IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20472, 25 January 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

Miss Evelyn Brent's second starring picturo for Paramount will be an alltalking version of the play " Blackbirds." Production will start shortly at the Hollywood studios under the direction of Louis Gasnier and Edwin Kopf. Olive Brook will play the male lead. Other well-known principals iu the cast are Paul Lukas, Miss Helen Ware, Eugene Pallelic, Morgan Farley and Miss Virginia Bruce.

Production commenced recently at the I'irst National studio on Miss Dorothy Mackaill's next starring picturo, " The Queen of Jazz." A big cast, headed by Sidney Blackmor, Miss Julanne Johnston, and Warner Richmond, is supporting Miss Mackaill, its youngest member being Mickey Bennett, who has now reached the ripe age of 13. William A. Seiter is directing. The picture is being made from the story written especially for Miss Mackaill by Ray Harris and Gene Towne.

A chorus of 100 male voices forms one of the musical features in " The Love Parade," Maurice Chevalier's latest talking and singing production for Paramount. The mammoth chorus sings " The March of tho Grenadiers," ono of the special numbers composed by Victor Schertinger. " The Love Parade" was directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Miss Jeanette Mac Donald plays opposite the star, while Miss Lilian Roth, Lupino Lane, Eugene Pallette and Ben Turpin arc featured in the supporting cast.

Miss Joan Marsh; Universale recent " discovery" is playing tho part of a French gill iu the opening sequence of " All Quiet on the Western Front." Miss Marsh has the role of the " dream girl" of " Leer," the Lothario of Erich Maria Remarque's schoolboy soldiers, a part played by Scott Kolk, a Universal contract player. It is Miss Marsh's first appearance in a super picture. Although but fifteen years old, Miss Marsh is regarded at Universal as a " find," possessing an unusual type of blonde beauty, talent as an actress before the sound camera, and a remarkable singing voice.

John McCormack, tho famous tenor, is

in Hollywood preparing to finish the talking picture in which he will make his screen debut for Fox Movietone. Ha returned to America recently from Ireland where" a Fox Movietone unit spent several weeks making outdoor sequences of tho picture.. v With the returning unit came two Irish youngsters selected by the director, Frank Borzge, for important roles in support of John McCormack. They are Miss Maureen O'Sullivan, eighteen years of age, and Thomas Clifford, eleven. Maureen was accompanied to America by her mother and the boy by his aunt and guardian.

Miss Mana Maris,. former film star in .Germany, has signed a long term contract with Fox Movietone following her work in "Romance of the Rio Grande," starring Warner Baxter and Miss Mary Duncan. Miss Maris has had a kaleidoscopic career. She is a native of Buenos Aires. She made her stage debut in London and wound up her continual experiences by acting for the U.F.A. company in Germany. As " Manu'eelita," a vivacious little tomboy in " Romance of the Rio Grande," her work was so impressive that Fox officials engaged her as leading lady to Don Jose Mojica in the opera star's first talking picture. -

With the call for actual experience growing in film production, history has a 'habit of repeating itself on the screen. The latest case concerns a man who was an attache of the headquarters staff on the night the Kaiser wrapped himself in his grey cape and fled to exile in Holland. And now, in the uniform of a German captain and mounted on a horse, he is leading a troop of dusty soldiers to war again in "All Quiet on the Western Front," Universal's " talkie". production of Erich Maria Remarque's book. He is Lieutenant Hens Fuerberg, of Potsdam. A3 a Potsdam cadet, he carried the most confidential communications from the Kaiser to Hindenberg, Ludendorf and other German leaders.

" Seven Keys to Baldpate," Richard Dix's first all-talking feature of R.K.0., was given its first preview in Hollywood recently. This former stage play has been filmed silently twice before, but the present version is perhaps the most effective of all. In spite of the preponderance of mystery films this season, "Seven Keys to' Baldpate" is to succeed in giving the audience an enjoyable hour's entertainment, largely because of the playing of the star and the rollicking comedy which predominates over the usual far-fetched thrill episodes which arc to be found in most mystery cinemas. Tho film also boasts the additional virtue of beiug fast-moving from beginning to end. A splendid cast, composed of Lucicn. Littlefield, Crauford Kent, Miss Margaret Livingston, Miss Miriam Seegar, Do Witt Jennings, Joseph Herbert, Carleton Macv, Harvey Clark and others, adds to the effectiveness of the picture.