FILMS and the STAGE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 147, 17 March 1933, Page 16

FILMS and the STAGE

News From The Studios And Theatres

WILD WESTERNS NEVER DIE

Says Paramount Director

WESTERNS will never die because ’ ’ they embrace the beloved Prince Charming-and-Cinderella plot together with fast-moving action and. the lure of the outdoors, according to Fred Allen, director of Paramount’s Zane Grey adventure story, “The Mysterious Rider.” “The consistent popularity of Westerns since motion pictures were in their infancy is due to the fact that they, satisfy the inherent love of handsome heroes, beautiful heroines, colour and action instilled in us by fairy stories and classical literature, since time immemorial,” Allen says. “Originally designed to intrigue youngsters, the Western has become

just as popular with grown-ups. First, adults go where their children go. Second, elders seek changes from sophisticated stories. “Then, too, there is an innate, love of the outdoors, in every man, woman and child. People cooped up in offices are able to enjoy their outdoors vicariously through the Zane Grey type of motion picture.”

Alexander Korda, the brilliant film producer, whose first British production, “Service for Ladies," was hailed by many critics as the finest English film to date, determined to achieve an even greater success with his second picture, “Wedding Rehearsal,” and commenced by engaging a dazzling array of stars for the leading roles.

VAGARIES OF FAME

Stars of Yesterday

HERE is one of those odd little stories anent the ironic bitterness of fate. On the set at First National studios the other morning, where the mystery drama, “Silk Express, is in process of filming, one of the extra women bade Tony Gaudio, a veteran camera* man, “Good morning.” Gaudio returned the greeting casually, not recognising the woman. “Don’t you know me any more, Tony?” questioned the extra wistfully. “I’m Florence Lawrence.” Gaudio spun on his heel and stared at the woman. It was true.. This was the original “Biograph Girl,” the most famous and glittering star of her time, the Ruth Chatterton of yester-

year! Gaudio had photographed her a score of times when she was the pampered darling of her studio, with cars, maids, jewels, fame. Now she was working as an extra on this set for five dollars per day. Such indeed are the vagaries of fame, the irony of life.

The two leading women in “Cynara” are Kay Francis, who portrays the role of the young wife, and Phyllis Barry, a young English girl who had not heretofore appeared in a Hollywood picture. But that discrepancy is about to be corrected for, now that “Cynara” is completed, she is in tremendous demand from other producers. A number of critics claim to see in Miss Barry what they found in the early Joan Crawford, and more recently in Katharine Hepburn.

BOXER AND DANCER Now a Film Star many a curious detour on x the path to fame. Latest to reach that goal after following a queer circuitous route, is a young fellow who started out as a boxer, who took up dancing to improve his footwork in the ring, who soon was a better dancer than a boxer, who graduated from the ring to the stage, and from the stage to the movies. He is George Raft, who sky-rocketed to film fame through supporting roles in “Scarface.” “Dancers in the Dark,’ and “The Sporting Widow,” and who is playing the featured role in Paramount’s “Night After Night,” with Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Mae West, and Alison Skipworth. Raft, who was born in “Hell’s Kitchen.” New York—a section of New York into which only the most hardy venture after dark—boxed in the featherweight division while in bis middle ’teens. He also played baseball. As soon as dancing became his hobby he turned to it for a living, and later visited Loudon, where he was applauded and personally commended by the Prince of Wales. Something of the life he led and the people he knew is. incorporated in the story of “Night After Night,” which was directed by Archie Mayo. The role he plays is that of proprietor of a popular little night club and former dancer, pugilist, and baseball player. Raft is the one man in the triangle love story of the plot. An unusual type of romance is worked out between the new screen hero and the character played by Miss Cummings; also an equally “different” one with beauteous Mae West.

Among Universal features for 1933 are “The Road Back,” sequel to the great “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “S.O.S. Iceberg,” “The Invisible Man,” from the novel by H. G. Wells, “Destination Unknown,” a fearsome tale of the sea, and “Counsellor at Law.” Comedy will come from Slim Summerville-Zasu Pitts/ team;. and Nagana, starring Tala Birell and Melvyn Douglas brings the jpngle, and there are several Tom Mix westerns.

ANOTHER SONG HIT

pLARENCE MUSE, actor, singer, and composer of the hit, “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” has definitely clicked with a new song sensation, “I Go Congo,” a tom-tom, measured rhythm melody of powerful, insistent beat. Its popularity will increase when it is heard soon in a picture.

Muse is busy completing an important character role, one of the finest he has yet had, in the Paramount film, “From Hell to Heaven.” His latest work in “Laughter in Hell,” and “The Death Kiss,” has won him much commendation. Muse is one of the busiest actors in pictures, averaging more than twenty films a year.

ROUND THE STUDIOS QYLVIA SIDNEY and Alison Skipworth have renewed their engagements with Paramount. Miss Sidney, who is just starting her third year with the company, will next be seen in Vina Delmar’s “Pick Up,” opposite Gary Cooper. Miss Skipworth is now working in Marlene Dietrich’s starring picture, “Song of Songs.” Helen Hayes in the title role of “The White Sister,” is concentrating all of her ability in an attempt to reach new emotional heights in the part. Her early training in a convent has provided an ideal background for her scenes as a nun. With her, Clark Gable will portray Giovanni, a dashing young Italian officer who is separated from the woman he loves by a series of tragedies that lead to a terrific emotional climax. His role will have all of the virile strength of his parts in “A Free Soul” and “Red Dust,” combined with the sensitive balance of dramatic value that distinguished his work in “Strange Interlude.” Mae West, soon to star in Paramount’s “She Done Him Wrong,” has the unique record of being the only woman in the modern theatre to write, direct, produce and star in a play. Herbert Mundin, the Cockney character, who has been making rapid strides as a comedian in Fox films, will next be seen in “Pleasure Cruise,” in company with Norman Foster, Genevieve Tobin and Roland Young. • * • Sidney Franklin, the New York lad who went to Spain several years ago and became one of the six great matadors of the world, has finished ills show for "The Kid from Spain” (United Artists). In the Eddie Cantor picture Franklin gave an exhibition of bullfighting as a part of the climax to the big screen musical comedy. It was the last scene to be 'filmed and marked the completion of the production.

The busiest leading man in Hollywood is Paul Lukas. In all the time he lias been under contract to Universal, however, he lias only played one Universal role, the lead in "Strictly Dishonourable.” His role in “The Kiss Before the Mirror” is particularly fitted to the handsome Hungarian.

One of the famous bandit retreats in the old days of the Soiith-west, “Robbers’ Roost,” is immortalised in celluloid in the Fox Films picture of that name, with George O’Brien and Maureen O'Sullivan in the leading roles in this film version of the Zane Grey novel. .•

Miss Skipworth-was a prominent figure on the British and American stage for more than three decades before she made her first moving picture. She bad a number of minor roles, which led to her winning the title role in “The Sporting Widow.” Audiences welcomed her gleefully in that vehicle. Her roles in “Night After Night” and “He Learned About Women” followed. <

Tay Garnett, director of “Destination Unknown,” had barely time to put the finishing touches on this production, featuring Pat O’Brien, Ralph Bellamy, and Betty Compson, for Universal when he sailed for Berlin to direct, the interiors for Universal’s unique drama, “S.O.S. Iceberg,” made in Greenland. Garnett will assist Dr. Arnold Fanck in completing and editing the screen play.. The German director and explorer recently returned to Berlin with the Laemmle expedition after more than six months of exterior filming on icebergs, glaciers, and on the mainland of Greenland.

' Heather Angel, British actress, now en route to Hollywood for work in Fox pictures, will play the leading role in “House of Refuge,” an unusual type of story heretofore barely touched on the screen, dealing with an institution that harbours feminine social outcasts.

One of Jimmy Durante’s first jobs as a professional entertainer was playing the piano for a singing waiter named Eddie Cantor at a beer garden in New York.

' Randolph Scott, stalwart young Paramount leading man, plays the romantic masculine lead in the Paramount Picture, “Hello, Everybody,” starring Kate Smith, the famous American radio favourite.

Edwin Styles, London stage actor and hit of Earl Carroll’s “Vanities” on Broadway, has joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Styles went to Broadway last August to prove a sensation in the Carroll show, and was engaged there for the screen. He appeared on the stage in London in “Girl Friends,” “Bow Bells,” “Love Match,” “You Can’t Beat ’Em,” and a number of musical plays.

Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston, song writers of the hit, “Just One Store Chance.” have written four new numbers especially for Miss Smith to sing in this picture.' One of them is a torch number entitled “Moon Song.” The others are “The Great Open Spaces,” “Pickaninny Heaven,” and “Twenty Million People.”

An organised search for an inventor with an idea for an absolutely silent motion picture camera has been launched in Hollywood by the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Virgil Miller, head of the camera department at the Paramount studios, is in direct charge of the search, which, if successful, would save the film industry millions of dollars annually by eliminating unweildy silencers, speeding up production, and reducing costs.

Ronald Colman’s second production this year will be “The Masquerader,” one of the most successful novels and stage plays in history. The play of John Hunter Booth was based upon the Katherine Thurston novel. Guy Bates Post spent six years touring the world in it. The picture, in which Colman for the first time will portray a dual character, will be directed by King Vidor, who directed the star in “Cynara.’’ This will be a United Artists release.

FLU AND FILMS How. Elstree Conquered A LTHOUGH the influenza epidemic considerably hampered production at Elstree, the studios are now working at full pressure. Production has recommenced on the Monty Banks-Gene Gerrard comedy, and the former and the five members of his cast, who were hors de combat, have made lightning recoveries, and all are attacking the remaining scenes with such verve that the picture is making wonderful progress. A second unit has now taken the floor under Thomas Bentley, who is directing the new Leslie Fuller starring film under the working title of “The Hawleys of the High Street,” many important scenes of which he has already filmed.

The staff, which escaped the ’flu through the orange diet, prescribed by the company, is in great demand, and two independent film companies, who have rented studio space, are using 8.1. P. technicians • for their productions.

Furthermore, preparations are in hand for four new films which will go into production at the earliest opportunity.

Molly Lamont is introducing to all at Elstree a popular South African pick-me-up which she declares is a fine tonic for those who are. recovering from or anticipating the ’flu. A simple concoction which contains two raw eggs beaten up in half a tumbler of orange juice, she declares, works wonders. It is already in great demand at the 8.1. P. Studios, and on account of its recuperative effects has been aptly named “Dynamite.” FROM NEW ZEALAND Keith Wilbur “Arrives” TZ’EITH WILBUR, in taking part in -*•*- British International’s "Radio Revue.” the film which will introduce wireless stars to the screen, has combined his first love of film acting with his more recent career before the microphone as the well-known animal mimic.

This New Zealander, who was brought up on a sheep station and abandoned electrical engineering for the sea, arrived eventually in distant Los Angeles. Here he began his career, and actually played six parts in the first full-length film ever produced. This was the famous "Tilly’s Punctured Romance,” starring Marie Dressier and Mabel Normand, which achieved the ambitious length of six reels. Wilbur also played in films with Charles Chaplin and “Fatty” Arbuckle, among other well-known stars, before returning to serve in the War with the New Zealand contingent. His facility for imitating any and every kind of sound, whether a liner putting to sea, or the-laugh of a hyaena, had been an accomplishment from boy hood? and it. was performing at a special stage show that the entertainment value of this talent was appreciated. The result was a successful tour throughout England, the Dominions, and United States, during which he returned to Hollywood and performed at the world premiere of “The Champ,” where he met again the stars of his early days, and made a new friend of little Jackie Cooper, who demanded “animal” noises that taxed even Wilbur’s tremendous repertoire. Keith Wilbur prides himself on the faithfulness of his reproduction of animal cries and bird calls'; He is never satisfied with his own rendering until the subject of his study replies to him.

STAGE WHISPERS

’’WALTZES FROM VIENNA” is ' ’ nearing the end of its run at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne,. where this sumptuous and spectacular musical comedy, wjth its exquisite music of Strauss, is approaching its twelfth week. Its success has been a striking one in these abnormal times, and its attractiveness is so pronounced, and its charm so varied, that many playgoers have seen the performance many times. One enthusiast has notified the J. C. Williamson management in Melbourne that he has attended it no fewer than twenty-one times without it losing its attraction for him.

Mona Barlee, who has created something of a sensation in Melbourne by her performance as Lady Catiering in “While Parents Sleep” at the Comedy Theatre, commenced in musical comedy under the J. C. Williamson Ltd. management in 1925. Her first role was that of the “college widow” in “Leave It to Jane.” Then she appeared in “Whirled Into Happiness” and in other musical plays, but it was when she portrayed “the young lady living in freedom” with Theo Shall in “Autumn Crocus” that she had her first big chance, and made the most of it. Now, in the role of the alluring young Lady Cattering, she has confirmed expectations of her rapid rise to star rank, and has consolidated her position in the profession. She has worked, hard, and. backed by brains, ability, and personal attractiveness, she will undoubtedly be added to the list of Australians who have won world fame.

The J. C. Williamson Frank Neil Vaudeville-Revue Company, headed by the famous artists, Ella Shields and George Wallace, is appearing with marked success in the South Island, and the Christchurch season, which attracted large and delighted audiences, terminated last Wednesday Timaru was played on Thursday night, and the company will open the Dunedin season to-night (Saturday), and hold the boards until April 1. The combination is generally hailed as one of the very best that has toured New Zealand for many years, and the southern audiences have testified their complete satisfaction iu the most practical manner. After the Dunedin season Invercargill (April 3 and 4) will be visited, and on the return journey north Timaru will be played on April 5. The company will then commence the North Island provincial tour, Wanganui being visited on April 8, Palmerston North on April 10, and Hastings on April 11 and 12. The favourites will then proceed So Auckland for the Easter holiday season, and will provide the principal attraction for that enjoyable period presenting the new vaudeville-revues "The Laugh Parade” and “Clowns in Clover,” two exhilarating Frank Nell productions that have been in preparation for some months.

THE BRITISH STUDIOS ALFRED HITCHCOCK is nearly at the end of his script for “The Return of Bulldog Drummond,” and the dialogue is being specially written by D. Wyndham Lewis, of “Beachcomber” fame. • • • Yet another important film-to-be is developing on paper as a new and original starring vehicle for Stanley Lupino, which, it is anticipated, will be as popular as “Sleepless Nights.” • • ♦ The fourth film is a dramatic subject to be made by Harry Hughes, entitled “The Crime on the Hill.” This will be a contrast to Hughes’s recent comedy films, “His Wife's Mother,” and “His Night Out.” and reminiscent of the former success, “The Man at Six.” These subjects are, of course, only the immediate ones, for there are many other productions to be considered in the near future, including “The Southern Maid.” an interesting successor to the record-breaking “The Maid of the Mountains,” and a new starring picture for Bobby Howes.

REALISTIC FIGHT In Butcher’s Shop T ESLIE FULLER’S role in “Hawley’s of High Street,” his new starring vehicle, is that of a proprietor ot a drapery emporium, and humour is assured among the haberdashery. His great social and business rival, whose butcher’s shop is next door, is played by Moore Marriott. Marriott, who is famous for his unusual makeups, and will be remembered for his remarkable portrayal of an.old farmhand. recently, in “Mr. Bill the Conqueror,” is equally unrecognisable and true to character as the butcher, and Elstree experienced a thrill of realism when he stepped out of his shop, sharpening his knife on his steel, and crying “Buy, buy. biiy” on the pavement. A terrific fight takes place in the butcher’s between Fuller and his rival, and filmgoers can anticipate something new in comedy battles, for joints and sausages are the combatants’ principal weapons.

COMING TO PALMERSTON

To-morrow’s feature at the Rosy Theatre in Palmerston North, is the Columbia film, “Fighting for Justice,” with Tim McCoy and Joan Crawford. This will be followed on Wednesday by “The Most Dangerous Game,” an unusual thriller. "The Last Coupon,” with Leslie Fuller, commences tomorrow at the Palace Theatre, and on Wednesday will give place to “Salomy Jane.” "His Wife’s Mother” holds the screen at the Regent till Tuesday, March 21, to be succeeded next day by the British production, “Carnival.”

Zasu Pitts has a collection of more than 300 china dogs.

A REST FOR HIS HEART

“I am going to give my heart a rest,” was Maurice Chevalier’s characteristic exclamation to-day when he learned that he and his wife Yvonne had been divorced in Paris.

“Divorce,” he cried, “after all, what is it? You just go on living.” M. Chevalier declined to say whether matrimony would lure him again into its fold, or to comment on the rumours widely printed of a possible new romance.

“It is only incompatibility that made Yvonne and me make a mutual decision to separate,” he declared. “In spite of everything we are the best of friends.”

ANOTHER RECORD

Zasu Pitts Busiest Star

WITH the completion of her role in Universal’s "They Just Had to Get Married.” Zasu Pitts established what is probably an all-time screen record of 38 pictures iu one year. Always one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood, the homeless-handed actress climaxed her long career this year with the phenomenal number of completed roles, an average of better than three pictures a month. Next year she intends to cut down -on the number of pictures, as the tremendous pace if maintained will make inroads on her health.

FAMOUS “KOKO" RETIRES

After nearly 50 years in Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Sir Henry Lytton has said good-bye to the London-stage. He joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company when he,was only 17 ~and since then has made 15.000 appearances.

He has never tired of telling the story of how he joined D’Oyly Carte. His wife, when he was only 17, and since then member of the company. They had just been married, and as the management did not approve of early marriages she introduced her husband as her brother. As brother and .sister, they worked together for some time, until other young members of the company paid special attention to Henry’s “sister.” Then the young couple were obliged to disclose their wedding.

THEATRE ON A LINER

Thousands of pounds are to be spent on making a theatre and cinema, which, it is claimed, will be the largest and most luxurious afloat, for the Cunard liner Aquitania. Some of her present passenger accommodation is also to be converted into the largest stateroom in

any ship. This work will find employment for 500 more men than would have been required for her ordinary annual overhaul, which she is now undergoing at Southampton. The theatre will accommodate 250 people, and its proscenium will be as large as those in most provincial theatres.