SCREENLAND JOTTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 8

SCREENLAND JOTTINGS

Sylvia Sidney’s new Paramount film, * Behold My Wife,’ has many noted stage stars appearing in important roles. They are H. B. Warner, Laura 'Hope Crews. Charlotte Granville, Gene Raymond. Juliette Compton, Nella Walter, Ralph Reinley, Dean dagger, ami Monroe Owls ley.

The term, “ square shooter,” is often applied to an individual known to be thoroughly honest in all his transactions, and we may apply this term to Mickey, too, for Mickey is fair in everything he does. In 1 Two-Gun Mickey,’ Walt Disney’s latest United Artists’ release, coming to New Zealand, Mickey shows his versatility by varying his usual formula and not only shoots square but weaves a pattern, of circles and assorted angles with the bullets from his six-shooter.

Because of her outstanding work and valuable contributions to cinema art, Sylvia Sidney, Paramount star, has been invited to attend the world cinema festival which Soviet Russia is planning next month in Moscow. However, Miss Sidney’s contracts with the Paramount Studios will keep her in Hollywood.

Alexandra Oumansky, one of the world’s leading ballet masters and former associate of the great Nijinsky in the ‘ Ballet Russe,’ has been signed to create the dances for ‘ The Last Days of Pompeii,’ the thrilling spectacle which Merian C. Cooper is to produce for R.K.O. Radio Pictures. This is Oumansky’s first picture work in Hollywood. Preston Foster and Alan Hale have already been assigned roles in the filip. which will be directed by Ernest B. Schoodsack.

. * * * The range of film make-up knows no limits. In ‘.The Scarlet Pimpernel/ the Korda film which will shortly be released by United Artists, Leslie Howard. in the name part, has a truly .astounding make-up in the scene where

the Pimpernel escapes from Paris. He makes his escape as an old hag, and Jimmy Barker, London Film’s make-up expert, built out Howard’s nose with wax, and covered his cheeks with fish skin, which, when dried, gave a remarkable' shrivelled appearance. His teeth were blackened and “ battered,” and from them hung a broken clay pipe. k * * * Rome was not built in a day, but Budapest .was. It was built not in Hungary, but in Hollywood, for the production of 1 The Good Fairy.’ Not a stone of this city’s walls was ever <iuarried.' Like the bricks, they were imitations made of cardboard and wood. Some of them even were of paper. All the glass windows were made of celluloid. The only real things used were those that would sound, such as the cobbles in the streets, the trolley cars, the , automobiles, the horses and drays, the furniture of the buildings, and the “ hand props.” Yet this city had its architects, blue-prints, masons, and mechanics just like a real city. The movie Budapest was 250 ft long, 220 ft wide, and two stories high. No building over two stories was allowed. No buildings had roofs • * * * ■ The following productions are listed by R.K.O. Radio Films for release this year‘ The Little Minister’ (Katharine Hepburn); ‘ Wednesday’s Child ’ (Frankie Thomas, jnn., and Edward Arnold) ; ‘ Murder on a Honeymoon ’ (Edna May Oliver); ‘ Romance in Manhattan*’ (Ginger Rogers, Francis Lederer) : ‘Enchanted April ’ (Frank Morgan. Ann Harding); ‘Woman in the Dark ’ ( Fay Wray Ralph * Bellamy) ; ‘ Grand Old Girl ’ (May Robson): ‘Roberta’ (Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers); Rider Hag-

gard story, ‘She,’ with all-star cast; ‘To Beat'the Baud ’ (cast of radiq and stage favourites); ‘Star of Midnight’ (William Powell) ; ‘ Freckles ’ and ‘ Laddie,’ by Gene Stratton Porter; ‘The Informer’ (Vidor M'Laglan) ; Sir James Barrie's ‘ Quality Street ’ (Katharine Hepburn) ; Frank Buck’s ‘ The Jungle,’ ‘ The Three Musketeers,’ ‘ The Last Days of Pompeii ’; ‘ Becky Sharp’ (Miriam Hopkins; in colour) j and several stories by Ethel M. Doll. The firm will also release a number of short fenturettes of musical and comedy blendings. • • • • A film which is just being released in Npw Zealand is ‘Java Head,’ the brilliant screen adaption of Joseph Hergesheimer’s great adventure romance. The story, which deals with the love of two women for one man, one the sweetheart of his youth, a girl of his own people, the other a woman of an alien race, his wife, has been magnificently handled by John Loder, Elizabeth Allen, and Anna May Wong, with Edmund Gwenn, the famous character actor, in the role of the hero’s father. This film is undoubtedly one of the best dramatic films ever to be released in New Zealand, and the heartgripping story holds the audience until -the very end.

“It is with pride and much pleasure that' we will release during Easter Week the picture, ‘ The Lives of a Bengal Lancer/ which was recently completed at our Hollywood Studios, under the direction of Henry Hathaway,” stated Mr S. H. Craig, general manager for Paramount Pictures in New Zealand. “ Filming on the production started away back in 1931, when an expedition was sent to the Afghanistan border to film sequences depicting the famous Bengal Lancers in action, and also the lives and habits of the Khybor Pass tribes, as described in Francis Yeats-Brown’s book of the same name. When the authentic Indian background had been a east was carefully selected and tnc leading roles assigned to Gary Cooper, Francnot Tone, Sir Guy Standing, Richard Cromwell, Kathleen Burke, and Colin Tapley, The picture is a

story of adventure nad intrigue in the famous Bengal Lancer regiment which patrols'the Khyber Pass regions, and we confidently anticipate that in Now Zealand it will repeat the phonemonal success which it is at present enjoying in England, America, and Australia.” * * « * When you see Francis Lederer making ardent love to Joan Bennett in scenes from Paramount’s ‘ Pursuit of Happiness,’ which comes to the Regent on Saturday next, April 20, he’ll be making real love—but for another man. The man whose suit Lederer is plighting is the scenarist, Gene Markey, who wrote the fervent and tender speeches for the star to recite to his own wife, Joan Bennett, who is Mrs Markey in private life. When this job was assigned him, Hollywood chuckled at his predicament, but Markey soon turned the tables on the film capital by asserting that it would give him an opportunity to say the pretty tilings to his lovely wife that he has never had the courage to say in person, ‘‘ This is a pretty kettle of fish,” said Gene Markey. “ J’ve got to make Lederer sound like a great Inver in a scene with my own wife. Well, I’m warning you that I’m going to impress Joan with the fact that I’m the one who is saying those lines, and not Lederer. And then,” he added, “ I’ll be able to say the things I’ve never been able to say in person. Ob, I’ve got it in me all right, Maybe yon wouldn’t think it to look at me, but under this rough exterior beats a heart of fire. I’ll show you who’s the great lover.” ‘ The Pursuit of Happiness ’ presents Francis Lederer in the role of a deserting Hessian soldier and Miss Bennett as the pretty Puritan for whose sake he joins the American forces. Francis Lederer speaks five

languages and thinks equally well m all of" them. Brought up in the Czechoslovakian tongue, he learnt German on the Berlin stage, and afterwards mastered French, Spanish, and English. Bewildered folk at Paramount. where he is preparing to fiiake ‘ Pursuit of Happiness,’ have heard him mix them all up in conversation with his Czech manager, Richard Monter, * * * * Rarely has the screen presented a drama so effectively simple, so clear cut, and so stirring as the GaumontBritish production of ‘ Evensong,’ which comes to the State Theatre on Easter Saturday. The adaption has been made both from the play in which Beverley Nicholls and Edward Knoblock collaborated, and from the novel written by the former. The theme of this thoughtful story shows how a gifted singer must sacrifice, for tho sake of her art, most of the things contributing to the fulness and enjoyment of life. The principal role is enacted by Evelyn Laye, who contributes her best work to date in a brilliant characterisation which affords fullest opportunities for her vocal and histrionic talent. She gives a convincing cameo of Irela, tho world-famous singer who docs, in fact, sacrifice everything for the career which in her declining years has become an obsession. Through .the whole dramatic story, too, music has its placo in delightful variety, the numbers from operatic excerpts to the homely songs the soldiers used to sing. Famous concert artists are in the cast—Conchita Supcrvia and Browning Mummery ; and other powerful support for Evelyn Laye is given by Fritz Kortner, Carl Esmond, and Ernlyn Williams. Victor Saville has directed with his powerful flair for pictorial and dramatic values, using Venetian and other Continental scenes with magnificent effect, and skilfully spinning a web of glamour around the central figure while the action climbs from strength .to strength. * * » * The importance of being unimportant is aptly demonstrated by Charles Ruggles, the comedian. Ruggles has made himself famous on tire screen by portraying one type of character. He is invariably tho timid little man who apologetically giggles his way to success. as ho does in his new Warner i Brothers’ picture ‘ Friends of Mr ! Sweeney,’ which comes to tho Strand Theatre on Easter Saturday. The comedian says that his screen character has grown up naturally through the years through no apparent effort of his own. “ During ray early days in the theatre,” confessed Ruggles, when interviewed recently, ‘‘l played every kind of role imaginable. I was a juvenile one week and a character man the next when I was a member of the old Morosco stock company in Los Angeles. The movies have given me the opportunity to add colo'nr and life to /this character—the timid soul, frightened of his own shadow, and sometimes henpecked by an overbearing wife.” The actor was delighted with his role in ‘ Friends of Mr Sweeney.’ “I was offered the role some time | ago,” he says, “ hut I couldn’t accept because of -other work. Therefore I i>, was highly flattered when Warner Brothers told me that they would postpone production on the film until such time as I could do it. Elmer Davis’s books have always handed me a laugh —he has such a keen sense of the ridiculous and knows how to transfer it to his novels.” Ruggles points out that there are other good Davis books that should make good pictures, particularly ‘ I’ll Show You the Town.’ In ‘ Friends of Mr Sweeney ’ he heads a largo cast that includes lovely Ann Dvorak, Eugene Pallet!,e, Dorothy Tree, Bertou Churchill, Dorothy Burgess, Harry Tyler, and Robert Barrnt. Edward Ludwig directed the comedy romance from the screen play by Warren Duff and Sidney Sutherland.

A film from the 8.1. P. Studios that will make screen history is the jubilee film, or as it has been retitled, ‘The Royal Cavalcade.’ The film will deal with the main events of His Majesty’s reign, presented in a novel and dramatic form. Many of the major events, political and otherwise, of the past twenty-five years, will be reconstructed and the most famous actors and actresses obtainable will play the role? of the chief figures. This film will be completed in time to bo shown throughout the British Isles and the Empire during the Jubilee Week celebrations in May. # It will he coming to New Zealand by air mail. # * * » ‘ The Barretts of Wimpole Street,’ which comes to the St. James on Easter Saturday, is, in every sense of the word, a magnificent triumph for all concerned. Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett how stands unchallenged as the first lady of the screen. Here is a performance so sensitive, so sincere, that it brooks no comparison with her previous successes, however great. It is as though you have never seen her before When you see her Elizabeth. Fredric March gives Robert Browning the dash and fire that is in his best manner. With Norma Shearer he plays three of the most exquisite scones ever to be recorded by the motion- picture camera. Charles Laughton does the tyrannical father with a terrific restrained power. So thoroughly does he dominate proceedings that it is with difficulty the audience avoids demonstrations against his characterisation —and that indeed is acting. With a wonderful triumvirate of loading players, a strong and finely developed theme, unobtrusively clever direction, and love scenes of a truly lyrical quality, this production promises to be one of the films by which. 1,935 will be remembered in the cinema calendar. It is exceptionally rare to find three performances as good as those of Charles Laughton, Norma Shearer, and Fredric March in a single film, or a fourth piece of acting such as Maureen O’Sullivan surprisingly brings to the occasion. It is rarer still to come across a good play which, far from being damaged by translation to the screen, has actually gained sometiling in the process. 1 The Barretts of Wimpole Street ’ is altogether a magnificent entertainment, and a tour de force of acting by a distinguished company. * * * » A story of unusual timeliness is told by ‘The Man Who Reclaimed His Head,’ the Universal drama which opened at the Empire Theatre yesterday. The picture exposes the activities of the international munitions manufacturers in fomenting war, subject of the recent senatorial investigation in Washington, and lavs much of the blame for Ibc World War squarely at the door of these professional moulders of public opinion. Claude Rains, Joan Bennett, and

Lionel Atwill head the cast, and all are excellent in their roles. Other members of an exceptionally line east are three-year-old Baby Jane. Wallace Ford," Lloyd Hughes, and Lawrence Grant. The fascinating story presents Rains as a plodding writer, content to live in virtual poverty with his wife Adcle (Joan Bennett), but finally achieving prosperity when lie enters the service of Henri Dumont (Lionel Atwill), a publisher, writing articles against war whioh appear under Dumont’s name in his 1 Pacifist Journal.’ But to insure his political future. Dumont secretly works with the munitions makers, and on the declaration of war Rains is sent to the front. The publisher’s influence keeps the war-hating soldier in the trendies, while he himself proceeds to a conquest of the writer’s wife. Realising this. Rains hastens to Paris against orders and finds Dumont in the act of making advances to Adele. 1 I he Man Who Reclaimed His Head ’ is recommended without reservation. Director Edward Ludwig has made a fine picture. • # * * 1 Nell Gwyn,’ which commences at the Grand on Wednesday, must rank as one of the most ambitious pictures over sponsored by a British company —even at a time when super-pictures are being made in England on a scale never before attempted. The subject, based on tbo historic love affair of Charles 11. and the pretty orange girl and Drury Lane actress, Nell Gwyn, is one of instantaneous appeal. It has the added attraction of being a pictnrisation of events which have actually happened, and’it brings back to vivid reality one of the most picturesque and romantic periods in English history, Charles 11. was himself the most amazing monarch who ever sat upon the English throne. His life was crammed with turbulent and perilous adventure, with hairbreadth escapes and splendid gestures which can scarcely be equalled in the pages of fiction. Although lie spent his youth in England, he grew to manhood in the court of France,; while Cromwell and the army, who find executed his father, ruled his country. Then, in 1660, after the death of Cromwell, he was called back to tho throne by a people who were weary of the narrow and intolerant regime of the Puritans —and who looked to him to restore to England some of its old gaiety and freedom. • The story of ‘ Nell Gwyn ’ begins .when Charles, well established on the throne, had already achieved a reputation for the_ liberality with which lie bestowed his favours upon the most beautiful women of’his time. One such was Louise dc Keronaillcs, brought to England at Charles’s request and installed by him at court. Then, suddenly, Charles became aware of Nell Gwyn—“ pretty, witty Nell ” ns the famous diarist Pepys described her—the saucy red-hoaded young actress who delighted audiences at the King’s Playhouse, Drury Lane. Anna Neagle, in the name part,'instils into her portrayal the kindness, good humour, and abandon which so endeared Nell Gwyn to Charles and the people of England. It is safe to say that although she has previously boon hailed as one of the most beautiful of all screen stars, she has never appeared to such tremendous personal advantage as in the flaming red-gold hair, luscious make-up, and beautiful costumes which she wears in her part as Nell. Charles 11, is played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke —a character actor whose knighthood' was conferred upon him in the New Year’s Honours List of 1934 for the outstanding services he has done the English stage in the last few years by his own personal genius.

For the first time in film history the dramatisation of science is to be attempted. Making H. Rider Haggard’s ‘She,’ with Helen Gahagan in the title role, R.K.O. Radio will seek to show how plausible were Haggard’s predictions that one day the secret of life may bo discovered in the breaking up of the atom. The heat of the sun breaks atoms, and life on earth results. Haggard, in his fantastic novel, suggested that there may be, below the earth's surface, the same heat which animates the sun. and that man. finding this ‘‘eternal flame,” might find within its heat his perpetual rejuvenation. This

theme runs through ‘ She ’ with dramatic intensity, and builds to a stirring climax interwoven with the strangest love story ever told, which, it is said, is in perfect agreement with the findings of modern science * * * o Miss Madeleine Carroll took her place last month in the cast of ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps,’ the Gaumont-Bri-tish screen version of John Buchan’s spy-thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is over a year ami a-half since (ho Lime Grove film-makers have seen Madeleine, when she was enduring the “ hardships ” of war-time hospital life in 1 I Was a Spy,’ the film that was eventually to send the moguls of Hollywood tumbling over each other to obtain her signature on the dotted line. Madeleine lias been around si nee (lien. She has been hi America to star with Kranchot Tone in ‘ The World Moves On ’ ; she has been on a well-earned trip with her husband Philip Astley, and now with her l'J35

programme mapped out before her, she is to commence starring opposite Robert Donat in ‘ Tho Thirty-Nine Stops,’ after which she will probably bo teamed with Conrad Vcidt in ‘ Redemption,’ the screen version of Tolstoy’s novel ‘The Living Corpse.’

, In June, 1.932, ,in 11 ip newspapers throughout tho world. Charlie Chaplin’s suggestion Hint the United Slates should go off tlic gold standard and adopt a silver one was widely discussed. Ho outlined a definite plan at that time,, and the article caused much comment. Within the past few mouths all the changes suggested in that article have been carried out. Although few people arc aware of it, Chaplin is 'a keen student of economies, and during his trip abroad two years ago, ho hold discussions with many of the world’s leading, economists. To quote from the Chaplin article. “ The cry of all countries is lack of money. Commerce has developed through the expansion of credit, but without a corresponding expansion of currency. The production of gold is too small to keep up with the development of the world’s resources, yet gold is the basis of all value. What gives it that value? An international recognition of its purchasing power. Therefore by international agreement any metal could be given the same basic value as gold.” He elaborates further, suggesting silver in its place. To tho average audience, Charlie is known as the world’s greatest comedian. Few know that he is an intensive thinker. The same thought and care that prompted a solution for the country’s ills is used in everything ho does, 'including the composition, treatment, and working out of the details of his pictures. At the moment, Charlie is deeply engrossed in the production of his next picture, which will he released hv United Artists. B ♦ * * Mo less a personage that his Highness, the Sultan of Perak, F.M.S., Sir Alang Iskadar Shah, cb-oporatcd with Mr Harry Sehenek in the production of ‘Beyond Bengal/ the film achievement unbelievable, which comes to the Umpire Theatre on Easter Saturday. It is almost proverbial that every picture alleged to embrace authentic jungle thrills is “ faked.” But there are exceptions to every rule, and unquestionably ‘ Beyond Bengal ’ is the exception to this one. Every foot was photographed, and every sound recorded in the Malayan Peninsula, the most treacherous garden spot in the world. For instance, tho most ingenious and

astute film director on earth could not possibly have produced the sensational stampede of mad elephants, “Beyond Bengal.” Hundreds of these giants of the jungle are seen charging like fury down on u small party of natives, crushing undergrowth and tearing up trees in their tracks. Neither could anybody fake the shot of the huge python wrapping its terrible coils around its victims. And yon actually see a hand of dare-devil natives battling with crocodiles in the treacherous Boya River, the “ river alive with death.” When Schenck first went to the Malay Peninsula to make a survey of the. jungles for the purpose of filming a picture that would present primitive drama and life as it exists in this wild region, he found many obstacles to overcome. One flint seemed unsnrmountablc was the fact that there wore certain parts of the couinry over which the sign “While man, keep out!” had been posted. That was both a warning and a. threat. Rut .Schenck put Jii.s lau ds on the-table with the Sultan,

and the result was that Sir Alang Iskadar Shah not only gave his permission for the expedition to go into the interior, but agreed to give every assistance in his power to make it a success. Needless to say, without such co-operation the hazardous expedition could not have achieved what it did. The Sultan is described by Schenck as “ a charming and lovable character, who speaks perfect English.” He was - the moving spirit back of everything, and when Schenck, . after five months’ preliminary survey, returned to the United States, it was with the 'assurance of ultimate success. When Schenck later returned to the Peninsula, he found at his command an expeditionary force of 1,600 people, 125 elephants, several hundred bullocks, water buffalo, ami Chinese ponies, with sixty-four bullock carts to carry provisions and medical supplies. In addition, there were work elephants tliajt preceded the main expedition, with a wagon train that kept ahead making camp. More than fifty Saikis (genuine wild men who knew every call of the jungle) accompanied the expedition. , They .were in charge of the elephants. The Saikis are called “The Ears of the Jungle,” as they know the calls of the beasts, and can answer the trumpet calls from animals, sensing danger ahead. A Royal Order was issued by the Sultan in order to get the Saikis. Move than (500,000 ft. of film was made during the expedition, visual am! with sound track, a guarantee of authenticity. ‘ Uoyond Bengal ’ is a triumph both from the entertainment ami the educational points of view.