Motion Picture News

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 4

Motion Picture News

NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAMME.

EVERYBODY’S THEATRE.

This' afternoon and to-night : “The /liana Beyond the. Law”—feitur- . ;ing Ken Maynard. Also, “Hon- . es'ty •: the Best Policy”—Fox—‘featuring Johnnie Walker and !Pauline Starke. Monday: “Two Kinds of Women”— Tuesday and Wednesday: “Ranger of the Big Pines”—Warner Bros., featuring Kenneth Harlan and Helene Oostelo. Thursday and Friday: “The Prairie King” • —• Universal, featuring ‘Hoot Gibson.

PALACE THEATRE

This Afternoon and To-night: “Boiled Stockings”—Paramount—featuring James Hall and All-star castl Also “The Taxi Dancer” —-Mctro-tioldwyn-ilayer featuring Joan Crawford and Owen Moore. . Monday and Tuesday: “The Monkey ' Talk's ’’ —Fox—featuring Olive Borden. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: “Damaged Goods.”

SCREEN! NEWS.

Rex, the famous equine him star, will shortly appear in a. Universal production entitled “Wild Beauty,” which has been picturised from the well-known story by Sylvia Seidt. The human side of the cast includes June. Marlowe and Hugh Allen. What enemy prison camps looked like during the world war has been faithfully reproduced in "Two Arabian Knights,” the big United Artists comedy-drama, starring William Boyd and Mary Astor, to be released in New Zealand shortly. All who saw that fine him of Esquimaux life, “Nanodk of the. North,” will remember the principal character, Nanook. News was recently received in America by Robert Flaherty, the maker'of the him, of Nanook's death from, malnutrition., Kthlyne Clair, who has made an enviable reputation as “Mrs. Newlywed” in the “Newlyweds” comedies, lias Successfully convinced her fan friends of her versatility by appearing as the feminine lead in “Three Miles Up,” a Universal picture. To get the correct “atmosphere” for her new' five-and-tencent store picture, “My Best Girl,” Mary Pickford took a’ job as a salesgirl in a big Los Angeles “nickle-and-dime” store shortly before beginning work on -■ the production. Although she had several narrow' escapes from being recognised, no one definitely identified her as the famous Star during tbV affair. Her experience, she says, was of great value in making the film realistic. Hollywood’s happiest married couple.—that’s how' friends describe the •marriage of Marguerite de la Motte and John Bowers. Miss de la Motte plays the feminine lead in ‘‘Held uv the' Law,”-the Universal-Jew el production. During the making of the picture her husband was working on another production miles away from Universal City, but he managed to arrange it so that by breaking all known speed laws, he could drive to Universal City and lunch with his wife every noon.

Hoot Gibson is star of ‘‘The Prairie King.” It starts out with the colorful scenes of a typical Spanish fiesta in a border town, and where, while the festivities are going 0n.,, the majesty of the law moves ponderously and slowly in the offices of Jim Gardner, the local legal light, who is revealing the. contents of a will, naming three persons, each not known to the other, as the heirs to a. rich gold mine, the estate of old Abner : Perrigoj to whom they had. once shown small kindnesses. Barbara Worth is the .leading lady in the picture. I m . : : : : jc For the first time in her career on the screen, Pola Negri plays a mother rolbr-v The- vampish -Pola of former days is missing in her latest Paramount picture, “The Woman on Trial.” Instead she portavs a wistful and sympathetic chaacter. ‘‘The Woman on Trial” shows her as a woman who lives only for her chile, never dreaming that happiness with the man she really loves is to be hers some day. The picture is based on a famous stage, success by .Ernest Vajda, Hungarian dramatist. In the supporting- east are Einnr Hanson, Oscar Beregi and Arnold Kent. The supreme dramatic masterpiece “Ben Hur” will be screened at the De Luxe Theatre, Wellington, for a season commencing on January 2nd. This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spectacle has been seen by all the crowned heads of, Europe, and was screened by Koval command at Windsor Castle,to the King and Queen. The picture recently played for a season of five record-breaking weeks in Christchurch where the enthusiasm of the vast audiences was without parallel in the. history of the motion picture business in Now Zealand. The picture was three years in the making and the certified east of the production is over £1,000,000, It has a cast of hundreds, headed by Kamon Novarro as Ben Hur, Francis X. Bushman, May MoAvoy, Betty Bron- * son and Claire McDowell.

Why (lid Phyllis Gibbs, Australian winner of' First National’s star quest, return from Hollywood? Soon after, her arrival at the Ire Miile Studio it was announced that she had signed .a five-year contract, then, like a holt from the blue, came a cable stating that she . would return. Miss Gibbs gave her reasons when „sho stepped off the Sonoma (says a Sydney paper)! - The. whole atmosphere did not appeal to her, she said, and when homesickness was added to that she, requested Cecil B. J>e Miile to cancel her contract..-, hinder its terms Miss Gibbs had to keep her weight' at 1191 b, not injure her face or tfigure, and she could he subleased to other producers. The salary- commenced at £ls a week, and rose to £25, £4O, £SO, until £7O was reached in the fifth year.' If she proved a success during, that period Do Miile promised to, arrange a new contract. She told him that she wished to come home- in cancelling the,contract;- he stipulated that she should go nowhere else hut hack, to Australia. “I appeared in several pictures,” she said, ‘but' newspaper cables were sent to .-Australia saying t-liat'pictures were mine in which I never appeared. I was annoyed) at that,- and- insisted .. that .'. Australia should be cabled notifying that the pictures were not mine, so that any wrong impression would be removed” ' ‘ • S' Sjr-'i* ■

PLAYS AND PLAYERS

... ON THE SCREEN ...

$y *Che JKCovie Fan

Norma, Shearer and Lew Cody, a screen team that has. given picturegoers such intriguing comedies as “A Slave of Fashion” and ‘‘His Secretary,” are to he seen again in the Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer production, ‘ The Demi Bride.” The new picture is a. farcical French comedy that is packed / with, mirth-provoking incidents. The average life of a stunt man 111 motion pictures (says a “Photo Play”, writer) is under five years. He either gets killed or he gets a little sense and quits. But the progress of photography is rapidly writing the epitaph of the stunt man. The magic double exposure of the Williams process and other inventions in trick photography and development of film are fast rendering it unnecessary to subject any man to the long chances of “stunts.” Jack Mulhnll lias an hilarious and unusual role in “See You in Jail," the First National picture. This is a really fine comedy, m which the hero is given fifteen days’ imprisonment lor speeding, and enjoys fifteen days of screamingly funny situations and adventures. ' Alice Day (plays the feminine lead, and. is involved with thq hero in a sequence of fun, during which the prisoner nets a fortune by a deal in high finance. Motion picture photography of outdoor vistas has seldom recorded the sublime beauty which. serves as a background to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production, “The Valley of Hell,” in‘which Francis " McDonald has the staring role. The new picture is a nerve-tingling romance of a he-man who sought to find himself in the purple hills of the great outdoors, and who found love as well. Edna Murphy has the leading feminine role and Cliff Smith, directed.

Very few innovations appear in the picture life of Hollywood (.writes Vinter Hall). It seems that every angle of the business has been studied and amply provided for by expert technicians. But a recent development promises startling results to its recruits, and in a way foretells the birth of an order which, although it exists more commonplace professions, has not as yet ventured to the kingdom films. Young men and women aspiring to cinematic fame may now gain its favors through a university education. Through a. co-operative plan agreed upon by university executives for motion picture producers, college education for motion picture careers will be shortly offered for the first time in tile history of Hollywood. Upon matriculation, or graduation, the producers have agreed to place students immediately in the employ of Hollywood sttidio plants, granting them responsible positions, and ones with a career clearly outlined ahead. / Curious pastimes and hobbies of motion picture stars are revealed on location, trips. For example, Bebe Daniels, Paramount star, while on the desert near Guadalupe, California, making exteriors for her latest comedy. “She's a Sheik,” spent almost every restful moment between “shots” playing quoits. Rcliard Arlen, her leading man, proved to the attendant cowboys that lie is an expert at rope tricks. The same cowboys were mystified hv the sleight-of-hand tricks of William Powell, featured player. James Bradbury, jun., and Billy Franey, revealed their circus training by complicated gymnastics. Paul M’Allister and A 1 Fremont were never without their chess board. Cissy Fittzgerald, who has an important part in “The Side Show,” starring W. C. Fields and Chester iklin, concentrates her interest offstage on cats—especially black ones. “In America one thinks of black cats as symbols of bad luck,” she said “But in England, where I was born, they bring good luck.”

Five different methods of communication were used in directing the battle sequence of ‘Wings,' Paramount’s epic of the air. In re-enacting the battle of St. Mihiel which utilised the services of more than 8000 men and every branch of modern warfare, it- was necessary to carry out the movements by means of radio, amplifiers, telephone,, panels ..and semaphores. Each of the 100 aeroplanes used wbre equipped with receiving sets and regulated their movements according to instructions coming from the director. Troops in the foreground trenches “carried on” by means of ten loud speakers which were placed at various points of vantage. Explosions, controlled at 72 substations throughout the ’ battle area, were directed by telephone. The movements of tanks were taken care of by a semaphore device and as a precautionary measure for the fliers, a panel system of signals was installed near the ground cameras. Twelve ground cameras and four in the air recorded the big scenes for the film.