The SCREEN STARS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11452, 28 February 1931, Page 11

The SCREEN STARS

(By the Movie Fan).

regent theatre. To-day, To-night, Monday and' Tues-i day— ‘ ‘Romance’ ’ Metro-Goldwyn Maj’er drama, featuring Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone ancl Gavin Gordon, ~ f ."Wednesday, Thursday and Friday—- “ All Quiet on tho Western Front” Universal war pioturo, __ featuring Louis Waltheim, Lewis Angus and John Wray. MAJESTIC THEATRE. To-day, To-night, Monday and Tuesday “Strictly Unconventional” -comedy. drama, starring Lewis Stone, Ernest Terrence and Catherine Dale Owen; and “Outdoor Ranch”'—Wild; Western, starring • Hoot Gibson and Sally Eiders. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday—- “ Shooting.. Straight” Western love romance, starring Richard Dux aud Mary Lawior.

FILM KISS

WIPE RECOGNISES HUSBAND woman •-who .alleges that she saw her huabafgl kiss another woman in. trodueed as liis "fianebe” in a talking. news film, has been responsible tor the police bringing , a charge of bigamy against Clair Dietrich, one of the men with Admiral Byrd’s expedition to the South Pole, says the .Paris edition of the '''New York Her. aid.” . Tinder the name of Clair D. Alex, under, Dietrich was supply officer of the City ‘of New York, Byrd’s ship. The woman who declares that she is his legitimate wife was in a cinema theatre at Reading, Pennsylvania, when the sound-film of Byrd’s return to Now York was shown.,/. To her astonishment, she says, she saw her long lost husband kiss another woman, who was presented as his "fiancee, Miss Elinor McDonald.” She went to the police and found that ■ a wedding ceremony, had taken place. Dietrich, after a search by the police, has been charged with bigamy.—British United Press. MYSTERY MAN IN FILM PLOT. ‘'ATROCITIES” FOR EXHIBITION IN INDIA. > "Who, is the mysterious foreigner who visited London with the object of obtaining someone to make a propaganda film for inflaming feeling in Europe and Asia against British rule m India? This man’s proposal was revealed in the "Sunday 'Chronicle” by Sheikh Jftekhar RasooL an actor and film producer, who stated that he had been offered £lo,oCo to carry, out the project. A significant part of the' story is Sheikh RasooL’s statement' that he has now learned that the entertainment organisation which introduced the foreigner to him is actually financed and run by the Soviet as a cover for . propaganda activities. Sheikh Itasool has , furnished the "Sunday Chronicle” with letters which partly hear out his statements, and with the nante of the foreigner. Endeavors have been, made to trace this man but the inquiries reveal that he is unknown in London, and the name mentioned in letters to Sheikh Rasool is not believed to bo his true one. , . Sheikh RasooTs -story is that he received a letter a short time ago from an entertainment organisation by whom lie had been' employed. Tho letter introduced "a film director of high repute” who the letter stated, “has a very interesting problem to discuss with you.” The Tndiuu film director arranged to meet the visitor;, and had a long conversation with him at an hotel m fche Strand. According _to Sheikh Rasool, it was during this talk that it was suggested to. him that ho should make a talkie to be called "Freedom of the East.” The mysterious visitor, who spoke French witli a Russian accent, said he understood, that Sheikh . Rasool had nationalist and, anti-British sympathies. He wanted him to make a film of life in India, showing British soldiers bullying natives and degenerate living by Europeans. "Do you know that such film would cost £IO,OOO or £lo,ooo- - Sheikh Rasool. "That is quite.all right,” the man replied. "Mv organisation will pay you £lo.oGo* and generous expetiSheikh Rasool then said that it was not true that he had anti-Brit-ish sympathies; that lie had always been treated very kindly by the British, and that ho could not for a moment consider making such a film. The interview then ended, and the visitor left for Paris the same day.

CHEVALIER DISAPPROVED

Tho songs w'liicli Maurice Chevalier. the £4QOO-a-week French r screen and stage star, sang at the Albert llall. .London, have been considered unsuitable by the Chief Constable or Cardiff for a Sunday evening Welsh audience which was. to have heard him at the Capital Theatre, Cardiff. The concert was accordingly cancelled. Permission for the function was only granted by the Watch Committee oh .condition that Chevalier submitted tlie songs he proposed to sing ior the Chief Constable's approval. The information that the latter did not approve the programme, was conveyed in a formal letter to the artist’s manager. The only solig to which the Chief Constable made particular reference wars “Sweeping the Clouds Away,” but lie did not suggest that this was. the only song oblected to; says the. "Daily Mail. . : ■ Chevalier, who spent the week-end at his villa at Cannes, was •unaware for soldo, time of the Cardiff decision. .He had arranged to sing there only because he had received so many fetters asking him tp devote one day Speaking on, Ins behalf, Sir. Cflif- • ford Wliitley, Chevalier’s London director:- 'said : “Sunday,, #li J anuary was the only date available,, and .as lid" sails for' the. United-. States on tffo following Tuesday I am.. atraid that Wales' will not he able .to hear Ipm. !“Every one of his ,songs has. been sung in- musfe.-halls.. and theatres all over the country, and they are being- sold in their thousands, on gramophone records.” ■ . , , The Chief Constable of Bristol, MrC- G ‘Maby, "'also -asked for: copies of tlie soiigsy.whicli Maurice Chevalier proposea to sing at a concert at n« Cotstbiif HalL-vDl' l9^ 1 ;' °P ;Januarv.:/ lf he objected to . any of. them he -would . submit,them ,to. the Watch Cdrumittep; ' ‘. .: ' ' ••'. Tlie/Cardiff Catv Council unamjiiotisly endorsed;,-the action of th®\£ - Chief Constable' in objecting to tho, French songs Chevalier was to sing ■■■« t a cijipcert there on - Sunday. 4th

SILVER *m PET AU n M.lPDnnuniiE

CHANELS SUCCESSOR

MOST PATIENT FILM ACTOR,

PICTURE

Tlie : Chief 5 did not object to the English songs,.-which.in-clude “Sweeping the Clouds, Away.” -Maakicp Chevalier smiled his fam6ns "smile when lie discussed Cardiff’s'objection to his songs. “I see,”'he declared with a chuckle,, ..“they had to have one song translated before they could understand it in Cardiff. Surely n song they cannot understand would not harm the Welsh people.” NEW-STYLE TALKIE. SHOWS THICKNESS IN ADDITION TO LENGTH AND BREADTH, CHICAGO, Dec. 13. After 14 years of quiet bub costly work developing “three dimensional” motion pictures, George K. Spoor and John J. Berggren of the old Essanay Studios hero saw the fulfilment of 'their efforts in the first cinema drama photographed by their new process, “Daiiger Lights,” a railroad story filmed by Radio-Keitli-Orpheuni, which has an option on the rights of tlio inventon, was offered when tho State-Lake Theatre opened on Nov. 10. The photograph was unquestionably a long step in advance; It seemed as if. a. haze had been lifted from the usual flat photograph, allowing one to see objects in their normal roundness with the lights and shadows not of the studio hut of nature. The effect was not sensationally different ; objects did not .stand up like pasteboard cut-outs as they did in the old parlor stereoscope. But after seeing the new picture one found the ordinary news reel which was included in the programme misty land flat. The picture was nob much advertised in advance and the first morning audience was not told that 33,000 dollars had been spent on theatre equipment alolie nor that millions had gone into the 14 years of development- of the invention. But they seemed to grasp the / importance of tiie thing. “This will put all the other pictures on the blink,” whispered a typical movie-goer to her companion. “Danger Lights” is not perfect technically. The photoplay was made by Hollywood experts trained to use the old style camera. They will have to learn new methods, Mr Spoor said, but that will come with, a little practice. “Niagara Falls,” a scenic picture shown on the same bill, was photographed by Mr. Spoor s own istafE and was practically perfect technically. Objects, in the remote distance appeared distinct while the waters in the foreground seemed to come right into' the audience. At the State-Lake Theatre, where the pictures are being shown, an enormous screen has been installed, 4(31. hy 26 feet. This is one of the essentials of the new process, lor the invention takes its pictures on a strip of film twice as. wide as the old. The larger pictures do not, however, make the,characters look like giants: they merely make them app ear ' more natural and lifelike,

“MAN WITH‘DOUBLE VOICE.”

A man who possesses extraordinary vocal powers and the ability to produce facial contortions, similar to those produced by tho late Lon Chaney, lives near Maidstone, Eugland. Tie hopes in the near future to get his ohanoo on, the screen in a British talkie. Strathey Mackfey—that is his name—is known as “the man with the double voice.” His natural singing voice is tetior, but he can switch off to bass,; soprano, or alto, or sing simultaneously in two voices.

SIR lAN HAMILTON IN ANZAC

General Sir lan Hamilton, who commanded the Mediterranean; Expeditionary • Force in 1915, .is -j tho world’s most patient film ■ actoi. Recently ■he - made his debut before the : cinema camera - and ' the .. micro-, phone at th e - Welwyn studios of .tUritish Instructional Films, Ltd. There ’Mr Anthony : Asquith in the: past, few months has '.been,completing his sound film. “Tell England,”-which .recounts the. valour of .the Dardanelles adventure. . • -. '■ •’• ■

Sir 'Fail'"has taken th© keenest interest in the 'film,, and volunteered to act, 'if "ne'cessai’y/. before ! tlie camera soithat nothing should be omitted which'would authenticate tli©' record. He reconstructed' bis conference with' tho captains ■of ' the Fleet on April-10, 1915, on liis tactics for the landing--15^days/.later.;■' ■; > -

You hear his voice : “We decide to laud upon Gallipoli. ... “By iGrod’a mercy, Admiral, we are agreed upon, our strategy .... • , .„• “I’d like to land my whole force in one—like a hammer stroke —with the fullest violence. ” Sir lan submitted to the business of make-up and to all the tedium of the camare-man’s arrangements, the sound technician’s demands, and the eager coaching of -Mr Asquith. Even, when—after a dozen rehearsals of his talk—the studio . doors were shut and “shooting” began on his first Yew sentences a mechanic dropped a plauk and the whole discussion had to be started over again Sir lan was not impatient. NOTES AND NEWS. Universal’s “Sailor Be Square” company has returned to the studios from “location” at the Ban Diego Naval Base with some of the most pretentious nautical scenes yet recorded for a i short reel comedy. Sam Hardy, Ilallan Copley, and Thomas O’Brien are featured in the comedy, which is based on a Navy , story written by Charles Laniont.. Lieut. Commander Jefferson D, Smith, of the San Diego base, co-operated with Universal to the extent that all of the sea plane, destroyer and artillcij facilities of the “yard”. .were, in the picture.