Production Pars

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 December 1936, Page 11

Production Pars

Shortly to be released is “Suzy,” a sparkling show produced by M.G.M., and starring Franchot Tone, Carey Grant and Jean Harlow. Stanley Morner, protege of the famous Mary Garden, is heard in some stirring numbers. The film is said to. be brimful of action and of unusual merit. Franchot Tone has decided to give up his stage ambitions and has signed a further contract with Metro. This means, one imagines, that Joan Crawford has also dropped the idea of an appearance in legitimate work. Scoring hit after hit in such pictures as “Broadway Melody of 1936,” “Magnificent Obsession,” “Small Town Girl” and “Private Number,” and to appear as Garbo’s leading man in her forthcoming production, Taylor has been given a virile, hard-hitting role in “His Brother’s Wife.” For one of her scenes in “Showboat” it was necessary for Irene Dunne to put on black-face and with many other blackfaced ladies, go into her dance.

Immediately after the scene, a visitor to the set walked up and spoke to Miss Dunne.

“How in the world did you know which one was Irene Dunne?” one of the publicity boys asked. “After all, they are all made up alike.” “It was her personality,” the visitor explained. “There is something about Irene Dunne that even black face can’t conceal. Whatever it is, she radiates it, even in a bandana and gingham apron. Ronald Colman was host on the set at a party for every member of the cast and technical crew connected in any way with “Lost Horizon,” on the final day of production. The guest of honour at the party is Frank Capra, the director of the film. Mr Colman is the leading man. Star of “Crime and Punishment,” and “Secret Agent,” Peter Lorre is to be featured in a modern version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the masterpiece of the late Lon Chaney. At present he is working on “Crackup,” with Brian Lonlevy,

American newspapers declare that “My Man Godfrey” stopped the traffic in Leicester Square during its first week’s showing in London. The Universal picture is described as the sensation of film-going world in England. At times there were as many people outside the theatre, demanding admission, as within the already-crowd-ed house.

In a letter to a friend in Port Moresby, Errol Flynn described his experiences in Hollywood and said he had signed a contract to play in three more pictures, including “Robin Hood” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” It will be remembered that “Robin Hood” was one of Douglas Fairbanks’ most successful silent pictures.

Anna Neagle plays the part of a poor London girl who becomes a great cabaret star in her new film “London Melody,” in which she is starred with Tullio Carminati and Robert Douglas. W. C. Fields, pompous comedian of the top-heavy vocabulary and master of the raised-eyebrow serious face, returns to the screen in a burst of glory in Paramount’s “Poppy.” The film marks Fields’s triumph over a recent serious illness which confined him to bed for several months. Others prominent in the cast of featured players include Lynne Overman, Catherine Doucet and Rosalind Keith.

Bette Davis left Hollywood and the Warner Bros. First National studios recently to join George Brent and the location unit which is filming scenes at Longview, Washington, for the forthcoming all-Technicolour film, “God’s Country and the Woman,” starring Miss Davis and featuring Brent. William Keighley is directing the picture, an adaptation of James Oliver Curwood’s famous novel of the same name.

Fifteen thousand children were interviewed by producer David O. Selznick in his search for juvenile actors to play in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” and of this huge number, only three were selected for further consideration.