FILM TOPICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 12 (Supplement)

FILM TOPICS

" The "Moonstone," the film version of Wilkie Collin's famoug novel, will have David Manners, Phyllis Barry and Jameson Thomas in the leading parts.

Hollywood's oldest and youngest actresses are to appear together in Paramount's " Now and Forever," with Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard. The oldest is Charlotte Granville, 71-vear-old actress, and the youngest is Shirley Temple, aged five years, who has been the biggest -infant attraction since Baby Lq Boy made his first bow. Miss Granville has been acting for 40 years.

Nine reels of film depicting the Siberian countryside, from which the necessary footage will be selected, have arrived in Hollywood for use as the background in the final sequences of " We Live Again," Samuel Goldwyn's transcription of Tolstoy's " Resurrection," starring Anna Sten and Frederic March. By arrangement with the Soviet film authorities, a camera crew was sent from Moscow to photograph miles of the delicate silver birches and the fields of poppy that enrich the Siberian springtime. It is said to be the first time that a camera record has been made of this little-known area.

The cabaret scene in " The Private Life of Don Juan," in which Merle Oberon dances a sensational Spanish dance, will be quite unlike the usual cabaret presented so often in films. Vincent Korda has constructed another of his unusual striking settings for this scene. Merle Oberon, as Tonita, the dancer, executes some difficult steps to the music of the guitar and castanets. She had not long in which to learn the routine of this dance. She studied under one of the world's greatest teachers —Nicholas Legat, who was ballet master to the Imperial School at St. Petersburg.

Exactly 15 years ago—in 1919 —Mary Pickford was announcing that she would make just nine more pictures and then retire from the film business. To-day she is reported to be considering stories for her next picture.

For the iirst time since the " gay 'nineties," feathers came into lavish use when Cecil B. De Mille ordered the decorations for Cleopatra's barge, the biggest set in his current Paramount picture, " Cleopatra." The feathers of 500 pheasants made up the fans used in one dance. A solid arch of ostrich feathers, 20 feet in height and 30 feet across at the base, formed the background of Cleopatra's couch. There were exactly 600 plumes in it.

After several months' work in Australia on his new film production, " Splendid Fellows," Mr. F. Beaumont Smith, managing director of J. C. Williamson Picture Corporation (New Zealand), Limited, is due to arrive in Auckland to-day by the Mariposa. The film is now completed, except for certain sequences embodying scenes in the Centenary Air Race. The cast includes many well-known players, among them being Eric Colman, a brother of Ronald Colman.

Word has been received by British Dominions Films, Limited, that " Nell Gwyn " had a most enthusiastic reception at its world premiere at the Astor Theatre, New York. Following this successful premiere, Herbert Wilcox, under whose personal direction " Nell Gwyn " was made, announced that he had completed a deal under which 23 British and Dominions pictures, produced at Elstree, to a total amount of about £200,000, would be shown throughout America.