IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19382, 17 July 1926, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

Pictures and Playwrights. American dramatists are greatly perturbed by the apparent attempts of the moving picture interests to gain control of the legitimate stage. The action of the film magnates of New York is largely due to the shortage of good story material. There aro at least four firms in America that produce a new picture every week—that is, 208 stories every year, besides scores of producing companies who work on a smaller scale. The film magnates secure the screen rights to plays by backing the theatrical producer. Famous Players-Lasky, for instance, the largest film-producing unit in the world, is closely allied to Charles Frohmau Incorporated, which owns two New York theatres, and it has a call on the plays introduced there. William Fox, of the Fox Film Company, has a similar arrangement with a group of managers. Mr. Fox, by the way, has just acquired the film rights of Miss Dorothy Brandon's play, "The Outsider," for £7OOO. The play was not a financial success in London, but it was in America, while Maurice Moscovitch did remai'kably well with it in his South African and Australian and New Zealand tours. The fear of the American dramatist is that the theatre will gradually become an appanage of the film, in which event there would be little chance of any play being produced which had not the elements of success as a film. Moreover, the author is not able to control the disposition of the film rights, with the result that they are sometimes sold to the film producer by the theatre manager for less than their market value. Thus it is stated that the rights of "Is Zat So?" were sold to Mr. Fox for £IB,OOO, whereas First National was ready to pay up to £30,000. From the film producer's point of view, the staging of a play, merely for the purpose of finding out its screen potentialities, is not so extravagant as it may seem. It is said the Famous Laskv combination paid £17,000 for the screen rights of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney," now being played in London and America. It certainly would not have cost £17,000 to produce the play on the stage, and had the film corporation done so, it would have reaped all the theatre profits into the bargain. Notes and Comments. Lou Tellegen, a stage favourite, whose popularity as a screen actor is steadily increasing, used to be a protege and leading man of the great Sarah Bernhardt. In the role of John Dawson in " Those Who Judge," he has added another to his list of stage and screen triumphs. Future films for Auckland include " Sparrows," with Mary Pickford; " Fine Clothes," starring Jackie Coogan; "The Son of .the Sheik," with Valentino;" " Reveille,"" starring Betty Balfour, the clever British comedienne; and " Sally, Irene and Mary," with Sally O'Neill. Two veterans of the stage whose *#iames are well known to old-time theatre-goers are in the cast of "Under Western Skies." They are George Fawcetfc and Charles K. French. Fawcett's stage career covered extensive tours through America and England, while French spent 20 years on the stage. Both have had a long screen career. Said to be Lubitsch's greatest production, " Kiss Me Again " tells the story of a husband who refused to get jealous at his" wife's flirtatious adventures. Lu'oitsch excels in subtle treatment of drama of this kind. John Roche, Marie Prevost, Monte Blue and Clara Bow head the cast.

Eight sampans and sixteen row-boats, hewn from solid logs, form the bulk of the small craft used for the filming of Joseph Conrad's " Lord Jim," which Victor Fleming directed for Paramount. Larger boats used for the production include two passenger steamers, three tramp steamers, two tugs, two Navy minesweepers, three sailing vessels, one Chinese junk, and six motor boats.

Douglas Fairbanks' new picture " The Black Pirate" has proved to be an international success. The London Times says: "He can have nothing of boyhood surviving in Jiim who has no pleasure in ' The Black Pirate.' " The Obserber becomes even' more eloquent and says: " What a triumph! A film to beggar vocabularies. What can one say in praise of it when all the words like good, clever, brilliant, charming, beautiful have been said in measuring the efforts of lesser mortals?" The New Zealand copies of " The Black Pirate" have just arrived.

Whether gesture can be as forceful as the spoken word or dialogue as brilliant on the screen as on the stage is always a controversial point. Frank Borzage, the well-known film director, is a firm believer in the theory that both novels and plays can be transformed into equally good pictures. " The Circle," the screen version of Somerset Maugham's play, is a strong argument in favour of the theory. This play deals with the love i affairs of two generations of an aristocratic English family, and is said to have retained all the wit and irony in its film form. Eleanor Boardman, Malcolm MacGregor and Alec Francis head the cast.