BRITISH TALKIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

BRITISH TALKIES.

PRODUCERS WAKING UT. A BERNARD SHAW CONTRACT. Mr. Bernard Shaw (says the London "Daily Times") has entered into a contract with the British International Pictures, Limited, by which that company will produce at Elstree a "talkie" film based on his play "How He Lied to Her Husband," and it is hoped that this will be followed in due course by the production on the screen of other plays by Mr. Shaw. A number of filmproducing companies had been anxious to recruit his services, and there is naturally a good deal of satisfaction that the contract has been secured by a British company. . Most of th& leading British playwrights and authors have now agreed that their work shall be presented to the public through the new medium of the talking picturc. Mr. Galsworthy's play "Escape" has been produced as a "talkie" by Mr. Basil Dean for the Associated Talking Pictures, Limited, and his novel "Old English" has been adapted in America by the Warner Company and has been shown to the film industry privately. , Sir James Barrie's short play, Half an Hour," has been produced as a under the title, of "The Doctor's Secret, but it is obvious that there is a vast field in his work for the film producer. Two of Mr. Milne's plays. "The Fourth Wall" and "Michael and Mary," are now being converted to screen uses in British studios, and Mr. Lonsdale, like Mr. 1. <*• Wodehouse, has entered into a contract to write scenarios for an American company which has already produced he Last of Mrs. Cheyney" and "The High Road." Two of Mr. Lonsdale's successful plays', however, "On _ Approval" and "Canaries Sometimes Sing," have already been secured by a British company, the British and Dominions Film Corporation, and one of the most satisfactory features of the present position is the growing willingness of British authors to entrust their work to British producers instead of automatically making the long journey to Hollywood. •' There is no doubt that at the moment the American producers are seriously concerned at the steady progress which is being made in British "talkie" production. Many of them have always taken the line that if the British producers realised their opportunity and jumped in quickly enough they might prove to be serious rivals to the American companies. For a time it seemed as if the British concerns did not realise the great possibilities of the new form of entertainment, but this stage has passed, and most of the British companies are now hard at work. >