STAGE AND SCREEN

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 January 1927, Page 18

STAGE AND SCREEN

J.. C. Williamson, Limited, are at present negotiating with William Desmond. famous as an American screen star, for a season in Australian and New Zealand vaudeville. If negotiations are successful, he will present a novel entertainment, dealing with his work in the studios. Frederick Lonsdale, author of “Aren’t We All” and many other plays, is at present in America producing his latest play, with only four characters. It is stated that during his engagement Lonsdale has contracted to write six scenarios for production by Famous Players-Lasky. News comes from Fox 'Films that Allan Dwan will shortly launch the production of the screen version of Belasco’s .stag© play, “The Music Master,” with Alec. B. Francis in the title role and Lois Moran in the leading feminine role. The scenario was prepared by Philip Klein, son of Charles Klein, author of the play. As might be expected, the screen version will follow the .stage play-' closely. Most of the action of the picture will take place in the period about 1900. Some of the finest and most authentic backgrounds ever photographed will be seen in John Ford’s latest, “Miother Machree,” with Belle Bennett in the name role. Galway sequences, filmed in Ireland, are incomparably beautiful. The cast includes Victor McLaglen, Ted McNamara, Neil Hamilton, Eulalie Jensen, Phillippe de Lacy, Pat Somerset and other favourites. Private advice has been received in Wellington by Mr Bert Royle, from Messrs. J. and N! Tait, the firm he represents in New Zealand, that definite arrangements had been made for tours of the Dominion during th© first half of the present year of Ignaoe Paderewski, the eminent' Polish pianist, and Jascha Heifetez, the brilliant Russian violinist, two of the world’s supreme artists •

Based on that lilting melody written twenty years ago by Maude Nugent, and known the world over. Master Pictures has produced' a film under the original title, “Sweet Rosie O’Grady,” with the petite Shirley Mason in the original role. The Master Picture, “The Lone Wolf Returns,” is to be released early this year. “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” will follow soon after. Also in the cast are Cullen Landis, Duane Thompson, and Helen Dunbar'.

“Wings,” Paramount’s film drama of the air, has already earned the title of “The Covered Wagon of the Air.” Flying officers of four nations are actively participating in the filming of the production under the direction of Lueien Hubbard at San Antonio. Baron von Hartman, who won his record on the Russian flying front, is in charge of the fleet of aeroplanes, while Ted Parsons, an American flier who served with the French Air Service, .and Captain S. C. Campbell, a British airman, are the chief persons actually concerned with the stunts in the air.

“The Prodigal Son,” Sir liallCaine’s great masterpiece, has been picturised by Sir Oswald Stoll, and, according to the drastic U.S.A. critic, Harrison, is “safely classed with the few acknowledged masterpieces of the screen. . . One of the finest motion pictures that has so far been produced.”

“The Rat,” with Ivor Novello, is an extraordinary production, and a.genuine triumph for British screen --art. The story is strong, dealing with a Parisian life, both of society and the Apache underworld. As one Yankee critic says, “If the majority of the pictures that are made in Britain are as well directed and acted and the plot as well constructed, as ‘The Rat,’ the American exhibitors need not worry about shortage of good pictures.”

An imposing array of pictures will be made by Earl Hudson for First National. They will include “Mismates,” “The Chrystal Cup,” “The Lying Truth,” and “The Lunatic at Large.” “Mismates” is an adaption of Myran Fagan’s play of the same title Doris Kenvon will be seen in the feature role.* ‘The Chrystal Cup” is adaptedfrom Gertrude Atherton’s novel of the same name. Dorothy Mackaill, Lloyd Hughes, and Jack Mulhall will be the featured players. “The Lying Truth’’ is an original story by Ralph Spench. This will be a comedy and Milton Sills will probably be starred. “The Lunatic at Large” will star Leon Errol

Historical, quaint, and pastoral scenes in London and surrounding country from the backgrounds of the action in exterior sequences of “One Increasing Purpose,” which Fox Films are immortalising in a most ambitious treatment. The locales photographed by the Harry Beaumont Company during their recent visit to England, include Trafalgar Square Piccadilly Circus, House of Parliament, Westminster Bridge and Abbey, Buckingham Palace the Old Curiosity Shop, Ship Inn, Rotfen Row, Shakespeare’s house at Strat-ford-on-Avon, town and cathedral of Canterbury, Oxford, Eton College, town and castle, of Windsor, and punting on Sunday at Maidenhead. The picture is a faithful version of A. S. M. Hutchinson’s widely-read novel, with such faourites as Lila Lee, Edmund Lowe, May Allison, Lilyan Tashnmn, Eva Novak, etc., in the leading roles. The next E. J. Carroll attraction for New Zealand will be “The Best People.” Air. Carroll has returned to Australia with his “The Ghost Train” Com.panfrom London: “'‘The Best People’ is now the biggest comedy success of the wear, Crowding the Lyric Theatre, Shaltesbury Avenue, to capacity at every performance.’ This sparkling .comedy by Avery Hopwood, who incidentally made a small fortune out of the New York and San Francisco seasons alone, deals with the cataclysmic sensations suffered by the most exclusively aristocratic New York family on account of the romantic adventures of the son and daughter of' the house. The carefully educated daughter falls in love; with iier father’s own chauffeur, and the son and heir succumbs to tbe spell of a beautiful Broadway show girl siren. When father and mother attempt a diplomatic intrigue of interference the ‘situation develops along hilarious lines and the comedy’s sway sets in with a will.