George Arliss Regards “Voltaire” as His Best

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 273, 21 November 1934, Page 5

George Arliss Regards “Voltaire” as His Best

PICTURE OF HIS CAREER RETURNS TO CITY THEATRE

(Palace, Screening To-day.)

Believing that ‘Voltaine’ which plays a return season in Palmerston North, is his greatest contribution to the screen, George Arliss is convinced that most really worthwhile things are born of stress and troublesome times. “Voltaire,” by Warner Bros., was planned anti rehearsed and filmed during the most hectic period in Hollywood’s history. War talk was heard on all sides. Banks were closed. A disastrous earthquake had done millions of dollars in damage to several of Hollywood’s neighbouring towns and had shaken somo of the self-confidence out of that scintillating city. Studios were struggling through a lean period. Out of this welter of bad fortune “Voltaire” emerged as a produce of strenuous days and nights of work and worry. Despite the difficulties encountered by the world during its making, it progressed satisfactorily and on schedule. It appeared to have qualifications that marked it as exceptional even in the list of Arliss pictures. There is precedence for Arliss’ belief that difficulties sometimes bring forth good results. - The original stage version of “Disraeli,” which eventually ran for five years and made Arliss the most important stage star of his time, came out in a period of financial difficulty and stress which almost threatened to stop it before it started. “Alexander Hamilton,” his own play, later made into a picture, was offered to tho public during the World War and an epidemic of influenza, which made heavy going for all stage productions. In fact most of tho great successes enjoyed by Arliss are plays which emerged from obscuring clouds of hardships and difficulties. “Voltaire” is like those and even Arliss, who would never admit to being superstitious about it, seems convinced it is his greatest screen success. “Voltaire” also deals with troublous times, for it is laid in tho exciting days just prior to the French revolution when King Louis XV was oppressing the people with confiscatory taxes in order to keep up the gaiety of his court. Arliss, as the poet and philosopher Voltaire, clashes with the King over his propaganda for the people and is only saved from the Bastile by Mme. Pompadour.