News of the Cinema

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 15 January 1937, Page 5

News of the Cinema

• As a demonstration of the affection in which he is held by his colleagues throughout the world, Mr Adolph Zukor, founder of the vast Paramount Picture organisation, is to be tendered special celebrations during the early months of 1937. when the industry, and more particularly the Paramount organisation, will observe "Adolph Zukor's Silver Jubilee." In January of this year Mr Zukor completes 25 years of service to the company he founded in 1912. Through those 25 years he has seen his brainchild develop into one of the soundest business institutions in the world. Mr Zukor's elaborately furnished office at the Paramount Studios, which he now shares with his son, Eugene Zukor, makes an interesting contrast to the little general store in Risce, Hungary, where he worked as a youth and saved enough money to take him to America in 18' 8. a friendless immigrant with but 40 dollars to his name: Mr Zukor was first an upholsterer, then a professional baseball player, and then one day he found himself a partner in a fur manufacturing concern, with which he remained unlil 1912, during which year he actually commenced his motion picture career. In this year, he handled the distribution of "Queen Elizabeth." starring Sarah Bernhardt, and in 1913 he formed the Famous Players Corporation in partnership. with Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn, and Cecil B. De Mille. Finally from his courage and perseverance there emerged the great Paramount producing and distributing company.

CAXXOT " CUT " A PICTURE

HOLLYWOOD CRITICISM OF BRITISH PRODUCERS OPINIONS OF PROMINENT ACTORS What do the Hollywood stars really think of English films? That is a question which they are usually far too diplomatic to answer with complete honesty. All the same, it is possible to give a number of criticisms, both friendly and hostile, writes Charles Graves in the "Film Pictorial.'-' It was Adolphe Menjou who first told im 1 of his reactions to English gins. This was after he had made a picture which did not turn out as ■well as he had hoped. He said to me "There is one major trouble about your English productions. You have nobody who knows how to 'cut' a picture and cutting is almost the most important part of the game. The best picture in the world which is badly cut, turns out hopelessly." Constance Bennett's reaction to English films after making a picture here ■was most unexpected. "I came over from Hollywood to work my head off" she explained, "and what do I do? I find myself compelled to make the camera men, the director, and everybody else work up to schedule. In Hollywood they will laugh their heads off when I tell them that I had to insist on working harder than they wanted me to work in the studio. Over there, once you are making a picture, everybody connected with it gives ur> everything else in order to complete it in the least possible time. There are no interruptions. There are r.o excuses. Here you have week-ends, holidavs, staff dances, and goodness knows" what else. It has given me the biggest laugh of my life." When I spoke to William K. Howard, the nee director of Hollywood, now Busy.'oh a picture .'with Eric Pommer at Itenham. I mentioned Adolphe Menjou's criticism. "Adolphe is right," he said, "but fortunately I had been named. I have brought my own chief cutter over here with me. Not only that. I have brought my own head camera man. Jimmy V/ong Howe. 1 had noticed in English pictures that I had seen in America that the photographic wovk was not too good. Consequently I am taking no chances." Madeleine Carroll was very coy about telling me her opinion of English pictures. Finally she admitted, like William K. Howard, that it was the cutting which made the difference. "The English studios are just as well equipped as those in Hollywood," she said, "though, of course, the make-up people over there are unequalled, and you will find me looking quite different in my next picture. "Another point is that English directors still do the old routine of long shot, medium shot, close-up, and then back again to long shot. A Hollywood director is not so hidebound. He may do a whole scene in a long shot if he thinks it is psychologically better that way. And another thing. The American script writers seem to write their stories in a much faster temoo." And now listen to Harry Eddington, realising that he is the business manager of Carl Brisson, Marlene Dietrich, 'Loretta Young, and Ann Harding among many others. In his comments you may expect to find crystallised the opinions of each of these famous stars. "It is not so much the cutting as the lack of preparation which Jnakes most English pictures inferior ,to the American ones," he said. "In ,London you start shooting to-morrow, paving only selected your story, cast. •Pnd director this morning. In Hollywood it might be six months before you took your first scene. Have you «ver known of a playwright or a novelist who wrote a play or a book in ■less than a month? Of course not. So Jj)» and dried dates are all wrong. £ney prevent flexibility of treatment. Inere is possibly a genius who can start from scratch within four weeks, out I don't know him. You in England now have all the talents necessary, the directors, the artists and story-writers—in fact we in Hollywood raid your list of authors con-' jWiiually. So it is not material that jpu lack. It is simply the preparation Of it." Charles Laughton stared hard when {• asked him what difference he finds between English films and American if?, s ' "There is no real difference at at', he said hesitatingly, and thei< added with a grin, "and that is the greatest compliment yet paid to English films."

did not realise until she told me. She once made a film for Paramount on Long Island, so she is able to give an opinion. "You find waste of time in film studios, both sides of the Atlantic," she said—evidently disagreeing with Connie Bennett. "You can do all the crocheting you want, as well as play backgammon. As for directors, of course Britain is now getting the best American and German ones, .so she does not differ very greatly from Hollywood in that department." Edward G. Robinson is still astonished at the break for tea in the afternoon. I suggested that .they have icecream in Hollywood during the afternoon. "Yeah," he replied, "but we take it on the run. We don't stop everything for it. lam now getting used to this nice, leisurely pace at which English pictures are conducted. It is very pleasant, considering that I have to be called at six o'clock in the morning at my hotel in order to get out to Denham at 9 o'clock. "Your continuity writers still do not seem to have the speed of Hollywood; but perhaps the biggest difference of all is in the English production manager compared with his opposite number in America. In America the production manager is a tough guy. He shouts and gets things done. He is the hoiuje detective. He sees that everybody in the studio does his work and docs not get tangled up with anyone else. In England, it seems to me, production managers are a type of gentlemanly clerk. They do not really amount to anything."

Gertrude Lawrence has had experience of American pictures, which I

WORLD TRIBUTE TO ADOLPH ZUKOR

Twenty-fifth Anniversary Of Paramount

SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE OF FILM MUSICAL

Part of the celebrations held as a tribute to Mr Zukor will be the release of Paramount's "Champagne Waltz," in 300 theatres throughout the world, on Friday. January 22. Australia and New Zealand will play a prominent part in the celebrations with the release of the picture in the capital city of each of the states of the Commonwealth and the four main cities of the Dominion, thus joining America, England, and Continental centres in the simultaneous first release. '•'Champagne Waltz" is a lavish musical production featuring the great singer Gladys Swarthout, and Fred. Mac Murray. Features of the picture are two talented orchestras, a ballet of 350 dancers presenting a Viennese waltz, spectacle, and scintillating music. "Champagne Waltz" tells of gay Vienna. Fred Mac Murray invades this romantic city with hot American music, which replaces the old waltz, and thus puts Gladys Swarthout and her grandfather out of business. Following many humorous situations a happy ending is eventually brought about. The cast includes Herman Bing; Fritz Leiber. Vivicnne Osborne, and Benny Baker. The film was directed bv Edward Sutherland. "Miss Ann Ronncll. who wrote music and lyrics for "Champagne Waltz," is the only composer of her sex to be signed under contract by Paramount, and is one of the few in her field who writes both music and lyrics. She has written much music for Walt Disney cartoons, and rode to fame on her "Three Little Pigs" and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

NEWS OF STUDIOS

The Edward G. Robinsons possess a valuable art collection, which puts ihem among the surprisingly few Hollywood householders who have anything of real value in their homes. The Robinsons refused SIIWO for one of their paintings just before their recent departure for England. » • * With a top price of IGs Gd for stalls, theatregoers in New York are being turned awav from John Gielgud's "Hamlet." He is playing to crowded houses. Meanwhile Leslie Howard is fighting adverse criticism, but hopes to make a profit soon. He may still be playing in New York after John Gielgud has departed. The season is so successful that it may be extended, but Gielgud is anxious to be back in London by February. ■ • * The Earl of Warwick is proving a sad disappointment to the sociallyminded hostesses of Hollywood. Although he has been there for several weeks, he has attended only one party given in his honour. His agent arranged that one for business reasons. Night club, theatre, and dinner parties have been secretly planned for him by the stars of the film colony, but he has evaded them all. They have found it practically impossible to get his name on their guest list. "The fact is," he explains. "I'd rather sleep." « • * Blister Keaton, the comedian, who never smiles, is so poor that he has been f&rced to try to raise money for his hotel bill and ,return ticket from New Y'ork to California. This is revealed in a petition which he has filed in the New York Supreme Court in connexion with alimony arrears claimed by his former wife. He pleads that he is being persecuted, and declares that his losses since his divorce have made him "poor and dependent on his salary." while his former wife is wealthy. "I am now living in a small, six-roomed bungalow with my mother, sister, and brother," he declares in his statement. Mr Keaton. who is 40. has not appeared in a picture for some time. ■ * • William Powell is worried, but not about money. He is anxious about his eyesight. His doctors have diagnosed a lesion forming over the left eyeball, as a result of over-exposure to the sun on a fishing trip which he took last month. "The irritation is driving me out of my mind." he told an interviewer. He is leaving Hollywood for New York to consult a specialist. •,• • • The Hollywood Press Photographers' Association, at its annual ball last month, chose 10 young screen actresses as candidates for future stardom. The "Flashlight Starlets." as they were called, were: Helen Burgess, Mary Gifford, Kay Hughes, Janice Jarret, Rosina Lawrence, Barbara Pepper, Joan Perry, June Travis, Helen Wood, and Cecilia Parker,

A CRITICISM OF LAUGHTON

his fellow players on equal terms (because he is always this monster, this dominating spirit of the piece) that he has been driven to gag-acting and subterfuges. Times became so hard in "Les Miserablcs" that he even had lo descend to using Yorkshire dialect (shouting having failed) in an attempt to subdue Frcdric March—a highly competent but infinitely less talented actor. It is not Laughton's fault. His producers have not been giving him a chance. His roles have been cast in such consistently superhuman moulds that he has been forced to gag and trick and cheat lo keep up their standard. "Ruggles of Rod Gap" gave him a bit of a breather—and it is significant that Laughton himself has said that he liked it belter than any other part he has played. He was still the only actor of importance in the film, but he was at least given the opportunity of sloughing off his monster skin and revealing the humanity beneath it. What Laughton really needs is a complete change. A course of supporting roles. A chance to start behind the rest of the cast and catch up with them. He is too good an actor to start level —he would so rapidly overtake most oilier players on the screen. That makes it all the more stupid to give him the apparent advantage (and actual disadvantage) of always starting with a moral lead. Laughton, I am sure, would be the first to agree to the plan. He gave up a lot of movie money lo gain experience a I the Old Vic a year or two ago. He would be willing to give up star rating now, if only he could be convinced thai il would do him good. He will find at first that producers, having given him a nominally supporting role, will try to build his part up directly the scenario gets under way. Bui if he resists their efforts he will find himself back on top as the supreme actor of the screen. All filmgoers will be delighted to know that Norma Shearer is to return to work as soon as possible. Plans have been completed for her lo appear in "Pride and Prejudice" with Clark Gable. This play has just finished a very successful run at the St. James' Theatre, in London. Apparently it was an especial favourite with the Duchess of Kent, for.she took parties on two ilights of the play's last week.

Relying on Tricks SHOULD PLAY SUBORDINATE ROLES As I left the Leicester Square Theatre after the press show of "Rembrandt" I said to myself: "Laughton's slipping again," writes Richard Ross in the "Film Weekly." When I opened the newspapers next morning I found that three-quarters of the critics were convinced that Laughton's performance was a masterpiece—and half of them said so in headlines. Somebody was obviously wrong. , ~ _ , I have faithfully followed the Laughton career since I first saw him in that so olten quoted bit of business with the dirty plate in "Piccadilly." I saw him make a promising step forward in "Ihe Old Dark House." reach real heights of human portrayal in "Payment Deferred." begin lo slop over into human grotesquerie in "White Woman, and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street." To-day. I am firmly convinced, this potentially great actor has been turned into a bag of tricks. Every great actor has peculiar quirks and mannerisms. Irving had them; Spencer Tracy has them. But these men achieve greatness despite their distinctive tricks—not because of them. In the last two or three years, Laughton, in my opinion, has been relying for his effects on two or three physical "gags." One is the frenzied eye-rolling. Il expresses intense emotion. But what kind of emotion'! Laughton doesn't. tell you, though the context may. All he says is: "Look at me. I'm wry

het up about something." If you know what that something is the chances .'»re you'll say: "My, what acting!" If you don't know what it is, you may say anything you like. Then there is the unorthodox punctuation touch. Listen to Laughton declaiming the Biblical excerpts in "Rembrandt." He breaks ofT a sentence in the middle, starts up again, runs right over the full stop and pulls up with a jerk plumb in the centre of the next sentence. Laughton beats more red lights than any other actor I know. It is a flashy bit of business. It is creative, because it presents you with an entirely new bit of prose. It is refreshing, because it avoids the school-boy-recitation effect of badly delivered dialogue. But it is still cheating. Forced Into Tricks Add to this the "looking over the other man's shoulder" game, which means that Laughton's eyes are fixed on some distant horizon while the other actor in the scene just talks to himself; and the habit, akin to ignoring punctuation marks, of alternately shouting and whispering and in any case talking in a very urgent voice that matches the rolling eyeballs, and, like them, does not always mean a lot. Reading those last few paragraphs over, it looks as though I have been a little hard on Laughton. If those few tricks, bundled together in a bag. were all the talent he had, he would hardly be worth calling an actor at all.. Yet lie is a great actor, and I believe that probably more genuinely than most of the people who lavish unconsidered praise on his work. The trouble with Laughton is that he has been given too many central parts, too many roles in wiich all the other characters revolve around him. He has been the focal point and principal support of almost every film he has appeared in. It is enough not only to turn any actor's head, but also to force him back on a line of tricks. In "Los Miserables," he was the pursuing vengeance of the law; in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street," he was the old ogre in the background who dominated the lives of both the lovers; in "Mutiny on the Bounty," he was the personified fiendishness that caused the mutiny: and, of course, there was "Henry VIII.", in which he was the whole show in name as well as fact. He has been forced into the spotlight so much, given so little chance to meet

NEW FILMS AT CITY THEATRES

MAYFAIR— "The Crime of Dr. Forbes," starring Robert Kent and Gloria Stuart. Crime mystery drama. STATE —"Lady Be Careful," starring Lew Ayres and Mary Carlisle. Comedy. CIVIC— "East Meets West," starring George Arliss. Drama. Second week. CRYSTAL PALACE— "WiId Brian Kent." with Ralph Bellamy. Bell Wright novel. Also "Dark World," with Tamara Desni. Murder mystery. AVON— "My American Wife," starring Francis Lederer and Ann Southern. Comedy romance.

FRANK CAPRA

"A TRUE GENIUS" AS DIRECTOR

OPINION OF H. B. 'WARNER H. B. Warner is a wholehearted Capra fan. "If he asked for me urgently, I'd leave anything to work for him," he said recently. "Frank is a true genius—the iinest director I have ever worked for. I have never heard him raise his voice or speak a cross word. ■•Everything goes smoothly on the set. He has a cut-and-dricd script which he has worked on for months beforehand. . , "He does not direct you. You never hear him calling out instructions. He simply leaves you to get on with your work. He discusses the role with you very quietly, without any heavy explanations. 'I know directors who explain the parts so ponderously and at such length that the actor feels a mental numbness by the time they have finished. -There is nothing like that about Capra. He suggests and guides. He has a talent for drawing something from you without effort. "Naturalness is the keynote of everything he does. He makes you feel completely at ease. "Everybody loves working for him. Somehow, you get up in the morning with a burning desire to get to the studio as soon as possible. "The last two or three days, of production are the worst. You hate them, because you know that the company is soon going to be split up. There is real sadness in the thought."

TEN GREATEST FILM SCENES

LIONEL BARRYMORE'S CHOICE After more than 25 years of screen experience, Lionel Barrymore has selected the 10 greatest scenes in motion-picture history, as follows: — (1) The arrival of the clansmen in "Birth of a Nation"; <2) The funeral in '•lmitation of Life"; <3> Marie Drepsler being taken to gaol, the nnal =cenc in "Mhi and Bill"; (4) Renee Adoree following the army trucks, -carching for John Gilbert, in "The Big Parade"; (5) The scene when Wallace Bcory slapped Jackie Cooper and then broke his fist on the wall, in-"The Champ"; (6) Lillian Gish on the pillory in -The Scarlet Letter"; (7) The chariot race in "Ben Hur"; (8) Jean Hersholt" handcuffed to Gibson Gowland in Death Valley in "Greed"; (9> Luise Rainer's "telephone scene" in "The Great Ziegfeld"; (10) Lon Chaney selling his sacks of hoarded candles to show his love for Patsy Ruth Miller in "The Hunchback of Notre Dnme." Joan Crawford, who was present when Barrymore made his choice, added one more to the list —Lionel's courtroom speech in "A Free Soul."

More than three-quarters of all the letters which Myrna Loy receives from male admirers are proposals of marriage. Although Miss Loy is happily married, records at the M.G.M. studios in Hollywood show that 79 per cent, of her mail is from men who want to marry her. With this "score" she heads the list of stars who receive proposals. Next comes Joan Crawford, also very happily married, and then Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis, Claudefte Colbert, and Rosalind Russell,

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN COMPANY

After a very successful season in Auckland, the Williamson company of Savoyards, headed by Ivan Menzies, Strella Wilson, Evelyn Hall. Gregory Stroud, Godfrey Stirling. Richard Watson, Bernard Manning, Helen Langdon, etc., is on tour on its way to Wellington, where it will commence a short season on January 23. The company will play at Christchurch early next month. Jack Hulbert and his clever comedic wife, Cicely Courtneidge. are new •'teamed-up" again in "Take My Tip," now in course of production at Gau-mont-British studios. A lengthy cast includes Frank Cellier and Harold Huth. Michael Balcon is producing and Herbert Mason is the director. The Dionne quintuplets. Marie, Yvonne, Cecile, Annette, and Emilie, will next be seen in their second picture for Twentieth Century-Fox. entitled "Reunion." The film will be directed by Norman Taurog, and the supporting cast includes Jean Hersholt, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Helen Vinson. Slim Summerville, Alan Dinehart, and Montague Love.