LONG "TALKIE" CONTRACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 15

LONG "TALKIE" CONTRACT.

MR. LOTINGA'S PLANS,

The making of short talking pictures in England has recently occupied much of the attention of Mr. Ernie Lotinga, the London comedian. He has made ten halfhour comedies for British Sound Films at Wembly, some of which have already been shown in New Zealand, and on his return to England he will fulfil a contract with tho British Gaurnont Company to make a series of full-length comedies, including all the comedies he intends to play in Auckland. "The contract will take me 52 weeks to complete," said Mr. Lotinga yesterday. "After that I am going into a new production in the West End. It is a comedy called 'ln Camera,' which Mr. Norman Lee has written for rue, and will be produced at the Shaftesbury Theatre, I should sav in 1931."

Mr. Lotinga describes making talking pictures as extremely interesting, although trying, work. "It is very cold-blooded to act without an audience, and to be obliged to stop in the middle of a conversation while the microphones are being moved," he said. "One is expected to fall easily into the mood one was in when the break occurred and that is not very easy to do." Ho spoke enthusiastically of a British "talkie" called "Splinters," which has made a sensation in London.