STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 7 April 1934, Page 3

STAGE AND SCREEN

Plans, to bind flic British theatre more closely to the film industry, in order to overcome the temptation of big Hollywood contracts, were announced by Mr Basil Dean at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, London, recently. He said that the scheme had the support of Colonel Sir Harold Wcrnhcr and Mr Stephen Courtanld. They wanted to get together the youngest actors and authors, Mr Dean said, and present their plays. Such plays as were suitable they would make into films, which would be given their first London release in the same theatre as the plays, and. with the same actors and actresses playing in them. This would allow them to give artists continuity of engagement and the dramatists encouragement to adapt their plays for the film. They believed that English actors and actresses could be encouraged to acquire both stage and film technique in England. The scheme will be put into force at the Cambridge Theatre and the films made at Ealing.

A gem of theatre wisdom was revealed by a very youthful actress in the new London play, “Marriage is no Joke,” by .Tames Bridie, in a recent interview with a newspaper man. Tn the course of a talk, she told him: “The theatre public to-day require something besides looks and undressing and the exploitation of personality. It demands acting. Acting is coming in-

to its own again. The actor, has to \ know his job. to work hard and use his brains. I felt confident when T came into James Bridie’s play that I knew what I was doirtg, because I had had a thorough grounding and had tried all sorts of parts. I am all for repertory theatres when tliev give this solid training.” Incidentally, the newspaper man revealed that she and her brother, Mr J. Henderson Stewart, M.P. for East Fife, own a farm near Caterham. She goes down every night after the. play by train or car and is up early next morning to churn the familv butter

Betty Balfour, who received more votes than anyone else in a competition promoted some years ago to find the favourite British film star, is coming back to the pictures after an absence of two years, during which she got married. She will be in “Evergreen,” a screen version of the musical play about an actress who was supposed to bo (10 when she looked 18, which Victor Seville will direct. Jessie Matthews has the leading part, and Sonnie Hale, Gerald du Maurier, Hartley Power, and Margot Grahame are others in the company.

According to a. cable received recently in Australia from Rome, for the first time in history an opera, is likely to be performed in the presence of the Pope. “The Martyrdom of St. Cecila,” with music bv a priest, was recently produced successfully ,at the Rome Opera House. The Pope was so interested that he has arranged for the singers and orchestra to give a private performance at the Vatican after Easter. It will lie given in oratorio form. There will be no acting, and the singers, who include the famous prima donna Signorina Claudia Muzio, will be dressed in black. Only the second scene, which is laid in the catacombs, and parts of the third scene, showing St. Cecilia’s death, will be performed.

The following criticism of a modern Russian musical composition is taken from a critique of a concert given at the Hastings Musical Festival last February: “Hot on Bach’s heels came Moussolov’s remarkable ‘Soviet’ piece, ‘Music of Machines.’ The work is supposed to depict a factory in full swing, and —it sounds like it. Whether factory noises are wanted in a concert hall has nothing to do with the ease, but tlie noises are infernal. Everybody plays as loudly as possible. There is a thunder machine in addition to all sorts of ‘kitchen furniture,’ but it is fiendishly clever in its own way, and, happily, does not last for more than five minutes. Relief came with Richard Strauss’s tone poem, ‘Death and Transfiguration,’ and with it a most entertaining concert came to an end.”

“An actress is as great as the number of young women who try to talk, walk, and dress like her.” Discussing this dictum by Mr Joseph Schenck, the famous American producer, the film critic of the “Evening Standard” says: “We in England, oven in' the days of Lily Langtry, were not given to quite such slavish idolatry. We Jo not notice the influence of Gladys Cooper’s appearance among the assistants at the department stores, nor if wo visit a girls’ school do wo see students deporting themselves in imitation of Constance Bennett. According to Mr Schenck, this is invariably seen in American girls’ schools. Nevertheless, it is absolutely true to say that no English actress is given the chance of achieving such fame in British films as she would be given in America. Wc can provide alluring faces, magnetic personality, and talent, but we have not got, or will not spend, the money for bombarding the country with a film star’s name. In any event, why must wc imitate America? Perhaps British films will be affairs of constellations, and not of single stars.”

The most elaborate interior settings yet utilised in an Australian film will be featured in the comedy “Clara Gibbingu.” now in production •in Melbourne. In order to. achieve the desired results scenically, the studio is making its own furniture to tone in with the colour schemes of the various interiors. The settings will be of modernistic design. For the first time in the history of the studio, the interior settings have been so constructed as to enable what arc known as “travelling” shots to be filmed. By this means the characters in the film will be shown passing from room to room, crossing the entrance hall, and going upstairs. This will represent a considerable advance in technique so far as Australian films are concerned, and will give an added smoothness to the continuity. The settings of a luxurious London homo are. such as to demand more lavish production than has been necessary in the majority of earlier Australian films.

SOCIETY’S PART IN BOOSTING BRITISH FILMS British films in 1934 have decided to go “high hat,” moaning that producers are determined to enlist the Diplomatic Corps and society leaders as publicity stunts when launching super-films, “'flic Private Life of Henry VIII.” and “Catherine the Great” both secured immense publicity in Britain and in the United States owing to gala first nights in Paris, which ambassadors attended. The latest application of the .scheme

is that a distinguished audience should be invited to the first night of the ‘Jew Suss” film at Geneva, with all expenses paid. Jack Hulbert’s “Jack Aliov,” however, may first be screened iu Whitechapel, and will thus provide a startling contrast to these “high hat” schemes.

“Hollywood has gone culture crazy,” says the “Evening Standard’s” film critic, in satirically discussing the vogue of historical films, of which “The Private Life of Henry VIII.,” “Catherine the Great” and “Queen Christina” are the most notable present Examples. Though pointing out that numerous characters in Englisli history are yet untouched by the films, the critic says, “We must hurry, for six months hence the historical phase will he over, and films will lie made of the future instead of the past.”

NO FAMOUS STARS

IN LASKY’S NEW FILM Rays of hope should strike very shortly into a thousand shops, laundries, factories and restaurants where Hollywood’s unsung heroines from the “extra” ranks work—and pray for stardom. In a few months Jesse L. Laskv will start production of a picture unique in the industry’s history. It will have no star names, no one who has ever been starred or featured behove will play in it. It will, in every sense of the word, bo a “nameless” picture whose principal players will be drawn from the “extra” ranks and equally obscure legion, the “bit” performers who act for a dav.

Lasky frankly admits he plans a noble experiment in entertainment. It may be a historical flop—and again it may .not. But he’s going to try it for the simple reason that he thinks too much stress is being laid upon the star system, and not enough on story.