Film Studio Buys Noel Coward Plays

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 40, 10 November 1939, Page 5

Film Studio Buys Noel Coward Plays

lias bought for the screen the collection of Noel Coward one-net plays presented on Ihe stage under the name, "Tonight At 8.30.” The separate plays comprise . “The Astonished Heart,” “Red Peppers,” “We Were Dancing,” "Shadow Plays,” “Hands Across the Sea.” “Fumed Oak,” “Family Allium,” "Still Life” aud “Ways and Means.” The plays, presented in groups of three, with Coward in leading roles, proved equally great successes on the London and New York stages.

PRODUCTION has started on “Intermezzo,” Selznick International production starring Leslie Howard, who is also associate producer. Notable for its cast, “Intermezzo” features the lovely Scandinavian newcomer, Ingrid Bergman, as well as Edna Best, Cecil Kellaway, Ann Todd, Douglas Scott, John Halliday and Enid Bennett. It is Miss Bennett’s first film in eight •years. Since 1931 she has been in retirement with her husband, Fred Niblo, former director, on a northern Californian ranch. Gregory Ratoff is directing for David 0. Selznick, executive producer. From the original story by Gustaf Molander and Gaesta Stevens, “Intermezzo” tells of the romances of a violin virtuoso of international fame.

AE WEST and W. C. Fields will be co-starred by Universal in a motion picture spectacle of American frontier days. Miss West will starzindividually for Universal in two additional pictures to be made later. The West-Fields production will be one of the most costly in the history of the Universal organization. Authentic of the early days, backgrounds will provide many of the settings, and a supporting cast of all-star proportions is being assembled. Fields’s last film venture was for Universal, “Y'ou Can't Cheat an Honest Man,” with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Miss West starred last in the Paramount picture “Every Day’s a Holiday.”

A s a clarinet set up a thin, plaintive wail of Oriental music, a dark hand appeared from behind a stage “wing.” A big light focussed on the spot, and the hand started to dance, and to go through expressive, amusing movements in keeping with the music. Suddenly, from behind the “wing,’* jumped Rochester, the negro comedian known to millions as Jack Benny’s coloured valet in his American radio shows. Rochester contributes a great deal to the general appeal of “Man About Town.” Nobody expects much from Rochester as the picture opens. First impressions are that he is another of the coloured valets who fit nicely into a small part. But how wrong that impression is.