War-Time Entertainment

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 4, 29 September 1939, Page 5

War-Time Entertainment

Paramount Schedule Well Advanced

r rilE Paramount Studios in Hollywood are in an advanced stage of 1 completing one of the heaviest production schedules they have ever attempted. Whether world conditions were foreseen by the industry is hard to say, but it is unusual that any studio should be so far advanced as to be aide to announce at this date the comtheatres for a period which will extend months into 1940.

AAR. S. H. CRAIG, general manager of the Paramount Company in New Zealand, states that the industry is conscious of the very important pait it has to play at present, and more par ticularlv in succeeding months. “It behoves the industry more than ever before,” said Mr. Craig, “to maintain a high standard of entertainment and to design a production schedule that will lend relief from the tension of world affairs.” He said, “Paramount accepts this as one of . their major responsibilities, and in this way contributes to the ‘carry on’ campaign. Had war been declared before we invested something like £6,000,000 in new pictures, that is, the purchase of important stories, the contracts with leading players, technicians, etc., we could not have hoped to offer pictures of such calibre as will be seen on the screen for months to come.” “Among the pictures which are completed and which will be presented in due course, are ‘Jamaica Inn’ with Charles Laughton; ‘Man About Town’ with Jack Benny, Dorothy Lamour and Eddie (Rochester) Anderson ;‘The Gracie Allen Murder Case’ starring Gracie Allen; ‘Magnificent Fraud’ with Akim Tamiroff; ‘French Without Tears’ with Ray Milland and Ellen Drew; ‘The Island of Lost Men’ with Anna May Wong and J. Carroll Naish ; ‘This Man in Paris’ with Barrie K. Barnes, Valerie Hobson and Alister Sim; ‘Bulldog Drummond’s Bride’ with John Howard, Heather Angel and H. B. Warner; ‘The Star Maker’ featuring a new singing discovery, Linda Ware, with Bing Crosby and others; ‘Disputed Passage’ with Akim Tamiroff

and Dorothy Lamour, taken from the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas; ‘Beau Geste’ with Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston; ‘Rulers of the Sea’ a Frank Lloyd production with Douglas Fairbanks, jun., Margaret Lockwood and Will Fyffe, and Ronald Colman in Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Light that Failed.’ “Among those in preparation are ‘The Royal Canadian Mounted’ in technicolour, produced by Cecil B. de Mille; ‘Victor Herbert’ with Allan Jones, a picture which will include all the glorious melodies composed by this famous musician; ‘Safari’ with Madeleine Carroll and Douglas Fairbanks, jun.; ‘Untamed’ in technicolour, with Ray Milland and Patricia Morison and Akim Tamiroff; ‘Triumph Over Pain’ which is the life story of Dr. William Morton, the first man to use anaesthetics; ‘Typhoon’ in technicolour with Dorothy Lamour and Robert Preston; ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ a feature cartoon made with all the resources of the Max Fleischer Studios. This is being made in technicolour and is foreseen as possessing the same appeal as ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’; Claudette Colbert is making ‘The Night of January 16th’ and Akim Tamiroff is preparing for the most memorable role of his career in ‘The Way of all Flesh,’ a picture and story made famous by the late Emil Jennings. “After these, many of the stories recently purchased will be placed in production. Rather than impair entertainment value, it is perhaps inevitable that there will be fewer pictures under war conditions,” concluded Mr. Craig.