STAGE AND SCREEN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 January 1926, Page 14

STAGE AND SCREEN.

The popular novel. “A Girl of the Limber-lost” (Gene Stratton Porter;. , has been filmed for Master Pictures, featuring Gloria Grey, Emily Fitzroy. Raymond McKee, Cullen Landis, Gen. mde Ormstead, Virginia true Boardman, and Ruth Stonehousc.

It is probable that Maud Fane will be returning to England soon. Her contract is nearly up, and she has farming interests on the other side which must hot be neglected for too long.

.Tosie Melville made special appearances m “Leave It To Jane,” by way of saving farewell to Australian audiences* She leaves shortly on a trip abroad, and the ,J. 0. Williamson management arranged with her to sung some of her most popular numbers tluring tiie performance of the musical comedy at Her Majesty’s.

Another soasou of international opera will be given next May and June at Covent Garden .</ the London Operi Syndicate, states the Daily Mail, complete cycle of the “Ring,” two or three of Mozart's works, the “Otelloand “Falstaff” of Verdi, some French operas, and ‘ ‘ one or two complete novelties” will be included in the repertoire.

The movement to establish a Jewish Memorial Conservatory of Music in Palestine, which was inaugurated over a year ago, is now being sponsored by the following artists:— Leopold Godowskv, Fannie Bloomfiold-Zcisler, Leopold Auer, Joseph Acliron, Jascha Heifetz, Mrs. A. Lubarsky-Garbat and Alexander Lambert.

A eable announces the signing of Marshal Neilan to an exclusive Paramount for a long term of years. The message further states that Mr. Neilan will commence work practically immediately on his first big picture in order that it may be completed in time for release next August.

Corinno Griffith’s latest screen portraiture is from the Edna. Forber story, “Classified,” which is shortly to be released bv First National Pictures.

Harold Lloyd has made such consistently good comedies, and will appear soon in “Hot Water.”

“Thelma,” a Master picture, features .Jane Novak. It is adapted from the story by Marie Corelli, and has much to recommend it in the way of scenery and acting.

Several tons of deep sea fish were used during the making of the Universal Jewel production “The Storm Breaker,” starring House Peters. Ar, the story is laid in an island fishing village off Nova Scotia there had to e fish in it and fish in plenty.

Photographic, work on Rudolph Valentino’s “The Eagle,” his first production for United Artists’ Corporation release, has been completed,, says an announcement coming from Clarence Brown, the director. Editing of the picture will begin at once, and then the picture is expected to be rushed" to the theatres for early release. Eight weeks were, consumed, in. the actual shooting of “The Eagle.”

Athol Tier as “Bub Hicks’’ in “Leave It To Jane,” i ssaid to* be a scream. His novel comedy is delightfully refreshing. Writes a Sydney critic: “An elongated piece of humanity, he seemed- to have been designed by Nature to play the part allotted to him. When he mad his awkward appearance his sartorial outfit almost sent the house into convulsions, the little straw hat, with its extravagant band, looking like a decorated cork on a church dome, and the flapping red tie resembling the- insignia of a Soviet delegate.”

An interesting article in an overseas paper states thousands of pounds are lost in London every year by speculators who back plays. Sir Alfred Butt states that he knows of a peer who has spent between £40,000 and £50,000 on theatrical speculation. High rents and increased costs in all departments of production have made the business very risky. Before the war, for instance,. Sir George Alexander could make a profit if he took, say, £BSO a week at the St. James’. Now a London manager paying a rental had to take £1350 or £I4OO before a “straight comedy” shows a profit. In the case of a musical comedy takings of from £l2-00 to £I3OO would pay before- the warj to-day that sort of show costs from £IBOO to £I9OO. Of an average of 150 plays produced every year, it is reliably calculated that not more than ten are real financial successes. Bert Lytell has returned to the speaking stage. He is appearing at -San Francisco in the melodrama “Silence.” which ran for a year in New York with the well-known English actor, H. B. Warner, as Jim Warner, the role entrusted to Lytell. Forest Halsey, who was responsible for the adaptation to the screen of such favourites as “The Humming Bird,” “Madame Sans Gene,” “Stage Struck,” and “Monsieur Beaucaire,” is now at work on “Dancing Mothers!,” a successful Broadway play. The featured players in the screen version will be Alice Joyce, Conway Tearle, and Betty Bronson. The picture will be produced by Paramount.

PEOPLE, PLAYS ANI) PICTURES

Warner Brothers announce the completion of the Master Picture, “The Man Without a Conscience,” which James Flood directed from a story by the European playwright, Max Ivretzer. It features Willard Louis and Irene Rich, who are supported by Helen Dunbar, June Marlose, John Patrick, Robert Agnew;, William Orlamond. Kate Price, Charles McHugh, and Sally Long. ‘‘The Last Man on Earth,” a William Fox production, is an amusing story of life in 1950. It presents the unique situation of a. world suddenly denuded of all men through a strange disease called “masculitis. ” For ten years women explorer's kept up a search for an adult male, but without success until a woman crook stumbled upon a hermit living far away from civilisation in the depths of a large forest. She takes him back and sells him to the nation for ten million dollars. From this point, on the story develops a series of surprises, that prove as amusing as they are thrilling. Earle Fox is cast in the title role, and Derlvs Perdue plays the leading feminine role. The supporting cast is a strong one, and includes nearly 1000 women. Within a week of the announcement bv Joseph M. Sehenck, chairman of the Board of Directors of United Artists' Corporation, that motion picture rights for “The Bat,” most successful of mysteTy stage plays, had been purchased through Roland West, comes the statement that exceptional progress has been made in the selection of a most sensational all-star cast, and that production of this film by United Artists’ iCorporation is to be on a basis of the best obtainable in every phase.

“The Scarlet West,” .an epic of American frontier and Indian fighting days that followed the Civil War, produced in Colorado witli a cast including more than 4000 Indians and soldiers is announced by First National as an important screen release shortly.

As soon as Reginald Denny, who delighted so many picture theatre patrons in “Oh! Doctor,” finished his production “I’ll Show the Town,” which is now being shown in New Zealand, he started- on another comedv-drama, “Where Was I?” All his productions have been well received, and there arc many who are hard put to state .iust where their allegiance lies —with Denny or Lloyd. Perhaps the horn-rimmed glasses still have a slight lead. Mefrro-Goldwyn’s 1926 season is well advanced on. the. production schedule. The following have been completed: “A Slave of Fashion,” with Norma Shearer; “The Unholy Three,” featuring Lon Chaney with Mae Busch and! Mat Moore; “The Circle,” with Eleanor Boardman, Malcolm McGregor, Alee B. Francis and Creighton Hale; “Time, the Comedian,” with Mac Busch, Lew Cody and Gertrude Oklstead; “The Big Parade,” starring John Gilbert and Renee Adoree; “Mike,” with Sally O’Neill, the new screen discovery; “Sun Up,” with Conrad Nagel and Pauline Starke; and “Pretty Ladies,” with Zasn Pitts. Lilyan Task man, Ann Pennington, Tom Moore and- many others. “La Bo heme,” “The Tower of Lies,” “A Little Bit of Broadway,” “Four Flaming Days,” and many other productions are now in process of completion.