BRITAIN'S PROGRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 12 (Supplement)

BRITAIN'S PROGRESS

AMBITIOUS NEW FILMS HENRY VIII. AS YOUNG MAN When Hollywood awarded Charies Xaughton its medal for the best screen performance of 1933, English films, which had lingered long in an arrested adolescence, attained manhood. _ 10-day England's film industry is vigorous, and seeking fresh worlds to conquer. The distinction was conferred upon Laugliton by the Hollywood Academy of Motion Pictures for his splendid work in " Henry VIII." It was the first time that tho coveted blue riband of filmland had been awarded to an English actor, and it was a tribute not only to the actor but to tho film in which he played. " The Private Life of Don Juart," a ;witty film-play by Frederick Lonsdale, .with Douglas Fairbanks in the leading part, is under production, and a fantastic glimpse into the future, " The Hundred Years to Come," an original film story by H. G. Wells, is on the list of forthcoming releases. One of London Film's production unite recently spent five months in African jungles to secure shots for " Commissioner Sanders of the River," a colourful romance based on Edgar Wallace's African tales, and Charles Laughton, after his return from America, is to appear in two more London Film Production pictures, one of them " The Field of the Cloth of Gold," in which he

.Will play the young King Henry VHI. In the same film Maurice Chevalier will be cast as Francis L, King of France, Douglas Fairbanks, junior, will be Charles V., Emperor of the Holy 'Roman Empire, and Merle Oberon, the brilliant Tasmanian " find," will again ibe Anne Boleyn. Before this, Maurice Chevalier will star in his first English film, " The Marshal," an historical romance of Napoleonic times. This is a far cry from the not-so-distant days when mothers-in-law, twin beds, drunks and Cockney policemen were the sole inspiration of the English producer, and when tawdry stage sets and poor photography were the inevitable hall-marks of his films. Every studio in England tells a similar tale of swift advancement. Here, for example, is a glance ahead at_ the programme of the Gaumont-British Corporation, who are at present making huge extensions to their £750,000 studios at Islington and Shepherd' 3 Bush. Gaumont-British will make three notable contributions to important films of 1934, outstanding of which is the screen version of " Jew Suss," in which Conrad Veidt, who has just contracted to make three films for this corporation, has the principal part. Veidt, of course, is cast as " Jew Suss." Benita Hume plays Marie Augusta, the late Sir Gerald du Maimer Weissiensee, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke Rabbi Gabriel. ' .. „ Another notable Gaumont-British release will be " Little Friend," an excursion into child psychology, in which the spiritual experiences and conflicts of a 12-year-old girl are revealed

through her own eyes. In different vein is " Chu Chin Chow," an adaptation of Oscar Asche's musical extravaganza that ran in London during tho war for 2238 performances. George Robey will be seen as AH Baba, Anna May Wong as Znhrat the slave girl, and Malcolm McEacherri, an Australian, as Abdullah. " Chu Chin Chow " will be played by Fritz Kortner, a young German actor from tho Berlin State Theatre. But perhaps Gaumont-British Corporation's most remarkable Australian release this year will be " Man of Aran," the documentary film of the lives of the Aran islanders, made by Robert Flaherty. This is the first film " document" conceived in the spirit of the Russian directors Eisenstoin and Pudovkin to be sponsored by an English commercial studio. Flaherty has ma do a simple narrative film of the lives of these rugged people, •whose struggle for existence on their barren, storm-swept islands tells an jßpic story.