British Stars

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 111, 3 February 1939, Page 14

British Stars

Relative Popularity In Own Country

tpHE season when the motion picture industry decides what have been its best pictures, best stars, best directors, and other best things had arrived when the latest mails left England and thq United States. The December 31 issue of the “Motion Picture Herald’’ contains the announcement that George Formby headed its poll of the popularity of British stars iu Great Britain. The “Motion Picture Herald’s’’ list, which is based on a questionnaire issued to five thousand theatres and managers, including the manager of every theatre, was as follows:— George Formby 1 Grade Fields - Will Hay 3 Jessie Matthews -■ 4 Sandy Powell 5 Jack Buchanan ..... 6 Charles Laughton 7 Anna Neagle 8 Will Fyffe 9 George Arliss IO May Robson 11 Gordon Harker 12 Annabella 13 ’Tom Walls 14 Stanley Lupino 15 Robert Donat 16 Jack Hulbert 17 Binkie Stuart 18 Max Miller .. I 19 Arthur Tracy 20 Bobby Howes 21 Otto Kruger 22 Conrad Veidt 23 John Lodge 24 Lucan and McShane 25 The paper remarks that George Formby, three yean before in fourth position, has displaced Gracie Fields, the winner of the previous year and the year before that, beating her by a margin that can scarcely be called narrow. Formby is a strictly English, almost regional comedian, it is pointed out. Miss Field’s screen appearances have been fewer than ever before, which must have affected the voting. AU but two of the remaining eight) in the first ten were in that group the previous year. Robson and Hulbert, both of whom have passed into partial or temporary retirement, recede out of the first ten, and into the limelight come Sandy Powell and Will Fyffe, both again regional comedians. Will Hay, still a favourite with British audiences, steps up from position four to position three. Jessie Matthews, a quiet personality during the year, and now retired from films, goes down from, third to fourth. Jack Buchanan recedesYone place. Charles Laughton’s popularity remains precisely what it was. So, too, does that of Anne Neagle. Down to tenth place goes number six of last year, George Arliss. Preparations For Another Aviation Film HPHREE Hollywood airmen, Paul Mantz, Paul Clark and Howard Batt, have been engaged by Howard Hawks as a nucleus for an aggregation of daredevil airmen who are to work iu a picture. Hawks is preparing to produce and direct for Columbia a production tentatively entitled “Plane No. 4,” which is described as an epochal drama of an adventurous crew of aviators.

Among other extensive preparations at Columbia Studios for this picture is the construction of a seaport, with warehouses, railroads at the foot of the Andes, with a harbour and a full-sized freighter carrying a banana-cargo. Because tropical storms and fog are featured throughout- the picture, the tremendous sets have been placed under canvas. For this purpose five acres of canvas were made into a great pavilion 90 feet high and 350 feet long supported by 100 great poles each two feet thick with 24 trusses hung crosswise.

Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Richard Barthelmess have the leading roles in the picture, which Howard Hawks states is the biggest production he has ever undertaken.