IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19388, 24 July 1926, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

The Private Corners of Hollywood. There is one little corner in every "lot" at Hollywood which many a "fan" would give a world to be admitted to—the private dressing room of the "star." They are to be found in a sheltered part of tho ."lot," for most of the "stars" now keep a portable dressing room which can be moved about just as the film story demands, and here the actors and actresses don their costumes and put on their "make-up." One of the most-admired "boudoirs on wheels" is Mary Pickford's. It is a luxurious place with heavy carpets, deep, cosy chairs, dozens of cushions, and pretty lamps; it is furnished in a colour scheme of rose and grey. Everything is most artistic and in harmonious keeping. Miss Pickford spends a deal of time here reading scenarios or studying for her new roles, but she does not extend many invitations to visitors, unless it be "strictly on business." John Barrymore, who, by the way, has just reached America after a wonderful season in London, where he won many plaudits for his interpretation of Hamlet, has an interesting dressing room on the Warner "lot." It reflects the character of the great actor remarkably well —somewhat untidy, but the untidiness that suggests a warm friendliness and ready hospitality. One of the sights of this room is the cupboard wherein Barrymore keeps his array of hats—there is tho hat of Dr. Jekyll, and that of Mr. Hyde, Beau Brummel and a dozen other samples of headgear that have figured, r'nore or less, importantly in this actor's pictures. One of the largest dressing rooms belongs jointly to Norma and Constance Talmadge, who have acquired a delightful six-roomed bungalow, which even boasts a small garden and lawn! The bungalow is English in design. Rudolph Valentino has a very spacious dressing room, which is also a bungalow, and it is kept one of the neatest and .smallest in the whole film colony.

Pola Negri has fashioned hers on rather Oriental lines. It is is full of Chinese knick-knacks, while a very, handsome Chinese black and gold screen holds pride of place against a pretty black and gold wall panel. She has a fine view from her sanctum of Peacock Alley, the promenade down which almost every Lasky "star" has strolled at some time or other.

Notes and Comments. , Motro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios are making arrangements for the filming of the latest Mae Murray picture, " Altars of Desire,'' an adaptation of the novel by Maria Thompson Davies.

Sydney audiences gave Sydney Chaplin \ riotous welcome"recently he appeared in " The Man on the Box." As the lady's maid with the droll antics he has befin called " the screen's funniest actress!" * £

A cast of actors went through some of the most rugged country of Canada in the making of the film version of James Oliver Curwood's thrilling story of the Canadian backwoods, "The Ancient Highway."

" College Days," Harold Lloyd's latest picture, which will be released shortly by Paramount;' is said to be the best contribution to the silent screen this popular artist has so far given. It combines broad comedy and suspense.

The wheat fields of Oregon and the money market of New York form the locale in which are staged the stirring action, the romance and comedy of "Under Western Skies," the UniversalJewel screen play which is coming to Auckland soon.

A society girl's adventures in the prairies form the theme of " The Prairie Wife," the. screen version pf Arthur Stringer's novel, which appeared in serial form in " The Saturday Evening Post." Herbert Rawlinson and Dorothy Devore play "the leading parts.

The largest insurance policy ever written on the life of a movie star, amounting to £600,000, has been applied Corporation to protect the enormous investments centering around Ramon Novarro, who is under contract for that organisation. That Novarro has undertaken many extremely dangerous stunts in both air and water in -the filming of the exciting screen offering " The Midshipman " are the reasons for such heavy insurance.

The London Observer has this to say regarding the latest production of Douglas Fairbanks, "The Biack Pirate:" "Mr. Fairbanks has taken a great deal. of trouble over 'The Black Pirate,' and worked hard to make it a success. We are all in his debt, a debt we can only repay -by visiting the picture. What a triumph ! A film to beggar vocabularies! Jus.t as each fresh picture.by Mr. Chaplin overwhelms us when it is first shown, stands out as the most daring and ingenious yet made, and because susceptible to criticism only with, the passage of years, when he himself has made advances with which we may compare it, so in this picture Mr. Fairbanks' imaginative breadth and courage has made something which, though in later years may seem but a primitive beginning, can to-day arouse in us only clamorous admiration."

"I hope I am not a fussy person," says an American writer, "but there are a few things I would like to see on the screen before I die, and I am going to'mention them in passing. These producers are always looking for ideas and I am full of them:—(l) Jack Gilbert in a picture based upon the life of Lord Byron. (2) Gloria Swanson as Nell Gwynne—Sweet Nell of Old Drury, Mistress Nell, I don't care which, just so it is the amusing frivolous, mischievous litt-le orange seller who captivated the King and ruled England. (3) Norma Talmadge as the beautiful, fatal Queen Marie Antoinette, with the affair of the diamond necklace woven in. (4) Blanche Sweet in ' The Green Hat." (5) Lilian Gish as Hester in "The Scarlet Letter.' Failing this, in Sarah Bernhardt's great role in 'L'Aiglon.' (6) More of Clare Eames as Elizabeth, and Estelle Taylor as Mary Stuart —we had just a glimpse of them in 'Dorothy Vernon.' "