SCREENLAND JOTTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 5

SCREENLAND JOTTINGS

Short Shots. Irene Dunne. will star in Paramount’a ■ musical, ‘ The Count of Luxembourg.’ This_ will be her first appearance in technicolour. *-• ■ * Universal is trying to take over the right* of Rudy am Kipling’s ‘ The Light 1 That Failed’'from Paramount, paramount is asking the loan of Deanna Durbin, for one picture as the price. * ■ * * * •* Mary Dunn, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s infant prodigy, has been sent home. All she-' wdmd say in front of the camera was “ no.” -•* * * ■ paying at-last discovered that Barbara Stanwyck can .sing, motion picture producers are apparently going to give her; frequent opportunity to do so from ! now- on. Sipoe she made her debut in motion pictures she did not sing a single note : until she appeared recently in ‘ Banjo On My Knee ’ for Twentieth Oentury-rFox,. Now she. is to sing again, this time in ‘ His Affair,’ in which she co-stars opposite Robert Taylor, ' , ■ • • • * Possibility that Sessue Hayakawa, long a star in silent days, may return to the American screen was indicated recently when Paramount opened negotiations to bring the Japanese actor to Hollywood for the next Anna May

Wong picture, Paramount’s ‘Easy of Shanghai,’ which -will go into production within a month with George Archainbaud directing. Deanna Durbin will celebrate her fifteenth birthday on December 4; and' it is the intention of -the Empire Theatre to hold a party that afternoon to celebrate this anniversary. •*’ # # Jean Harlow’s novel, ‘To-day is Tonight,’ has been placed on the MetroGold production schedule. New: Zealand History. Further progress is reported in connection with the talkie film ‘ Rewi’s Last Stand,’ which is being produced hy‘ Mr Rudall Hayward for Frontier Films Limited, in conjunction with the Te Awamutu Historical Society. As a result of a recent trip to Wellington with Mr : Gavin Gifford,- one of the directors, Mr Hayward reports an- encouraging reception from the Defence Department, the Dominion Museum, and from the Government Publicity Office. ! -'■ The historian, Mr James Cowan, is interested in the production, having spent his boyhood on the site of the fettle of Orakau, which figures prominently in the picture. The production. is "to be commenced within the next. fortnight, although th© actual

battle scenes may he delayed pending the receipt .from the Defence Department of the necessary arms and equipment of the period. 1 Incidentally, it is stated that some of the weapons promised may have been used in the actual battle in 1863.

‘ Yeomen of the Guard.’ The-task of converting ‘ The Yeomen of the Guard ’ into'■ a film script has taken Mr Geoffrey Toy© six _ months, and he has done it without using more than one line of “foreign” dialogue, writes the London diarist of the ‘ Evening Standard.’ Every bar of music is Sullivan's, and every line of speech—■ except one—Gilbert’s. Mr Toye, managaing director of Covent Garden until 1936, has been interested in film making for . two yedrs. ■ He is to b© the producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan pictures, and the first one, ‘ The Yeomen/ will be started at Pinewood early in the new year. The D’Oyley Carte family resisted large cash offers for the film rights from American companies • for years/ . The English films will probably cost £IOO,OOO each, and they will be assured a world-wide distribution. • • • * . Famous Conductor On Screen. Leopold Stokowski, famous conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony, has his first screen speaking role in ‘ 100 Men and a Girl.’ In one earlier film, ‘ Big Broadcast of 1937,’ he conducted his orchestra but did not speak any lines. He is an active consultant on the laboratory staffs of General Electric, Western Electric, and RCA. Stokowski, horn in, London, is a descend-

ant of General Stokowski, commander of light cavalry in Napoleon’s Polish Legion. * « * *

Hollywood Suicidal to Authors. Mr Hugh Walpole, who recently returned to from Hollywood, vows that no offer in the world would ewer tempt him to return there to work. He spent two years in Hollywood writing for American, films. “ For every single day of a period of six months,” he said, “ I was absolutely exasperated. Though I was being paid a high salary, I had nothing whatever to do. That state of affairs is suicidal to any author or artist.” Among the films with which Mr Walpole was connected in a literary capacity were Kipling’s ‘ Kiwi,’ ‘ Little Lord Fauntleroy,’ ‘ Dawid Copperflold,’- and ‘ Romeo and Juliet.’- “ Worse than inactivity, if possible.” Mr Walpole continued, “ are the periods when there is so much work to

be done that any author is liable to be driven, to insanity. It ie ‘ impossible in those c ircumstano&s to be able to turn out good stuff. “I would 1 advise any young unknown author to get out there and try hie luck. There is so much opportunity. But for an author who has_ already made his name and: has acquired the habit of living comfortably and working consistently it is not the place.” • * *' • ‘ The Life of Emile Zola.’ One of the most notorious scandals in modem history supplies the motivation for the second great Warner Bros, picture within a year based upon the life of a famous Frenchman. The picia. ‘ The Life of Emile Zola,’ and the scandal is that surrounding the conviction and imprisonment of Captain Alfred Dreyfus on Devil’s Island, on a trumped-up ' charge that he had sold important army secrets to Germany. The picture will be shown in Dunedin at an early date. Not only the great success of ‘ The Story of Louis Pasteur,’ with Paul Muni in the title role, but also the powerful drama of Zola’s picturesque career as a moulder of public opinion in France, influenced: the studio in making this picture. Muni, who. won the Academy Award for his Pasteur effort, also has the title role in ‘ Zola.’Zola was France’s first great naturalistic novelist. His most sensational work was ‘ I Accuse,’ in which he viciously attacked everyone who had any part in the condemnation and imprisonment of Dreyfus. He had become convinced of the officer’s innocence, and with characteristic vigor attacked the powerful military hierarchy with all the strength at his command. ‘ I Accuse’ was deliberately written to provoke a libel suit. Joseph Schildkraut, boyhood friend of Muni in Vienna, has the role of Dreyfus.

Tom Walls in Dual Role

Tom Walls plays an amazing dual role in ‘ For Valour,’ coming soon to the Empire Theatre. He appears as both son and father in the same scenes, and filmgoers will have the uncanny experience of watching the suave Tom Walls, complete with moustache and side whiskers, remonstrating with a wily old bird of some 65 years, cleanshaven, double-chinned, boasting a glorious cauliflower ear, and broken nose. This is not only a miracle, of modern filming—but a masterpiece of make-up. • * * *

Famous Boys’ Choir. St. Luke’s Choristers, America’s contribution to the great boys’ choirs of the world, is having its fame broadcast through the medium of the motion picture screen. The famous choir appears with .Grace Moore, Columbia’s noted singing star, in her current picture, * When You’re In Love,’ opening at the Mayfair Theatre to-night. In support is ‘ Motor Madness/ in which Rosalind! Keith and Allen Brook appear. # * * * All Irish.

Dancing at old County Cork fair and Irish songs by the silver-voiced tenor, Phil Regan, are outstanding features of ‘ Laughing Irish Eyes,’ the Republic production coining to the St. James on Friday, Regan sings ‘Laughing Irish Eyes,’ ‘Bless You, Darlin’ Mother,’ * All My Life,’ and ‘ Londonderry Air.’ Supporting him are Evelyn Knapp, Walter Kelly, Mary Gordon, and Warren Hymer. ♦ • * • New Pictures at the Strand. A Hollywood studio had to go into the highway building business, because the script called for dynamiting a road and a bridge. The cinematic “ blowups ” occurred jn Universal’s ‘ Armoured Car,’ starting at the Strand Theatre on Friday next. Since the roadway was to he destroyed, it was impossible to use any city, county, or State highway. Universal had to build 300 ft of road and a sturdy bridge of solid' timber and steel. Then, boom, the whole works went up in smoke. They had to do it right the first time. Television is seen on the screen Tor the first time in the A.T.P. production, ‘ Radio Lover,’ starring Jack Melford, Wylie Watson, and Betty Ann Davies, and which will also be seen, at the Strand, Theatre next, Friday.

A Fortune Gained and Lost. Gordon Oliver, leading man for Jean Muir in the 'Warner Bros, drama,. ‘ White Bondage,’ opening at the Octagon Theatre next Friday, inherited £BO,OOO from his father’s estate six years ago. At the end of four years he had 10s left. He had lost and spent the entire fortune. Ho says he’s happier nowadays, because he has nothing to worry about and lets the stock market alone. • *• • « A Change of Role. Barton MacLano, who is featured with Glenda Farrell in 4 Fly Away, Baby,’ a Warner Bros, melodrama, at the Octagon Theatre on Friday next, has had only three sympathetic parts in about 30 pictures. Generally he is cast ae a brutal villain. Ho is a goodnatured policeman ju this picture. Chaplin’s ‘ New Personality ’? Reports that Charles Chaplin will abandon his famous tramp role for a jiow personality ’1 which he will intro-

duce in his talking picture have been emphatically denied by the starproducer’s spokesman, Chaplin’s first talkie, his studio, representative said, will be a comedy-drama starring Paulette Goddard. Chaplin will write, direct, and produce it, but he will not appear in it. At present the film bears the numerical title, ‘ Production No. 6.’ «.« * *

‘ When’s Your, Birthday?’ The picturesque colour of the Midway Plaisanco at a great amusement resort is seen, as the background for many sequences of ‘ When’s Your Birthday?’ David L. Loew’s rollicking comedy starring Joe E. Brown, opening a season at the Grand next Wednesday. The laugh-provoking Brown is seen as an astrologer in a • concession, and as the Swami Pisoes he creates such a sensation with his prediction? that Jie is finally installed in a lavish studio on Park Avenue, only to have his past record as a part-time prize fighter rise up and hit him on the chin. The comedian’s supporting cast in ‘ When’s Your . Birthday.?’ includes Marian Marsh, Fred Keating, Maude Eburne,' and Edgar Kennedy. This RKO Radio release, was directed, by Harry Beaumont.

‘ Waikiki Wedding.’ Romance, hilarity, and music are provided in. Paramount’s ‘ Waikiki Wedding,’ a comedy of love in the pineapple groves with Bing Crosby, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, and Shirley Ross, which began at the State Theatre yesterday. The glories of' the famous Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, are depicted in this film, which is noteworthy for beautiful photography. Of special interest are the many ceremonial native dances, which form an integral part of the production. In particular there is a native wedding and a ‘barbaric drum dance performed by Min Rei, the Tahitian dancer who proved ■ the sensation of the Ziegfeld Follies several years! ago. The music includes ‘ Blue Hawaii,’ * Sweet - is the Word for .You,’ *ln a Little Hula Heaven,’ and ‘ Okokhao.’ * s. * * ’

War-torn Spain. The drama of war-torn Spain has been made th© background for a powerful motion picture- plot by Paramount Pictures; in ‘ The Last Train From Madrid.’ Which opens at the Regent Theatre on Friday next. With a capable oast of player?, headed by Dorothy Lamour, Lew Ayres,

Gilbert Roland, Karen Morley, Lionel Atwill, and Helen Mac.k, ‘ The Last Train From Madrid ’ is the story of 10 most of them unknown to each other, whose lives are suddenly thrown together and their destinies interwoven during 12 feverish hours in Madrid while the city is under heavy bombardment. ‘ The Last Train From Madrid ’ is “ strictly neutral ” in the issues involved in "the present Spanish conflict. It simply deals with the 10 lives caught in the maelstrom, and follows them during the 12 hours in which the story takes place.

Miss Florence Paoey is to present a juvenile operetta, ‘ Snowwhit© and the Seven Dwarfs,’ in the Jubilee Hall, View street, on December 4 in aid of Trinity Church funds. She has assembled a. large cast of clever children, and has, it is reported, worked up an impressively good entertainment, with choruses, duets, solos, and costuming as special features. Miss Ethel Todd’s pupils will provide the ballets and solo dances*