IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

£15,000,000 lor 1025 Films.

IVIr. Joseph Schenck, who has been reelected president of the Motion Picture Producers' Association, announced last month that approximately £15,000,000 will be 6pent in wages and salaries at the studios in metropolitan Los Angeles during the coming year. There will be a further expenditure of about £13,000,000 on new buildings, sets, properties and other studio improvements, and additions to equipment. The 680-picture programme scheduled for 1924-25 by the producers of Los \u geles is far in excess of the total pr jdoctiori of any previous year in Southern California and closely approaches the joint production of both New York and Los Angeles for 1923. Every studio in the city will be running at top capacity during the coming year. Moreover, it means the transfer to the West Coast of another large slice of the production activities of New York. - The arrival in Los Angeles of thousands of highlv-trained studio artisans from New York will mean greater prosperity for Hollywood. More homes will be required to accommodate them, and Los Angeles as a whole will share in the prosperity which the greater activities of the studios and their increased quota of employees will bring. The new arrangement will give Los Angeles more than 90 per cent, of the total motion picture production m tho United States. Notes and Comments. 'The Covered Waggon" is to be revived by Paramount at an early date. Many requests for a repeat season have been received. It is reported that Gloria Swanson is receiving scores of flattering offerings from Parisian costumers for the privilege oi having her do mannequin duty for an hour or so each day. when production is not too heavy. But the bulk of her mail letters daily consists of requests to become, by the slight performance of a marriage ceremony, a princess, or a duchess, or a marchioness —just whatever she likes.

Added to the names of Gloria Swanson, Thomas Meighan, Negri, De Mille. and scores of others appearing recently with Paramount, have been those of Griffiths, of Valentino and Lloyd, of Sidney Olcott, of Jackie Coogan, of Mae Murray, Fred Niblo. The immediate future has scores of other surprises in 6tor§, as attention is being given to the momentous question of picture supplies for 1925.

The return of Rodolph Valentino to the screen in " Monsieur Beaucaire," brought a flood of letters. Most of them were queries as to what was really the greatest picture that Valentino had ever made and had screened in New Zealand. Paramount decided to answer the queries, in a general way, screening what they believed to be Valentino's best effort with the result. " Blood and Sand" will also be revived for one week at the Globe Theatre in Sydney in the near future-

Burial at sea in the Arctic Circle of one of the last survivors of an expedition into the unknown North is depicted in one of the scenes of " Hearts of Oak," which John Ford is directing at the William Fox studios in Hollywood. Twelve tons of ice were required on the set. These were arranged by sculptors to represent ice flows of the northern waters. In spite of the short space and footage which the scene • occupied in the 6tory, it is 3 sequence of beauty and pathos.

William Fox is hard at work on screen versions of well-known stage plays. Already filmed is that ever-popular success, "My Lady's Dress," in which Emilie Polini and Frank Harvey scored such a tremendous hit. " Lightnin'," in which John D. O'Hara made a name for himself, will be seen on the screens during the coming year. "The Man Who Came Back," another Muriel Starr success, has been filmed by William Fox, with two new stars, George O'Brien and Dorothy Mackaill in the principal roles.

" Tho King of Kid 3," otherwise Jackie Googan, the nine-year-old film star, who I arrived in London in September, is a really delightful boy, full of fun, life, and the right spirit of boyishness, and apparently not at all impressed by the fact that he is a famous person and the possessor of about £250.000. Mr. J. M. Savage, the American Consul at Southampton, and the Mayor of Southampton, Mr. Mouland, went out in a tender to greet Jackie Coogan, off the Isle of Wight, when he arrived from New York. Th<?> Mayor made a speech to him. Jackie f,aid, " Thank you," and examined the Mayor's chain of office. It was the first chaLi of office he had ever seen, and ho thought it wa» wonderful. On the way over ho " made a whale of a Sim" with the captain of the Leviathan. He has put that on record in the diary which he has kept on the trip. The first entry in this diary reads: " Occupied suite with Moody dear and Daddy dear." " Moody dear" is his mother.

Evelyn Brsnt was spared dangerous injury during tho rehearsal of one of the scenes in ' The Desert Outlaw," by tho alacrity and watchfulness of Buck Jones, the star of tho picture. In one sequence of the picture, a stage coach is used on which the heroine,- played by Miss Brent, is riding. The horses are running away and tho driver tells tho young girl to jump for her life. At this moment Mr. Jones rides up and she leaps into his arms. Thus do they meet in tho story. However, the stage coach used for this scene was a rickety affair that had seen better days, and the strain upon it proved too great. When the horses wcro urged to do their best down a steep grade, tho right hind wheel broke, and Miss Brent was thrown out. Fortunately Buck was near and dashing up to the wrecked vehicle, reached out and caught tho falling actress. The remarkable part of it is that although this was a rehearsal of the scene the cameras had been set up and immediately began grinding. Thus all the unlooked for action is introduced into tho picture as an added and unexpected thrill.