"Motion Picture News

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10740, 10 November 1928, Page 10

"Motion Picture News

NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAMMES. MAJESTIC THEATRE. This tor noon and To-night: ‘Code of.' Scarlet’—First National—featuring Ken Maynard. Also “The Little Adventuress”—First National— featuring Vera Reynolds and Victor Varconi, Monday: “Dressed to Kill”—Pox—featuring Mary Astor and Ed- . rimnd Lowe. Tuesday: No pictures—theatre engaged. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: “The Devil Dancer”—United Artists Special—featuring Hilda Gray. PALACE THEATRE. This Afternoon, To-night and Monday: “The Last Days of Pompeii)”—Paramount ■ — featuring Victor Varconi and Maria Corda. Also ‘Warming Up’—Paramount featuring Richard Dix. Tuesday and Wednesday: “Alias the iVne Wolf" —Master—foaturi ng Pert Lytell and Lois Wilson. Thursday and Friday: “One Exciting Night”—United Artists’ Special. SCREEN NEWS. NOTES FROM ALL QUARTERS. Joe Mart-a., character actor has been signed to play the part of a stage manager in the Nancy OarrollRichard Arlen pictwre of stage life, “Manhattan Cocktails.” which is now being produced. “Wheezer,” the two-year-old emotional actor of Hal Roach's MetroGold wvn-Mayer “Our Gang ' troupe, is seen in the Gang’s latest ou/tburst. of fun. “Edison. Marconi and Co." As its title indicates, this comedy is based upon the science of invention, and the. youngsters go into the inventive field with wondrous results. This comedy will ho seen with “A Certain Young Man. ' which is to be shown shortly

In ‘‘Wickedness Preferred. ' Lew Cody and Aileen Pringle give the best performance of their co-starring career for Mctro-Goldwyn-Maycr, far outdoing their previous success. ‘TeaFor Three’ and “Adam and Evil."

This picture is a spicy burlesque of cave-man love—the actual application of that torrid theory—ana what happens in the cave when the dreams have come true for two run-a-way romanticists should not be missed by blonde, or brunette, male or >hern ale.

Hard-faced heroes of the screen sometimes have the most delicate tastes in poetry. For instance, one would hardly imagine Lon Chaney ns an authority on this phase of literature.—yet he is. Chaney, who plays the role of a detective in “The Big City,” his latest starring vehicle for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, even uses poetry to help him act, just as many use music to coax the histrionic muse. “The Big City” is essentially a love story teeming with thrills and mystery. Ted Browning directed, and Betty Compson. M a recline Day, James Murray and Mathew Betz are included in. the -cast. The idea for “Thanks for the Buggy Ride,” a Universal-Jewel production, was suggested by the song of that title. Laura La Plante at her prettiest and Glenn Tryon at his funniest are the two lovers who face the cold world without a penny and decide to get married as soon as they can make a few thousand pounds in a grand clean-up. The youth is a genras and knows it. The girl who loves him does not doubt it. He gets a brilliant idea and they decide to buy a house with it and settle down. But this leaves them as far ns ever from being able to settle up. All that follows must, be seen to . be laughed at. With the summer holidays soon starting women ate thinking of their travelling clothes, and a good suggestion is put forth by Polo Negri, the Lrpovie .star, who is making “Love’s‘of an Actress.” Miss Negri adds a coat of rose beige broadcloth to a. two-piece dress of rose beige erepe-de-chine, laced with satin of the same color. The coat is cut on straight lines with fairly tight sleeves arid a rather, full circular capo. The large shawl collar and cuffs arc bordered with dark Eastern mink, as also is the edge of the capo. The skirt of the jumper suit has godets in front, and the jumper shows incrustations of the satin facing. When the H.M.A.S. Australia, visited New York the officers and mem were the. guests of Paramount. Invitation cards were issued; on the card appeared also the following information : “In the lobby ol' the Paramount. Theatre bo sure to see the Hall of Nations, which contains a stone taken from the actual landing glace of Captain Cook at Kernel], otany Bay, N.'S.W.” The Paramount News, showing the welcome given the Australia in New York, was rushed by air mail to San Francisco whence it was placed on the s.s. Mololo bound for Honolulu. At this point the film was transhipped to is.s. Sierra and arrived in Sydney on September 27th, five days ahead of the mail which left New York on September sth. The Paramount News negative was developed and positive prints made. The picture was immediately released in Sydney and copies forwarded to other States of Australia and New Zealand,

Hollywood' Pencil Sketches. —Two old-timers have returned to the fold —Margaret Livingston and James Kirkwood. . . The former will be the other wife in Adolphe Menjou's first, and the hitter plays Mary Brian’s dad in Charles Rogers’ new starring picture. v . . Looks like old home week with so many familiar races afcout the lot. ■ . Tully Mail shall has returned for a role in ‘Redskin.’! . Emil Jannings will speak in “Sins ot the Fathers.”. . Ruth Chat’terton is to do some talking also. . . ; . Ruth Elder makes her .first flight since her hop across the Atlantic last year. . . The aviatrixshows Richard Dix, star of her picture ,some of, the' secrets of longdistance flying. . . Marian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack describing some • thrilling adventures to friends over the luncheon table. . . Clara Bow is reading up on Elinor Glyn. . - She'is working on ‘Three WeekEnds.’ A few years ago it Look “Three Weeks’’-' for a romance to develop . . This is the age of speed. - Glyn-Bow and Director. Clarence Badger are a good combination. . . . ; They made “It.” .. . Bow news is good news. . , . to qucitq a punnist. . . • Nancy Carroll .is to sing some snappy songs iri the current Carroll-Richard Arleii-backstage stoiry now under way on' the sound ■stages- - . .Victor Schertzinger wot© the nunlhers. . . “Marcheta’’ was his . .. . so was “Just sin-Old Love Song.” '

I PLAYS AND PLAYERS .. ON THE SCREEN ...

By The Movie Fan

An interesting novelty will be introduced into the film “The Carnation Kid,” which Douglas Mac Lean is making for Paramount. A telephoto apparatus will be shown in operation, with a picture being transmitted over the wires from one station to another. “The Carnation Kid” will fie sound synchronised.

One of the most interesting members of the cast of players in “Fleetwdig,” the Fox Films production which'is due for an early release, is Sultan, the white Arabian stallion. This beautiful animal crossed two oceans and a continent to play his pari, in the desert scones of this production. Barry Norton, who as the young-sheik, rides him through most of the action, says that Sultan possesses an intelligence that is uncannily human. >

Bert Roach is one itian who is not so coy about his weight, nor does lie' try to reduce. Bert is under a contract at the Metro-Goldwyn-May-er studios that will last just so long as ho, tips the scales at more than two hundred pounds. His fat is his fortune—it makes him funny. Roach plays an important comedy role in Ramon Novarro’s “A Certain Y'oting Man,” a. delightfully sophisticated story of English society life. Marceline Day, Renee Adoree and Carmel Myers are included in the supporting cast.

Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes, one of the most entertaining of screen starring teams, appear in a sparkling talc of circus life. “Three Ring Marriage.” Miss Astor is quite at home in the different characterisation called for and does,good work against a glamorous background of the sawdust ring. A succession of amazing and curious freaks adds to the attraction. while the scintillating fascination of the nomadic life of show folk supplies the production with more than ordinary interests.

“The Flying Horseman” is a, picture that gives many a laugh as well as many a thrill. Buck Jones is the star, and he is surrounded by an excellent cast, including Gladys McConnell and eight mischievous youngsters. There are not only daring feats of horsemanship that rivet the attention, but there is a. very human story. Then. too. something novel is seen in the performance of the eight young rascals whom Buck adopts and who keep him as well ns themselves in continuous trouble.

A screen version of one of the most famous stage melodramas ever playoff in England is “The Whip,” tlie successful Drury Lane thriller, which has been picturised by First National. "With charming Dorothy •Mnckaill in the leading role, supported by Anna Q. Nilsson, Lowell Sherman and others, full justice is done to the several famous characters of the play. A replica of Epsom Downs and a whirlwind horse race .as a smashing clima,x all help to make “The Whip" a most exciting production .

Tn “The Divine Lady,” a First National production, the battle of the Nile, in which Lord Nelson conquered Bonaparte’s fleet, and the battle off Cape Trafalgar, where Nelson defeated the combined fleets of England’s foes Rut lost his life, will bo reproduced. These battle scenes were taken at distances ranging from fifty to one hundred miles from shore, in four ships as principals, and eight to fourteen others for distant atmosphere. Corinne Griffith appears as Lady Hamilton, Victor Varconi as Lord Nelson, and H. B. AVarnor as Lord Hamilton.

The enormous sot, showing the heart of a great city, which was especially built by Fox Films for their great masterpiece “Sunrise,” will become a, permanent fixture on the Fox “lot,” The details of the set ai’e so perfect and the convenience which it affords, to say nothing of the money that will be saved by keeping the work within the studio’s limits, that the executives of Fox Films have decided to cover its streets with concrete and otherwise make it durable. “Sunrise” had its premier release atthe Strand Theatre. Auckland. Lovely Janet Gaynor,. star of “Seventh Heaven,” and George O’Brien, have the leading roles in this great, product inn.

Patsy Ruth Miller, Geoflge Sidney ami George Lewis are the stars in “The Heart of a Nation,” which has been commended, wherever shown, ns one with a. most appealing, natural st.cry, done in a thoroughly artistic manner, in the nest sense of that abused word. It is the story of three immigrant families in America, simple,. innocent people, and of their children’s rapid assimilation of the new ideas. with the declaration of war, new ideas are forgotten, and we have many a heroic spectacle, and many a stirring scene. But the main story centres, not round flag-flapping and the parade of the battalions,. but the stor.v of Beth Levine, the Jewish girl, her quarrels with her humble family, and her romance with an aristocratic New Yorker.

The motion picture version of how a stage play is produced is shown in the First National production, “The Butter and Egg Man,” with Jack Mulhall featured. Greta Nissen, leading lady in the picture, is also loading lady in the play of the story. Besides Miss Nissen, however, the cast of the play within the picture, and the picture itself, is entirely different. The play of the story is supposed to be a “flop,” until an accident makes it a success on the opening night—for one night only. All the details of play producing, from backstage and. from producers’ offices, the dressing rooms and the audiences, figure in the plot of “The Butter and Egg Man.” Two shady pi ay producers, incidentally, throw light upon hidden by-ways of the profession, seldom held up for public inspection.

Mystery has always exercised a strong attraction for the patron of thei moving picture show, and of late years a surprising number of the best stage successes have had a deep dark mystery as the basis of their plots. One of these is the great stage ■success of George Pleydell Bancroft, “The Ware Case,” a British production which will be released by First National. On the screen, Stewart Rome, a favorite British actor, has been entrusted with the leading role, whiich in the * play, was filled by George dui Mauner. The story has been treated in an even, more interesting manner upon the screen, excitement being kept at fever heat right up to the terrific climax. Unusual methods of photography have been made use of. Some of the shots were taken on the French. Riviera, and amidst the placid beauty of many a fine old English home. ; An exact! replica of the Old Barley—the renoVned Criminal .Court; adds in-: creased interest? to the remarkable trial scenes. , V' :