BEST PICTURE OF YEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

BEST PICTURE OF YEAR

- BOARD OF REVIEW CHOICE "THE INFORMER" PLACED FIRST " The Informer," featuring Victor McLagleit, has been awarded the title of the best picture of the year by an American organisation, while Shirley Temple, Will Rogers and Clark Gable have been disclosed as the most popular stars during 1935. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, situated in New York, announced recently that " The Informer," made by Radio Pictures, had been selected for the annual award, on the basis of popular appeal. The board, which isi an organisation of several hundreds of unpaid lay critics, selected the following list of the year's most successful! pictures: —" David Copperfield," " Muntiny on the Bounty," " The Informer," " Lives of a Bengal Lancer," "Top Hat," "Midsummer Night's I)ream," "Naughty Marietta," " Les Miserables," " Anna Karenina," " Ruggles of Red Gap." Another English actor, Charles Laughton, starred in no than three of the films named, "Mutiny on the Bounty," " Les Miserables," and " Ruggles of Red Gap." Assessment of the most popular stars of the year was made by canvassing independent exhibitors in the United States. They filled in a questionnaire stating ten stars whose pictures drew most money to their theatres during the year ending September 1, 1935. Shirley Temple, who tops the list, made her first season of appearances in

feature films in 1933-34; this year is the first in which a child star has been placed among the first ten players in the canvass. She is now six-and-a-half years old. This year the list shows considerable changes; six players find themselves in the first ten who last year had widelyscattered positions. The list of runnersup is: Will Rogers, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Dick Powell, Wallace, Beery, Joe E. Brown, James Cagney. ' VEven more interesting is the distribution of stars lower in the list. On a system of marking whereby Shirley Temple received 874 and James Cagney 334, Greta Garbo received 41, Sylvia Sidney 12, Maurice Chevalier 2, and such well-known stars as Elisabeth Bergner, Constance Bennett, Marlcno Dietrich and the Marx Brothers one apiece.