FILM TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 11 (Supplement)

FILM TOPICS.

Fox have abandoned Flagg and Quirk parts for Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe.

" The Hunchback of Notre Dame " may be remade as a talking-picture with Bela Lugosi in Lon Ohaney's part.

During the hearing of a claim for payment for production of a talking-picture, the film was screened, as evidence, in the Paris Law Courts.

Bela Lugosi, who will play the leading role, in " Frankenstein," earned his first money for holding a girl's dog while she sat on a park bench and kissed her sweetheart

Paramount has engaged an " anachronism detective " to see that there are no errors in chronology or other incongruities during the filming of the 80-year old scenes of " Huckleberry Finn."

" The Speckled Band," the great Slierlock Holmes mystery drama, now a British, and Dominions talkie, owes much of its successes to the brilliantly imaginative direction of Jack Raymond. It starts with a great story, and has had tremendous care lavished upon it. Mr. Raymond has endeavoured to show on the screen all the dreadful horrors of a house where a grim and sinister doctor plots, and succeeds very thoroughly. It is the settings and the superb acting of every member of the cast that make this subject stand out even more noticeably. Angela Baddeley has created something of a furore among clitics with her performance, Lynn Harding plays his stage role of " Dr. Rylott " with amazing ease, and Atliole Stewart, N T ancy Price and Raymond Massey play their roles with telling effect.

The Leicester Film Society has arranged to give six monthly exhibitions of animal films at the Vaughan College, commencing early in October.

The rising young British actress, Ann Todd, is to play the leading part of Jane in Basil Dean's talkie of " The Water Gypsies." Sari Maritza will play her sister Lily.

D. W. Griffith says he is more enthusiastic about the possibilities of Edna Hagen, seven-year-old child actress, than any other discovery lie has made in his long career.

Richard Barthelmess is supported by beautiful Maj'y Astor in " The Lash," the First National and Yitaphone production to be shown here shortly. She plays the part of Rositn Garcia, sweetheart of the hero, who portrays a dashing vaquero of old California, avenger of the wrongs of his people, who are victims of the desperadoes that infested that golden land following Mexico's ceding of it to the United States. Others in the cast are Marian Nixon, James ltennie and Robert Edeson.

During his lifetime George Du Maurier was more famous for his work as an artist than for his work as an author. The novel " Trilby," one of the finest things he wrote, has outlived all else ho did in popularity, and it is now brought to the talking screen by Warner Bros, in the Vitaphone picture " Svengali," starring the famous actor. John Barrymore. The difficult role of Trilby is played by Marian Marsh, whoso beauty and appealing wist fulness is made even more effective by her deep understanding of the mingled tragedy and lightness of the part. " Svenjrali will bo shown here sliortlv.