Films and the Stage.

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 250, 18 July 1931, Page 19

Films and the Stage.

What price talent? William A. Orlamond is a veteran character-actor, a' violinist, a baritone singer, and a linguist speaking six languages. But—he was hired to chew tobacco in a picture. The part is that of a stage doorkeeper in Mary Pickford’s new picture “Kiki,” a Sam Taylor production for United Artists in which Reginald Denny Is the leading man. Orlamond can chew in time to music. He was asked to take the role because of his rhythmic jaws.

“Lady of the Lions,” drama of the

glamorous European theatre, has been 3 selected, as Marjene Dietrich’s first Paramount picture since her return from Europe. From an original story by Barlett Cormack, the new picture will present Miss Dietrich in an ultra-modern background and in a series of unusual, smart gowns which are now being designed for her. Josef von Sternberg will i 'Ct.

A murder mystery melodrama, from the pens of Martin Flavin and Joe Sherman, will serve as' George Bancroft’s first starring picture under his new Paramount contract. The picture, tentatively titled “Through the Window,” will go into production at Paramount’s Hollywood studios early in July. Bancroft will portray an aggressive state prosecutor. The supporting cast is being selected.

SCREEN STARS’ HAIR Key to Temperament Each different cinema star presents a problem of her own to the trained hairdressers of the Metrp-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood.. Norma Shearer, for instance, is perhaps the most exacting of the lot, as she is in all things the neatest. But, once fixed, she can be depended on to keep everything in place for the whole day. Never is a hairdresser called because she has been careless and allowed her coiffure to become ruffled. Greta Garbo, on the other hand, refuses to be bothered with watching her hair, and it is necessary that a hairdresser stay on the stage at all times, and re-dress her hair before every scene. Leila Hyams, because of the fineness of her hair, and because of the peculiar springiness of her curls, presents a great difficulty, a difficulty- due to the very excellence of her hair. Joan Crawford, too, has hair of an unusually fine texture, and it must be treated more carefully least it be injured. Joan, fortunately, knows more about the care of the hair than any other star, and invariably adds her own touches. Marjorie Rambeau, long famous on the stage, is the easiest of all to handle, because of the fact that she can wear any style at all with distinction. The most difficult problem of all, however, according to the women who must do it, is to change the essential character of a player by manipulation of the hair, as is often done.

ON THE STAGE Stars and Shows Shortly coming to New Zealand Is the tuneful and hilarious musical comedy “Sons o’ Guns,” one of the most successful of the J. 0. Williamson musical productions. It Is full of all the elements so essential In modern musical-comedy presentations, and as the cast of characters will be one of the strongest ever sent to New Zealand by the flrm, the Dominion season should bo ah outstanding success.

Thurza Rogers, the Wellington dancer, who toured here with Pavlova some years ago, is appearing in England.

Gus Bluett let his hair grow long for the part of Maxime Palllard in the J. C. Williamson musical comedy “A Night Out.” Any flapper would envy his crop now. It is pure gold and deeply marcelled. The Dorothy Brunton J. C. Williamson company has been having a wonderful time in Adelaide, where three productions were staged: ‘‘Dearest Enemy,” “The Merry Widow,” and “The Duchess of Dantzic.” Owing to the death in a motor accident in London of Bertha Lewis, Gilbert and Sullivan contralto, Dorothy Gill, who is taking the contralto roles in the revival in Melbourne, has been recalled to England. Her place in Melbourne will be taken by Evelyn Gardner from England.

ROUND THE STUDIOS

Regis Toomey, Paramount player, is a graduate of the University of Pittsburg.

Eleanor Boardman, Paramount player, left a position as ap interior decorator in New York to enter motion pictures.

Clara Kimball Young, one of cinema’s first stars, has returned to her original love —the movies. - Signed for a featured role in Radio Pictures’ “Kept Husbands,” she will soon go before the camera under the direction of Lloyd Bacon.

Lew Cody has one of the most interesting houses in Beverley Hills, Hollywood, and in his spacious livingroom, dating from the days when Rudolph Valentino was still unknown, is a phonograph, He and Lew Cody each bought one at five dollars down and two dollars a week. Cody’s is still In evidence. The latest comedy-drama in which Lew Cody appears in is the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone domestic comedy, “Divorce Among Friends,” which will be shown here shortly.

Ernest Sehoedsack, producer of “Chang,” “/Rango,” and other jungle films, will team-up with Clive Brook for the . making of one of the most ambitious pictures ever conceived by Paramount. Following Brook’s completion of current Hollywood duties, they will journey to the wilds of India, where exterior scenes of “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer,”, by F. Yeats-Brown, will be filmed.

More than -50 stellar personalities have been under contract to Paramount during the twenty years of its existence.

The night life of London is very well portrayed in the British International picture, “Night Birds.”. The cabaret scenes are brilliant and make a strange setting for the surprising murder mystery that is involved in the plot Jameson Thomas plays the lead.

Three well-known English actors have been added to the cast of “The Lady Refuses.” Betty Compson’s next Radio Pictures’ vehicle. They are Reginald Sharland, Halloway and Bert Morehouse.

Elissa Landi, Fox star, being featured in “Always Good-Bye” because of her brilliant performance in this just completed picture, leads the list of .newly acquired actresses who have headed for the top in high gear.

The Radio Picture Company has decided to send Richard Dix and a company of fifteen to Spain, to film scenes for “Marcheta,” based on Victor Schertzinger’s famous song. Mr. Schertzinger will direct the production. Irene Dunne, who won film fame in “Cimarron,” will play the leading feminine role, and will make the trip to Spain with the company. Scenes will be taken in Madrid and Barcelona. The company will leave after the completion of “The Sphinx Has Spoken," which Victor Schertzinger is directing for Radio.

Benny Rubin, who scored the laugh hit of Radio’s “Present Arms,” has completed the leading role in “Talking Turkey,” the fifth of the Headliner series which Lou Brock is producing for Radio Pictures. In this he plays a dual role of father and son.

One of Robert Montgomery’s favourite pranks these days is to find some unsuspecting person in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lunch-room and try out the butler outfit he is wearing in his new picture “Man in Possession.” He assumes a very professional expression, and with a napkin oyer his arm, bows to his victim. “Service Sir?” he asks, and several actor friends of his, not looking at the “waiter,” have replied: “Yes, bring me a hot roast beef sandwich 1”

Ramon, Novarro, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, has a new field of artistic endeavour. He has taken up writing and is now at work on a novel with a Mexican background, which is as yet untitled. He hopes to complete his book during the vacation he will take after the completion of his new picture, “Son of India,” directed by Jacques Feyder.

Fay Compton makes her next appearance in New Zealand in the brilliant comedy of modern marriage, “Uneasy Virtue,” a British International picture. This is the story of the danger of a husband’s indifference and ig packed with laughs from beginning to end. It is made, by the way, from the play, “The Happy Husband,” by Harrison Owen, which had an extraordinary London run.

Eight “Follies” girls, among them some of the most noted stage beauties in the world, play small supporting parts in “Girl Mad,” Charlie Ruggles’ first starring comedy for Paramount. Eddie Cline, director of “Girl Habit," needed eight beautiful girls to act as lingerie saleswomen in a fashionable dress shop sequence, and the “Follies” beauties responded.

When Alan Rinehart joined the writing staff at the Paramount Hollywood studios, one of his first experiences was watching some of his famous mother’s fictional characters come to life in a picture. “I Take This Woman” is the screen adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s popular novel, “Lost Ecstacy.” The modern West and New York are the backgrounds for the story of a young ranch hand who captivates the heart of a wealthy Eastern society girl.

Kay Francis will return to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio for a leading role in “Guilty Hands,” the mystery story by Bayard Veiller, which W. S. Van Dyke will'direct. Lionel Barrymore, who returned to the screen in “A Free Soul,” after three years of directorial work, has the leading male role .in “Guilty Hands.” The cast includes Madge Evans, William Bakqwell, Polly Moran and C. Aubreye Smith.

Loretta Young, the popular Fox star, is the youngest member of the famous Young family which includes such screen celebrities as Polly Ann Young and Sally Blane. Rated as one of the most popular and talented ingenues in the films, she scored her first success in “Laugh, Clown, Laugh,” and subsequently triumphed in “Scarlet Seas,” “The Squall," “The Man From Blankleys,” “Beau Ideal” and “Devil to Pay.”

’ Reita Nugent, the Australian girl, has the important role of Juliette in the revival of “The Geisha” in London. Rose Hlgnett is the O Mimosa San.

Anticipating the fashions of 1932, Bebe Daniels will be handsomely gowned in her role opposite Douglas Fairbanks in “Reaching for the Moon,” Irving Berlin’s production for United Artists. Edmund Goulding, director of the Fairbanks picture, gave instructions to David Oox and Howard Greer, noted designers, to use their imaginations in creating ultra modern styles. They certainly did so, and the result is that Miss Daniels’s gowns are the talk of Hollywood.

A racketeer who looks as innocent as a schoolboy, a death-dealing assassin who dresses like a successful business man, a lover who falls in love with a beautiful woman only to be betrayed by her—such is the powerfully dramatic characterisation drawn by Lewis Ayres, In “Illegal,” the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone underworld melodrama, which will be shown here shortly. This tense and thrilling study of gang psychology once again proves that there is no escape for the wrongdoer, and that the law always wins in the end.

John Wayne, featured Fox player, was lifted from obscurity— he was a property boy on the Fox lot, and sometimes did small “bit” roles, by Raoul Walsh, who gave him the leading part in “The Big Trial,” and other productions, all of which have been successes.