THE ANSWER CORNER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE ANSWER CORNER.

REPLIES TO INQUIRIES. JETTY BOOP (Auckland). —I have no Information as to how Tad Alexander, of Feilding, "broke" into films. Your only chance of doing the same thing would be to go to Hollywood, Elstree, Shepherd's Bush, or Melbourne and Bondi, and to place your name on the casting director's waiting list in every studio. Otherwise, gtnd details of your personal apppearance and hope for the best. "The Search for Beauty" will be shown here in the near future, in answer to your final question. JUST WEST CRAZY (Avondale). —After being introduced in "Broadway Through a Keyhole," Russ Columbo, I believe, has been booked to appear again for his true element, the radio, for a while before making any more films. Write to him e/o Twentieth Century Pictures, 1041. North Formosa Avenue, Hollywood. I think you have the films a little mixed in regard to Mae West. "I'm No Angel" ■was at the time of your writing her next film, with Cary Grant as Mae's male lead. "It Ain't No Sin" was to follow that. Thlß is only now in production. No word of the release dates of "The Bowery' or "The Story of Temple Drake. H.S. (Devonport).—John Stuart, born on July IS, 1898, in Edinburgh, served during the war with the Black Watch. lie made his film debut in Violet Hopson s Her Son," but came into prominence opposite Estelle Brody in "Mademoiselle from Armentieres." His silent lilms include "Hindle Wakes," "The Glad Eye, "Roses of Picardy," "The Plight Commander," "Mademoiselle Parley Voo, "Sailors Don't Care," "Kitty and High Seas." His talkies are Atlantic, "Children of Chance.' Midnight, The Nipper" (Betty Balfour), Verdict of the Sea," "Kissing Cup's Race In a Monastery Garden, Hound of the Baskervilles," "Hindle. Wakes (Sybil Thorndike), "The Lost Chord," "Love s Old Sweet Song," and "This Week of Grace." John Stuart may be found c/o British and Dominion Films, Boreham Wood, Elstree, England.

The success of "Bitter Sweet" in America is remarkable. It ra weeks at Hollywood and eight weeks l Chicago, following a remarkable run m New York. Reginald Denny is to star in a British film. It k not generally known that he is an Englishman, his father, the late W. H. Denny, having been 'f original Shadbolt in "The Yeomen of the Guard." Carl Brisson has left England for Hollywood, taking with him Mrs. MW son, a motor car, a chauffeur and a • He will appear at a salary sai £1000 a week. An outstanding feature of the Brit'ish 1934 film programme will be bon. Guns," starring Jack Buchanan, he seen in "That's a Good Girl, ® . Damita. The latter is essentially an international star, having a PP British, American, French, and German films. She is a native of Paris and made her screen debut at the age °f. • film will be made specially with a 7 on the American^jnarket.

Clark Gable's luck still holds. He bought a horse recently, and it gal- i loped home a winner in its first race at Agua Calientc. Out of several thousand girls listed in Hollywood as available for chorus girls, hardly more than 300 will fill the strict requirements of the modern motion picture. i Will Rogers held up a production recently while he unashamedly confessed that smoking a pipe had made him sick. It was the first time that ho had smoked, on the screen or off. Ellaline Terriss, the popular English actress and wife of Seymour Hicks, has inherited a fortune of £5000 under the will of a solicitor's wife, who left an estate of £220,560. Miss Terriss has been seen here in two or three films, including "Money For Nothing" and "Glamour." Her husband was also in both productions. Rudyard Kipling has at last been persuaded to co-operate in the filming of one of his stories. "Soldiers Three," for which he will write the screen dialogue, is the tale selected. A unit under the direction of Walter Forde will be sent to North-west India. Of the "Soldiers Three," Ortheris will be taken by Gordon Harker and Mulvaney by Spencer Tracy, the ex-Hollywood star. Tom Walls has been riding a bullock, thus proving that he has a flair for steermanship as well as horsemanship. It was probably the first time on record | that the owner of an English Derby winner had appeared, in full bronchobusting -kit, astride a bucking bullock. The occasion was "Turkey Time, one of the newest British productions in which Walls plays a man who, among other activities, was once employed on a cattle ranch. Lionel Barrymore has made his bow as a singer in talking pictures. It was for a dramatic sequence m Carolina now in the course of production. Barrymore, as the Confederate veteran, tired of this life, and visualising his troops of '65 on the march again marches out ol the room to join them in death. As he calls for his sword and pistol, he begins his song — In Dixieland where I was born Early on one frosty morn Barrymore sang it with a gusto, sang every word of the three verses.

r Sy p,n"£ opera *'«- Mac Donald, aSS SS UTo"n, but they are not good te Donald and part, probtwo actresses will get tne pa , ? ably Joan Crawford.

Mae West has refused an offer (believed to involve a "sensational" sum) to appear in a British film. Julius Hagcn is negotiating for Claudettc Colbert to go to London to star witli , Conrad Veidt in "Bella Donna." Henry Kendall and Wendy Barrie are to star together in "Digging Deep," a. new British picture based on a etory by Michael Barringer. A British studio is to mate a film based on the life of Cecil Rhodes. Victor Saville will direct, and scenes will be photographed in South Africa. Baby Le Roy, the world's youngest screen hero, embarked on his fifth picture when he was cast in "Miss Fane's Baby is Stolen," co-starring Dorothea Wieck and Alice Brady. Candles used in the eighteenth century Russian sets of Marlene Dietrich's new picture, "Scarlet Empress," which is being directed by Josef von Sternberg, range in size from the smallest obtainable up to massive tapers which will burn for 120 hours. The studio keeps a wary eye on the untidy young man who strolls on to the sound stage in disreputable slippers, or who skims round corners on a battered bicycle. Frcdric March is a merciless practical joker. Since he combines this peculiarity with a keen business ability, downright sincerity, and a champion tennis form, Freclric is allowed to continue his jesting.

Gracie Fields is lo be starred by Basil Dean as Grace Darling, the lifeboat heroine of Victorian days.

Bobby Howes has taken a vow never again to appear on the stage while making a film. He will do both types of work alternately.

Dorothy Brunton, the Australian musical comedy star, is to make her talkie debut in an Australian of the English comedy, Clara Gibbin o s. She will have the title role, which was enacted in Melbourne year by the Australian actress, Ruby May. Clara Gibbings is an East End barmaid, who discovers that she is the legitimate daughter of the Earl of Dmmoor by an early secret marriage. It is a part full of exuberance, with some sparkling dia lorruo in Which Dorothy Brunton may be° expected to revel, ft also pi her in the closing scene with the opportunity of revealing her talent as an emotional actress, as well as comedienne.

Merle Oberon, talented and faecinat•m, B t ar of "Henry VIII.," will shortly be" leaving for Hollywood, where she will 6tar in two or three films. Miss Oberon has recently starred in The Broken Melody." and will play the leadin"- feminine in "Exit Don Juan. role to fame through her work as "Hutchie" in "Wedding Rehearsal', and •is 4nne Boleyn in "Henry VIII. news that Miss Oberon is going to Hollywood does not mean that slie i lost to British films, as she is under contract to London Films, and will return to England immediately on the completion of the picture. Hollywood can count herself lucky to be able to i borrow Merle even for a few months.

Those who remember Violet Loraine in her principal boy parts in pantomime in Auckland some 15 or 20 years will have another opportunity of Join* her in the near future when her first film, the English-made "Britannia of Billingsgate," will be shown in this country This gayest and most dashing of all London's principal boys plays a film star in "Britannia of Billingsgate the woman who rose from a fried fish Sop to fame. The Bolton family her daughter Pearl, her son Fred and her husband indulge their tastes for filrnfanni~h tT , dirt-track riding and race K* to their hearts' content while j o-ood-hearted Mother Bessie is hard at work in the studios, being the standard figure of Great Britain for the films. Too much money brings trouble eventually, v but the Boltons have a good time while it lasts. _ The inimitable humour of Violet Loraine will find endIpss seone in Britannia. Gordon Harker will be Mr. Boltcn, Kay Hammond the daughter and John Mills the eon.