mother in "We Americans." Another who has been added to the cast by Edward S lonian is Andy Devine.

Betty Bronson has been added to the cast of Metro-Goldwyn-Maver's thrilling mystery drama, "The Beliamv Trial," which Monta Bell <s now directing, with Lea trice Joy in the leading feminine role.

Dolores Del Rio, Mexican beautv, is a French girl again in the films' She flashed to prominence as Charmaine in "What Price Glory," and is a fashionable Parisian in "No Other Woman," a forthcoming Fox picture.'

Although the cast of "Lonesome" has been dismissed (from that standpoint the picture which Paul Fejos is making for Universal is completed), there is still a month and a-half's camera work to be accomplished. Dr. Fejos, who was in New York for a rapid survey of new film material, has returned to Universal City.

Marceline Day, who appeared with Lon Chaney in "London After Midnight," and will also be seen in his next pieture, "The Big City," has the principal role in "Under the Black Eagle," 1 which will be screened shortly. Flash, a new dog star, makes his debut in this film. Ralph Forbes and Douglas Fairbanks, jxin., also play important roles in tl.is picture.

The alluring Charmaine of "What Price Glory," Dolores Del Rio, will be seen here shortlv in a new role, that of Toni in "The Gateway of the Moon." when this latest Fox feature comes to Auckland. This production, in which the beautiful Miss Del Rio is starred, is a colourful drama of the South American junsrle, where white men are building a railroad at the cost of many native lives. Passion primitive and relentless is shown in stronsr contrast to the overpowering reed of civilisation.

The entire Place St. Marc and • the Place St. George were at the disposal of the producer of "The Prince of Adventurers," by the Italian Government and the Venetian authorities, for the taking of some of the big Venetian scenes. In addition to providing police to keep these squares free from traffic, five large barracks were lent for the accommoda tion of the crowds. "The Prince of Adventurers," which is the screen production of the literary classic, "Casanova," is to be released in New Zealand by Universal.

Just as the mountain could not be brought to Mahomet in the proverb, ao they could not bring America's national capital to John Gilbert, which is the explanation for one of the most interesting trips ever taken by a screen company, when Mr. Gilbert and his cast journeyed to Washington to film scenes for "Man, Woman and Son." The new picture, a story of newspaper life in Washington, was written bv Monta Bell, who also directed it, and who, before going into pictures, was a Washington • newspaper man. Many of the scenes have historic background. Spots along the Potomac, the zoo in the grounds of the national capital, the Capitol steps, and othar details, and several general * views of Washington were filmed from office windows. The new picture is a romance of a newspaper, with Mr. Gilbert in the role of a reporter and Miss Eagels as a society editor. A notable cast appears, including Marc McDermottj GladysBrockwell, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, and Philip Anderson.

"Tempest." the new John Barrymore i picture which United Artists will release as one of its biggest 19*28 specials, represents the largest financial outlay, the | longest production schedule, and the greatest striving for popular entertainment in the famous screen star's career. ["Tempest" incidentally answers the plea !of thousands of Barrvmore's admirers for a picture in a modern setting. After a series of big costume pictures, in which he played romantic characters of hundreds of years ago, Barrymore and his United Artists associates have yielded to popular demand ahd filmed a modern story—a saga of twentiethcentury Russia. In "Tempest" the screen idol has the role of a subaltern whose affairs of the heart and sword leail him into some of the strangest adventures of the revolution which swept out Czarism, made fugitives out of grand dukea, and rulers out of peasants. The early part of "Tempest" depicts all the pomp and luxury of the Empire. .With the revolution-peonies the most gripping - picturisatioh yet made of a national cataclysm.

Paramount Week, 1928, will be heralded by special programmes of big pictures, and considerable attention is being given *to the Paramount-Christie Comedies, Krazy Kat Cartoona and other short features.

Arthur Edmund Carew, the George Harris of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," has sailed for Rome, Paris and London. In all three places he wi)l make a personal appearance with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and in London he expects to star in a British picture.

Ramon Novarro, star of ''Ben Hur," will shortly be seen in a new pcoduction, "Across to Singapore," a stirring story of the sea, adapted from Ben Ames Williams' novel, "All the Brothers Were Valiant." Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence, and Frank Currier are included in a big ca«t.

"The DoVe," in which famous Norma Talmadge will be seen in a role entirely dissimilar to anything yet interpreted by her for the screen, is shortly to be released. The story is said to possess very great opportunities in its emotional episodes, and the vivid action scenes give full scope to this favourite star to display her genius. Gilbert Roland's characterisation will also be found a super one. It calls for exceptional versatility.

Corinne Griffith is now being directed by Frank Lloyd, in "The Divine Lady," First National's picturisatiori of the life of Nelson and his romance with Lady Hamilton. "The Divine Lady," it is claimed, will be an even bigger production than "The Sea Ha wk," which must also becredited to Lloyd. It boasts an unusually strong cast, , among the featured players being H. B. Warner, Victor Varconi, Marie Dressier, lan Keith, Dorothy Cummings and Montagu Love.

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Company, which has been making "Southern Skies" in Tahiti, has returned to San Francisco. The company, which numbered more than sixty people, left Los Angeles at the end of November. In Tahiti a complete studio in miniature was erected, where more than 200,000 ft of film was developed and printed. "Southern Skies" deals with the coming of the white man to the Pacific, and Monte Blue plays the leading male role with over 1000 natives as "supporting artists." According to officials who have seen the scenes, Flaherty has secured some of the most beautiful shots eter made of the South Seas,- and at the same time has made a picture of outstanding merit.

Glamorous ,Spain is shown at the height of its picturesque beauty in Fox .Films' "Carmen," directed by Raoul Walsh, with Dolores Del Rio. Victor McLuglen and Don Alvardo in the principal .roles. Aside from the dramatic' quality ol the narrative, the background is one of unusual colour. The Spanish town on a fete day presents a most curious ahd interesting spectacle. The extraordinary animation contrasts strongly with the habitual calm of the place. The whole city is brilliantly attired in its fiesta garb. Striped hangings droop from every window. Peasants crowd about in dense masses, some, on foot, others on their ponies or mules, covered with graceful matules in place of saddles. In "Carmen" Raoul Walsh has obtained the genuine fiesta It is interesting to know that in all of the big scenes actors and actresses of Spanish descent were used.

Kichard Barthelmess laid aside any sartorial ambitions he might have had for "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come," the First" National picturisation of the novel by John Fox, which is deservedly wond famous for its refreshingly novel atmosphere and splendid characterisations. Barthelmess. with Molly O'Day in the feminine lead, appears as the barefoot mountain boy, Chad, and makes a living breathing reality of the attractive character. "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is an exceptionally human story of the Kentucky mountaineers in Civil War days, bringing to the screen some beau* tiful shots.