Films and the Stage.

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 21

Films and the Stage.

Owing to her extraordinary bad luck in meeting with some petty or serious mishap in her recent pictures, Bebe Daniels advertised for a good-luck charm to ward off accident, and received several hundred replies. She proposes to select ten charms that appeal to her most, will try each of them but for ten successive days, and the one that brings her the most luck she promises to wear always.

A double feature programme of unusual interest is showing at the King’s this week, which, provides a wellbalanced variety of thrills and laughs.“The Grip of the Yukon,” a Universal drama of the frozen north, features Neil Hamilton, Francis X. Bushman, and a strong supporting cast. A story of primitive pasisbns in the land of gold, enacted in the midst of raging blizzards, it grips the audience. The second feature, “Stop That Man,” is a Universal comedy-drama featuring Arthur Lake and Barbara Kent. Having all the ingredients of a delightful comedy, plentifully- intermingled with action, suspense, and an appealing love theme, the picture is sure of a verypopular reception.

One of the most perfectly matched couples seen on . the screen this year are Ralph Forbes and Marceline Day, leading players of' “Under the Black Eagle,” which is coming to the King’s Theatre shortly. Flash, the new police dog star, makes his screen ,debut in this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stirring romance. , '

Operated by remote control, six Bell and Howell automatic cameras were used to photograph the close-up action of a German air raid on a French village in the filming of one of the thrillingly realistic scenes inlLucieu Hubbard’s Paramount production “Wings," coming to the Regent Theatre, which William Wellman directed .on location near San Antonio, Texas. Several of. these cameras were buried iu the ground, with only their lenses protruding. Others were placed in bombproof enclosures. All were stationed at points so close to the doomed village that they, too, were in danger of demolition by either bombs or falling debris. Twelve full-service-charge 100-. pound bombs were dropped from the air while regulation cameras in bombproof shelters as well.as in the cockpits and 'bn machine-gun mounts of accompanying ’planes recorded the scene. —

The enormous set, showing the heart of a great city, which was especially built by Fox Films for their great masterpiece “Sunrise,” will become a permanent fixture on the Fox “lot.” The details of the set are .so perfect and the convenience which it affords, to say nothing ,of the money that will be saved by keeping work within the studio’s limits, that the executives of Fox Films ■ lutve decided to cover its streets with concrete and otherwise make it durable. “Sunrise” is now having its premier release at the Strand Theatre, Auckland, and will be shown here at the De Luxe Theatre on November 2. Lovely Janet Gaynor, star of “Seventh Heaven,” and 1 George O'Brien, have the leading roles in this great production.’

. A barefoot boy of fourteen; coon-skin cap at rakish angle, ragged trousers, suspended from a single “gallus” over a hickory shirt, a squirrel rifle under his arm, and a faithful dog at his heels. This is the initial glimpse, of ■Richard Barthelmess in First-Nation-al’s great picture “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come” coming shortly. Barthelmess has long been the typical, mountain boy in pictures, and only Barthelmess could give so convincing a performance as “Chad,” the plucky little hero of John Fox junior’s great romance of the hills.

“To those young warriors of the sky whose wings are folded about them forever, this picture is reverently dedicated.” This is the dedication of “Wings,” considered the most spectacular film ever produced, which will commence its special season at the Regent Theatre on Friday, September 14.

Like all great stage comedians, Sir Harry Lauder has at last accepted a contract for the screen and his first picture, ‘.‘Huntingtower,” is showing this week at the Regent Theatre. Every New Zealander has laughed at this great comedian on the stage and it will indeed be interesting to see just how he appears on the silver sheet “Huntingtower,” a Paramount British release, tells the story of a famous old English castle. It has the picturesque background of the English countryside and. is a picture that should be well received. Supporting Sir Harry Lauder is Vera Veronica, the famous Russian beauty.

Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes, one of the most entertaining of screen starring teams, are due to appear this week at the Queen’s Theatre iu First National’s sparkling tale of circus life, “Three Ring Marriage.” Miss Astor is quite at home in the different characterisation called for and does good work against a glamorous background of the sawdiist ring. A succession of amazing and curious freaks adds to the attraction, while the scintillating fascination of the nomadic life of show folk supplies the production with more than ordinary interests.

“The Silver Slave,” the Warner-Mas-ter Picture now screening at Shortt’s, provides Irene Rich with the greatest part of her career as the charming widow who uses her charms to win from her flapper daughter the men of wealth and years who try to win her. It is only when her mother explains her reasons that the youngster forgives what seemed to her unpardonable conduct on her parent’s part.

“From Soup to Nuts,” the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hal Roach comedy, which is now being shown at the De Luxe Theatre, with “The Patsy,” is a veritable stampede of mirth. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the two skilful comedians of “The Battle of the Century” and “Leave ’Em Laughing,” are again featured in this splendid comedy.

Glen Tryon, Universal’s newest star, has been to New York to attend Universal’s sales convention at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Atlantic City. It was expected that he would also be present at the ensuing conventions iu St. Louis and San Francisco, returning to Universal City to start work ou “ The Gate Crasher,” under the direction of William Craft.

Helene Costello, sister of Dolores Costello and, like her, a film actress, was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce in Los Angeles recently from John Regan, a well-known football player. They were married last year following what was described as • a “childhood roni a n c e.” T h e grounds of the plaint were allegations by Mrs. Regan that her husband had “an ugly temper” and “often embarrassed her publicly.”

June Collyer, instead of Sally Phipps, will be the girl in the second Fox Newsreel feature' to be made in Europe this summer. Miss Collyer is now in New York, where she will be joined early by staff and cast, and the whole party will then proceed to Europe. •

Charlie Murray will take a real vacation upon completing “The Head Man” at First National studios. He will visit his boyhood home in Indiana, with side trips to Florida and New York. Mrs. Murray will accompany the famous screen comedian.

Betty , Compson has been signed for the feminine lead in “The Barker,” a George Fitzmaprice production for First National Pictures, in which Milton Sills will star. It is from the famous stage play of that name. Polly Moran, the most constantly employed comedienne in motion pictures, has been added.to the cast of ‘‘Tide of the Empire,” in which James Murray and Renee Adoree have the leading roles. Helene Costello has reached stardom. She will eostar with her sister Dolores and George O’Brien in “Noah’s Ark.”

“The Red Mill,” a screen version of the well-known musical comedy, shows Marion Davies in a new role, one different from any she Ims ever attempt cdl more alluring, more charming, and probably the most entertaining in her career. Miss Davies’s whimsical comedy talents are said to find a ready opportunity in tins romance. It is a story of love and adventure in Holland. A winters festival, a great church seeiie, a stirring adventure in boats on a canal in a Dutch village are all interesting high lights in the production, together with eerie incidents in a weird, haunted mill. But throughout it teems with comedy—uproarious situations between Miss Davies and her Irish lover, played by Owen Moore.

“Love in a, Cottage” is an old theme in both written and pictured romance, but Mary Pickford has a new one that might be called "love in a packing box.” In "My Best Girl,” |be noted star’s latest film, to be shown at the Queen’s Theatre next week, one of the romantic sequences centres around a huge packing case in the basement of a iive-and-teii-cent-store. Miss Pickford, Wbo plays the role of a hardworking little stock-girl in (he establishment. has the empty case titled up as a nook, with Howers, pictures, and even a clock, where she spends her scanty leisure moments. In this tiny retreat, she and the sou of the millionaire owner (Charles Bogersl have their lunches together, and romance ensues.

T. Hyes Hunter has completed work on “A South Sea Bubble.” by Roland ,I’ertwee, for Gainsborough Pictures. Ltd. The greater portion of the scenes were taken in Algeria. Ivor Novello. Annette Benson. Benila Hume. Alma Taylor and .1. Warmington are in the cast.

' Henry King, who directed “Tol’able David,” “The White Sister,” and “Stella Dallas,” is to direct “She Goes to War,” the Rupert Hughes novel now being published serially in the Red Book magazine. This production will be released by United Artists.

What is said to be one of the most perfect Northern settings ever constructed for motion picture work was made for the screen version of the famous musical comedy “Rose Marie.” Joan Crawford and James Murray play the leading roles. The setting is a reproduction of one of the famous Hudson Bay fur trading posts in NorthWestern Canada, built seventy-five years ago, but still devoted to the same use for which is was originally constructed.

Recently a motion picture machine Wits fitted into the fuselage of a large air liner in New York, and a performance lasting over an hour and a half was given to a prominent newspaper critic. The picture screened was Para' mount’s “The Last Command,” starring Emil Jannings. During the screening the ’plane tlew approximately 150 miles, so that it seems quite likely that with the coming of giant ’planes which will open up air routes from continent to continent, picture shows in mid-air will be a feature of air travel. Movies in trains are already an accomplished fact, and some of the world’s greatest expresses carry picture theatres in miniature. Another novel theatre is that, located in the Grand Central Station, New York. Here travellers may Hll in time while waiting for trains. It is the only theatre in the world that is open for twenty-four hours each day. Commander Richard E. Byrd next winter on his flight across the South Pole will be accompanied by two Paramount Cameramen. It has been arranged that one will remain at the base of operations, while the other will make the actual trip Io the Pole. A complete film record of the expedition will be released exclusively by Paramouni. The Byrd expedition will have Iwo specially constructed ships, three aeroplanes, 55 men, 100 dogs, and several portable houses, which will be anchored in stllid ice against fierce storms and high winds. The explorers will spend weeks in establishing their base on the Bay of Whales far south of the Antarctic Circle. They will erect radio masts and a powerful station to keep them in communication with the onside world. The Paramount motion picture record of Byrd’s journey will, when completed, be screened in theatres throughout New Zealand.

“The Rescue,” by Joseph Conrad, has been selected by Samuel Goldwyn as the first picture in Ronald Colman’s career as an independent star. Consequently, plans for Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” already announced, have been postponed. Joseph Conrad spent thirty years in the writing of “The Rescue,” and always represented it as the favourite of his many stories of the sea. Herbert Brenon, who directed Colman in “Beau Geste,” will direct “The Rescue.” Lila Dainita, “the golden girl from Paris,” will appear opposite Colman in the Conrad story.

Frank Merrill, well-known serial star and athlete, has been selected for the title role in “Tarzan the Mighty,” an adaptation in picture form of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s story, “ Jungle Tales of Tarzan.” Jack Nelson will direct.

Cyril McLaglen (brother of Victor) has been cast for the lead in the new Gaumont British production “Rough Seas,” based on the novel, “A Light For His Pipe.” It will be directed by Maurice Elvey.

“Finnegan’s Ball,” which is being released by Universal, is the fourth picture in which Aggie Herring Mehaffey, while Charlie M eHugh has been her film father three times. This adoption of the famous stage comedy has this father-mother-daughter combination. Cullen Landis and Mack Swain head its all-star cast.

If you are afraid that you are not making a success of life, you won’t. If you are afraid of death, you will die. So if you strangle those fears you will make a success of life, and you will not die —at least not yet. Upon this theory of Jerry Howard, “The Laughing Optimist,” who makes his first appearance at Wellington on October 6 with the specially selected English company, is built a very amusing comedy. It is healthy, decent amusement, and there is said to be plenty of it. Percy Hutchison, as the cheery optimist, puts up a record for rapid delivery of racy dialogue. He is likened to “a packet of Chinese crackers on New Year” every time he enters the peaceful New York home. Stella Francis and Francis Dillon play prominent roles, and splendid character sketches are supplied by E. Rayson Cousens, Mary Brackley, R. StewartWest, Leslie Laurier, Townsend Whitling and Joan Rogers. Good, clean vaudeville is always popular with the public, and the announcement made by Sir. Bert Royle, the New Zealand representative of J. C. Williamson and J. and N. T;i|it, that a New Zealand season of all-star vaudeville will commence next month, has caused general satisfaction. So far, no details are available as to the' constitution of the company except that it will be an all-star combination, and that several leading London and American favourites will appear. »The programme will include some vaudeville novelties never before seen in the Dominion, and should prove extremely popular with the public. The New Zealand dates have been arranged as under: Auckland, October 24, November 1; New Plymouth, November 3; Wanganui, November 5; Hastings, November 6; Napier, November 7 and 8; Palmerston North, November 9; Wellington, November 10-17; Christchurch, November 20-27; Tirnaru, November 28; Dunedin, November 29, December

1 One of the most important characters in “The Red Dance,” the Fox Film directed by Raoul Walsh, is a Trotsky role. This will I be portrayed by Boris Charsky, said to be a living prototype of the famous Red leader. Charsky is a Russian actor of much lame in Petrograd. Lovely Dolores Del Rio aiftl Charles Farrell have the leading roles in this production.

The famous Miller Brothers’ Wild West Show furnishes the very colourful background of Associated Exhibitors’ production, “The Big Show,” a melodrama of life behind the scenes of a travelling circus, now showing at the. Strand Theatre. John Lowell ami Evangeline Russell hold the stellar roles, with Jane Thomas, F. Serrano Keating, and others in the supporting cast. George Terv iliiger directed. A powerful scene in which an elephant remembers and preserves vengeance toward a man who fed it tobacco, and breaking loose, pursues and kills him. gives “The Big Show” one of the most unusual and hair-raising climaxes of the season.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s latest comedy, “The Patsy,” starring Marion Davies, is now showing at the De Luxe Theatre. This picture, which was adapted from the stage hit by Barry Connors, is one of the funniest pictures ever produced. As the Cinderella sister of the Harrington family, Marion Davies gjves the most excruciatingly funny and skilful performance of her career.

There are only two feminine principals in “Beau Sabreur,” Paramount’s spectacular sequel to “Beau Geste,” . which is now showing at the Paramount. These roles are played by Evelyn Brent, as Mary Vanbrugh, an American girl who becomes a pivotal point in a great Sahara desert tribal rebellion, and Joan Standing, cast as the Cockney maid, Maudie. This same 1 condition existed in “Beau Geste.” There were but two women in that story, which was also from the pen of P.C. Wren. They were Alice Joyce and Mary Brian, but their characterisations were more or less subordinated by the great theme of brotherly love. In “Beau Sabreur,” directed by John Waters, the love is an equally strong one, but it is divided between a girl and the hero’s country. Gary Cooper plays Henri Beaujolais, of the Foreign Legion, who is transferred to secret’ service duty on the vast Sahara. Chief in support are Noah Beery, William Powell, Arnold Kent, Mitchell Lewis and Roscoe Karns.

"The Strange Case of Captain Hamper,” or the animal man, the first of First National’s pictures to -be made in one of its foreign studios, has been booked for an indefinite run at McVicker’s Theatre, Chicago. This Defu production, produced by Frederik Zelnik, had its American premiere at the Roxy Theatre, New York,-where it attracted huge audiences. First National anticipates a tremendous demand for “The- Strange Case of Captain . Hamper” as soon as the exhiibtors find out how big a picture it is. The reviews accorded it by the New York dailies and the film journals will give exhibitors a good idea of its dramatic power and the Roxy receipts, of its drawing power at the box office. Managing Director Rothafel, of the Roxy, is credited with the “discovery” of “The Strange Case of Captain Hamper,” as has been the case with other pictures produced abroad which have since become famous, and has given it his personal endorsement.