England Makes Its Most Lavish Musical

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 196, 21 August 1935, Page 11

England Makes Its Most Lavish Musical

JACK BUCHANAN TO BE SEEN IN “BREWSTER’S MILLIONS” (State: Screening Saturday.) It is doubtful whether any British picture ever mustered in its production such an array of topline names in all departments as “Brewster’s Millions,” the latest Jack Buchanan picture. The subject starts by being a famous one; its essential plot, that of a young man forced to spend half a million pounds in six months in order to inherit millions, is a classic of comedy entertainment already familiar on both sides oZ tho Atlantic.

The theme , , vu .. ,tu in tho picture, but combined efforts have built round it an entirely new framework of incident and development, gay, modern and made-to-measure for the personality of the star. Direction is by Thornton Freeland, who made ‘‘Whoopee,” Flying Down to Rio” and other American hits, lie is a specialist in light-hearted subjects, with a flair for the Ueutment of music and dancing. His /‘Carioea” sequence in ‘‘Flying Down to Rio” between Fred Astairo and Ginger Rogers will long be remembered. Camera work is by Barney McGill, who has three times been nominated for the Motion Picture Academy award during his long Hollywood career, which includes work on such productions as “Wveugali,” “Captured,” “The Bowery” amt “Broadway Thru’ a Keyhole.”

1 our- special musical numbers have neon written for “Brewster’s Millions” by Ray Noble, whose “Good Night Sweetheart,” “By the Fireside,” and “Love is the Sweetest thing” have been tiro rage of three Continents, and have made him a bestseller with an international reputation. His number “Pull Down the Blind,” sung in the film by Dili Damita, has all those features which have made his previous efforts so successful. Another of his numbers is written in Rhumba rhythm for tho “Garanga” dance sequence.

file orchestration of the musical score is by Hurry Porritt, and Billy Mayor! plays tliu piano for Dili Damita’s numbers.

Unusual attention lias been given to Die dressing of “Brewster’s Millions.” Dili Damita has been gowned by ischiaparelii, aim Nancy O’Neil wears dresses by Norman Hartnell. Dresses have also been specially designed for the tweuty beautiful girls who have been placed under contract by B. and D., after testing five hundred of the fifteen hundred applicants for the roles. These girls are “featured” in th c film; they will not be seen in the mass formations which have now become such conventional screen material but will be given close-ups and lines throughout tli u picture, and as part of thc development of tho storv.

Gong numbers and dance ensembles when introduced, have been woven into thc pattern of tho story. The songs, for example, emerge from a show which Biewsstci backs, while the ‘ ‘ (Jaranga ’’ will b c danced as part of a huge festival which provides tho plot of tho film with some of its most wildly funny moments. The dance sequences have been worked out by Jack Buchanan, Thornton Freeland, and Buddy Bradley, the latter of whom lias become, in recent yea is, the most famous dance director in England.