HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

GOSSIP OF THE STUDIOS.

(By MOLLIB MERRICK.)

HOLLYWOOD (Cal.), February 29.

The making of a motion picture takes no longer than it used to take. Characters are cast with far more care than the average play commands. The sets surpass anything the modern theatre or opera may furnish, and directors bring prices anywhere from a few thousands a week to over half a million per picture. Authors and dialogists are brought from the far ends of the earth, if need be. One vital matter which the public reckons little of is that of the cameraman. Only the initiated notice who he may happen to be. Yet he is of such vital importance that Rowland Brown, one of Hollywood's leading directors, threw up the best assignment of his year because he could not have the cameraman he wan ted for the work.

Carole Lombar , whose latest picture. "No One Man," has received very good notices, is coming in for more and more attention every day, and is being groomed to play the type of story that has made Constance Bennett so popular. Her next part will be with Chester Morris in "The Beachcomber," and after that she plays in "The Glass Key," a thriller of political intrigue and murder. Miss Lombard hae the part of the society girl around whom the story revolves. But the important thing is that when a st "lio plans as, carefully as this for an actress' pictures, they mean to make something big out of her.

In a department store on gay Hollywood Boulevard a very old lady was caught slipping a pair of silk stockings into her shabby purse. She was hailed before the manager and questioned. She told him, in a weak voice, she had had nothing to eat for three days and thought she could sell the stockings to buy a meal. As the investigation went on the little old lady proved the truth of her statement by falling dead at the horrified manager's feet. Some of our stories written in real life are almost too poignant to endure.

Now the producers have discovered tliat children aren't going to the pictures they inado for them at all. "Skippy" and "Sooky" were adult fare in the final analysis. The kids gave them the "raspberry," quite frankly. So no more "kiddie" films for the present. The pictures above-mentioned were made with the express intention of getting little children into the theatre. But Jesse Laeky, father of a lad of nine years, has made the announcement that he greatly doubts if there are any real children left in the world to-day. Modern "kiddies" like "Frankenstein," and are not a bit bashful in saying so.

Hollywood has gone into a deep spell of "privacy," which means that "ballyhoo" is non-popular for the time. The two most widely discussed artists in this colony appear the most infrequently, rarely are interviewed, and exhibit complete and total disdain for what the public think. And they get the world's attention nevertheless.

Ronald Colman and Greta Garbo make great pictures, though. And if they have set the precedent of privacy for the rest of the colony it would seem as though the new devotees of the inconspicuous life will have to come up to the ColmanGarbo standard to maintain their seclusion successfully.

The four Marx brothers are back to wreck the peace of mind of this village. Their pranks kept Hollywood agog when they were here making comedies last season. What with "Ex-Cat," Harpo'e favourite animal, who attended all parties with him, and the "gags" Oroucho pulled on all occasions, nobody

dared to draw a calm breath with the comedians at large. And now George Hearst has met them with an aeroplane and brought them to Hollywood under personal escort. At the same time that the latest and most sophisticated plays are being made in Hollywood, it is announced that Norma Shearer's next wLi be "Smilin' Through," which served as one of Norma Talmadge's most popular silent pictures. It may be that Irving Thalberg and Louie B. Mayer, two of the best-known producers, sense a return to the sweet old-fashioned stories, and then again, it may be that they are wise enough not to allow Norma Shearer to be associated entirely with the type of ultra-smart roles that she has played in her last two or three pictures. The Vicomte Alain de Ijeche, a young man with a Continental flair for living, and a slow and deliberate method of speaking his excellent English, is back in Hollywood again. His former visits carried him into some of the best-known homes in the colony, including that of Marion Davies. His present visit will take him into the M.G.M. studio in the capacity of writer for foreign releases. Studios wisely retain foreign staffs for the making of old world pictures. They understand the psychology of their countrymen and better results are obtained. Jacques Peyder, a French director, has made an outstanding success of versions in that tongue. Berthold Viertel is another foreigner whose pictures have brought him praise. Alain de Leche wants more continuity and flow in the foreign versions made in America. He plans to adapt "Debutante," his stage success for foreign release, and he plans to have a "vanpleasant sommair at zat most pleasant spot, Malibu." His title, corresponding to the English "viscount," is old and genuine, and his first line of defence against Hollywood huntresses is impregnable.