FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 17329, 17 April 1920, Page 11

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

[By Loiterer.] With 1 The Belle of Burma,’ which goes lip at the Princess Tho-atre on Monday Mr 'Walter George will have produced 14 revues in the Dominion, and no less than 11 of these have had their birth in Dunedin. As each production has cost Mr Gsorgo between £l5O and £2OO for cos-

tumes and accessories, Dunedin business .? houses have thus .netted something like £2,000 from the enterprise. ‘ The Belle of Burma ’ has a rattling good story for motif. An English baby has grown up in the hands of the Burmese priestcraft, and is doomed to be sacrificed in the temple. ’Hie British Government have an agent trying to locate the unfortunate girl, but the escape of the girl is also planned by an ex-jockey aviator, who is passing over the country in the wake of, the Ross Smith flight, endeavoring to break that champion's record. George Storey is the jockey-aviator, and the comedy accruing from him is said to be immensely' good. A feature of the production will be the jockey ballet, in which the corps de ballet will wear the colors of some of the Dominion’s beat-known racing magnates. The last of the 15 pieces Mr George has contracted to produce in Few 'Zealand will be staged here in about a fortnight. It L, entitled ‘The Picnic Ear tv.’

Ernest Drake, the promising Xcw Zealand nor, is making good progress in his vocal studies in London under Mr Uttlov, who trained John M'Cormack. As already announced, Mr Drake is to sing at the Royal Albert Hall on April 2v. in company with the more famous New Zealand artist Hosina Bnckman. The drift of British artists from the legitimate stage of the kinema continues Among the more prominent in the" 1 latest list are Martin Harvey, Lilian Braithwaite, Gerald Du Manner, Constance Coinin’ on Lion, Edith Craig, Basil GiU, Alma Taylor, and Violet Hopson. Robert Courtneide, who is due at Sydney in a week to produce ‘ The Man From Toronto ’ for the Tivoli management, ha; Visited Australia on two other occasion s He came out originally with the famous Oaiety Company, of which he and the late E J. Lonnen were the principal comedians; and again he brought out a company to play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ and ' As You Like It.’ It was during his first visit that .his eldest daughter Cicely—who has since made her mark in the profession—was born at the R °yal > Hotel, Sydney. Among Courtneidge’s more, notable productions du London were ‘The Arcadians.’ ‘The Blue Moon, ‘The Duchess of Dantzig,’ ‘Oh! Oh! Delphine,’ ‘The Dairymaids.’ ‘ Mv Lady Frayle,’ and ‘The Monsine.’ J. andN. Xait’s ‘Daddies* Company, at present in Wellington, will plav Christchurch from April 27 to May 5 Dunedin from May 5 to II; Invercargill. Mav 12 and 13; Camara, May 14; Timaru. Mav 15 and 17; returning to Wellington' about May 19 before embarking on a tour of the North Island. After ‘Daddies’ the company may produce ‘The Little Damo- , ze], which proved a strong drawing card an Australia. 0 Allan. Wilkie is presenting at’ Christchurch to-night, for the first time in Australasia, H. F. Maltbv’s demobilisation arama ’A Temporary Gentleman.’ It has to do with the problems which vnung , officers have to face on being demobilised 1 and re-entering civilian life. The hero does a good deal of “swank” during the war, bred o£ association with others who occupy a higher social plane than his • but after the war, when he has to resume ordinary everyday, work, he declines to return to his humble office stool in a merchant’s office. The crucial test is then applied, and although the hero has much to contend with he eventually make; good. Incidentally his former employer’s daughwho becomes engaged to‘ him while he is an officer, forsakes him when he is faced _ with adversity, but Jie finds a , worthier fiancee in an humbler sprere. Madame Dolores’s long sojourn in Australasia is coming to an end'. The distinguished singer commenced her farewell Sydney season at .Easter. .The many Dominion admirers of Daisy Kenned} 7 , the Australian violinist, will »be delighted to letarn that she is recovering from her recent operation, and that J. and N. Tait expect- she will be able to resume her Melbourne engagement in-about a .month, # Many concert artists of high repute are “on the wing” for Australia. Next month the Russian' pianist Moisseivitch is due ; and later John M’Cormack, Amv Evans dthe Welsh soprano), and Freida Hempel. The last-named is an operatic soprano in the prime of her career, .who has sung with ever-increasing, fame all over Germany and America. She first "appeared at Covent - Garden as Eva in ‘ The Meistersingers,’ and as Bastienne in 1907. She sang at Drury Lane in 1914 in Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ (as Queen of the Night), and she created the part of the Princess in the Berlin production of ‘Rosenkavalier,’ which Richard Strauss himself conducted.- Mmc. Hempel sings with.equal success -in French and Italian opera. Like several Australian musicians, she studied at the Leipsif. Conservatorium, where she entered as a piano student. It was some time later that she found her true vocation in a singing career. In the Henry Ainley production of ‘Julius Cssar’ at _ St. James’s Theatre, London, the curtain goes down - on an empty stage. The producer, Mr Stanley Bell, B ays ’that he derived the idea of the grandeur of complete silence and stillness from the two minutes’ silence on the anniversary of Armistice Day. Mr Bell designed the scenery, which is described as of a " splendid simplicity.” For 11 ycarsy he was manager for Sir Herbert Tree. An almost empty stage at the curtain, has been seen in a fair number of repertory plays, and in a George Musgrove'production of ‘Twelfth Night’ in Melbourne the curtain came down as the fool quietly sang to himself—a good contrast after all the bustling farce. A related idea was carried out many ysars ago in ‘The Yeoman of the Guard,’ where the opera begins with Phoebe Meryll’s spinning wheel solo instead of a- chorus .entry, ‘Tiger Rose,’ wind; J. and N. Tait arc now presenting with immense success at the King’s Theatre, - ’Melbourne, is one of the few plays that have been produced in almost every part of the English-speaking world. Originally staged in New York, it had a long season there before being toured through the States and Canada, where-its swift action and heart interest made a very great impression. It has since reached 'London, and also gone into the English provinces. The play is from the pen of Willqrd Mack, husband of the ■ s famous movie and legitimate star Papline Frederick. SNAPS IN THE STUDIOS. Advice to aspirants for honors in the screen world is given by a leading American film actor. He says: My experience leads me to believe that at least five years of work before the camera, accompanied by hard study of technique, are necessary before the average player iqay he called good actor.” ;The leading motion -pic-

hire actors became such only after many years of comparative obscurity, but it is very hard to persuade the average candidate that she or he must also work and wait.

Hnrry K. Eustace, the African explorer, who talks quiet hr hut attractively of his experiences while jtlie same ace being screened under the J. and N. Tail direc“tion at the Athemeum. Hall, Melbourne, had his worst mauling from a South African -ostrich in 1916, and still finds it painful to touch the side where the bird hroko two of his ribs with its powerful blows. Expert ostrich farmers who are attacked by bad birds, usually lie prone on their faces, and to a great extent escape the ripping upward blows of the bird’s legs. But Mr Eustace was busy getting bis ostrich up to the camera, ajid took more risks, with results that arc shown with fine realism in his film. The traveller has .also had some narrow escapes from crocoOn one occasion he swam nut with a raft baited with meat into a crocodileinfested pool, merely to lure the saurians from the depths to the surface to have their pictures taken. H. B. Warner is a fine actor* but he is also an Englishman—hence the pyramids—and in ‘The Man Who Turned White’ he has achieved the greatest success of his notable career. A strong, stirring story of the Sahara, peopled with tribes of nomadic Arabs, nautch dancers, and the famous Foreign’ Legion, it has faithfully •reproduced the magic atmosphere of the Orient. There are none of the usual discrepancies of dress and character one so ■often bemoans in pictures of this class, and all through it is a masterpiece of direction and presentation. This feature will be the attraction at the Empire next week.

Just as the great gold-bearing possibilities of Australia lay undiscovered for many years, so did the great natural possibilities of this country as a field for “movie” enterprise lie dormant until quite recently. Mr E. J. Carroll is the outstanding figure in this most recent example of Australian enterprise. Where others, like the casual fossickers of old, merely scratched at the surface, Mr Carroll, undeterred by the failure of others and the numerous obstacles to be overcome, stuck to his claim, and has. beyond all doubt landed on the pay-rock of perfect production and popular approval, * The Man from Kangaroo,” produced in association witr “Snowy” Baker, is the third and greatest of his masterpieces. This gripping romance of the bush, teeming with local color and thrillincr incident, is typically Australian both in setting and characters. It will be the big headliner at the Empire, commencing on April 25. The next big super-feature to appear at the Empire Theatre is Mary Bickford in ‘ The Hoodlum.’ If you've never yet seen the world’s sweetheart. Mary, in pyjamas, you wall have the chance in ‘The Hoodlum,’ her second film from her own studio. There was a stir at Film House when the first purchase of a Swedish-made film arrived. It is entitled ‘The - Flame of _Life,’ and is an eye-opener as to the progress made this year in Continental production. Technically it is said to be equal'to the l>est Yankee, and, of course, as mav be expected, the acting is 100 percent. better. There is a log-riding scone in a. lumber camp on the Swedish coast which, regarded purely as a “ stunt,” is close to a miracle. This feature is booked to appear at the Queen’s and King Edward Theatres shortly. Few screen attractions have offered the popular combination that assures the success of ‘ The Firing Line.’ The star, Irene Castle, noted as an actress, ’a dancer, a beauty, a leader of fashion, is probably the most-talkecl-of woman in the United States. The story (by Robert W. Chambers, America’s most" popular writer) has been praised by Press and public alike. ‘ The Firing Line ’ will be screened at the Plaza on Friday next for three days only. ‘ The Rod Lantern,’ which comes to the Octagon Theatre on Friday next, is a play of mysterious China that rives Naziraova, the star of unfathomable depths, a dual role which reveals the tremendous range of her rare artistry. It is a play of deep undercurrents telling the story of a Eurasian girl—the daughter of two races—who feels the eternal conflict of the - alien bloods .forever raging within her soul. The play resounds with barbaric melody and glows with the gorgeous and varying hues of the Orient. America’s national sport, baseball, plays a big part in ‘The Bushev,’ Charles Ray's Paramount feature, now being screened at Tie Plaza. It is a typical Charles Ray vehicle with country life, bush league baseball, and small town romance.