FAVOURITE SCREEN STARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

FAVOURITE SCREEN STARS.

SURPRISES IN ENGLISH VOTE. More than 50,000 replies, full of illuminating facts about films, have been received by Mr. Sidney Bernstein, the noted London cinema and theatre owner, in response to a questionnaire sent to all sections of the British public. It appears that England's favourite film stars are, in order of popularity: — Women: Norma Shearer, Constance Bennett, Mario Dresslex-, Ruth Chatterton, Janet Gaynor, Greta Garbo. Men: Ronald Colman, Clivc Brook, George Arliss, Robert Montgomery, Maurice Chevalier, John Boles.

The first three actors are English. Ronald Colman is the only star maintaining his vogue since the last ballot in 1928, and is an easy winner. Former leaders who now do not appear in the first 30 include Dolores Del llio, Betty Balfour, Clara Bow, Vilma Banky, John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd, Norma Talinadge and Laura La Plautc.

The biggest slumps are those of Mary Piekford, Douglas Fairbanks and Al Jolson —who was the first big star of the "talkies." All three polled scarcely any votes. It is also revealed that 57 per cent of the public do not wish to see silent pictures again; though 48 per cent would tolerate them occasionally.

Most Popular Films. Last year's most popular films arc "Hell's Angels," "Min and Bill," "Trader Horn," ami "The Devil to Pay." The favourite British films are "Tons of Money" and "Plunder." Many celebrated people answered the questions. Mi 1 . G. K. Chesterton confessed he had never yet heard a talkie; and Mrs. Stanley Baldwin, Lord Burnliani, Mr. George Lansbury, and Mr. Aldons Huxley admitted that they rarely visited cinemas. Seventy-live per cent of those who answered stated that they relied on Press film critics, and only two per cent on the radio criticism. The most popular directors of films are Ernst Lubitsch, Tom Walls, Lewis Milcstoue and Alfred Hitchcock. The> first and the third arc American; the other two British,