The SCREEN and its STARS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11493, 21 November 1931, Page 11

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By The Movie Fan).

including gangster pictures. Carl LaCmmle,- jun., young general manager of production • of Universal, lias proved his sincerity by cancelling production l of- tivo 1 stories .previously scheduled, and has turned his energies to pieturise the efforts of police to curb crime. The gangster vogue is oyer.

“It pays to be good in Hollywood. The women’s .clubs : of- tlio country have not pow-woived in vain to establish this fact.. After the Eoscoc Arbucklo scandal, the Will . Hays organisation gave- Hollywood a thorough vacuum cleaning, and several of tlio major studios now insert in contracts, morality,. conscience, and behaviour clauses. GLORIA’S DIVORCE , “Billie Dove is the'most beautiful girl I have seen so far, and Coii- . stance Bennett one Of the largest box office attractions. Her sister, Joan, has just had tlio ..had luck to fall off a horse while making a scene, and fractured her hip. By the way, Constance is : in • Europe, and there is a lot of talk about her and the Marquis Hciiri do la Falaise, the most recent of Gloria Swanson’s memories. Everybody is ashing if they aro to bo married when Miss Swanson' gets her divorce. A recent . photograph in the paper taken watching the Davis Cup in France, shows them holding hands. “They work pretty fast over hero. Tho day wo arrived in Honolulu, John McCormack,' picture producer, and Colleen/ Moore’s ex-husbarid, ' - was married to Mrs. Janet Cattis, a Washington society beauty, and she is now in Reno after two months of married bliss (?), getting a divorce. John says he still loves Colleen, and it is said that Colleen is in love with a millionaire in New York. Too had for poor old John. - “Muriel 'Starr is having a lieap of bad luck; she was’ chosen fOr Mary Magdalene in ‘The Pilgrimage Play’, but was let out, as they thought lrer voice ho good. It* is held in the open air, and as you know her voice is kind of husky, so after lots of publicity they gave the part to an English girl, Doris Lloyd, if -I remember rightly. . “Hollywood’s latest sheik is Clark Gable. Everybody has gone crazy about him, been • showing in several pictures at once,- but heart flutters aro all in vain, as he is a happily married man. - “Things are very bad in the picture world, as they are with everything else. There are many of the big players -without work, and no contracts floating around. There aie thousands of ‘extras’ out of work with no chance of getting any for ages. Theatres are closed down, too. ’ NOTES AND NEWS Williq Hoppe,- noted billiard placer, has been signed to show the world how to play billiards correctly in a special short subject. As 3 contrast to his polished,work, Henry Arxnetta and ?.|cmty Collins have been hired to demonstrate, clearly, how not to pla> the historic old game. Three of the nfasfc popular actresses of tho screen will he aeon in a now comedy . called “Boarding School”, which will soon go into production. They are Anita Page/ Dorothy Jordan and Madge Evans. The picture deals with the lives of three modern girls from three very different homes. Madge Evans will play the part of Diane, 'daughter of divorced parents, who has to fmd life’s pitfall's herself. Dorothy Jordan will play tlio role of Ann, foster* child of spinster aunts, while Anita Page Fill play a role reminiscent of her llaming flapper roles. She has been cast as Jean, daughter of a substantial family, who strays from tho conventional path. * # ■ *

Clark Gable has his ups and downs. In “Hell’s Divers” ho played an aviator. In his forthcoming role in •“The Mirage” lie starts out as a worker in a paper box factory; His firm rented an actual factory to play the scene in; and ho worked alongside professional workers.

* * * Hollywood studios have become alarmed at the extent tjo which suntan fad has grown among Hie stars. Since it is impossible for a fair skin to escape the ravages of the Southern California sun, moat actresses find it more profitable k£> let the ultra-violet rays have their wav and burn their faces from a beefy red to a pleasant brown—especially as, up to a point, a tanned skin photographs better than any other variety. But that, pjoint has been passed. Many of the feminine stars are now so dusky that in spite of expert lighting, and photography they tend to appear on the screen lis if they had just driven 550 miles through a rust storm. The producers have step-' ped between tho sun and the stars, and. air|ong the famous playqrs who have been ordered to lighten' their complexions are jouri. Crawford, Barbara Stanwick,. Lilyan Tashmari, Dorothy Macfeailll,’ Loretta Young, Marian Marsh, and Joan Btondell—all ardent sun-worshippers, with shrines at the Malibu, Santa Monica, and Honolulu beaches. -’'*, * * • ' "

“It is a truly terrifying picture that she draws of tlie ■ Virgin Queen —a sour, limping : Twigged old harridan, witli a flat, querulous, Whining voice, -terrible in her full regal outfit,- but ■ infinitely .more'sbwith her long wisps |ofi grey hair falling over her dressing-gown- —a's Essex saw her in the' looking-glass, to seal for- ever his own doom.”—‘Thus a London paper writes -of Phyllis Neilsori-Terry in the new play, “Elizabeth of England.’’

REGENT THEATRE

,Toda.y, 2 p.m.; & p.m., 8 p.m., and -i Monday and/ Tuesday—‘‘Dirigible’Powerful /airship drama, featurJaek Holt?, Ralph Graves and Fay . Wray. / - •' ■ SiV’ed., arid Fri—“ Guilty Hands'* —Drama, featuring Lionel BarryniQEC, and Madg© Evans. / MAJESTIC THEATRE

Today, 2 p.ia.,.5 p.m., and 8 p.m,, and Mon. and Tues.—“ Mr. Lemon of Orange”—Comedy, starring El. Brcridel arid Eifi Dorsay. ;Wed., Thurs., and Friday—“ Road to Paradise”—Drama, starring Loretta Young and Jack Mulhall; and "Wide Opon J ’-rComedy, starring Edward Horton and liuth Patsy Miller. “THE HAPPY CLAUSE.’; CONTRACTS IN'HOLLYWOOD. Miss Edna Best, the English actress and film star, who amazed the United States by running away from Hollywood to seo her h.usband, ar-ty-ed in England recently. “All that the newspapers published was perfectly true”, sho said, in tan interview. “I was absolutely fed op. The Hollywood people did everything they could to try arid make' tile happy, but it was no good. There 5s an unwritten clause in film engagements which is known as “the happy clause.” That means that if an actor or actress is unhappy the Hollywood people will do all they possibly can to make them happy, end even allow them to do as I did, although it has never been done bofore.

“I actually left before we started ’shooting my film, because I knew that onco it was started I would not daro to leave. All the way in the train to New York, where my husband was waiting for me, 'L locked myself into my compartment, and pulled the blinds down, because I was afraid at every station I would be arrested.” Miss Best returned to England to make a talking film with her husband. M. Herbert Marshall, of A. A. Milne’s “Michael and Mary,” in which, they appeared together on the Stage. FIRST DOG FILM “FAN.” The “Sunday Express” solemnly Jack, “a lively little fel3ow who claims to be the first dog anovio fan” Jack belongs to Mrs. Hunt, of Tufnell Park, London, and he sees more films than most children ! But lot Mrs. Hunt tell you bow It all happened. “I go to a picture theatre two or three times a week,’’ she said, “and I had to leave Jack tied up in the garden. One day, however, I was watching an exciting picture when I felt a touch on my arm. I took no notice,' but a few minutes later the touch came (again, and when I turned there was Jack on the next seat, his eyes glued bn tho screen and his tail wagging furiously. The next time I went out of curiosity I left him untied. Sure enough', a few minutes afteri I had sat down I found tho next seat (occupied by Jack! This time he was discovered, hut when I explained to the management they invited him as an honorary guest at all performances.” Twice has Jack • disgraced himself. Once, when, a dog fight was shown on tho screen, np he jumped, his hair bristling, harking for all lie was Worth. But Mrs. Hunt seized him and prevented him from leaping over tho heads of tho audience to. take part in the fight. On. another occasion ho saw a butcher weighing out sausages. This was too much for Jack. He resisted all efforts to hold him, rushed down the gangway, 1 leaped on tho stage, and would have bitten a hole in tho screen had not an, attendant seized him just in time I

“Jack doesn’t seem to like animal pictures or crime,” said Mrs. Hunt, ‘‘but life revels in real sobi stuff nonsense. I’ve seen the tears in his Big brown eyes when the heroine is finally gathered into the arms of her beloved”.

“Who is your favorite film star ? Jack was asked.

“Is it Nancy Carrol?” No re-

fcponso. “Billie Hove?” A doubtful wag of 'the tail. “Claudette Colbert?” Two wags. “Greta Garbo?” Three wags. “Clara Bow?” Five wags, definite and distinct.

IN HOLLYWOOD

IT HAYS TO BE GOOD,

Billie Sim, the Sydney actress, who set out to try her luck at Hollywood sis months ago, sends some interesting gossip from the little fi'hri colony. “My impression of Hollywood is that -it is much over-rated arid nothing like what wo have always believed it to be. It certainly pays to advertise. Very large and scattered all over the. place, it mostly consists lot eat' houses, as they are called With • gorgeous'food. The picture houses • are ■ beautiful, but they can t put anything over our theatres. “Hollywood is always in a tangle, ound about Los Angeles, a, light, wild.party, a murder, a girl .kidnapped, a hold-up, it's always Hollywood that is blamed, and the papers write it up a million times worse than it is." In reality, the people of Hollywood, including stars, live as quietly as anywhere else in the world and the Bight life is the. most over- : .grated thing ' imaginable. “I suppose! you got the homo© news out there about the gangsters shooting,down; five ' children in" New York, ai week or so ago, killing one small child. * It was a terrible thing, and has aroused all the fine feelings of the American people. Everyone is out to do away with all gangsters.