STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 1 December 1945, Page 7

STAGE AND SCREEN

(By "Spotlight.")

NOTES AND COMMENTS

About Jon Hall. Jon Hall’s youth was as colourful as some of his experiences on the screen. Born in Fresno, California, he was brought up in Tahiti, the home of his mother. His hardy forebears include New Ehglnnd sea captains anl French pioneers. While still in his ’teens Jon won the swimming championship of Tahiti. The natives named him “Tcrutevaegiai,” which literally translated means “young white god on heaven’s highest shelf.” And Jon has travelled quMe high up in the film firmament, too, since his first appearance in “The Hurricane,” which established him immediately as a star. Prior to this lie acted in four theatrical productions. Other pictures in which the handsome six-footer has been seen arc “Aloma of the South Seas,” “Eagle Squadron,” “The Tuttles of Tahiti,” “Invisible Agent” and “Arabian Nights.” He deserted his usual tybe of outdoor role Jo play the film star, Handy Curtis, in Paramount’s “Lady in the Dark.”

The English Studios. “Cornish Rhapsody,” which was composed especially for inclusion in G.B.D.’s “Love Story,” starring Mar, garet Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Patricia Hoc, is fast making its way into serious musical circles. Permission has been granted for its performance to a number of first-class orchestras in England, and plans for its full recording are well under way. The story of a world-famous concert pianist and the people who dramatically influence her life is the interesting and entertaining theme of “The Seventh Veil,” new G.B.D. hit that stars James Mason and Ann Todd. Newly developed recording technique has been used to include the important musical sequences. To secure authentic backgrounds, Ealing Studios will send a complete production unit to Germany to film “Lovers’ Meeting,” the first full-length feature carrying a story of prisoners-of-war, written by Angus MacPhail and Basil Dearden, in collaboration with an anonymous writer who was himself released this year from a German prisoner of war camp. This is the first all-British film unit to enter Germany since 1939. Story will trace the adventures of a group of men captured at Dunkirk, through, the years of captivity to their return to civilian life with their families. Michael Balcon and Cavalcanti will produce, and Basil Dearden will direct. Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Sally Ann Howes are starred. J. Arthur Hank has acquired the Wintergarden theatre in London for production of stage plays and musicals. Acting and literary talent developed there will be used, where suitable, for Hank’s screen productions. Flanagan and Allen, the British comedy team whose recordings are so popular with radio fans, will, according to a flash from London, visit Australia next year. Comedians also hope later to go to Tokio to entertain British troops stationed there. Flanagan and Allen’s latest film is “Here Comes the Sun,” for B.E.F. release. *******

Strife at Hollywood. There appears to be a streak of lawlessness in many Americans, which causes them to become violent under great stress. This was particularly noticeable during the Hollywood mo-tion-picture strike, in which strikers, strike-breakers, and police fought each other with any weapon that came to hand, regardless of how deadly the weapon might be. Outside the embattled Warner Brothers studio one morning I saw strikers and strike-breakers battle each other with clubs, brickbats, chains, and brass knuckles, as well as fists. Some strike-breakers had knives on them, but there was no evidence that they ever tried to use them. Cars were overturned and emery dust thrown in their engines. Police squads hit out recklessly with night-sticks, and even used tear gas on men and women pickets. When strikers pulled a new tactic and sat down in driveways and entrances to the studio, police and sheriff deputies clubbed them without mercy. I saw one elderly striker beaten across the head until he became unconscious. Another deputy pulled a young girl striker away from a driveway by her heels, allowing her head to bump sickeningly on the concrete roadway. Other women strikers were hit and jostled and roughly handled by police. *******

Strikers Infuriated American police, who are all armed with revolvers, seem to work on the theory that it is better to hit first and ask questions later, and from my observations this seemed to make matters worse, infuriating strikers and driving them to excesses. The police didn’t seem to bother to attempt peaceful methods of moving crowds on. When clubs failed to scatter strikers, the police did not hesitate to use tear gas and fire hoses, but even these drastic measures were not effective.

Warners was singled out by strikers because the studio sought an injunction against picketing. Strikers kept the studio tightly closed for weeks, which cost Warners an average of 100,000 dollars a day in overhead and lost time. But the strike quickly spread to other studios as more workers became involved. Universal may have to postpone two current productions for more than a year, because of the delay caused by the strike. It was racing against the stork to finish up pictures starring Deanna Durbin and Maria Montez, both expectant mothers. It now looks as though the stork will win. The strike itself is so involved that it almost defies explanation. It is chiefly a fight betwen rival labour unions within the industry, ostensibly over which shall represent about 80 set decorators. But it goes deeper than that. It actually is a fight for control of labour in Hollywood, with the studios caught in the middle. This strike is of extreme interest because of the many new tactics introduced. A new version of the “sit-down” is proving most disturbing to management. In this particular version, strikers sit shoulder to shoulder and massed deep across driveways and entrance doors, defying strike-breakers to walk or drive through them. This \vat_ effective until police went to work with clubs. “Mass-picketing” was another tactic that kept police puzzled and busy. Strikers marched shoulder to shoulder, six deep in a great endless line, parading round and round in front of all en. trances to the studios. So long as they kept moving they were more or less within their legal rights. Even flying wedges of burly policemen failed to break these lines for more than a minute, and even then strike-breakers were afraid to pass through.