THE ANSWER CORNER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 38, 14 February 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE ANSWER CORNER.

REPLIES TO INQUIRIES.

SLW.H. —H. B. Warner played the part of the father in "Sorrell and Son." —Beryl Mercer was seen as the mother in "All Quiet on / the . Western Front" and "Three Live Ghosts." jy).C—Richard Cromwell will make his ' first appearance in "Tol'able David." He is 20 years old, is sft 10in tall, has light brown hair and grey eyes. He has done some work as a mural painter. $□?. —Constance Talmadge seems to have retired from the screen. The last picture she played in was ''Venus," which was released in 1929. Jpy.Z. —Joan Crawford's, last picture is "Within the Law." Rudy Vallee has been, married and divorced from Leonie Cauchosis McCoy. Gary Cooper was born in Montana, May 7, 1901, and is still a bachelor. W'M FAN".—Constance Bennett was Ibor'n in/ New York about 25 years ago. She is sft 4in, weighs 991b, has Monde hair and deep blue eyes. Some of her early pictures were "Cytherea," "Into the Net," "Code of the West,"' •"The Goose Hangs High" "My Son," and "Sally, Irene and Mary." She retired temporarily - after her . marriage to Phil Plant, returned the latter part of 1929, and appeared in "This Thing Called Love," which was fol-, lowed by "Rich People," "Son Of the Gods" and "Common Clay." Washington has ti<een added to 4iie list of those who have seen Raoul Walsh's epic of the pioneers, "The Big Trail."' This 'production._six months in the Aiming, was viewed' at the White House recently. . , ' . Business and pleasure are travelling hand in hand with Edmund Lowe. He already has put in two weeks filming scenes for Stewart Edward White's .comedy "The Shepper Newfounder" at the various golf clubs near Hollywood, and the steady practice with the clubs has whittled a half dozen strokes from his game. . .* . i. Louis Calhern, New York stage star, ■has been chosen to play-the "other man" in Nancy .Carroll's current production "Stolen Heaven." now being filmed at th " New York studios.- Phillips!. .'Holmes is the leading man, and Edward Keane, Joan Carr, Albert Smith, Dagmar Oakland, Joseph Crehan and Joan Kenyon appear in supporting roles. George Abbott is handling the direction. •.■■■■■ ' Lewis Ayrea, who has tie leading role in "The Doorway to Hell," has had a meteoric career. First with Garbo in fThe Kiss," then his role in "All Quiet," then "Common Clay," and now "Doorway to Hell," a role totally different from any of his previous portrayals. In ."The Doorway to Hell" Ayres is cast as a gangster with a Napoleonic complex, ,who fights his way to leadership; Included in the cast are Charles Judels, Dorothy Matthews and Leon Janney. Tol'able David," a picturisation of Joseph Hergesheimer's celebrated "Satur'day Evening Post" «tory of the same 'title, was directed-by John Blystone, and introduces in the title' role Richard Cromwell, a previously unknown boy, hot since Jus work in the picture, heralded as the screen's latest sensation. The balance of an imposing cast includes Noah Beery, Joan Peers, Helen Ware, George Duryea, Henry B. Walthall, Barbara Bedford, Edmund Breese, Harlan E. Knight, James Bradbury sen., and .Richard Carlyle.

With Dorothy Maclcaill and Joel McCrea in the leading roles, "Once a Sinner," George Middleton's smart sophisticated story, has gone into production. C. Henry Gordon, who was given a long term contract as the result of his work in "Renegades," starring Warner Baxter, 1 has an outstanding role. Guthrie McClintic is directing "Once a Sinner," with locales including a small town in New York State, New York city and Paris. Loretta Young, who is i';ist becoming recognised as one of the most versatile actresses on the talking screen, is in "The Road to Paradise." In this production Miss Young plays the dual role of twin sisters, separated in infancy and brought up upon entirely different lines, their paths finally converging. The supporting cast includes Jack Mulhall, Ray.mond , Hatton, George Barraud and Katlilyn Williams. "The Road to Pafradiße" is adapted from the stage play, "Cornered."

Ruth Chatterton's newest all-talking dramatic film, "The Right to Love," has just been completed at the Hollywood studios. It is an adaptation of the novel "Brook Evans," by Susan Glaspell, and was directed by Richard Wallace. Paul. Lukas, David Manners,. J Irvin g Pichell, George. Baxter, Edna Best and Robert Parrish are in the cast. - Miriam Hopkins, youthful blonde stage star, who was engaged to appear in "Fast and Loose," has been selected to play opposite Maurice Chevalier in his next picture. The new film,, which is as yet untitled, will be produced at the New York studios under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. The film story is from an original by Preston Sturges, prominent stage dramatist. '• ' Remarkable photographic effects are declared to have been secured by Director Josef von Sternberg in his new production "Dishonoured," in a sequence where an aeroplane takes off from a flying field at night in a blinding rainstorm. Victor McLaglen and Marlene Dietrich are costarred in this'romance of spies during the war, and Warner Oland, Lew Cody, Norman. Kerry and Barry Norton lend support.. ' V It will take more "than 50 years to find out whether they are good guessers, but De Sylva, Brown and Henderson, world champion song writers, and producers, are determined to know. With this idea in view, a print of their new musical comedy romance "Just Imagine" will be sealed along with' a present-day projection machine, in a vault at Movietone city, Beverley Hills, to be kept there for half a century. The picture, featuring El Brendel, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Garrick, Marjorie White and Frank Albertson, deals with events in 1980, The plan to preserve a print of the film was suggested at first as a joke, but is now in actuality* 'The living title" ,i« the newest and not the least startling, innovation in talking pictures, and no longer may George Bernard Shaw rant and rave about the endless introductory titles that bore impatient filmgoers with credits to assistant carpenters and deputy-hairdressers. Gloria Swaneon personally concocted the sound title, and it is introduced in "What, a Widow?" to be shown in Auckland shortly. Masks of comedy and tragedy are dangled against blackness' and they swing into rhythmic movement' as ghostly voices discuss the filmmakers concerned in the telling of the story that is to follow. The good oldfashioned main title and "panned" subtitles are not used. William Dietz executed the trick / camera effects. Graham Seton,- the author of the novel, "The 'W' Flan," was himself a British Intelligence . officer • who had adventures in ; Germany during the war. A screen reconstruction of his actual experiences might have been less obviously thrilling than the drama of his imaginary Duncan' Grant, but it would be very interesting. "The 'W' Plarf," it may be recalled, /fras a plan to burrow under "No Man ? s Land" to a point well behind the British lines, where, at a given signal, the Germans, .would blast their way upwards./. Grant, wearing the uniform of a dead German major, lands in German territory-from an aeroplane, visits .the mother of the idead man, and steals his plans. After, that he kills a German private for .his uniform, is arrest ad as a deserter, and sent as interpreter to the W plan workings, upon which British prisoners are employed. With the help of the prisoners and some dynamite, blows lip a tunnel, climbs through the crater into "No Man's Land," gets to the British trenches with the. German plans, and frustrates their knavish tricks. The scenea in the workings, with gangs of prisoners driven through the galleries at the double, the clatter of machinery, and the brusque German commands are shown both to the ear and eye vri£h. great skill.