Films and The Stage.

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 19

Films and The Stage.

A can heard daily in the lands where the crescent of Mohammed is in the ascendant has been brought to Western ears through the medium of the audible screen. It is the muezzin’s summons to prayer. This ritual has been filmed with faithful attention to authentic detan for Paramount’s “Morocco,” an adventure story of the Foreign Legion, featuring Gary Coop-, er, Marlene Dietrich and Adolphe Menjou. .Only the possessor of a powerful and beautiful voice may become a muezzin. All within the sound of his riflging voice are required to enter the mosque for worship, or, if that is impossible, to kneel with their faces toward Mecca and pray. First, however, they must prepare themselves ..by cleansing their hands, ears, neck, face and feet. They also must purge their minds of all but clean thoughts. Joseph Diskay, a Hungarian tenor, is to chant the muezzin’s call in “Morocco;”

One aspect of the threatened closing of British cinemas on Sundays is: What would happen to the enormous crowds who flock to the London West End at night? The Plaza and the Empire alone, with two performances each, together house 14,000j .poeple.,, ', They stream in, mostly from the East End, and even with the, cinemas open the streets are crowded. If the cinemas were shut the public-houses would d» a more than thriving trade, but they. would not accommodate the multitude. —“Sunday Express.”

George Sidney, who plays the role of Nathan Cohen in the Universal.featurelength comedy “The Cohens and Kellys in Africa,” was once a dollar and a halt a week clerk in a-lower East side pawn shop in New York. During the past 35 years, however, Sidney has found more remunerative employment in many memorable successes on both stage and screen. He is featured in the sparkling “The Cohens and Kellys in Africa.”

Because of the addition of a new scene and the impossibility of securing Lee Moran, who had played the character earlier in the picture, Slim Summerville gets himself cast in another picture, “Blind Wives.” Lee Moran had played the role of Dennis in one of the first scenes, taken with Zasu Pitts, for “Blind Wives,” which is the new title for Sidney Howard’s play, “Half Gods.” When the picture was almost completed, Henley decided upon a new final scene, and drafted the busy but willing Slim Summerville for duty. Since “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Slim Summerville has played in “The Little Accident,” “See America Thirst,”• and “Many a Slip,” besides four two-reel war comedies. Slim has to thank “All Quiet” for all of this noise and activity.

Mr. W. J. Clark, general sales manager of Famous Lasky Film Service (Paramount Pictures) in New Zea land, Australia, and the Far East, arrived in Wellington yesterday by the s.s. Monowai, en route to Sydney.

Oscar Straus, the Continental composer, has been engaged by Paramount to write the music for Maurice Chevalier’s next production, tentatively titled “The Smiling Lieutenant.” The new film, which Ernst Lubitsch will direct, promises to be the most ambitious single-screen production ever attempted in New York. Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins will have the two feminine leads.

“Frailties” was withdrawn from the London Phoenix Theatre after only four performances. “Colonel Satan” was taken off at the Haymarket after six days—the shortest run which that theatre has ever known. Why is this? Both of these plays were described as dull. Twenty years ago, in spite of their dullness, they would probably have run for a iponth, but the swift action of the cinema has set up a new standard in which dullness is the unforgivable sin. People accustomed to that high standard of entertainment refuse to put up any longer with the dullness of the theatre. There will always be room for the good play, but the day of the mediocre play is gone.

“The Right to Love," Ruth Chatterton’s latest picture, has the sound recorded by a new method by whicn all noises except the voices are eliminated. “Fighting Caravans,” with , Gary Cooper, is the big outdoor picture of- the year. “Playboy of Paris” will be Maurice Chevalier’s first 1931 picture, to be followed by several others now in production. “Derelict,” starring George Bancroft, will also be released in the Dominion in the near future, as will “Rango,” Paramount’s all-talking picture drama of the jungle.

Cecelia Loftus, who has the role of the landlady in “Merely Mary Ann,” a dramatic romance starring Janet Gaynor, was for 25 years’one of the most popular stars of New York and London. She will first be on the screen in the Fox Movietone production, “East Lynne,” in which she shares honours with Ann Harding, Clive Brook and Conrad Nagel.

A few years ago the Sutton Vane stage play, “Outward Bound,” created a sensation in the theatre world. Warmer Bros, have now made this play into a Vitaphone all-talking picture, with an all-stat, cast consisting of Leslie Howard, celebrated English actor whose recent play was “Berkeley Square”; Douglas Fairbanks, junior, who, with Helen Chandler, gives a brilliant portrayal of the two young lovers who are “halfways” or “suicides”; Beryl Mercer, and Alison Skipworth. “Outward Bound” has captured the “atmosphere” round which the story revolves, and easily marks a definite step forward toward perfection in talking picture entertainment.

Ivor Novello, whose charm and personality have won for him a unique place on the English stage and in British film productions, has signed up. with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a period extending over five years. Mr. Novello’s appearance in “The Rat,” “The Return of the Rat,” “A Symphony in Two Flats,” etc., has secured for this young actor a legion of friends, all of whom will be highly delighted to hear that in the near future he will be a somewhat regular personality on the silver sheet here.

Harold Lloyd’s observations of human psychology, which he has applied to comedy making with amazing success, largely account for the popularity of his latest talking comedy for Paramount, “Feet First,” in which the star is ably supported by Barbara Kent, Robert McWade and Lilllanne Leighton. It deals with an ambitious and blundering shoe salesman, whose aspirations carry him to the height of comic thrills.

One of the world’s most alluring flirts is portrayed by Claudia Dell in the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone romantic comedy “Sweet Kitty Bellairs.” The story, which takes place in England during the latter part of the eighteenth century, is adapted from the stage play by David Belasco, which was inspired by the novel of Egerton Castle. The cast of “Sweet Kitty Bellairs” includes Walter Pidgeon, June Collyer, Ernest Torrence, and many others.

How to record heavy rain and - a thunderstorm on the Vitaphone while a tense whispered conversation is going: on was successfully solved by Director George Fitzmaurice in filming scenes of “Tiger Rose,” the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone production, starring Monte Blue and Lupe Velez. The first takes proved that the sound of the rain and the thunder drowned out the whispered conversation between Miss Velez and Gaston Glass. So Fitzmaurise devised the system of shooting and recording the noise of the storm in a long shot, without attempting to reCord the voices. Then he recorded the whispered conversation in close-ups, and cut the closeups into the picture, la ter between claps of thunder!

From counting house to leading roles in motion pictures was the road travelled by John Garrick, handsome young leading man in the new De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson Fox Movietone musical romance, “Just Imagine.” Garrick, whose family name is Dandy, completed his education at Brighton College, England, his birthplace, and then became a clerk in a London bank. He had developed his baritone voice in school, however, and from amateur theatricals it was. but a short step to the variety stage. Then he was offered a chance to go to Australia in the “Rose Marie” company and accepted. He remained several years, singing leading roles in several other musical comedies and operettas and becoming popular in the Antipodes.

In his research work for an expedition into the jungles of Sumatra to film Paramount’s adventure-drama, “Rango,” Ernest B. ShOQdsack discovered that Dr. William Furness, a naturalist, had successfully taught an orang-outang to speak three English words. The picture “Rango,” which will shortly be released by Paramount, tells the interesting life story of a family of apes.

Charles G. Norris’s novel “Seed,” recently purchased by Universal, is a phenomenal best-seller, and its reception by the public indicates the great timeliness of its theme and the tremendous response that awaits the picture version. So great are the sales of the book that it bids fair to rival “All Quiet on the Western Front” in popularity. In fact, according to experts in the publishing world, it is the only book that has appeared since ’‘All Quiet” that will come into the class of Remarque’s sensational world-success.

The First National and Vitaphone production, “The Truth About Youth,” which has been adapted from the famous stage play, “When We Were Twenty-one,” is modern in the best sense, and yet holds much of the wistful fragrance of the springtime of life. Loretta Young, David Manners and Conway Tearle appear in the cast of “The Truth About Youth,” and all give outstanding performances. Miss Young •plays the role originally played in the stage play by Maxine Elliott.

Only one group of popular song writers ever has written a musical picture in its entirety and scored an outstanding success. That group is Buddy De Sylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, whose first picture, “Sunny Side Up.” which scored such a sensational hit last year, has been eclipsed in every detail by their second great Fox Movietone production, ‘“Just Imagine,” to be here next week. De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson wrote the story, the dialogue and the songs for “Just Imagine,” and also served as associate producers. They likewise turned their hands to assisting in designing the costumes, settings, and working out mechanical effects. These three young men have had nine smash hits on Broadway in the last five years, including three George White’s “Scandals,'* “Good News," “Hold Everything,” “Three Cheers,” “Manhattan Mary,” “Follow Thru,’ and “Flying High,” now the current New York sensation. They wrote the “books” and songs for all of these productions and helped stage them. The cast for this picture includes El Brendel, Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick, Marjorie White, Frank Albertson, Kenneth Thomson, and Hobart Bosworth.

The new Fox Movietone musical comedy romance, “Just Imagine,” is novel in theme and treatment, has a brilliant cast headed by the inimitable El Brendel and has a number of songs of the calibre which has made De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson the greatest song writing team’in the world. These young men, who also wrote the story and dialogue, have projected their picture fifty years into the future. The love interest, which centres about Maureen O’Sullivan and John Garrick, tells of the romance of the “Lindbergh of 1980” in a gripping and sustained fashion.

In the acting profession, which is said to breed envy, jealousy, and all Mods of unamiable feelings between its members, there are occasional exceptions; and one of them consists of the firm friendship and admiration for each other between Joe E. Brown and Bernice Claire, two of First National’s stars who appear together in “Top Speed.” The comedian and the very youthful prima donna only met each other last summer at the First National studio, and a strong friendship sprang up between them while they were working on separate sound stages. “Top Speed” is based on one of the musical comedy successes of the past season.

Adapted from the English stage play “Fame,” the First National and Vitaphone production, “A Notorious Affair,” starring Billie Dove, is the story of an English girl of wealth and good family, used to luxury and care, who marries a temperamental musician. Basil Rathbone, who plays opposite Miss Dove, makes the most of a splendid opportunity in his portrayal of a genius who has many weaknesses and who is not strong enough to stand fame. Kay Francis, Montague Love and Kenneth Thompson have important roles.

The very sight of Tom Wall’s face in a British comedy is enough to provoke an anticipatory smile. “Plunder," now at the Regent, is a “corker.” "Rookery Nook,” “On Approval,” and “Canaries Sometimes Sing,” have put Tom Wall’s company right into the top of public popularity.

Meon Carroll, popular young English screen player, was engaged for a role in “Dracula,” the strange drama which was produced at Universal Studios, with Bela Lugosi in the title role. Miss Carroll appeared with Lugosi in “The Thirteenth Chair,” which was directed by Tod Browning, also in charge of the filming of “Dracula.” 1 Miss Carroll has just completed an important role with Will Rogers in ‘ “Lightnin’,” and has lately appeared in I “The Lady of Scandal,” “The Boudoir : Diplomat,” and “Rebound.” It was • her work in this latter picture which > resulted in her engagement for “Drac- [ ula,’ in which she plays the role of Briggs, the nurse. '

“Most people on on diets and starve themselves,” says Joan Crawford, star of “Our Blushing Brides.” Then, they eat twice as much, and get fat again. I regulate my food according to my, own feelings, and not according to charts. I eat lightly find feel fine. If I overeat I am stodgy mentally and physically. The first thing in the morning I drink a glass of warm water and start my exercises, how much depends also on how I feel. I exercise five minutes or an hour. It doesn’t take a chart and a doctor to tell you when you need it or not”

Adolphe Menjou, who has wormed his way into the hearts of movie-goers for his suave, sophisticated portrayals of Beau Brummel will be seen in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s forthcoming release “New Moon,” and fills a niche which has long been empty, that of the immaculately attired, faultlessly mannered epicurean, man of the world, gentleman and lover. It was Chaplin who “discovered” Menjou. After the war, when Menjou was playing bits and small parts, here, there, and everywhere, trying to gain a footing in motion pictures, Chaplin gave him the role of tte French gentlemen in “The Woman of Paris” because he looked like a Frenchman, acted like a Frenchman, and wore his clothes like a boulevardier. In “New Moon” he will be seen in support of Lawrence Tibbet and Grace Moore, as the cynical Russian officer, whose intrigue precipitates adventure and unusual romance.

Janet Gaynor’s role of “Angie” in “The Man Who Came Back” (Fox Movietone) permits, her the full gamut of emotions. She progresses from a quaint and . lovable, unsophisticated cafe singer to the hard, bedraggled woman of the world, who becomes, in following her lover to the very depth of degradation in the dregs of a Shanghai joint; then back to the sweet and lovely wife, matured in life’s crucible, helping feer husband climb back to the heights thrpugh her faith and love.

Magnificent against natural backgrounds of the wilds that have seldom been equalled, “Tiger Rose” is here as ' the last word in Vitaphone entertainment. That the talking screen can enhance the entertainment value of a stage play is amply demonstrated by this picture, which Warner Bros, have made from the Willard Mack melodrama which was produced some years ago by David Belasco. It was a hit for several seasons.

Two common house flies play parts in one of the feature song hit numbers of “Just Imagine,” the second De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson Fox Movietone musical romance. The flies are used as “props” by Marjorie White and Frank Albertson in their song number, “Never Swat a Fly.” According to Lew Brown, of the song writing team which wrote “Just Imagine,” the flies were the only members of the cast who weren’t paid off. His suggestion that they be transported to Malibu Beach and given the run of Director. David Butler’s home as a reward might have been accepted, but the flies, after completing their bit in the interests of art, flew to parts unknown.

Columbia Pictures has assigned Buddy Rae and Eddie Tamblyn to important roles in “The Flood," a spectacular and highly dramatic picturisation of life in the Mississippi Valley. Listed as one of the company’s de luxe “specials,” the production will come to the screen under the direction of James Tinling. An imposing cast includes Monte Blue, in the featured male role, Eleanor Boardman, in the feminine lead, David Newell, as the “heavy,” with Frank Sheridan, William V. Mong, Arthur Hoyt, Viola Barlowe, and Ethel Wales.

Arnold Lucy, a former star of the London stage, has been added to the cast of Ruth Chatterton’s Paramount picture “Unfaithful.” As an English bishop he joins a supporting cast which includes Paul Lukas, Juliette Compton, Paul Cavanagh, Donald Cook, Leslie Vail and Edily Fitzroy. The film is from an original story by John van Druten.