CHAPLIN'S NEW FILM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 10 (Supplement)

CHAPLIN'S NEW FILM

RELEASE IN FEW MONTHS PRIVATE ROMANCE RUMOURED Preparations are at last under way for Charlie Chaplin's new film. The Chaplin studios, having remained as quiet as the interior of a pyramid for over three years, are now a hive of industry. . Carpenters are piling up neuiy-pur-chased lumber. Electricians are swarming round the framework of the oldfashioned open-air stage, covered with canvas, like so many monkeys. Hie "sweat room"—an ante-chamber where storv writers, director and star sit tor hours discussing sequences—has taken on a new coat of fresh green paint. The loading lady's dressing-room once the property of Edna Purviance—has been completely redecorated in silver and old rose —just as a surprise for Paulette Goddard, who is to be Chaplin's screen heroino, as well as bis real life sweetheart. . . There are no detailed particulars about the story yet available, but Chaplin snvs that the new picture will be ready for release by the end ot Mav. 1934, and that Miss Goddard will play a sort of Jackie Coogan ' Kid role. Chaplin will again be the poor, ragged tramp, and the poverty of the man and the girl will draw them together in mutual sympathy. It will be an "idealistic romance," wit" the comedian giving up his heroine in the last scenes. But in real life Charlie does not intend giving Paulette up. His. closest friends sav that wedding plans are afoot for June of this year, with the ceremony to take place on Chaplin's yacht Panacea, anchored off Catalina Island —and a honeymoon abroad. For a year now Paulette, who was one of the dancing beauties in "The Kid from Spain," and the little comedian have been quite inseparable. Chaplin never attends a party or a sporting fevent without her. She was divorced from Edgar Goddard, the president of a lumber company, soon after meeting Charlie, and a month later her mother moved to Hollywood from New York to keep house for her and manage her business affairs. Paulette, described as a "platinum blonde" a year ago, has been prevailed upon by Chaplin to revert to a natural brunette.