"TALE OF TWO CITIES"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21456, 1 April 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

"TALE OF TWO CITIES"

DISPUTE OVER FILMING RIVAL STUDIOS' PLANS Who shall film " A Tale of Two Cities " ? The right to turn Dickens' famous novel into a talkie is being debated with considerable acerbity by two of Hollywood's leading film "emperors," each of whom claims to have given birth to the idea. Cecil de Mille, who has just shown what he can do with " The Sign of the Cross," was first with an announcement that he would present Fredric March as Sydney Carton. Winfield Sheehan, of Fox, points out that his studio filmed the story as a silent picture as long ago as 1917, and therefore, he considers, has the prior right. His selection for the leading part ■'played in the earlier version by William Farnum) is Warner Baxter, and the director would be Frank Lloyd, director of " Cavalcade."

As the copyright of Dickens' novel has long since lapsed, the rival producers would be perfectly entitled to make " opposition " pictures, though this is unlikely to happen. " The Only Way,-" the famous stage version of the novel, is the property of Sir John Martin-Harvey, who appeared in a British film of the play in 1926. Written, in collaboration, by the clergy-man-dramatist, 'the Rev. Freeman Wills, " The Only Way " was first produced in lf-99, and has been revived on countless occasions.