Cinema Stars, Films and Stage

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 3 October 1936, Page 9

Cinema Stars, Films and Stage

ROME AS FILM CENTRE

A campaign to induce motion picture producers in various parts of the world to make their films at the new Cinema City near Rome, will be launched by the Italian Government in the near future.

For the purpose the Government will remove virtually all taxes anc? other restrictions, writes a correspondent.

It will say: “We want films made in Italy. We care not in which language, and we ask no reciprocal agreements for the release of our films in other countries.”

The two principal producers who intend to take advantage of the offer so far are Walter Wanger, of Hollywood, and Alexander Korda, of London, both of whom release through United Artists. . Wanger expects to begin a feature film in Rome next June, probably with Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda in .the leading roles, and Korda plans a picture built around the Isle of Capri.

The scenery and backgrounds for tho mpvies will mean advertisement foi\ Italy.

Edgar Wallace’s Famed “Sanders oi the River”

“Sanders of the River” is without doubt one of the most thrilling films which has ever been put on the screen, just] as the original Sanders stories were as thrilling as anything that master-thriller Edgar Wallace ever - wipte. They yygre in, fact WnUacg-s 'favourite stories, and he considered thern his best, although they were among his earliest. The reason for their suggestion of absolute authenticity—which gives them their thrilling quality—is not far to seek. Wallace wrote them from his own observation when, as a young man, he was working in central Africa. That is why his characters and atmosphere are so real and vivid; / even Wallace could not have drawn such characters after merely reading travel books.: In the picture Paul Robeson as Bosamo sings

some haunting African songs while Leslie Banks scores a notable success by the quiet restraint of his Sanders. The film was produced by the famous Alexander Korda. ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥

Dick Grace’s cavalcade of aviation, “Mirage,” has been bought by Radio.

“Powder Smoke Range” Blazing a trail for outdoor action pictures of the future to follow, nearly a score of the screen’s greatest cowboy stars ride together through the stirring scenes of “Powdersmoke Range,” new RKO Radio picture. Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, “Big

Boy” Tyler are leading figures of the hard riding, straight shooting brigade which makes this the first all-star range romance of picture history. As the heroine, Boots Mallory is also featured. And names of supporting players are scarcely less familiar to lovers of virile, red blooded action.

“Robin Hood of el Dorado” The screen is swinging back to the era of spectacular outdoor films that was at its height in the last days of the silent picture. Sound, with its mechanical limitations, abruptly ended the cycle that now is regarded as one of the most successful periods of motion picture history. Through the years the mobility of sound-recording apparatus has steadily improved until now the last bar has been broken down and the era of great “Westerns” comes again. Typically Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer sets the pace for this new cvcle with “Robin licod of el Dorado.” There is ample reason to suspect that this picture will bring back the days of “The Covered Waggon,” “The Big Trail.” and other epic photoplays that marked the closing days of the silent screen, for it has a sweep and power that give it commanding importance and more than its quota of entertainment value. Warner Baxter as the dashing Joaquin Murrieta, gives the finest characterisation of his career on the screen. He portrays a character who left his name written large on the early history of the Far West, a goocl-bad man who plundered the rich to help -the poor.

FIELDS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL SIEGE W. C. Fields, movie comedy star, has been discharged from Dr. Jesse Citron’s Hospital in Riverside, and has gone to the Las Encenitas Sanitarium in Pasadena, where he will spend a few weeks recuperating from hi.s recent attack of pneumonia. Upon his return to the Paramount Studio, some two months hence, Fields will be starred in a comedy satire on big business, “Bag of Tricks.” ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ Walls—Lynn—Hare Some say: “It’s a dull old world.” Others, not so pessimistic, say “I wish I could get a good laugh out of [something.” Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn land company say nothing of the sort. They know there’s no such thing as depression or ‘the blues’ and as for ‘that fed-up feeling’—it isn’t in the dictionary! When you watch Tom Walls acting, you laugh, when you hear Ralph Lynn’s idiocies, you laugh, when you see Robertson Hare’s j anxious visage—you laugh! No one ! can stop the laughter. That’s why the Gaumont-British film fun-makers fill their “houses” time and time again with people, old men, young men, babes in arms and maidens —but most of all with laughter. “Foreign Affairs” their new release 'is so incredibly chaotic, so unbelievably foolish that it draws laughter from the most depressed hearts. It is a ridiculous, and therefore valuable message of sheer optimism.

•ft ft ft •*? Charles Bickford has signed a con- !; tract to produce and direct for a new I company, and will begin work as soon j as he has finished playing in “The ' Plainsman.” *-

The orchestra was rehearsing a new piece of-music. The harmony, however, was rather spoilt by the Scottish trombone player, who was a new member.

“What on earth do you think you are doing?” roared the conductor. “You were a couple of bars ahead of everyone else!” “Sorry, sir,” replied the trombone player, “but I used to play in a street band, and the one who finished first ' took round the hat.” | ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ Warren William gets the masculine lead in Mae West’s “Personal Appearance” as his first independent venture. j Naomi Childers, a silent star of sixteen years ago, is making a come-back '-in “Piccadilly Jim.”

Scene: Music store. Proprietor (who is going out to branch shop, to boy): Now, my boy. if a customer comes and wants to look at a piano, flute, banjo, or mandolin, you know what to show him?

Boy: Yes, sir. Proprietor: And if a customer should want to see a lyre— Boy: I’ll send at once for you, sir. * ¥ * *

Gene Raymond has had his contract renewed by Radio. He is playing opposite Ann Sothern in “Count Pete.”

Gale Sondegaard, Broadway actress who made her film debut in “Anthony Adverse,” has been added to the cast of “Maid of Salem,” the costume picture which Claudette Colbert will shortly start.

TAXING THE STARS

CHAPLIN WEALTHIEST ACTOR HAROLD LLOYD MOST JEWELS When Hollywood’s film stars pay their 1936 taxes on jewellery, it is Harold Lloyd, the comedian with the horn-rimmed spectacles, who has to write the biggest cheque. . County tax-records, just issued, show that the Lloyd collection is valued at £6ooo—just £3640 more than that of N ormfl Shearer, the leading jewelowner among the actresses. Joan Crawford’s jewels are valued at £2OOO, and those of Joe E. Brown and Tom Mix at £ISOO and £IOOO respectively. Mae West, the “Diamond Lil of the screen, has her collection assessed at £7OO. ’ Harold Lloyd also ranks as the greatest real estate holder among the film colony, as well as having the most valuable furniture. His furniture is assessed at £15,000. Charles Chaplin is listed as the wealthiest star, and Mary Pickford as the wealthiest actress, but a change in the law conceals the greatest portion of their wealth. This year their stocks and bonds were not reported. They have become exempt from assessment since State income tax became operative in California. Last year Chaplin reported £498.962 in stocks and bonds. Mary Pickford reported £257,962. Norma Shearer reported £58,460, and Richard Barthelmess £51,674, with Constance Bennett £20,894. ASSESSMENT FIGURES Among this year’s assessment figures are:— Charles Chaplin, £125,280; Harold Lloyd. £80.945: Mary Pickford, £47.176: Richard Barthelmess, £22.046; Douglas Fairbanks, £21.602; Constance Bennett, £12,102; Joe E. Brown, £11.866: Cloria Swanson, £6772; Norma Shearer. £5372; Ruth ChaPertcn, £5471- .Ann Harding, £5884; Joan Crawford. £6554. John Barrymore has staged a “come back” on the assessment rolls. Last year he was down to his last yacht with a total valuation of £11,315, of which £11.270 was his boat Infanta. This year his total is £17,992, embracing real estate and personal property in addition to his yacht. # * * * “Thoroughbred”

“Thoroughbred,” the latest film from Australian studios has a great deal more in it to interest New Zealanders than its pioneering nature, for it is a well-turned film telling an exciting and entertaining story. Set against the clamour and crowds of the racecourse and the suny paddocks of Australian stud farms, it has Helen Twelvetrees, taken from America to make the film, as the chief actress, and she is supported by a cast which includes John Longden and Frank Leighton, two actors already known to many New Zealanders. “Thoroughbred” contains all the glamour, excitement, suspense, and comedy that belong to the sport of kings. The theme is a contention by Russell Peel, a most aristocratic breeder of aristocratic horses, that “blue blood” is supreme in both horses and men. # ¥ ¥ ¥ Ginger Eorsrs “In Person”

“In Person,” with Ginger Rogers in solo stardom, is ample proof that the actress merits her place in the top screen rank and ushers her to her new position with a story that is highly entertaining throughout. Miss Rogers gives a flawless performance, skilfully balancing, romance and comedy. Heir distinctive dancing and singing ability is given vent in several dance routines and three ■nular songs.

PRODUCTION PARS "'lark Gable is nutting in four miles a?'’-wo.'k and an hour or two of .j. practice every day under a hard•rtnr! trainer, and former fighter, 1 : ever Perry, for his role of boxer in >• .'>:ion Davies’s new picture, “Cain :nd Mabel.” He’s got to get his weight down from 14 stone to less han 1".

Helen Hayes. New York’s Queen Victoria in the film, “Victoria Regina.” which has been banned in England, and her husband. Charles McArthur, famous scenario writer, who are now

laying at. Claridge’s. London, on a i rfljday trip, plan to visit Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, which Helen Haves has been wanting to see ever since she •flayed the part of Mary Queen of Scots.

Charles Laughton, who is having a lively time as the famous artist in the ■film, “Rembrandt,” first hit the high ■pots when, as an extra playing in a estaurant scene in the film “Piccadilly”, he was singled out as the only' -nan who could register the proper expression of disgust at being served with a dirty plate in a fashionable "estaurant. Laughton sat for two minutes brooding over the infamous plate. Betty Blythe, star of the “silent” days, who was in pictures for more than eighteen years, and worked for almost every film company in Hollywood, stages a screen come-back when she plays in George Raft’s new picture, “Yours for the Asking.” At one time a “stand-in;” or studio double for Katharine Hepburn, Adalyn Doyle has won a role for herself in the film, “Finishing School,” and is notv making a name for herself on the stage and radio as well as in pictures.

Having given the alarming fiarge of Bernard B. Brindlebug to a character in a new comedy he is making, Groucho Marx got the shock of his life when a real person named Bernard B. Brindlebug arrived in Hollywood threatening a law suit. The “Queen Mary,” probably the most photographed of all liners, reaches stardom in a full-length picture, “Dodsworth.” Extensive pictures taken in New York of the liner’s arrival and departure are being incorporated in the picture with studio reconstructions.

It’s not all fun being a film star! In a scene she plays in the Paul Muni film, “The Good Earth,” Luise Rainer has to be trampled on by 1200 Chinese extras.

A street in Salzberg, Austria, was closed for three days, and the church of St. Peter’s, in which Mozart played the organ as a young man, was placed at the disposal of Basil Dean for his biography of the famous composer, “Whom the Gods Love,” which is to be shown in London in August. John Loder and Victoria Hopper star in the film.

FAMOUS DIRECTOR’S DEATH

Irving Thalberg, who died of pneumonia at the age of 37, after a week’s illness, was the husband of Norma Shearer, and the man who did most to bi'ing the firm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer into a premiere position. Sheilah Graham, in an article, wrote that Thalberg, more than any other person in Hollywood, was responsible for the high standard of pictures made in the last few years, among these being “Mutiny on the Bounty,” “The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “The Good Earth.”

“His first job, that of stenographer, paid him three dollars a week, and at one time he worked as office boy on

the old New York World,she declared.

His current salary was reported to be £ 100.000 a year, 'tie was rated as one of the best after-dinner speakers in Hollywood. About two years ago Thalberg. had a nervous breakdown from overwork and with his wife went to Europe for a rest.

Some of his greatest successes “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Ben Hur,” “The Big Parade,” “The Merry Widow,” “China Seas,” “The Broadway Melody” and “Riptide.”

When he died he was engaged in the production of “Maytime,” with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald.

Richard Tauber Photographed in Colour Richard Tauber is to be photographed by a new colour process, British Chemicolour, in his next production. “I Pagliacci.” to be produced at' the Denham Studios by Capital Films with Karl Grune as director. When “I Pagliacci” is completed, the process will be made available to all studios. With British Chemicolour, scenes are photographed on two .negatives, and it is claimed that colour effects are completely controlled during developing of the negatives and making the prints or positives which are shown in cinemas,

Paul Muni was selected for the lead in “The Good Earth,” in which he plays a omnese, after his brilliant characterisation of the scientist in “ r ihe Story of Louis Pasteur.” James Stewart will play opposite Eleanor Powell in “Easy to Love,”

AMATEUR ACTIVITIES

Return Season —Auckland Operatic Society The outstanding success of the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society’s production, “The New Moon,” enabled the management to announce a return season this Friday and three final presentations of the musical romance were given. Graminar School Production : Three performances of “Leisiire Island,” a musical comedy, were given by the pupils of the Auckland Grammar School.

The school orchestra provided r the incidental music.

"Outward Bound” at Dunedinj Four performances of “Outward B rand,” , Sutton Vane’s impressive psychological play, were given by the Dunedin Little Theatre Society. Dunedin Playbox’s Great Success The production of Stephen Phillips’ great tragedy, “Paola and Francesca, by the Dunedin Playbox, under the direction of W. Russell-Wood, was a great success. [ • Ibsen Play at Wellington An Ibsen play, “Hedda Gabba,” will

be staged next month by the Wellington Repertory Theatre,, with Leo. du Chateau as producer. , , ■ Lynda Murphy, formerly of Auckland, will take the title roleij jtii, • Napier Repertory Players Three one-act plays—“Shadow^' of the Light,” “Come Away, Death” and “Drums”—were staged by the Napier Repertory Players. One-act Plays at Palmerston The Palmerston North Little Theatre Society staged three one-act plays —“Black , Night,” “Find the Lady,” and “Peace in Our Time.”

Financial Success of “The Reveille” The recent production of “The Reveille,” resulted in a profit cf £7B 11s 7d for the Hamilton Operatic Society. This will enable the payment of 7s in the £ to creditors arising out of the loss on the production of “The Boy.’’ a few years ago.