FILM TOPICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22084, 13 April 1935, Page 11 (Supplement)

FILM TOPICS

Conrad Nagel, noted leading man and one of the screen's most popular personalities, will return to pictures after a brief absence to appear in the principal male part opposite Florence Rice in Columbia's "Death Flies East." That Diana Wynyard will not return to Hollywood until next spring at the earliest is indicated by reports receiver at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. studio of the successful opening of her new play, " Sweet Aloes," in London. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have three vehicles awaiting Miss Wynyard's return. Fred Astaire, having beaten off a severe attack of laryngitis, is back at work at the RKO Radio studio in Hollywood, making his last big dance number in " Roberta," with Ginger Rogers. This musical picture is rapidly ncaring completion, with only the last dance and a few style show scenes yet to be made. Mona Barrie, the young Australian actress who has met with such rapid success in Hollywood, has been given the leading role in " Mystery Woman," a story prepared expressly for her. Other stories have been purchased for her meanwhile, and Fox Films executives feel that within a short time Mona Barrio will have been established as one of the screen's outstanding stars. Margo, diminutive Mexican beauty who as a singer and dancer at Agua Calicnte won her way first to the Ambassador Coconut Grove in Los Angeles and from there to Broadway, has been awarded one of the leading parts in Paramount's "Rumba," a drama of Havana, in which George Raft and Carole Lombard will appear. Margo recently made her motion picture debut in "Crime Without Passion," also released bv Paramount.

In preparation for his next Paramount spectacle, "The Crusades," Cecil B. Do Mille is recreating Windsor Castle as it was in the 12th century. In this production, Henry Wilcoxon will play the role of Richard the LionHeart. Frank Lloyd, the director, and a unit from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios will leave shortly for the South Seas to obtain location sequences for " Mutiny on the Bounty," The film is based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. It is announced that Charles Laughton will bo starred with Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery in this picture. Madeleine Carroll commenced work recently in the cast of " The Thirtynine Steps," the Gaumont-British screen version of John Buchan's spythriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Since she appeared in hei' last English picture, " 1 was a Spy," Miss Carroll has had the benefit of considerable American experience. She will probably be cast with Conrad Veidt later in " Redemption," the screen version of Tolstoy's novel, " The Living Corpse." S. R. Kent, president for Fox Film Corporation, has arranged with Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson, whose latest adventure film, " Baboona," will soon bo shown, here, to make a new safari into the jungles of Africa, India, the Malay States and the South Seas to bring back a new animal picture for Fox Film sponsorship. The Johnsons plan to start on their new trip in May, and it will be their longest and most ambitious effort to date. They will fl.v to Cuba and South America, and will then fly over the Atlantic, using the same route travelled by the Lindberghs recently. The two explorers will spend two years collecting photographic shots for their new film. " Baboona," their current picture, was 20 months in the making.