STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 February 1935, Page 3

STAGE AND SCREEN

COLOUR A REALITY , LAVISH NEW FILMS EDDIE CANTOR’S DREAM Colour in motion pictures has become so immediate a trend that Hollywood overlords are searching for subjects that will make the most impressive use of the polychromatic cinema. Preference is given to stories not realisable in the sombre tones of black and white. Themes that could be done almost as well in ordinary photography are ignored in favour of such imaginative flights as Dante’s “Inferno,” “Gulliver’s Travels” and the adventures of Marco Polo. The fantasy that winds up “Kid Millions,” Eddie Cantor’s fifth annual screen musical comedy for Samuel Goldwyn, would never have been attempted if colour were not available. Its story is the realisation of the childhood dream —the dream of a. Brooklyn street urchin, picturing what he would do and what he does do when his ship comes in. Air Cantor spins in a world of strange and unreal images, an ice cream freezer as high as the Empire State Building, on which . beautiful girls skate as the wheels turn round and round. Hugh dresdeu china cows munch on golden straw, and there are thousund-dollar ice cream sodas to which children are raised on elevator chairs. It sounds mad; it is.

“LA CUCARACHA” LESSON

As a black and white episode, it would offer none of the excitement and thrill that is needed to conclude a picture distinguished by its excitement and thrills and comedy. Colour—rich and riotous colour that laughs and shouts and fcereams —was the' only hope. In “La Cucaraclm” Robert Jones' and Kenneth MacGowan demonstrated what could be done, if they did not actually perform any miracles. Mr Goldwyn decided to attempt the fantasy in colour to bring a magic combination of humour and beauty to end his extravaganza —if it could be done. But no one knew, since no production in the new three-colour process had been attempted in a succession of big “sets” with hundreds of players. The final effect lias the charm, beauty, grace and humour of the “Silly Symphonies,” but with a succession of sets with living persons in place of drawn scenes and figures. Mr Goldwyn plans to produce “The Wizard of Oz” in the same medium if “Kid Millions” gets the expected reactioru

NEW ZEALAND’S FIRST TALKIE

New Zealand has produced her first talking picture, and New Zealand Feature Productions are to be congratulated on their successful effort. The title of the picture is “Pown on the Farm.” Daphne Murdoch,'who is very charming in her role of Mary Hickmot, is a well-known Dunedin girl. Her acting lias the grace and ease of one well experienced in theatricals, and her performance has a youthfuliiess that is refreshing. The whole picture is a fast moving, side-splitting collection of laughs. A feature not to be forgotten, is the incomparable New Zealand scenery. The rolling Hills of the South Island, the homesteads snuggling in the valleys, beautiful native bush, all form a very lovely background for the comedy. Horace Hopkins and Lizzie Perkins (Erina Newbold), form a team of laugli-getters hard to beat. Gwenda Bert, as Miss Erpington-Erpington, is funny enough to be worth going to see the picture for, by herself. The children who have the main juvenile leads in this picture, are delightful. Leila Murdoch, Eron Reid, Joy Gray, and Ra Hould, are lovable, real children. The chief attraction of the cast is their realness. They are all people you may meet any day and anywhere. Simple like most of us, they appeal to the millions, because they are not vague inaccessible shadows. The film, which was produced by New Zealand Feature Productions, was directed bv Mr Lee Hill, of Wellington, and Mr‘Stuart Pitt, of Dunedin, and Mr Hill was also the photographer-. The dast is as follows: Miss Erping-ton-Erpington, Gwenda Burt; Horace Hopkins, John Stuart Dick; Sir Henry Hickmot, Sydney Lock'; Mary Hickmot, Daphne Murdoch; Algy Hickmot, Angus Corby; Lizzie Perkins, Erina Newbold; storekeeper, Joe Lee; storekeeper’s assistant, Bobby Simpson; Farmer Petrie, Ernest Griffin; Mrs Petrie, Elsie McPeak; Daphne Petrie, Audrey Watson; Bill Petrie, Bert Nelson; * Donald Petrie, George Claridge; Barbara Hutton, Roegairn Gare; kiddies', Ra Hould, Joy Grey, Erin Reid, Leila Murdoch.

ROBERT DONAT

As a result of telephone conversations between J. L. Warner at the Hollywood studio and Irving Asher, head of the Warner Bros. Studios at Teddington, London. Robert Donat has been placed under a long term contract with, Warner Bros. Hirst National Pictures. Robert Donat just re-

cently met with sudden meteoric sue-, cess all over the world through his marvellous performance in the United Artists release “The Count of Monte Cristo,” The acting ability and tremendous personal charm of this tine actor is most' outstanding. His previous appearance before the camera was l as Thomas Culpepper in the. “Private Life of Henry VIII.” Robert Donat who is at present in London is making preparations for his departure, to Hollywood where he will make “Captain Blood” Rafael Sabatani’s sea story. This will be the first of pictures which this actor is to make under his contract with Warner Bros. Pictures.. On 23rd February a new English company is to open a season at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, the principals being Hilary Fisher-White, Betty' Bowden, Sybil Davidson, James Rag-, hui, Ella Daincourt, Vernon Kelso, Cyril Vernon and Gabriel Tovne, the producer, who was here not long ago with his wife, Margaret Rawlings, in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” and who will produce the plays. A splendid repertoire-lias been arranged, opening with “Sweet Aloes,” in including “Laburnum Grove,” “The Shining Hour,” “Living Dangerously,” “Eden End” and “The Dominant Sex.” Each of these plays has scored success in London. Another play presented during the recent spate of new shows in London is “Young Mr Disraeli,” a fascinating collection of character studies of personages just before the great Jew’s rise to eminence. The production, it is rumoured, will later bo made into a film in England, which will be released ii: the Dominion. This process of adapting stage successes to the cinema gives the Empire a. wonderful opportunity of seeing some of the world’s finest theatrical shows. Unwittingly, the cinema has blest the world.