FILMS and the STAGE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 58, 1 December 1933, Page 16

FILMS and the STAGE

From Britain and America YVITH Charles Laughton in the stellar ’’ role, “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” is said to be one of the finest productions ever released. Much of the picture was filmed in authentic settings. „ ‘ : Tom Brown, youthful player, who eprang into immediate prominence some time ago in the title role of “Tom Brown of Culver,” has been signed by R.K.O. Radio for the lead opposite Dorothy Jordan in “Wild Birds,” which is scheduled for almost immediate production under the direction of Elliott Nugent. * Ramon Novarro’s sister, Cahn el a Novarro, will make her screen debut in “Conquistador,” «i Fox picture with Spanish dialogue. • • Mae West is settled in Hollywood for at least four years. The star of “I’m No Angel” has just signed a new Paramount contract for two pictures a year for that period and stars soon in “It Ain’t No Sin.” Other new contracts with Paramount have just been signed by Carole Lombard, star of “White Woman,” and Kent Taylor and Gail Patrick, now with Dorothea Wieck, in “Cradle Song.”

• ■» * Every day that Cecil B. de Mille’s “Four Frightened People” troupe goes out on location on the island of Hawaii, each person is given a raincoat, rain hat, and Japanese sunshade. Every day is a succession of drenching rain and burning sun, and Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland, William Gargan, and-Leo Carrillo are becoming quite adept at quick changes, according to word from there. ♦ * *

“The Good Companions,” the British screen version-of the well-known J. B. Priestley novel, will star the popular Jessie Matthews. It will be released in New Zealand by Fox. • • ♦

In production at Sound City is the famous Viennese musical comedy entitled “Regimental Lady.” It is being retitled “His Excellency Mr. Cupid,” and is being produced on the most lavish scale with a great many of the original sets that made this Viennese iaugh-maker the Continental success for 1933.

Warner Brothers will very shortly release two musical successes in Wellington. The first is “The Desert Song” and the other “Kiss Me Again.” Both are brilliantly acted and have allstar casts.

No sooner does the cast of “The Hollywood Party,” which includes more than twenty starrirtg names, appear final and complete, than Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comes forward with new personalities for the production. The latest announcement brings the news that Mr. Walt Disney has been persuaded to loan Mickey Mouse, his three little pigs, and his big bad wolf to the prodcers of this musical extravaganza, lor sequences to be worked out at once by Mr. Disney. *

Among the interesting features of the Sound City’s colossal production “Colonel Blood” is the engagement of the famous Dolmetsch family to play on the old-time English musical instruments, Another character famous in history, Mr. Pepys, appears in the production.

“Moulin Rouge,” Constance Bennett’s first starring vehicle for 20th Century Pictures, went into production with Franchot Tone, borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as Miss Bennett’s leading man. “Moulin Rouge,” which win b 6 released by United Artists, win be a lavish musical extravaganza based on a French play by Lajon de Bris. It wiH be directed by Sidney Lanfleld from a screen adaptation by Nunnally Johnson. Tullio Carminati and Russ Brown are also in the cast

Movie Theatre in Station GPHE first moving picture theatre ever constructed inside a railway terminus has just been completed at Victoria station, London, states the "Observer.” The architect is Mr. Alister G. MacDonald, son of the British Prime Minister, and the engineer is Mr. S. W. Budd. One must congratulate them on a remarkable piece of planning and constructional work. It is a news ■ theatre, devoted to travel and educational films, news, and such “shorts” as the “Mickey Mouse” variety. It costs sixpence to enter up to 4 p.m., and a shilling after that, and it owes its inception to Mr. Norman J. Hulbert, managing director of the British News Theatres Ltd.

It is, in fact, a Complete cinema such as might be built on any ordinary site — with its staircases, foyer, seating for 240 people, emergency exits, and projection rooms.- It has a brightly-lit entrance from the road, yet it is built inside the station, against that external wall which fronts Buckingham Palace road, where a large archway gives access for road transport, and the remarkable thing about it is that its auditorium is set above the roadway, high up in the air, upon four delicate legs of steel. Externally the whole design is smooth and modern in its forms. Yet it has a base of black vitreous mosaic, and all the gaiety of electric neon-tube lettering and horizontal “fins” of stainless steel. Internally, there is an entrance hall paved in coloured mosaic, staircase-walls decorated with delightful little cartoons by Mr. Edward Carrick, and an auditorium, suave and graceful, with a curved ceiling of warm grey. To the right of the proscenium is a small panel, and on This, quite suddenly—even though the "main screen is in active occupation—will appear a notice, such as “The Dover-Ostend Boat Train arrives at 4.55,” or “The Brighton Belle will leave in 10 minutes.”

Talkies in the Home

'J’HE “Sunday Express” says that at a secret test, attended by eight people, two full-length talkies were successfully televised., These, were seen on a screen: two feet square in a different building from where the film was being shown. The interested parties say that apart from taking talking into the home it will become possible to show a picture at one cinema and televise it to a group of others.

“Facing the Music,” a _ 8.1. P. musical production, featuring the famous Jose Collins and Stanley Lupino, will soon be released in New Zealand. It is a lavishly mounted show. ■ ■' ■

Janet Gaynor and JVarner Baxter are to'be seen .in their newest film, “Faddy the:Next Best Thing,” shortly. The cast that Fox Film ha.s gathered around its ■ two stars is one of the most notable ever seen on the screen. It has Walter Connolly, star of the Broadway stage, Harvey Stephens, Margaret Lindsay, Mary McCormic, Joseph M. Kerrigan, Fiske O’Hara, Claire McDowell, Merle Tottenham, Roger Imhof, and Trevor Bland.

“Kelly Gang” to be Filmed

PRODUCTION will start almost immediately on “The Kelly Gang,” the Australian talkie to be made at Rushcutters Bay and in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Mr. Harry Southwell has come out of retirement to co-operate with Mr. Harold King in making the picture. Kate Kelly will be played by Miss Regina Somerville, Ned Kelly by Mr. Leslie H. Simpson, and Dan Kelly by Mr. Jack Appleton.

Columbia will present Tim McCoy in the second of his “action melodrama” as a pewspaper reporter involved in public scandal. The title of the film is “Hold the Press,” and there won’t be a horse in the entire production.. Shirley Grey, blonde star of “Public Defender,” will play opposite the former Western star.

News From The Studios And Theatres

About “Bitter Sweet” gEVERAL years ago Herbert Wilcox was the guest of Noel Coward at the second night performance of Coward’s operetta, “Bitter Sweet.” This was at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, where the play was a tremendous success at the same time it was charming audiences at the Ziegfeld Theatre, in New York, and in Paris. Mr. Wilcox then made a mental promise to himself some day to make “Bitter Sweet’ into a movie—and his ambition has at last been realised. "Bitter Sweet," a British and Dominions Film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and presenting the beautiful Anna Neagle and Fernand Graavey in the leadin'- roles, is soon coming to New Zealand. Three screen Richard Tauber, the popular singer, is to appear as Franz Schubert in the screen version of the delightful comic opera “Lilac Time.” The film is to be made in England. New Zea land theatregoers will remember the late John Ralston in the Williamson production of the show. treatments of “Bitter Sweet” were prepared before one was finally personally approved by Mr. Coward, who wrote not only the book, but the music and the lyrics. Mr. Wilcox has given careful attention to the music of the play, which is an integral part of the story. In selecting a leading lady to fill the part played in New York by Evelyn Laye and in London by Peggy Wood. Mr. Wilcox used great care, finally giving the role of Sari Linden to Anna Neagle, who won the place over a field of candidates that included Miss Laye and Jeanette MacDonald.

Australian Musical Revue

QOMETHING quite new for AustraIlan film production is to be tried in the near future when Mr. A. R. Harwood, producer for Centenary Films, will make a musical picture entitled “Comething Different.” The first musical revue to be filmed in Australia, it will consist of comedy, ballets and acts. Six original musical numbers have been written for the picture by Les Raphael, who is also to be seen in the production.

Interesting Screen History

QARBO’S "Queen Christina” is likely to prove the most interesting of the coming screen histories, since the role of the famous Swedish queen should fit perfectly the personality of the famous Swedish star. Garbo likes wearing trousers, and so did Christina, who was also a woman with an independent turn of mind and no desire to take a husband. Christina was crowned at flie age of 18 (on December 8, 1644), and 10 years later she packed her things and “walked out” on her kingdom, very much in the same way as Garbo has served her studio before now.

Actor and the ex-Kaiser TpERDINAND BONN, who recently died at the age of 71, would have been one of Germany’s greatest actors if he had been able to confine his exuberance to the theatre and cuib it on the stage. As he could not do these things he will be remembered chiefly as a great eccentric, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The suggestion that the former Kaiser should be handed over to the Allies at the end of the war was the occasion of Bonn’s last ambition to play a great part on the stage of the world. He seriously offered to make up as the fallen monarch, surrender himself to the Allies, and personate tile Kaiser in any legal proceedings which might follow. The offer was not accepted. His proffered sacrifice was intended to seal a reconciliation. Before the war Bonn had wished to stage a trilogy from his own pen dealing with Frederick the Great. His design was thwarted by a prohibition of plays introducing members of the Hohenzollern family. The actor hoped to surmount the obstacle by personal intervention. As narrated in his memoirs, he haunted the Kaiser’s favourite ride till the monarch at last appeared, and then, falling on his knees in the dust, implored. “Have mercy on ‘Young Fritz’ ” —the play he was most anxious to stage. With a freezing glance, the Kaiser rode on in silence.

During the war Bonn earned a brief notoriety by declaiming the Anglophobe “Hymji of Hate” in one of the largest Berlin music-halls. His patronage of this remarkable outburst was a little ungrateful for his greatest success as an actor-manager had been won with his adaptations of Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles” and other stories of Sherlock Holmes.

Snow in Heat Wave

HEAT-WAVE in Hollywood did not discomfit Katharine Hepburn and the supporting stars in “Little Women.” While less fortunate players sweltered under the hot studio lights they frollicked in two tons of real snow. The big snow scenes described in Louisa M. Alcott’s book were filmed on a three-acre setting at the RKO Ranch. Real snow was imported from the High Sierras, and spread on the ground to form a road for horsedrawn sleds. In addition, a synthetic snowstorm was created by blowing five tons of untoasted cornflakes with twenty wind machines.

Beautiful Elissa Landi, who will be remembered in “The Masquerader” and “The Sign of the Cross,” has been signed by Universal for the leading role in the Continental comedy, “By Candlelight.” Paul Lukas, Nils Asther and Esther Ralston also have important. roles in this sophisticated cometiy, which presents many interesting sidelights on the lives of philandering Europeans of noble birth in Vienna and Monte Carlo.

Famous Moustaches Gone

r |’ 1 HE barber at Universal City has A been doing much business the past week. First he was called upon to shave the famous moutaches of both Paul Lukas and John Boles, then he removed a five weeks’ growth of hair Boles accumulated for early scenes of “Beloved,” his. latest musical picture. This done, he visited the "Counsellor-at-Law” set to shave John Barrymore, whose whiskers were allowed to grow several days, and spent another whole day shaving cowboys appearing in Ken Maynard’s “Rider of Justice,” when a party sequence followed a wild chase through the sage brush, within a few hours.

Part of the famous Wandsworth Prison was reproduced in the British and Dominions studios at Boreham Wood, England, for use in “The Blarney Stone,” in which Tom Walls starred and directed at the same time. An exact replica of the prison governor’s office was built by the British and Dominions art department, special facilities having been obtained to secure a perfect reproduction

D. W. Griffith Retires

Edward Arnold and Mabel Marden have been added to the cast of “Madama Spy,” which will go into production shortly at Universal City. Fay Wray has the role originally intended for Gloria Stuart. Miss Stuart’s work in “Beloved” made it impossible for her to accept this role of a modern spy for a European Government The other lead is played by Nils Asther

rpiRED of writing in sand, D. W. Griffith, America’s greatest picture pioneer, has turned his back on Holly wood, and in the seclusion of his country house in Massachusetts has dug up his buried treasures—the plays, poems, and stories he wrote before his film career began, states the “Daily Express.” Without so much as a sentimental look in his eye he told a reporter that he had no nostalgia for the picture industry. Hollywood was his bread; now, after 21 years of that diet, he has returned to cake, and has found that he has an increasing appetite for it.

Another Animal Film

'PHE good ship Silver Walnut arrived X in New York recently bearing the first shipment of film to come for Frank Buck’s second film, “Wild Cargo.” The batch included scenes taken near Calcutta and at Kandy, Ceylon, where Mr. Buck obtained the Government’s permission to photograph a round-up of wild elephants. It contained, also, pictures of a stampede of wild water buffalo. Mr. Buck has cabled his company, which is producing the picture, that he expects to travel to the Malay States for cobras and pythons and then into Sumatra to capture some orangutans.

“Making motion pictures is doing work that cannot last,” he said. “The entire thing is a mechanical device. Only words can last.” Griffith’s production, “The Birth of a Nation” was shown in 80 New York cinemas last year. “Every time it is revived I am reminded,’" he said, "that I was so unbusinesslike as to let it slip completely from my hands, just as I was so young and foolish as not to take out patents on its technical features, which I invented.” Griffith is the father of “close-up” and “fade-out.”

The Much-married Monarch

QIR BENJAMIN FULLER, who arrived from New York via Panama recently, stated that the English picture to make the biggest hit even with the Americar people was "The Private Life of Henry VIII,” starring Charles Laughton as the much-marired monarch. Mr. Fader said that whilst the American public simply wallowed in this picture, there were features which may not appeal to all Englishmen.

Migrations from Hollywood to England MANY stars formerly regarded as _ fixed in the cinema’s sky are at present in rapid motion. Mr. Gordon Ellis, general manager of British Empire Films, Ltd., who recently returnedto Sydney, after studying the film industry overseas, stated, in an interview in the “Sydney Morning Herald,” that he found a’veritable constellation in temporary grouping in London.. Staving at the Dorchester Hotel, for example, he saw-Bebe Daniels, Jeanette Macdonald, Sally Eilers, Thelma Todd. Ben Lyon, Charles Laughton, Conrad Veidt, and Victor McLaglen. He was told that Camilla Horn had arrived from the Continent, and that many other popular players were cabling their readiness to accept invitations to Britain. The reason, .said Mr. Ellis, was the remarkable prosperity of the film industry in England. It was thought by some in “the trade” that several of the large organisations, among them British International Pictures, were spending perhaps too lavishly on production. It was common for from £50,000 to £70,000 to be spent now on a picture for which, 12 months ago, £20,000 would have been the maximum. It was hoped, however, to “capture the world market” while the industry in the United States was endeavouring to adjust itself to much straitened resources. America’s predominance was undisputed until recently ; but the country’s financial difficulties had handicapped Hollywood, and the producer who formerly had 300,000 dollars to spend on a picture must now manage with 100,000. Few big producing programmes had been decided on, and there had been less production in Hollywood during the past six months than in any similar period for ten years. At Elstree, England, Mr. Ellis saw many films then being made. Among the Americans working there he found Bebe Daniels, with the leading part in ’‘She Wanted Her Man,” which was being directed by Paul Stein, of Hollywood. Miss Daniels’s husband, Ben Lyon, was on the next stage, with Sally Eilers, the picture (“I Spy”) being directed by Alan Dwan, also of Hollywood. ~ . lit’was possible, said Mr. Ellis,, that Miss Daniels would visit Australia to play with her own company in the legitimate theatre. ■

Filming Unexplored Jungles

AT -G.-M., who sent an expedition to Alaska for “Eskimo,” and to Africa for "Trader Horn,” now plans a trip to one of the world’s last unexplored great jungles, the Tariana Indian Country in Southern Brazil. Plans have been under way for five months, and the expedition is almost ready to leave. Harold Noice, explorer, wrote the story “Jungle Red Man,” on which the picture will be based. Richard Rosson will direct, with Mr. Noice accompanying the expedition and serving as technical adviser. They expect to spend at least nine minths with the Tariano tribe, where, for centuries, the members have lived together in great com- y munal log houses accommodating about • 500 persons each. Religious, worship is carried on under the leadership of a single “medicine man.” Aeroplanes will transport the Noice people to th< heart of the jungle.