FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 23421, 11 November 1939, Page 5

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

hy “Loiterer”

EFFECT OF WAR Last Conflict Aided Hollywood The Questionable Yardstick Though American moving-picture producers have been expressing concern over the effect of the war on their operations, they are reported to have a certain underlying complacence. When war broke out they became anxious about their foreign markets, felt that economies would have to be practised and withdrew from production some of the more expensive films. But at the same time they recalled that the Great War gave Hollywood its first opportunity to take world - film leadership. Before 1914 Germany, Italy, and Sweden were the flourishing film-makers; France was not far behind, and America was making short films, but the war changed that entirely.

One oan only surmise what might have happened to the American film industry had there, been no such war, or what form the American screen might have taken had it been forced to march, step by step, with the uninterruptedly developing foreign studios, remarks an American writer. Whose influence might ultimately have prevailed —the American or the Continental?, We know now that Hollywood’s standards generally have become the world’s standards. In England the yardstick of British production is not the pre-war English film, but the current American film. For years the Londoner avoided the London-made film and stood in line for America’s Garbos, Crawfords, Astaires, and Temples. That applied, although to lesser degree, ; in Paris, Berlin, and Rome. During the last three or four, years the foreign studios have been catching up with Hollywood. Gaumont-British and London Films made a premature attempt a few years ago to challenge American world-film leadership, an attempt that failed npt merely because the British were ill-equipped for such a test, but because they tried to fight Hollywood on its own ground, with a rather bad imitation of its own ammunition.

The real challenge of recent years has not been commercial, but artistic. From Paris and from London, the two production centres yet free from political restriction, came dozens of pictures which equalled the best American industry, had produced. They, may not have received the distribution in the United States to which .their merits entitled them, either through a disgruntled, industry policy or because, in the case of the French films, of the language barrier. But Hollywood has felt their competition and has profited by it—again not commercially, but'artistically. In its zeal, and a highly praiseworthy one, to remain at the 1 top of the heap, the American industry has done its best to buy up the most promising and the most able figures of the foreign screen. Without mentioning any but those who come at once to mind, we might name Duvivier, Feyder, Bram, Hitchcock, Litvak, "and Lang among the'directors; Boyer, Annabella, Olivier, Oberon," Donat, Lockwood; and Darrieux among the players. There have been scores of technicians, writers, and composers. Anglo-American production companies have been formed by which a 1 Citadel ’ can be filmed in England, a 1 Nurse Edith Cavell ’ made in Hollywood. France's ‘ Pepe Le Moko ’ is remade as ‘ Algiers,’ and Hedy La Marr becomes the face on the American magazine cover and a model for American women.

All this is healthy, for the industry’s rake, for the cinema’s sake, and for

tb« public’s sake. It has provided the American screen not merely with new farces, but new ideas'. It has been Hollywood’s best promise of the maintenance of quality, of the continuing vitality, of the steady progression of the most fertile and liveliest of the arts. And now, with the war, there looms the probability that Europe’s competitive assistance will be withdrawn, Paris’s studios are shut down; England’s are rushing through the unfinished business on hand and the future is not entirely certain. Only the most shortsighted producer in Hollywood will draw any satisfaction from tha! fact, for now he must face a future In which he can measure his stature only by his neighbour’s. And that is a questionable yardstick in Hollywood.

BRITISH STUDIOS WILL CARRY ON. The following information regarding British films has just been received bv “Loiterer,” and,seems to indicate that the' English position is fairly

clear, so 'Hollywood will be able to continue making the best of healthy competition

< A question of .moment to the British film industry was whether or not film operations would be suspended 1 in this war, as they were in 1914. It is learned that British producers will continue production throughout the present war. This is intimated in a communication received from London hv Mr Ernest'Turnbull, managing director of Gaumont-British Dominions Films.

Every effort will be made to continue production of British films

throughout the duration of war, and in as smooth a manner as is possible. It is not considered that the present technical man power will be seriously affected. Neither is it expected that there will be any difficulty in adjusting casting arrangements, to allow for enlistments, and yet comply with boxoffice requirements. Though several of the small studios have been ear-marked for national purposes, the larger studios of Pinewood, Denham, Shepherd’s Bush, and Beaconsfield will carry on, and producers are making no alteration in their present schedule. Gainsborough is being equipped for big-scale production, and will be employed as well as or as an alternative to Islington. Headquarters for Twentieth Century-Fox will be at Wembley, and British Lion will produce at Beaconsfield,

Jottings on the people of the Stage and Screen and on the latest recorded Music.

HINKLE AND MUSSEMUP CHAPLIN PRESENTS ’ THE GREAT DICTATOR’ Now that the cameras are focusing on the early scenes of Charlie Chaplin’s new film, ‘ The Great Dictator,’ many of his studio secrets are out. For two years they have been guessed at. * The provisional script has been lying at the United States copyright office at Washington, where it was deposited on November 16, 1938. Charlie calls ‘The Great Dictator ’ a story of a little fish in a shark-infested sea.” He opens the film on a European battlefield in 1912, where there is some “ Shoulder Arms ” comedy while he is fighting for Ptomania against the Alliars, according to one writer. When the little soldier comes home from the war he finds his country being bossed about by a pipsqueak called Hinkle. The “ Furor’s” crony is Dictator Mussemup, of Ostrich, who likes to stop the traffic while he tells a friend a joke. Charlie doesn’t like this, gets sent to a concentration camp, escapes in storm-trooper uniform, and gets mistaken for Hinkle. The real “Furor” is locked up as an impostor, and Hinkle’s Air Minister, Herring, brings up

Charlie to address the crowds of the State of Vanilla, which has just been conquered. Charlie stands up and says: “I don’t want to conquer anybody. This is a big world, and there’s plenty of room for all of us in it.” . Again behind barbed wire, Charlie smiles at a storm-trooper, who starts to smile back, remembers himself, and shouts: “ Get up, Jew! Where the hell do you think you are?” Which is the end. WINGED STARS FIVE HUNDRED PIGEONS SCREEN TESTED Approximately 600 pigeons were given screen tests recently by Producerdirector Gregory La Cava to select 50 birds to appear in a Central Park scene in RKO Radio’s ‘Fifth Avenue Girl,’ m which Ginger Rogers is starred. The tests were necessary to get pigeons that were not afraid of people, that would eat out of the players’ hands, and that would not fly out of the scene when extras walked through. As the birds are vital to the action of the scene, it was imperative that they he able to conform to these requirements. In addition, the pigeons had to he of a variety of breeds and of a mixture of colours which would make an effective contrast against the background of the set. Added to this, the birds had to possess a low, soft coo that would not drown out the dialogue. Many of the pigeons were obtained from private owners who had them as pets, and each bird was tagged with a narrow leg band showing his ownership. GARY COOPER IN BIG DEMAND Gary Cooper has been cast in 10 major pictures of 1939—if you believe all you hear. Hardly a week passes without the circulation of reports that Cooper is being sought for the starring role in another top production by some Hollywood studio. But he cannot do them all, that is obvious. The public this year will see this erstwhile Montana cowboy, who is now securely placed in one of the very highest spots in the film firmament, in just three pictures. Cooper’s first choice of the dozen or more great roles offered him was the title role in 1 Bean Geate,’ Paramount’s screen version of P. C. Wren’s great novel, which _ brings together again the star and director, William A. Wellman, who gave him his start a decade ago in ‘ Wings.’ Upon completing his role in the tale of adventure in the Foreign Legion, Gary immediately started work in a one more will complete the Cooper picture for Sara. Goldwyn. Probably quota for the year, but what that one will he has not been settled yet, and Hollywood producers are scrambling frcnzieclly for bis services.

• FOUR DAUGHTERS' THREE SISTERS IN CAST The girls get their innings in ‘ Four Daughters,’ the Warner Bros, picture adapted from a famous story by Fannie Hurst. Priscilla, Rosemary, and Lola Lane, Hollywood’s only three sister stars, and Gale Page, a lovely newcomer, have the title roles, and it is around them that the bright and charming story revolves. The daughters of an elderly musician, played by Claude Rains, theirs are all the joys and sorrows of small-town girls whoso lives are full of work and play, dreams and ambitions. Of course, where there are four pretty girls, four young men are likely to put in an appearance. And they do, in the person of Jeffrey Lynn, a handsome screen newcomer who seems destined for stardom, John Garfield, a young character actor recruited from Broadway, Dick Foran, and Frank M'Hugh. May Robson is on the spot to act as chaperone. The Fannie Hurst story was adapted for the soreen-by Julius J. Epstein and Lenore Coffee. Michael Curtiz directed. GNLY THE FACTS STANLEY'S WAS A LIFE OF MOVIE DRAMA Henry King is a man who loves realism. When the distinguished director came to handle the megaphone on Darryl F. Zanuek’s production of ‘ Stanley and Livingstone,’ which stars Spencer Tracy, he took;great care to present what was probably the greatest adventure known to man with great fidelity to fact.

“Stanley’s life was thrilling enough without adding any fiction to it,” said King. “We are going to begin in the days of the ’6o’s, when he was a hardboiled newspaper reporter covering the Indian wars of the West for Janies Gordon Bennett’s old New York ‘Herald,’ and take him on his daring expedition into Africa—to show the change in his character as he came under the kindly influence of Livingstone, the great missionary-explorer, whom he had been sent to find. “We are ruthlessly eliminating everything that does not conform to Stanley’s own diary and his other accounts of his adventures. Every at-

tack by savages, wild animals, or fever will be in accordance with his own stories. There is no place for fiction in the life of a man who lived a dozen movie dramas during his fabulous career.”

Three years in the making, much of the film was shot in the actual locale in Africa. The romance in the picture is carried by Nancy Kelly and Richard Greene, cast as a young couple whom Stanley, played by Spencer Tracy, mentioned in his writings. Prominently featured in the cast are Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Hull, and Henry Travers.

PAUL MUNI is featured in Howard Hughes’s ‘ Scarface,’ which is said to present such a striking study of criminal conditions in the United States that it exhausts the subject as far as the screen is concerned. ‘ Scarface ’ opens next Friday at the Empire.

SONG AND DANCE FDR BASIL RATHBONE Basil Rathboue, one of Hollywood’s top dramatic actors, becomes a cockney song and dance man in ‘ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ’ at 20th Century-Fox. He does a little number called ‘ Walking in the Park ’ wearing a straw hat and swinging a cane. Nick Castle, studio dance director, who coached Rathbone says the actor is good despite the fact that he had

never done anything like it in all his long career on the stage. Needless to say, Rathbone adopts the guise of a song and dance man as part of Jiis detective work as Sherlock Holmes. WHAT'S A CUSTARD PIE T» CARROLL? Surely filmland’s oddest job belongs to 70-year-old James Carroll—he is custard pie target No. 1. James does not quite know how he got the job, but ever since silent days custard pie slapstick and Carroll have gone together. If you want to know how it feels to be hit on the face by a pie, James says, “ It’s like taking your first dive into the sea.”-

‘ JAMAICA INN’ LAUGHTON—THE DIRTY DOG Undoubtedly one of England’s finest living actors, Charles Laughton scores another triumph in ‘ Jamaica Inn,’ adapted for the screen by the Mayflower Producing Company in England from Daphne Du Manner’s widely-read novel. ‘ Jamaica Inn ’ is being released throughout this part of the world by the Paramount Company, who, it will be remembered, produced the memorable ‘ Ruggles of Red Gap,’ in which Laughton made a delightful Ruggles. In ‘ Jamaica Inn,’ Laughton appears as Sir Humphrey Pengallan, squire of Cornwall, entertainer of nobility, yet withal the evil genius behind the doings of the gangs of wreckers who haunt the nearby coast. The story is of a lonely inn on the bleak Cornwall moors, not far from the coast. Its name is evil; coaches whisk past, and no man knows what horrors its ever-closed shutters hide. Yet it is to Jamaica Inn that_ Mary Yellan goes when her mother dies, to join her annt and the man her aunt married, Joss Merlyn. The evils of the inn, its dread secret, and the gatherings of the wreckers she is all too soon to learn, to make her way in frenzied haste to Sir Humphrey for his protection. Little does she know he is the evil genius who guides , her uncle and his band of cut-throats.

Charles Laughton has the colourful, sinister part of the squire, the man behind the gang. The role gives room for expansive characterisation, and he makes an enormously engrossing job of it. In support of Charles Laughton are Maureen O’Hara, beautiful newcomer to the screen, Leslie Banks, Emlyn Williams, Mane Ney, and others, all under the expert direction of Alfred Hitchcock. A NEW 'THREE MUSKETEERS' With Don Ameche, as a singing, loving, fighting D’Artagnan, and the Ritz Brothers, as phoney musketeers more at home with a carving knife than a sword, 20th Century-Fox in tho musical comedy version of ‘ The Three Musketeers,’ has found a new way. of presenting the Alexandre Dumas story which has captivated and enchanted audiences and readers from the day it was conceived almost a century ago. With a brilliant cast of supporting players, the film is hailed as one of the happiest entertainment ideas since the movies began to move. Swordplay alternates with horseplay, royal romance and secret intrigue vie for interest with the 'antics of three balmy buffoons, and through it all rousing songs ring out. Darryl F. Zanuefc, in charge of the production, selected Allan Dwan to direct the film. A HAPPY HOME THE HARDYS HAVE THEIR FORMULA The Hardy Family, of film fame, now filming its sixth picture as a group, has arrived at a definite formula for a happy home after two years of concentrated research. The Hardys _ were created and continued to survive under a plan that is new -to Hollywood. Writers, iplayere, and executives sit in round-robin discussions of each picture. They determine in advance the reactions of each character in the family to any hypothetical situation. Participating in such a conference recently, for ‘ The Hardys Ride High,’ were the writers of the screen play— Agnes Christine Johnston, Kay Van Riper, and William Ludwig—together with Lou Ostrow, the producer, George Seitz, the director, and principals in the cast. Out of the meeting came certain decisions regarding what the Hardy family may or may not do in order to maintain its traditional happy home, symbolic of millions like it. Here is the formula under which Lewis Stone presides as Judge Hardy, with Mickey Rooney as his son Andy, Fay Holden as Mrs Hardy, Cecilia Parker as the daughter, and Sara Haden as Aunt Milly. Under no circumstances will the Hardy family go into debt. They pay cash as they go and operate on a strict budget. The judge, and Mrs Hardy may dis-

STAGE FOLK ' BEAR OCTOPUS' ‘ Dear Octopus ’ is the nest major production selected By the Dunedin Repertory' Society, and the selection is a wise one, because the play is a clever comedy, which should serve as. a tonic for all those who may be suffering from war jitters. It is neither slapstick nor cheap comedy. It is clean, human comedy of a very high standard. ‘ Dear Octopus * is written by Dodie Smith, who is one of the most promising of ■ present-day British playwrights. Amongst other plays she was responsible for ‘ Autumn Crocus,’ which not only had a very successful' run in London but was also one of the most successful plays produced by the Dunedin Repertory Society. ‘ Dear Octopus ’ was produced in London over 12 months ago, and has enjoyed an uninterrupted run of success since then. Marie Tempest and John ■ Gielgud, supported by an excellent cast, share the honours, and Dunedin is very fortunate that the play has been released for production by an amateur, society. The play deals with the simplest of all plots—namely, a family gathered together for a reunion on the occasion of their grantparents’ golden wedding. Families are the same all the world over, and those who have attended such a reunion will appreciate the material available for such a clever author as Dodie Smith.

Miss Bessie Thomson will be the producer, and she has at her disposal a very impressive cast, including Mesdames F. Wakefield Holmes, J. MTherson, H. T. Speight, W. Fodken. H. Sutherland, J. L. Davies, A. Newey, Misses M. Hardman, I. Seelye. G. Paape, M. Hopewell, G. Smith. Messrs W. R. Brugh, R. Watson, J. W. Hayward, T. A, Tarrant, and Master Brian Parke. THE GREAT HORTH CHINA TROUPE A very great deal of local interest has been aroused in the forthcoming appearance of the world-famous North China Troupe, who commence their season of 10 nights at His Majesty’s Theatre on November 18. Lau Fu Chung, who presents this unique entertainment, is an entertainer of an entirely different type, and • his quaint style has a universal appeal. The show moves at lightning speed, in which sensation follows sensation with almost unbelievable feats of acrobatics, dancing, gymnastics. One of the features of the programing is the performance of Mdlle Wang Tsun, who, while suspended in mid-air *by her own hair, goes through a series- of contortions. Then there is Herbert Young, the nine-year-old Chinese Bobby Breen, who sings soprano

agree violently, but they never argue in the presence of their children. Mickey Rooney, as Andy, may tease his sister, disagree with her, and rib her unmercifully, but woe to the boy who fails to treat her with proper respect. Both Andy and Marion have equal rights with their- parents and Aunt Milly in discussions, out nevcr are they to become disrespectful, or interrupt when another is speaking. Benefits and privileges are distributed equally in the Hardy family, with a justice which the judge practises abroad and at home. Marion is permitted to have boy friends, but they are expected to leave at a respectable hour, and, furthermore, Andy is expected to stay out of the living room when his sister is- entertaining. The Hardys are regular church members; they, allow for the Community Chest and the Red Cross in their bud-

get, and also for Judge Hardy’s Law luh and fraternity dues. The first law of the Hardy family is truth to each other and to the world, at any cost, as demonstrated in their new picture. “It’s really amazing,” said Lewis Stone, “ how the family sticks together through all the adventures we , have, but I think the good common sense rules we have among ourselves help all of us.” According to Agnes Christine Johnstone, one of the trio of writers on the picture, the Hardy family regulations represent a composite of rules observed in a majority of average homes. “ The very families that are making the pictures popular are actually writing the stories,” she observed;

songs in perfect English, a language ha acquired when five years old. - Then there is Loo _ Song, the only Chinese ventriloquist in the world, with his two dolls, Jackie and Nellie, and Dr,Wong (described as the Handsome Chinese) who is said to startle his audience with feats of _ black art. Another/item of interest is the appearance of Reg'. Morgan, the orchestra leader, well known throughout the Dominion through the YA radio stations. . CHRISTMAS MUSIC )ji NEW 1 ADESTE FIDELES* Fresh is lent to _ the old Christina? hymn, ‘ Adeste Fideles.’ in an arrangement by Vernon Griffiths, Mus. Doc., of this city. Dr Griffiths is, of course, director of music at the'King Edward Technical College, and in this arrangement, which is for male_ voices in two parts and trebles,' also 'in two parts, with two-piano accompaniment, some very interesting harmonies will be heard when it is presented by the Royal Dunedin Male Choir on the 20th of this month. The treble section will be composed of about 70 girls and boys from the Technical College Choir, and it may be saidon good authority that anybody, who has not heard them has a pleasanj; surprise in store. . Another well-known work the children will assist the Mai» Choir in is Gruber’s ‘ Silent Night,, Holy Night,’ when two unusual descants will be heard. Ordinarily, a,descant consists in the three lower parts of a choir singing the air in unison while the trebles provide the harmony, but in this arrangement the .children will sing the descant to; a 4-part harmony. When the Male Choir sang Holst’s arrangement of ‘ In the Bleak. Midwinter ’ last year the hoys of the King’* High School sang the third verse to «

beautiful humming accompaniment, amt the presence of the Technical; College Choir this year provides an opportunity for its repetition. The children will wind up a by no means lightlevpnmg’*, work by assisting in the climaxes of , Tennyson’s ‘ Ring Out, Wild.' Bells, without which no Male Choir . Christ* mas concert would be complete. After three years of experimental cross-pollination of ’dahlias in the 20th Century-Fox flowery nursery. Captain Jules Strasser, studio guide, announced the development of an . entirely new and beautiful species of the flower. His creation will be' called “ The Shirley Temple Dahlia.’’