SHE'S A BUSY WOMAN

Evening Star, Issue 23325, 22 July 1939, Page 5

SHE'S A BUSY WOMAN

MERLE OBERON HOPS FROM DENHAM TO HOLLYWOOD Merle Oberon, travelling between Samuel Goldwyn’s studio in Hollywood and Korda’s at Denham, is in a unique postiou. Her career is divided into two separate sets of films. During her last Hollywood term there were plenty of suggestions for her next homework: ‘Ann Boleyn,’ ‘Elizabeth of Austria,’ andl ‘ Pocahontas,’ were among the historical candidates. But Miss Oberon, who arrived back in London the same week as her new Hollywood film, ‘ Wuthering Heights,’ said that for the moment she would do none of these. She was getting ready to start work on ‘ Manon Leseaut,’ in about a month. It will be her first picture at Denham for Alexander Korda Productions, and Korda will direct himself. The picture will bo iu technieolour.

The first picture to be started by his firm will be ‘ The Thief of Bagdad,’ which will be directed hy Dr Ludhvig Berger, adn will star Conrad Veidt and Sahu. When ‘ Monon Lescaut ’ goes into production both films will be on the floor together. Merle’s last lot of work in England did) not prove very lucky. There was ‘ I. Claudius,’ interrupted by her accident aud never finished. ‘ The Divorce of Lady X ’ was hardly more than a time-marking comedy for her. ‘ Over the Moon.’ her last comedy before she left for Hollywood, has not yet been shown.

This time Merle is confident and very well pleased over the choice of subject for the first of the two films she will make here. ‘ Manon,’ one of the classic courtesans, has already been the subject of plays, operas, and at least two films. Dolores Costello once played her. But the German version, starring Lya de Putti, was one of the few great successes of the UFA boom period!. Few people realise that Marlene Dietrich played a small part in it. That was 13 years ago. The story should have enough life in it for a new version. The period will give Korda scope for a beautiful And the parts should give Merle her biggest acting chance yet. RIVER BOAT'S RAGE MARK TWAIN'S MISSISSIPPI RECALLED One of the last of the passenger steamers in service on an American river enacted the days of its Mississippi predecessors when the historic Delta Queen on the Sacramento River staged its race against a lynch mob for a dramatic moment in Mark Twain’s ‘ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ Mickey Rooney’s first solo starring vehicle. With the development of trains, planes, automobiles, and" trucks, the historic boats of Mark Twain’s day no longer ply the Mississippi, but two are still in service between Sacramento, State capital of California, and San Francisco. It was here that Rooney, Walter Connolly, William Frawley, Rex Ingram, and the rest of the cast in Mark Twain’s classic, travelled on location for the picture. The story of the Mississippi boy, trying to aid a runaway slave to a free State, of the two mountebanks who invade his raft, their plots, and the thrilling climax in the river race in the old slavery days before the Civil War, was directed by Richard Thorpe, of ‘ The Crowd Roars ’ fame. The river sequences were filmed largely at the town of Isleton, some 20 miles from Sacramento, where many of its quaint old buildings, constructed in 1860 and still standing, were used.

Vincent Korda, famous art director, brother of Alexander Korda, has left London for Marrakech, Morocco. Ho is studying local colour and costumes for London Films’ technicolour version of ‘ The Thief of Bagdad.’ Besides being London Films’ art director, Vincent Korda is an artist who has held exhibitions in Paris and Budapest. He was responsible for the art direction on nearly all London Films’ great pictures, including ‘ Henry V111.,’ ‘ The Scarlet Pimpernel ’ ‘ The Ghost Goes West,’ ‘ Rembrandt.’ ‘ The Divorce of Lady X.’ ‘ The Drum,’ and, recently, ‘ The Four Feathers.’

‘ The Bank,’ in which the essential Charlie had arrived at his mature form, an extract from which was shown as the last item.

Throughout the performance classical music, dance music, and) improvisation were played on a (piano, just as they used to be, by Miss Hay Langston, who used to accompany films, and there were crude attempts at sound, when a blow was struck, for instance, which brought back memories of. those early days. WARREN WILLIAM NEEDS HIS HUNCHES

Ever since Warren'William saved his own life by following, a hunch, he claims he has placed full credence in anything bordering on a premonition that has come his way. It was in 1931, while he was en route from New York to Hollywood that William said hunches began playing a big part in. his private life.. “ We came by plane as far as St. Louis,” he said on a Paramount set recently. “ There we were forced down. Later we were down again in Oklahoma City where a larger plane was provided for the final leg of the journey. I took the seat assigned to mo, but a hunch prompted me to get off the plane. I’m alive to-day because I continued the trip by train. “ The plane 1 deserted crashed in Kansas and six or seven passengers lost their lives. I have complete faith in my hunches. The only place they, don’t work is at the race track.”

A. brand new face seen on the screes for the first - time is that of Princess Baba, daughter of the white Rajah of Sarawak. Another .newcomer is Blacaman, Hindu animal hypnotist, who performs some amazing feats with lions and crocodiles.

John Arledge gives an excellent account of himself as Fields’s son, and there is Charles Coleman in one of his never-to-be-forgotten butler roles. Edward Brophy, Arthur. Hohl, . and Eddie Anderson are splendid as a union representative, bill collector, and Fields’s coloured helper respectively.

George Marshall’s brilliant direction is evidenced throughout the fast-moving storyand Producer Lester Cowan has given real entertainment value to the entire production.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have bought < A Yank at Eton,’ by George Oppenheimer, which will -in all probability star Mickey Rooney in the title role.

No boy or girl in the-film capital ever will be able to boast that he. or she doubled for Virginia Weidler in dangerous stunt, scenes in, motion pictures. Eleven-year-old Virginia absolutely refuses to permit anyone to impersonate her,, and insists she “ can do anything any hoy can do.”

Louis Hayward- has been chosen to portray the "role of Oliver Essex in Edward Small’s forthcoming production of Howard Spring’s best-selling novel, ‘My Son, My Son!’ George Brucerta writing the script of the picture, which will be photographed in part of England. where the story is laid.

Bob Cummings’s woolly ringtail monkey, “Susie Q,” is insured' for £2OO. While making a cage for' her. Bob, by way of decoration, strung a curtain across the doorway. The other day “ Susie Q ” pulled the curtain down to close out the light’ before retiring for a nap. That’s when Bob decided a monkey as smart as that was worth insuring, even if the premium was .Sdol.

Anne Shirley, youthful star of RKO Radio’s ‘ That Girl from College,’ has turned dramatic coach, and is training her stand-in, Mary Ellen Huggins, for a trole in a Little Theatre production, 1 The Night of January 16.’ which Miss Shirley believes, will launch Mary on a screen career.

Rita Hayworth, Columbia starlet, attributes her vitality to the fact that she values the health-giving properties of fresh air, and spends all her leisure hours in various sports in the open. Before going to bed Miss Hayworth makes certain that her windows ara open as far as possible.

Old-time song hits in new and glamorous settings will be presented to music lovers in RKO Radio’s ‘ The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle,’ in which Fred. Astaire and Ginger Rogers are starred. Not only will the two stars stage their dances to tunes which were popular in the era just prior to the war, hut the musical score of the film will he a pot-pourri of all the song and dance music of. that period.