NEWS of the FILMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 92, 20 April 1939, Page 21

NEWS of the FILMS

HUDSON AND ARLEN. Eochelle Hudson, Columbia's new leading lady, recently placed under contract for a long term, and Richard Arlen, will be the principals in a new picture entitled "Missing Daughters." This picture was obtained from, the American newspapers, who, with regularity, tell of girls missing from their homes. It is planned for early production with C. C. Coleman, jun., directing. WENDY BARRIE WRITES. Despite her new contract with E.K.0.-Radio, blonde Wendy Barrie is finding 'time for authorship. Between scenes of her current picture, "The Saint Strikes Back," she is putting the finishing touches to a story of her early years in the Far and Near East. Born in Hong Kong, Wendy spent the first seventeen years of her life living in China, Siam, and India, studying at English and French schools, and travelling back and forth between England and the Orient by various routes. During those years she made seven trips around the world, and lived in scores of Asiatic cities. Studio executives who have seen a rough draft of the first half of the book are reported to. be interested in it as possible screen material. 808 BURNS IN: LONDON. Two London taxicabs and a London bus have arrived at Paramount Studios, where they will be used in London sequences of the Bob Burns's starring film, "I'm From Missouri." The conveyances were purchased by Paramount office in London. Due to the size of the bus, it was necessary to dismantle it before shipping and it is now being reassembled in the studio machine shop. One hundred and fifty extras have supplemented the large cast of "I'm From Missouri," for the filming of a Southampton, England dock scene.

COMEDIES ARE COSTLY. Comedies nowadays cost more than epics. A screen epic may be made ' now and then for as little as 500,000 dollars. A million dollars will turn out a perfectly healthy epic. But a comedy with the kind of players in ! it who count most at the box-office costs at least a million, generally more. Players like Carole Lombard, who is the top-ranking comedienne of the screen, get salaries commensurate with their box-office draft. And comedies require more than one player to do ' them. In the case of "Fools for Scan. dal," which Miss Lombard has just completed for Mervyn Leßoy at Warner Bros., the cast includes as her eostar and leading man Fernand Gravet, one of Hollywood's highest-priced - importations. There is also Ralph Bellamy, who catapulted on the exchange as a result of his stellar performance in "The Awful Truth." Other valuable considerations beside that of comedy casts include the time element. Time is the prime requisite in the polishing of a screen comedy. It takes : time to film the story so that it will be funny. Making it funny during that time requires the services of highpriced writers who know the motion picture as well as humour. And because humour —stage, screen, radio, or written —is a delicate matter, there is a lot of time taken to see that the delicate adjustments and balances are made. The most successful comedies of recent months have been known as "screwball"—bad things happening to pleasantly-crazy people who are possessed of enough money to indulge their penchants for daffiness. That means elaborate settings, wardrobes, and other physical aspects of production.

FINDING A FOREST. Actors have faced screen tests for many years, but when technicians started out to make screen tests of all the scenic forests in Northern California, it marked the first time in screen history that trees and rocks have been tested for a role.- A technical crew covered California to find the "Vienna Woods" for "The Great Waltz." In the picture, the forest figures in one of the most important episodes in which Fernand .Gravet, as Johann Strauss, discovers his love for Miliza Korjus and, at the same time, is inspired by the birds, the brook, the wind in the trees, and the beauties of Nature, to compose "Tales from the Vienna "Woods." Beauty spots along the Redwood Highway, in Napa and Sonoma counties, and about Clear Lake and the Russian River, were covered in the screen tests. Julien Duvivier directed the picture in which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is reproducing Strauss music on an elaborate scale. Luise Rainer, Gravet, and Miss Korjus have the principal roles. "ZENOBIA'S INFIDELITY." Hal Roach announces that "It's Spring Again" is the final title for the production previously known as "Zenobia"s Infidelity." This is the picture which will launch Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon as a new comedy team in fulllength features. Gordon Douglas, foi the past two years director of the "Our Gang" series, has charge of the production, and Edward Sutherland will act as associate producer. MADE FAMOUS BY CROSBY. "Songs Made Famous by Bing Crosby" is the tentative title of a new community sing which Columbia now has in preparation. The numbers, aIJ hits introduced by the noted crooner, will include, among other songs, "Pennies From Heaven" and "One Two, Button My Shoe," from Crosby's Columbia Picture "Pennies From Heaven' produced several seasons ago. ,

"HEY! HEY! U.S.A." Will Hay, Britain's popular comedian of stage, screen, and radio, is credited with going one better than ever in his latest mirth-maker, "Hey! Hey! U.5.A.," in which he works in joyous combination with the well-known Hollywood fun merchant Edgar Kennedy. The rival comics work hand in glove together, with the result that "Hey! Hey! U.S.A." is reported to be proving an outstanding success throughout the British Isles. It is a G.B.D. attraction, due for early release in New Zealand. CROSBY TO LAUGHTON. Charles Laughton sings a new songhit by Arthur Johnston, the composer of many of Bing Crosby's best-known numbers for the new Pommer-Laugh-ton Mayflower production, "St. Martin's Lane," released throughout New Zealand by Action Pictures. "Pennies from Heaven," "The Natural Thing to Do," and "Cocktails for Two" are a few of Johnston's successes. Laughton sings "Straw Hat in the Rain," accompanied by Tyrone Gu'thrie on the mouth-organ and Gus McNaughton on the mandoline. Other numbers in the film are "London Love Song,' sung by Polly Ward, and "Vivien Waltz," a waltz dedicated to Vivien Leigh, the picture's leading lady. HOTTEST, AND BELOW ZERO. There is a place on the Equator, the world's hottest spot, where it is so cold that a man can freeze to death unless he wears heavy winter clothing This locality, qualified for a place in Ripley's "Believe It or Not" column, will be seen when the Twentieth Cen-tury-Fox release "Dark Rapture," the African film of weird customs and dangers, arrives.

DIRECTING CHILDREN. "Children are no harder to direct than grown-ups." Thus Norman Taurog, ace Hollywood director of children, answers the adage that directing children is the toughest job in filmdom. Taurog, who directed "Boys Town," starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, had more than 300 boys working in scenes for the picture, ranging from Rooney, seventeen-year-old veteran, to Bobs Watson, seven-year-old veteran. "Children are little different from adults,"said Taurog. "They have their good and their bad days. Bobs Watson, for instance, went seven entire days without missing a line of dialogue. Then he had a bad day. But he's a trouper, just like his grown-up brethren, and managed to get his lines across. There is only one technique necessary in the handling of actors whether they are four or forty. You've got to humour them. In the case of < children, it's a matter of sympathy. With adults, it's a case of diplomacy. I'm a lot better sympathiser than diplomat. Children's psychology is definite and interesting. They profit more from example than teaching. I've had a lot of luck with the youngsters in 'Boys Town' because Spencer Tracy likes kids, gets along with them, and they all love him. They work hard to make that actor proud of them. Which has been a great help to me."

which is due here soon. FAMOUS SONG TEAM. One of the most famous song-writing teams was split when death claimed Dick Whiting during the filming of "Cowboy from Brooklyn," the Warner Bros, musical farce which will be screened in Wellington at an early date. The man who wrote the words for Dick Whiting's melodious tunes was Johnny Mercer, and this team of Whiting and Mercer was a rarity among song-writing teams, for they insisted upon having a reason for each song ihey wrote. Over a long period of years Whiting and Mercer were responsible, together or in collaboration with other writers, for "Too Marvellous for Words," "On the Good Ship Lollipop," "Mammy's Little Coal Black Rose," "Louise," "Adorable," "Goody, Goody," "Till We Meet Again," which holds the all-time record for sheet music sales, "Ain't We Got Fun," "Lazy Bones," "Japanese Sandman," "Have You Got Any Castles. Baby," "Old King Cole," and an overwhelming list of other hits. The stars of "Cowboy From Brooklyn" include Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien, Priscilla Lane, Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, and Dick Foran. RANDOLPH SCOTT. A coup in casting was the choice of rugged Randolph Scott for the role of the United States marshal who figures so prominently in the saga of "Jesse James." With chief roles in many big pictures to his credit, Scott's work in many'recent outstanding films has won him a wide following among theatregoers the world over. NEW FILM WRITERS. Ken G. Hall, producer-director of Cinesound Productions Pty., Ltd., announces that he has signed Mr. and Mrs. William Freshman as scenario writers for the studio. According to London advice, they left England on April 2 by flying-boat, and will commence work upon arrival on the forth- ' coming picture starring Will Mahoney. On their, trip out, they will study aerial transport conditions in prepara tion for a film dealing with the Empire air-mail route which Cinesound plans for the near future. Mr. Freshman, who is an Australian, possesses invaluable scenario experience, having worked in London with Associated British Pictures, for whom he wrote such well-known films as "Luck of the Navy," "Yes, Madam," "Queer Cargo," "Yellow Sands," "The Dominant Sex," "Let's Make a Night of It," and many others. He was also assistant director upon "The Iron Duke," starring George Arliss, and "The Tunnel," with Richard Dix. Under the name of Lydia Hayward, Mrs. Freshman wrote the scenarios for "The Ware Case" (which will be showing in New Zealand very shortly), "Bitter Sweet," "Sorrel and Son," and "Tomorrow We Live."