IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 9 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

Five early Chaplin films have'been released for rft". in home cinematographs. They are: ' IThe Vagabond," "The Fireman," "Thh Cure," "The Rink," and "Behind the Screen."

Miss Marion Davies' next picture to be released in New Zealand is Street," adapted from Sir James Barrie's story of the same name. Conrad Nagel is also in the cast of this production.

O. P. Heggie, an Australian, and a foremost character actor on the American stage, who took the place of the late John Drew in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play, " Trelawnay of the Wells," has been signed on by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to portray on "tho screen the part which ho and Drew played on the stage.

Miss Mary Pickford's cousin, Miss Isabelle Sheridan, makes her screen debut in the star's new United Artists production, "My Best Girl," to be screened shortly in Auckland. Aside from having much the same colouring, Miss Sheridan doos not resemble her famous relative, but Miss Pickford, believing the girl possessed film possibilities, offered her the role of a sales girl in the comedy-romance of an American bargain store.

The first- Australian release of the Paramount picture, "Beau Sabreur," is scheduled for April 14 at the new Capitol Theatre, Sydney. "Bean Sabreur" is the sequel to "Beau Geste," which was also produced by Paramount. The cast is headed by Gary Cooper, Miss Evelyn Brent and William Powell. Like its predecessor, "Beau Sabreur" was filmed partly in the Mojavo desert, where battle scenes were enacted in terrific heat.

Fifteen thousand extra players and a cast of forty-five well-known screen names, it is claimed, mark "The Trail of '93" as the film production using the largest number of people since the beginning of the picture industry. This number of players exceeds that used in "Ben Hur" by approximately 2000 At the time of the making of "Ben Hur," which called for 13,000 extra players, it was believed that the record set for use of extras would never be surpassed. "The Trail of 'P

is a screen version of Robert W.. Service's story of the Klondyke gold rush.

Tolstoy's "Resurrection," the drama of prince and peasant, love, sacred and prolane, brings Rod La Rocque and Miss Dolores Del Rio to the screen in the United Artists' version of tho famous novel. Rod La Rocquo plays the role of the prince who sinned and sorrowed. Miss Del Rio is Ivatusha Maslova, the peasant ward of his two maiden aunts, the girl Whose love is defiled and sullied, only to be won again through the remorse of the prince. She is afforded her greatest screen opportunity to date and her work is done under the direction of the same Edwin Carswe who discovered her in 1925.

Lionel Barrymore is credited with the outstanding characterisation of lxis career in Miss Gloria Swanson's latest picture, "Sadie Thompson," based on VV. Somerset Maugham's dramatic South Seas story, "Rain." Barrymore's part is that of the despotic reformer, Oliver Hamilton, ivhose efforts to effect the salvation of the outcast "Sadie Thompson" culminate in one of the most surprising climaxes ever created. "Sadie Thompson" will be directed by Raoul Walsh, the director of "What Price Glory." Mr. Walsh has also one of the leading masculine roles.

A rather .-unusual difficult position arose during the production of Miss Bebe Daniels' latest eotaedy, "She's a Sheik." now showing in Auckland. Maqy. nationalities were represented among the actors participating in a desert conflict, and it was necessary to have interpreters; Scattered among Enrolled m' the list of interpreters were those who understood arid .•spoke fluently Chinese, Spanishj, Hindu, ' Russian and Arabic. Despite 'the magnitude of the battle manoeuvres, the orders of Clarence Badger, the were so well carried out that ou\y one small retake was necessary* ,

Douglas Fairbanks' new picture, "The Gaucho," is to be screened in Auckland some time during the next few months. It .is a tale of gauchos, pilgrims, banditry and conquest, and is heralded as a romance of unusual force and spectacular appeal. The scenes are laid on the South American pampas countries. Picturesque riders and vast herds and there is a whirl of fierce conflict. 'lhe capture of the rich shrine city under the nose of the dictator of the country begins the story proper, following a spectacular prologue. In the very cosmopolitan cast are Miss Lupe Velez, as a wild, mountain eirl, Miss Eve Southern, "The girl of the miracle," Gustav von Seyiiertitz, Michael Vavitch, Charles Stevens, Is:gel de Brulier, A 1 MacQuarrie, Fred de Suva and Miss Carlotta Monti.

The release of the second part of Germany's official war film, which is expected shortly, will be of particular interest to the producers of the Verdun and "Sommc" films in France and England, as the German picture deals in the main with that particular period of the Great War. The UFA Studios state that thev have been successful in obtaining pictures showing the simultaneous course of events on each side, both on the front and behind the lines. The film deals with the years 1915-1916, and includes pictures of the German offensive on the Russian Front at, Gorlice, as well as the operations on what are generally called the "minor" battlefields —at that time beginning to spring up all oyer Europe. The military adapters of the lilra declare that this second part marks a considerable advance on the first so far as Hs value to military critics i 3 concerned. It is expected that this, like its predecessor and the "Emden" film, will present the events with unexceptionable fairness.

Elaborate presentation of is said to be on the wane in America. The film manufacturers are vigorously attacking it on several grounds. They say that after all "the play's the thing," and heavy spending on extraneous attractions, such as variety turns and superfluous music, only serves to lessen the '"pull" of their pictures by diffusing effort and interest. They evidently believe that in the long run such a policy must mean that less money will be available for the rent of films, or, as Jesse Lasky put it in a recent article: Just as surely as the motion picture entertainment deteriorates in the theatre, so will it deteriorate in the st'idio." On his return to Sydney from the United States last month, Mr. J. E. Kennebeck, director of Parliament exploitation in Australia, said that lavish presentation had failed! It was making its last stand in the long-run houses, and even there interest was flagging, He saw more hope in means for enhancing the realism of a picture, such as the phonofilm "effects" used in showing tne aeroplane film, "Wings." Australian trade journals hold that the film-and-viudeville type of entertainment has not by any means run its course in the Commonwealth, but that in a year or two it will probably bo ousted by something new. Meanwhile it cannot be abandoned, because there is keen competition from outdoor attractions such as greyhound racing and night sports carnivals, which, by their novelty, attract enormous crowds of people who otherwise, would bo in the picture theatres. There seems to be a feeling that the average theatregoer wants something more than moving pictures and orchestral accompaniment, and that other items can be introduced with advantage so long as there is iao extravagance and the prograramois not thrown ofi its balance,.