The SCREEN and its STARS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12398, 10 November 1934, Page 10

The SCREEN and its STARS

THIS WEEK’S PROGRAMMES.

MAJESTIC THEATRE

To-day-2 p.m., 4.45, S p.m., Mon. and Tues. —“Paris Interlude”. Alusical play starring Madge Evans and Otto Kruger; “Night Angel”, melodrama, starring Frederic March and Nancy Carroll. . Wed., Thurs., and Fri.— “Happy”, comedy, starring Stanlej* Lupino.

KING’S THEATRE To-day 10.30 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., S p.m., Mon. and iollowing days.— “Chu Chin Chow”— Spectacular musical phantasy, featuring George Robey., Anna 31 ay Wong, and Fritz Kortner. OPERA HOUSE Tn-flny 2 p.m., S p.m.-and Monday.— “The Lost Patrol”, melodrama, starring 3 r ictor AlcLaglen and Boris Karloff; “Cheyenne Kid”, melodrama. Tom Keene; “Danger Island” serial. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.—• “The Squaw 3lan”, melodrama, starring Warner Baxter. REGENT THEATRE To-dav 10.30 a.m. 2 p.m., 5 p.m., S p.m., 3lon. and Tues.—“ The Red JVagori”, melodrama, foatur ing Raquel Torres Charles Rickford, and Greta NifJsen. .Wed., Thurs., and Fri.—“ This is the Life” comedy, featuring Gordon Harker and Binnie Hale.

THE “FOLiIE-S BEttGERES ON THE SCREEN !

TRANSPLANTED FRO3I FRANCE TO HOLLYWOOD.

Darryl Zannok announced that he lias bought the world film rights to “Folio.-. Bergcrps de Paris.” He plants to place the film in production immediately, thus rounding out his previously announced plan to include a spectacular musical extravaganza among his company's releases for next season.

One of the features of the screen production .will be the original French Can Can girls, who will bo taken to Hollywood to appear betore the cameras in their internationally-known act. Costumes, scenery, and the chorus of ihe Parisian musical show will he transplanted to the American film capital under the supervision of Atax AVeldio,, and M. Duval,- iw.ho for the past lo years have been the owner." and directors of “Folies Bergeres do Paris.’.’ 3Y°rk on the story, the music, and the spectacle hrjs- already been started. Aron Be Blanc, author of many r.oted successes in France, is actively at work on the dramatic plot which is to be interwoven with the spectacle/? of music and dance. This screen version of “Folios Bergeres de Paris,” ihe first in its Jong and renowned history, will be released by an American company.

BETRAYED BY A FILM

NEWS REEL LEADS TO ITALIAN SWINDLER’S ARREST.

FORGED -CHEQUES CASHED ON

BANK OF SPAIN

A new- film shown at a Madrid cinema led to the police tracing a man who' had been wanted for a fortnight following a £34,000 swindle on the Bank of Spain. The swindle was revealed when it was discovered that five consecutive cheques hearing the signature of the . Marchioness de Pad ierna had been forged. . The assistant- cashier at the Bank of Spain, who told the police that- he was positive he could recognise the man who cashed the first cheque, accompaniedl the police to various theatres, cinemas, and caberets in Madrid which the swindler wan supposed to froqUerJ. While attending a cinema the cashier suddenly whispered to the detective who accompanied him : ‘'There he is!” ' The detective thought the cashier referred to someone in the audience, hut, to his Surprise, he was.,referring to a man in a news film depicting a view of the paddock at a Barcelona race meeting. The film showed the man. recognised by the detective as Mario Finizzio, an Italian and a well-known swindler, in the company of the 26-year-old! Count de Yilla-padierna, nephew of the Marchioness Padierna. The police had previously arrested at Barcelona Jose Gallardo, known as an export forger, who, it is alleged, forged the marchioness’s signature to the five cheques. ;Sjia;nisfi detectives, who flew to Milan, where Count de Villapadierna wafs taking part in the international in.otor-ca'r races, traced Finizzia and the count to the same hotel.

• MISLEADING TITLES. EXAMPLES AND RESULTS. NEED FOR GREATER CARE. Many people choose their films from the titles only, and the titles of films to-day are more bewildering and illogical than ever'before, remarks a writer in,‘‘Film Weekly.” It. is .obvious from the frequent changes in names which many films ■undergo • before they are eventually shown,- that the naming of pefures is causing, considerable trouble. Often the ' original is iscrappcd and an inferior . one substituted. It ip re? inarkfijhiio that,- Aybile a'. studio will go to, po. end of trouble over the most i.#.. 1 ’ • ' V '

(By the Movie Fan).

minute detail in, for example, an historical film, the same studio wdl not find straight-forward, sensible titles for many of its pictures. Another tendency to do deplored is that of naming on the lines of the cheap lurid novelette. For example, we have had “Her Splendid Folly,” “No 3fan of Her Own,” “Girl "Without a Room” and “A Scarlet Weekend.”

ALTERATION OF TITLES. The whole question of titles needs reviewing. Apart from the contusion resulting from the change of titles, there is the still greater offence of well-known plays and novels being screened under altered name*. Producers. far from gaining anything from suclr inexcusable changes, fail to realise that, a successful book or play lia<?. a large following before it rs filmed, a following of people who know the production by none other than its original title. A recent example was tiie American re-titling °f “The Dover Road,” as ""Where Sinners 3leet.” The local exhibitors or the A. A. 3lilnc play, however, used the original title as well. There are other ways in which unsuspecting filrngoens arc victimised. In some instances the same story has been filmed twice, the second time under a different name from the first. Perhaps important productions of this kind are given enough publicity to ensure that the public are aware of "the change of title, but with smaller pictures it is different. For example, anyone seeing \ ivienne Segal in “Lady of the Rose,” one of the early talkies, might have been ■surprised to find that it was nothing more than a re-make of C’orinne Griffith’s “The Lady in Ermine.” filmed a few years previously. The public are also victimised by titles with dual meanings. William Haines’s film, “Fast Life,” for instance, was a motor-boat film and had nothing to do with “flaming youth.”

Finis with titles such as “Jimmy and Sally,” “Tillie and Gus,” “David Harum,” “Lily Turner” and “3£r Skitch,’ are also misleading to the occasional filmgoer, for they give no idea of" a film’s particular type. Yen- different arc the -names of many .successful pictures which owe a lot to tlieif brief and informative titles. W’e have had “Trader Horn,” “Disraeli,” “Cavalcade,” “The Kid from Spain.” Producers are in great need of a set. policy with regard to films and appropriate film titles. It would pay them,, financially and otherwise. to give more attention to the subject.

FRENCH ACTRESS FRO3I ENGLISH STAGE.

KETTT GALL!AN STARRED IN “MARIE GALANTF..”

Once more the English stage is the stepping stone for an actress to burst into stardom in Hollywood motion pictures. Kctti Gallia'n, the unknown French girl who was thrust into a leading part in a West End stage production, is appearing in her first picture, “Marie Galante,” and is sharing featured honor s in it. To accomplish- this Miss Galban learned English in ICO days of intensive study after her arrival in California. To the training she underwent in London, for her first real footlight dehut ha/; been added the preparation for her appearance before cameras, and she has been thoroughly drilled in cinema technique. Henry King is directing “Marie Galante” under the personal supervision of Winfield Sheehan. The scenes arc laid in the Panama Canal zone, and the story treats of the vicissitudes of a French girl caught in the vortex of international, intrigue and espionage so rampant in the. Canal zone. King, the art director, Jack Patterson, and a crew from the studio visited the Panama twice for location “shots” and atmospheric background. The cast is a notable one, with Spencer Tracy -appearing opposite Miss Gallian, In addition, there are Ned ■Sparks, Helen Morgan, Scgfried Ru-man-n, Robert - Lorraine. Stopin Fetchit and Leslie Fenton.

IDA LDP-]NO MAY RETURN TO ' SCHOOL. HOLLYWOOD, -Sept. lb. Mrss Ida Lupino daughter of the British comedian, Mr Stanley Lupino, who plays sophisticated roles on the films, may have to go back to (school. Her lessons av ill begin next week, unless the authorities are persuaded to grant her relief from the educational regulations. This is because her age has been, listed on educational, .records as only 16. Miss Lupino has a five-year contract with an American film company Avith a salary of £l2O a week, rising to £soo a Av r eek, the contract- being ior five years (since 1963.

notes and news. . It is rarely that Mae West, the undisputed Queen of Sex, despite the efforts of censorship, takes a complete holiday. Away from the studio, she spends her morning in bed, working on the -script of her next film, “Now I’m a Lady.” In the afternoons, she runs private screenings of “Belle of •tlie Nineties” fo r her friends; and in the evening)-; she goes -to the fights or for a drive in her huge limousine, with a bodyguard in front with her chauffeur. “A lady can’t take any risks nowadays,” dratvls Mao, m ahc gathers her ermines around her ho* feiveTieci hands.

Sandra Revel, the film actress niece of his Holiness the Pope, is rapidly rising to stardom in Italian pictures. K * s . Mansfield! the' British millionaire film producer, intends to make a Polar film shortly. # Hr * Helen Twclvetrees is.being sued by an. agent for nearly £ISOO for alleged breach of contract. * =* * Statistics show that filmgoer s in Buenos Ayres are complctly indifferent to the varied charms of 31ao West, George Arl'ss, and Katherine Hepburn. Laurel and Hardy, on the other hand, are local heroes. * * * Exactly 15 years ago—in 1919 Mary FTckfordl announced that she would make just nine more, pictures and then retire from the film business, To-day islie is reported to ho considering stories for her next- picture. it * ® “The Green Pac-k,” the last play to be written by Edgar "Wallace, is to be filmed by a British studio at Beaconsfield, the home of many other Edgar "Wallace films, including “The Calendar,” “The Case of the Frightened Lady,” and “White Face.’ =* * » Twentieth Century have signed Ronald Column on a new contract, under which he will make three pictures for them during the coming year. He will receive a percentage of the takings on each picture. iS= * # Ernst Lubitcsh is going to direct a British picture. He has signed a contract 'with Toeplitz Productions (who are at present making “The Dictator” with Clive Brook and Madeleine Carroll), and will start work for them as soon as his present American contract ends. # & ©■ Bette Davis is reported to have staged a- “walk-out.” ' On the eve of starting work in “The Cere of the Howling Dog,” she lias thrown up her part and refused to act in nnv more pictures far the producers until her contract has been revised. Helen Trenholm, a newcomer from the ifferfo, has been .engaged to take Berio's place. ** * TSt Lou Brock, associate producer for an American film company, is the owner of an invention which, he claims, makes “smellies” practicable. The idea i.s to fill the cinema with appropriately scented air which will convey the atmosphere of, .say, the South Seas or Billingsgate, or Brighton Pier. Brock docs not sav what happens during a film about war and gas attacks.

■a # a In a recent interview Avitli the British “Film. Weekly,” Arthur Ferrior, the well-known English artist spoke of many now famous film players whom he had once bad for models. Miriam Hopkins had been closely connected Avit-h his studio, ho said, and he had knOAvn her as Mimi. Renee Gadd, noAv in Hollywood, Anna Neagle.of “'Nell Givyn” fame, Lilian Bond, and Benita Hume had all posed ns models for him. * -3 V Nine reels of film depicting the Siberian countryside, from Avbieh the necessary scones will ho selected, haA r e arrived in Hollywood for use as \the atmospheric background in the final sequences of “We Live Again,” the transcription of Tolstoy’s “Resurrection,” starring Anna Stcn and F’redric March. By arrangement with the Soviet film authorities, a camera, crew was sent from Moscow to photograph miles of the delicate silver birches, and the fields of poppy that- enrich the Siberian springtime. It r> said to be the- first time that a camera, record has been made of this little-known area. * * * “The Affairs of Cellini,” a costumed comedy romance of the sixteenth century, will soon he released. The story is centred in Florence where there lived at that time Benvenuto Cellini, famous as the cleverest goldsmith of his age and as the* greatest lover and greatest liar in the Avorld. FliiS claim to he the world’s greatest lover is frankly admitted by Cellini in his autobiography—a record of his perfumed adventures Avith bewitching ' women, which in literary circles is conceded to he one of the most amazing but complete histories of a man’s love life. Constance Bennett has the’ fin/ csfc part of her whole career as the Duchess of Florence, and co-starred with -her is F'redric March: Fay Wray is Angola, the beautiful model who is loved by both the Duke and the goklemith. Frank Morgan adds complications as the Duke. # *•

“Abdul Hamid” is one of the most interesting ncAV films now in production at Eiistrcc, for it will mark the entry of another famous Continental director —Karl Grime —into. British films. Also it- av ill be founded on Turkish history, and will introduce incidents from the awful reign of the violent Abdul Hamid ID He was .the last of the despotic Suitann, and used to he so- afraid for his life lie would -submit members of his entourage to horrible tortures and death on the vagest -suspicion of. plotting. against him. The story of the film is; tolcl mainly in Constantinople and! a location unit will leavo tor that teeming city very; soon,. .Casting for “Abdul Hamid,” which is based on a story by Robert Neumann, Avritten in-, scenario form by Roger Burford, is how in .progress and it is possible that the well-known Continental character actor, Fritz Kortncr, will impersonate Hamid H, •