Films and The Stage.

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 33, 2 November 1929, Page 27

Films and The Stage.

The old Elsie Prince-Jimmy Godden musical comedy combination, which was so phenomenally successful on its several tours through New Zealand, has at last disbanded, after four years’ continous association, and its members are scattered broadcast.. The two principals, Miss Prince and Mr. Godden, have already returned to England and London engagements, while Charles Morton has also felt the lure of the Old Country stage. Nellie Dean has taken the opportunity of the finish-up of the company to. solemnise her wedding to a well-known Australian caricature sketch artist Betty Lambert, Elsie Parkes, and Len Rich have been transferred to the new Freddie Forbes Musical Comedy Company, which is presenting some of the Prince-Godden successes during its. Christchurch season. These popular artists will thus have an opportunity of renewing acquaintance with New Zealand audiences in shows and parts ideally suited to them.

Individualistic solo dancers are an uncommon acquisition to a revue company, but the Jim Gerald Revue combination is fortunate in the possession of a rare and artistic soloist in Olivette, whose dancing specialities are one of the high lights of the show. In the production scenas, which Jim Gerald knows so well how to handle, the introduction of some solo work by Olivette raises the presentation to musical comedy level. Another capable dancer in this company is Ronnie Shand, and his eccentric dances are exceptionally clever and outstanding. ;.i-y

Quality of voice has given many an unknown a chance in talkies. Beauty was the outstanding requirement in the days of silent pictures, but voice quality now plays an equally important part. Two outstanding cases of obscurities getting recognition in this way are Rosaline Charles and Virginia Bruce, both featured in Paramount’s “The Love Parade,” the screen’s first original operetta, which stars Maurice Chevalier. Miss Charles was a typist at the Paramount Studios. Victor Schertzinger, the composer of the music for “The Love Parade,” heard her singing some of the hits from the production, and at once arranged for a voice and camera test, with the result that she was given an important part as a lady-in-waiting. Miss. Bruce entered the studios as an “extra,” and her unusual musical and singing ability obtained a Paramount contract. She also is seen and heard in "The Love Parade.”

Animals are still used frequently on the screen, but talking pictures have completely revolutionised the- methods of training them. In the days of the silent pictures, the trainer directed an animal by voice. The microphones do not permit that method, and new systems have necessarily been devised. The following is an .'lllustration of the methods now employed at the Paramount studios In Hollywood. During the filming of the Paramount all-talk- ‘ ing picture “Illusion,” starring Charles (Buddy) Rogers, a dog was required which was to bark in the middle of an Important scene. The scene started, and the dog lay quietly in the lap of June Collyer, one of the featured players in «s the cast. At the desired moment, the trainer, standing behind the camera, lifted a toy balloon, and waved it at the dog; through months of meticulous training the dog had been taught to hate the sight of a'balloon, and when it was produced he barked furiously.

A system of lighting first originated by the great Dutch artist, Rembrandt, is often employed in modern motion picture photography. The master painter used “sketch lighting” on the features of his subjects, creating a half-tone effect. The light was made to strike the face from an angle, causing the features to throw shadows on the other portions of the face. During the filming of “Darkened Rooms,” Evelyn Brent’s first starring talkie for Paramount, it was found that the usual flat light, thrown into the star’s face, failed to reproduce her full beauty. The Rembrandt method was employed, and lights were arranged above, below and at the sides. Remarkable effects were achieved, and full justice was done to Miss Brent’s finely chiselled features and delicate profile. ‘.‘Darkened Rooms,” which is now in production, is the picturisation of Sir Philip Gibbs’ famous book of the same title. Neil Hamilton, Doris Hill, and David Newell, are featured in the cast. Lothar Mendes is directing.

The exploit of Nicola in escaping from a barrel in which he was coopered on the stage at His Majesty’s Theatre has created a great, stir of interest in Wellington, and the discussion on the subject runs in a circle, beginning and ending with the question, “How does he do it?” This feat, though wonderful, is of course a small thing when compared with some of the tests Nicola has undergone in the course of his arduous career, and it-is. in feats where life itself is at stake that Nicola reveals his true cleverness and amazing ability.

One of the highlights of Lenore Ulric’s first talking picture for Fox Movietone, “frozen Justice,” is the prominent appearance of several Eskimo folk and ceremonial dances and songs. These form nearly the entire background of Miss Ulric’s interpretation of a half-caste belle and Jis Spencer, who plays the part of the sly, grasping. medicine man, is regarded as an authority on Eskimo customs by virtue of his early years in Alaska and has given his valuable aid in arranging these sequences.

For sometime, in fact ever since music began to play such an important part in moving pictures, Universal has contemplated making a musical romantic drama of a subject written around the life of Rouget de I’lsle who was the composer of “La Marseillaise.” With the signing of John. Boles as one of its premier stars, the production of the story by Houston Branch and George Mankar Watters became prac : tical. Special music to surround “La Marseillaise” is being written by Charles Wakefield Cadman. Universal will,, of course, call the story- “La Marseillaise.” ' .

Judging by the number of inquiries received at the head office of J. C. Williamson Ltd. regarding the Dominion tour of the great war play “Journey’s End,” the coming of this remarkable drama has aroused universal interest. While a comprehensive tour of New Zealand has been arranged, a much more extensive one could have been drawn up had time permitted. Unfortunately for New Zealand the company has to return by a specified date, so that a return Visit of this outstanding play of the century is an impossibility. It may with truth be said that “Journey’s End” has created a sensation in every part of the world in which it has been produced. The Wellington season opens November 13.

The only newsr eel cameraman who ■ .ever flew: around the world has a real story to tell that same world, and he’s telling it in pictures. He is Robert Hartman, representative In Berlin of the Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer International Newsreel, and the Hearst Metrotone News, who made the trip on the Graf Zeppelin. Throughout the history-making world flight of the Graf Zeppelin, just completed, Hartman was the only cameraman o n board the ship. His exclusive . pictures of the first leg of the journey from New York to Friedrichshafen will soon appear in M-G-M International Newsreel. His succeeding pictures of the flight across Europe aud Asia, tiie history-making conquest of the Siberian wilds, the triumphant landing at Tokio, the unprecedented flight over the Pacific, the soul-stirring arrival at Los Angeles, and o n across the United States to New York, comprise the final graphic chapters of the greatest flight in history. The leading motion picture theatres of London celebrated a veritable “Universal” week, commencing o n August 30, this producing co mpany’s pictures literally taking the British Metropolis by storm. At the Regal Theatre, “Broadway” was in the midst of an extended season, and playing to record business; at the Rialto “Show Boat"' was • rolling along majestically in its twenty-third week; the Marble Arch Pavilion was playing “College Love” a second week to '"'"•ellent business, while at the Astoria Theatre, “The Last Warning” was also Maying to packed houses, the picture being enthusiastically applauded at every performance. In each instance, the “talkie” version of the films was being screened.

In addition to ~ James Gleason, his wife, Lucille Webster and Tom Ken- <1 nedy, the following y have been added to the cast of the “Shannons of ’ Broadway”: James j Breedem, who ap- • peared as the ju- > venile in the Los Angeles stage version ; .Charles . Grapewin, George Summerville, Harry Tyler, Gladys Crolius Tom Santschi and Helen Mehrann. Emmett Flynn has completed rehearsals for the talking version at Universal City.

Ken Maynard, whose Universal talking film, “The Wagon Master,” comes to New Zealand shortly, entered motion pictures by way of a circus. His riding attracted the attention of a director who persuaded him to enter films. Maynard is seen at his best, in “The Wagon Master,” which was directed by Harry J. Brown. The cast Includes Edith Roberts, Tom Santschi, Al Ferguson and Jackie Hanlon.

“Why Bring That Up?” the Two Black Crows’ first Paramount all-talk-ing picture, will soon be released in New Zealand as an extended season attraction. Thousands of gramophone enthusiasts, who know the Black Crows already by their Columbia records, will be given the chance to see and hear them for the first time. The Two Black Crows, Moran and Mack, spent several years in studying many distinct types of American negroes, before developing the characters they present in their famous comedy dialogue. Both comedians were born in the State of Kansas, which borders on the Southern States, and had ample opportunity to study the negroes during their youth. Mack says that the contact with happy, care-free blacks, greatly influenced their comedy. The characters they present are not typical of any particular type, but are really a combination of many types. Some further slight changes have had to be made in the dates of the New Zealand tdur of the J. C. Williamson production “The Desert Song,’ which is now being played in the Dominion to crowded and enthusiastic audiences. The city dates stand as previously announced, but the provincial dates have been subject to slight alterations. The company will now appear at Napier on November 9 only, and at Hastings on November 11. The company will make two appearances at Wanganui, on November 12 and 13. Hawera is still included in the itinerary, but the date of the company’s appearance has been changed to November 15. There Iwill be only one appearance of the company at Palmerston North —on November 16,

More than 3500 extras were working on pictures at Fox Movietone City in Beverly Hills and the Fox studio in Hollywood during a seven day period recently. Moreover, according to Dave Todd, assistant casting director, these figures could be eclipsed if he had time to look them up. “Married in Hollywood,” Oscar Strauss’s operetta, which is being transferred to the screen bv Director Marcel Silver, used 1800 extras during the period, with all types included, from peasants to aristocrats. Benjamin Stoloff, directing the “Girl From Havana,” used 150, while Kenneth Hawk’s “Big Time,” with Lee Tracy, used 250 theatre patrons and baek-stage atmospheric types. Three hundred aeroplanes, pilots, mechanics, and other flying field attaches were emloyed in “The Sky Hawk,” and David Butler, director of “Sunny Side Up,” the De Sylva, Brown and Henderson musical play co-featur-ing Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, used 1100 New York East Side types. When Sir Benjamin and 'Mr. John Fuller were contemplating the production of a big Zeigfield musical comedy in Sydney, the role of leading lady was found to be a very difficult one to cast, requiring, as it did, unusual talent and capabilities. So Miss Irene Shamrock, theatrical favourite of London and the Continent, was specially imported to take this exacting role. However, as plans for the production of this musical comedy were abandoned, Miss Shamrock was drafted into the “Whirligigs” Revue Company, and she is rapidly establishing herself a big favourite with Wellington audiences at His Majesty’s Theatre.

Richard Barthelmess, star of “Son of the Gods,” which Is now in production, has become a polo enthusiast. Some of the most spectacular Incidents of the picture deal with polo, and Barthelmess, who has played the game off and on for several years, is now more of a devotee than ever. Recently he presented a silver cup to the U.S. Cavalry team as a trophy of victory over the Uplifters Club. The polo scenes in “Son of the Gods” are being made at the latter team’s playing field. “Son of the Gods” is based upon the novel by Rex Beach. A number of the most striking scenes are being made in technicolour.

A short vacation for Billie ■ Dove at Del Monte came to an end last week when the First National star returned to the studio to begin rehearsing for her next picture, “The Other To-morrow.” Grant Withers will be leading man in this- production, and Lloyd Bacon will direct.

“The King of Jazz,” the famous Paul Whiteman film without a story, was postponed until November 1. Carl Laemmle, Jr., was not satisfied with any of the stories hitherto submitted and neither was Paul Whiteman. This interim during which Paul Whiteman made a concert tour of the Pacific Coast enabled the Universal scenario department to find a story thoroughly acceptable. Did the traditional dances of Peru, strange mixtures of Spanish and Indian art, originate in the Orient? This is the theory of Lili Damlta, famous French dancer, who plays the role of Camille, staging a sensational . dance scene in “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer’s screen version of Thornton Wilder’s prize novel Miss Damita’s dance, daring but singularly Interesting, Is an exact replica of a Peruvian dance which she studied at length. “Spanish dances,” she said, “are affected by Moorish art, which is in Its nature Oriental. Probably the Incas, too, in Peru, had some remote touch with the Orient”

Lon Chaney, w h o 8 e hobby is amateur movies, has a new trick of the Jens. With telescopic apparatus he is taking moving pictures of the moon and planets. A star photographing stars.

A few years ago Rupert Julian and Claude Fleming were stage actors together in Sydney. One drifted to comic opera, the other to the screen. To-day both are under contract to Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer, and Claude is completing a role in “Unholy Night,” under the direction of Lionel Barrymore.

Cecil B. de Mille has just acquired the smallest domino set in existence. The pieces are contained in a box $ of an inch wide, and 1 of an inch long.

Adapted from the successful Broadway stage play “Fog,” by John Willard, the author of “Cat and Canary,” “Black Waters” is the story of uncanny hap-, penings aboard a mystery ship which lies in murky San Francisco dock. To this ship five oddly assorted characters have been summoned by strange letters. As midnight arrives they arrive at the dock, all astonished to see one another, but quite determined to board the schooner, despite the warnings of the wharf watchman, who calls the ship a “devil ship.” The party assemble in the cabin-quite unaware of the fact that ■ the watchman has been killed and also that the ropes have been severed from the wharf, which results In the boat drifting out to sea. Then ensues a series of amazing adventures. The climax is a masterpiece leaving everyone gasping under a deluge of thrills. This all-talking feature will be shown in Wellington at an early date. “The Bondman,” a picturisation of Sir Hall Cain’s famous novel of the same name, is the feature attraction at the Queen’s Theatre this week. This British Dominions film, featuring Norman Kerry in the title role, with Francis Cuyler and Donald McArdle, is the story of two half-brothers whom destiny decreed should meet though half the world apart At practically the same time each had taken an oath — one on the dagger of vengeance and the other on the Cross of repentance. Michael leaves the Isle of Man for an important post in Scicily, leaving behind him his sweetheart. Jason comes to the Isle of Man seeking vengearice and falls in love with Greeba. They are to be wedded when fate steps in once again. How the brothers eventually meet and what occurs : makes a stirring story—the triumph of repentance over vengeance.

The coming of technlcolour has brought an , era of prosperity to the painting profession in Hollywood. The demand for painters and paint has doubled in the studios since colour pictures became the rage. In black and white pictures the painting of sets is a minor matter, for only neutral shades are needed. In technlcolour pictures every object is photographed in its natural colours, so the greatest care and attention is given to the paint feature. In “Sally,” the First National picture starring Marlyn Miller, which is entirely in technlcolour, more than 150 barrels of paint were used on the varlou* sets. Fifty painters were engaged to decorate the various sets, working over a period of six weeks as they were needed. The restaurant set, which was built in its entirety from the front door to the kitchen, and which was large enough to accommodate" 400 patrons, was carefully decorated by finished painters. The Balkan inn set and the garden set, both occupying an entire stage at the studio and extending 240 feet in length and 137 feet in width, required weeks of labour on the part of huge forces of painters. In addition to the painting on the sets, all trees, shrubbery and green plants were sprayed with silver paint, so that the leaves would pick up the lights for the technlcolour cameras.

There have been shots in history “heard around the world,” but it remained for Clyde Cook, the well-known comedian who portrays a role in the Fox picture, “Masquerade,” to produce the first sneeze to encircle the globe. Clyde’s sneeze literally, will be heard “from Greenland’s icy mountains” to “India’s coral strand” through the magic of Fox Movietone.

Of all imaginative fiction none hat transcended the famous Arabian Nights Tales with their strange and wonderful recitals of romance and adventure amidst unexampled Oriental opulence and splendour. Hitherto, no film producing company has attempted the enormously costly and technically difficult task of putting the gorgeousness of an Arabian Nights Tale on the screen. U.F.A. and the director, Alexander Wolkoff, however, have now repaired the omission and achieved what will unquestionably rank as one of the greatest screen spectacles—a masterpiece of organisation, desors,’ screen architecture, craftsmanship, camera work and beautiful pictorial composition and groupings. The exteriors for this gorgeous production which was more than a year in the filming, were made partly in Northern Africa and partly on the French and Italian Riviera. In Africa, the U.F.A. architect spent two and a half months in building the old “copper city” of Atlantia, erecting an Oriental town covering 5 square miles with walls and ramparts 15 feet high and dominated by 100 towers of varying heights from 24 to 45 feet. More than 2000 “extras” were employed continuously for several weeks, and in the desert scenes, taken in the Sahara, 500 camels, 500 fullblooded Arabian horses and several hundred Bedouins were used. One of the great spectacles of the film is the burning of an antique Persian dragon ship, which was over 100 feet long and 50 feet high. For the processional scenes, U.F.A. engaged 40 cavalry officers of the late Tsar’s own bodyguard 1 to play the part of bodyguard to the i Padishah, and in the Oriental palace scenes, over 200 picked beauties from the theatres and dance halls of Berlin and Paris appeared. Basically, Secrets of the East” is a philosophic study, but from the, popular point of view it is just a slice of sheer gorgeous entertainment, ’ both for the eye and the mind. quaint humour and a romantic adventure story blended in a series of screen pictures, the like of which have not been seen since “The Nibelungs. For once, the publicist is thoroughly justified in* using.his full range of superlatives; “Secrets of the East is indeed a magnificent and stupendous production. “Secrets of the. East,” tho first real challenge to the “talkies, will be released shortly by Cinema Art Films.' ■ “Dawn,” the picture over which so much controversy was raised, first banned and then licensed in nearly all the English-speaking countries, is now screening at the Grand Opera House. The film graphically portrays the colourful and adventurous life of a war nurse, Edith Cavell, whose tragic end shocked the world. It is based on the story of her life by Captain Berkeley, and made into a photoplay by Herbert Wilcox, one of Europe’s most famous producers. The production was over two years in the making, and each scene was re-enacted on the exact spot in Belgium where the tragic events occurred. Mr. Wilcox received the wholehearted support of the Belgian Government, and it is largely due to its aid that the finished production rings so true.' Sybil Thorndyke, London’s most famous and popular emotional actress and a friend of Edith Caveß, portrays the nurse, and is supported by an excellent cast, including Madam Bodart (who was an assistant of Nurso Cavell’s), Marie Ault, Mary Brough, Micky Brantford, and many other notable actors. There are no war horrors in the production, and Sybil Thorndike gives a performance of dignity and restraint that is far,more eloquent than a ton of overmoting would be.