STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 29 March 1930, Page 4

STAGE AND SCREEN

Miss Gladys Moncrieff, the popular Australian actress, has signed a contract and a new company will be formed shortly to support her. It is the intention of J. C. Williamson, Limited, to present once again such favourite high-class musical plays as "The Maid of the Mountains," "The Merry Widow" and "Kat'mka," all of which depend, to a certain extent, upon good singing. Miss Gladys Moncrieff will appear in these plays, and if conditions for the legitimate stage improve new plays will also be presented,

"Many thousands of ex-soldiers who knew the old 'Bra, Sat Theatre' in France, in the brief moments they spent out of the trenches, will recall with gratitude the cheery entertainments that were given by the 'Rouge et Noirs' concert party, afterwards known as 'Splinters'," writes the critic of the "News of the World." "Formed at the instance of the late Lord Home and organised by a Lancashire comedian named Hal Jones, who worked miracles •with crude material and under tremendous difficulties, 'Splinters' became an institution and did much to brighten the lives of the troops in those dreary, monotonous years of sacrifice and suffering. Now,'thanks to the talkie, the spirit and romance of 'Splinters,' and the atmosphere of those far-off days have been recaptured. 'Splinters' is unique. It is not merely a first-class musical show, it is a page of history true in every detail. One sees as actually happened a bewildered Tommy hauled out of the front line and ushered into the presence of august personages at Army headquarters, there to be given instructions to organise a concert party. There were many trials and tribulations, but 'Splinters' at last triumphed."

The Turret Theatre authorities have in view the production of a play by C. K. Munro, a Cambridge man, who is an official in the British Ministry of Labour. He has written several pieces of late yeais for the stage. The one chosen for the Turret Theatre is "At Mrs Beam's," a comedy of boardinghouse life, written in 1022. Among other plays in the list for consideration for this theatre are Ervine's "The First Mrs Eraser" (now running with such conspicuous success at the London Haymarket, with Miss Marie Tempest and Mr Henry Ainley in the leading roles); O'Cascy's "The Shadow of a Gunman," and "The Plough and the Stars"; Capek's "The Macropolous Secret," and O'Brien's "Distinguished Villa." This list indicates that the society is preparing for a busy year, in which recent productions of the London stage will receive notable attention.

Exhibitors who would have had to spend £IOOO each for new projection machines to accommodate the original of a 00-foot image instead of the present 25-foot picture will now be able to "throw" a stage-wide film at a cost of about £i>.

Such is the effect of the new in-, vention of Leon Douglas, of California, with which, it is hoped, exhibitors throughout the world will save £40,000,000.

And the film that was ruined when the lovely young movie thing (after fourteen rehearsals of the scene) swung round for the line: "Am I not your wife?" with a 'Ain't I your wife?" "This is supposed to be Park Avenue," said the director witheringly. (They have adopted Park Avenue wholeheartedly in gclatineland). "What uv it," retorted the shapely little star, "ain't a girl got a right to a temper in Park Av'noo just the same as any other place—ain't she?" "She ain't," said the disgusted director, and walked off the set While a diplomatic assistant began the fifteenth rehearsal with a patient smile. "He's canary," said the little star, whose public is numerous, "I've known a lotta swell Janes, and they was all devils when you got 'em haywire, I'll tell the cock-eyed world."

In a article on cinema English,'Mr E. K. Knox ("Evoe" of "Punch") remarks that sub-titlers have created a wilderness and called it prose. He transposes the story of Red Hiding Hood into "Cinemese": < "Little Red Riding Hood hiked into the great out-doors, toting some candy and pie from the Hood residence to her grandmomma's shack in the timberdot. \, „, " 'Say what d'you know about that.' thunk Bill Coyote, who was loping around the trail and rubbering for eats. 'Where do I get off in this joint, anyway? Hello, cutie?' " 'Beat it, you great big stiff! Ive "otta tote this outfit of waffles and candy to grandmomma's shack. I don t want no durned roustabouts fooling around and getting fresh wid her.' "Dawn founds Bill Coyote hitting the hay in grandmomma's apartment. The dowager had looked good to him, so he put her where the whale put Jonah. " 'Guess I'll have a spiel with that bud when she weighs in?' n> "Serenely unconscious that the wim Reaper hail taken the place of her ancestress on the old divan, the trail through the timber-lot conducted the Hood belle to grandmomma s portico. This says Mr Knox, would occasion no surprise to and would arouse no comment from the ordinary English crrown-up person or child accustomed to welter in the unholy phraseology of the silver screen. They would swallow all of it, oblivious of the fact that they liad never seen a timber-lot or a joint or a bud or a roustabout in their lives. Despite the factlhat English is spoken by only about 1 per cent oi: the inhabitants of Java and the Dutch East Indies, fourteen theatres in that territory have contracted for the installation of talking picture equipments. That' is the information given by Mr Austin Levy, branch manager for Paramount pictures in Socrabaia, who visited Sydney recently.

Among the changes which London, and in fact all the bigger cities of Rncland generally, have undergone in tho post-war years there are few which have caused 'more surprise than the rapid decline in public favour of the music hall. . The "halls," as they were described, seemed to be firmly established in the Elections and habits of the multitude. Their "stars" shone with an effulgence !)V comparison with which the leading lights of tlic legitimate drama were pale and ineffectual. „.,.,•,,, A Dan Leno and a Marie Lloyd had mvriads of enthusiastic admirers where the Trvings and the Terrys could only count hundreds. In the days when theatrical salaries scarcely amounted to more than a. municipal scavenger can now command, the top-liners of variety used to draw weekly emoluments equal and sometimes superior to those of a Cabinet Minister. Bessie Bellwood and Lottie Collins and Vesta Tilley were queens in their world and the "Pav." and the Tivoli and the Em-

pire and the Alhambra were wont to have "full houses" every night. Nor did that quartet of West End houses represent more than a moiety of the resorts of a similar class to be found throughout the metropolis. Every neighbourhood boasted its own special hall. There were the Oxford, in the street of that name, the Middlesex in the purlieus of Drury Lane, the Old Thatched House in Holborn and the Metropolitan in the Edgeware road and a score more each with a local clientele which could be counted upon with certainty. Now all these have gone or arc going. The Empire and the Alhambra are both cinema palaces, the Middlesex is no longer in existence, and the Oxford is a tea shop. The Metropolitan and one or two others still carry on in the old style, but they are surrounded by cinemas and their ultimate disappearance is only a matter of a short time.