STAGE and SCREEN

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 16 August 1934, Page 8

STAGE and SCREEN

Features of New Releases

hawerA attractions

FILMS FOB THE COMING WEEK vOPERA ' HOU&E. August 16 and' .17.— v ‘Nana’,’ (‘Anna 18.A-'‘Sohrefl and Son” (H. 15 'icngd§i> 20, 21, 22, 26 and 24;— Opera Hoius© tfub-let. k . ; THEATRE AiteuM (Sydney Howard and Muriel Aked). ’ • ■ _ August 18.—-f ‘Sitting Pretty ’ U (Jack Oafcie,' Ginger- Rogers? and Thelma Todd).' '•• ■ ... August 20.—“Sorrell and Son.” Augjuist" 21 and; 22v (Clive* Birook and Diana Wynyard). Anna, Sten. AIT the -vanilsheti .colour, fragrance and -elegance of Baxis in the 1870 s are revived to provide a fitting setting for Anna* Sten, the really great new staiFdA the Hollywood horizon. As trie scarlet ..heroin© of Emile Zola’s famous novel, who rises front street gamin, to music hall star and toast of Paris Mass Sten is a revelation. Not only does she look well and act well, but she sings well into, the .’bargain—a plaintive ballad entitled “That & Love ——as a finale to an exciting revival of the can-can; with which Paris shocked the world. -Willard Mack and Harry Wagstaff Grabble have selected events from the life of Zola’s notorious courtesan and woven, them into an absorbing and moving screen'iplay that skilfully combines r'om'afice’ findrealisTn, pathos, and a touch of (raucous comedy. No more romantic player .than, Phillips _ Holmes could -have beeinj found, to play the hanidsphi© young Lieutenant George AludF&te, in whoni Nana finds her one real, passion. The love scenes ~ afe • - moving and beautiful. Lionel Aftfrall is- very as Colonel Airdrie Afuffat, George’s elder brother, 1 who : falls an unwilling slave to vintchery . and subsequently wrecks the romance and life of his young brother. As the fatuous old Greinerj- dean* of the Paris music halls., who loses his head over Nana and raises her to the heights, only to drop her Back into the gutter again when he learns .other love dor the romantic youiig., neuferiant, -RGchard Bennett is outstanding.

Famous English Inn. t j Much or the aotlim in , Warwick Heeping’s “Sorrell ' And 'Son” takes place at the “PeHiekn Hotel.” The Lygon Arms, Broadway, Worcestershire, figures as the Pelican ip. the new film version, which shows ~at the Opera House on Saturday and at the Grand TEeatre on Monday. It is , one of the most famous inns in, England, dates back to the sixteenth century, .and has numbered among its guests in the pasr both Charles I and Cromwell. Nbr axe its guests any less distrn-o-uistied ill mode-ui "times, for jnuerneath atis roof .have stayed such figures as the Priuce of Wales, Princess Marie Louise, the Queen of Rumania, Henry ford, Cordell Hull,' Judge Bingham and J. M. Barrie. . ■_ When the hotel was taken by Mr Euissell, about 30 years ago, he secured several old and valuable pieces to furnish the inn according to its century Visitors were so struck with some of these that they wished to buy them That wa.s impossible,, .so Mr Russell undertook the manufacture of. such copies. , . „ The work was carried on by one ot his two sons. Prizes.wore won in Paris and London, a showroom was opened in Broadway itself —and then in London and now the furniture business nourishes quite separately from, ihe hotel, and is one of the most ptrogjrewsive of its kind in the country.

Both Charles I and Cromwell aire reputed to have stayed at the inn; it was on the high-road to Oxford, and saw much 1 marching and' counter marching daring the Civil War. The present name, “Lygon Arms,” was acquired when General Edward Lygon (bought the inn with an estate and sold it to his steward, who loyally called it after him. For the space of one morning when Jack Raymond 'had his unit there onlocation, the Lygon coat of arms was replaced by the device of the Pelican and under this name' it is actually seen in “Sorrell and Son.” Other attractive locations used in the picture were Chadhury Mill, a noted 'beauty spot near Broadway, where river scenes were shot, and the town of Chipping Oampden, famous for its magnificent parish church.

COLLECTION OF ANTIQUES

PROPERTY MAN’S PROBLEM Tiie restless gentlemen who operate the . property departments in picture studios do not return to their pipes and newspapers when then work of pacifying the ambitious directors is over, writes a Hollywoocl correspondent. Their duties- also include the accumulation of antiques of an appropriate 'age and distinction which may never actually face the coiuoiag. These objets d’art are preserved, it seems, as models for the inexpensive copies which actually appear on the screen. ~ . The boys in the “prop” room have rrood reason for this somewhat cynical display of caution. Furniture, not iO mention “props” of far less sturdiness, is subject, during the filming of a picture, to the hazards winch go on the bookkeeper’s ledger under the hea,clinm of accidental breakage. Originals, therefore, are kept apart, covered and preserved in a variegated museum, while the copies made from sketches arid photographs arejugged out on the set -to take their chances of survival in the ceaseless struggle with directors players and technical men. As a matter of fact, each antique acquired by the property department is immediately copied and placed in the regular stock of “props,” ready loi use at a moment’s notice. The catalogue of antiques at any major studio- is often remarkably diversified. At First National, for instance, the objets. .d’art range from pirate pistols to old clocks. Or the latter group, one in the “grandfather ■ class, made in 1710, was copied and used for the new Richard Barthelmess film “Midnight Alibi.” The product of an eighteenth century Swiss clockmaking establishment, this particular specimen was purchased by a studio representative’m Wales at an auction of manor house effects.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMfttvHiiimiiiiHiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitHiti To stock their curiosity, shops the studios haunt auction rooms and private sales, the highways, and the byWays, track down want advertisements, catalogues and dealers’ tips. As soon as the annual production announcement of a studio has been promulgated, the art and property departments begin to cast about for the materials they expect to use iii the new season’s product.

Gaynor as Comedienne, . Perhaps you have aunays thought of Janet Gaynor as a , somewhat fragile and delicate stair witli a flair for light ronianco of the fairy tale variety and a- tremendous popular appeal. You have probably given her credit for dramaticability rather unusual in one so tiny. But you have never considered her as a brilliant comedienne. Janet is no stranger to comedy. She’s had amusing scenes, many of them, iii almost all of her starring vehicles. But heretofore they have been mostly in the form of interludes and the general tenor of the pictures has been more or less serious. “Change of Heart, her forthcoming vehicle for Fox Films, however, diqers in a good many respects from tier preceding films. There is a comedy undertone running through the story from beginning to end, and this, undertone frequently swells -nto hilarious scenes that afford the dainty , Fox Film celebrity a real chance to show what she cap do as a side-splitter. She is aided and abetted in this endeavour br the other principals, Charles Farrell, back again with her after an iS-months’ separation, James Dunn and Ginger Rogers, who suppV most of the complications in the plot and also manage to inject plenty t,f merriment into the picture.