Cochran and the Screen

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

Cochran and the Screen

Charles Li. Cochran, greatest pro- j ducer In the present-aay English j theatre, is again toying with the idea : of going into films. \ Cochran went to Hollywood re- 5 cently and immediately Went into : conference with Walter Wanger, j No statement has been made by { either Cochran or Wanger but it I seems certain that they are con- ■ sidering an international agreement I lo make films both in Britain and S in America. j One feature of ihe deal would { be that Wanger, who has several : important stars under contract, Would \ ship 'ihem lo Britain, while Cochran j Would use his stage contacts lo \ tend British stars to Hollywood. I

(There, was a lull in shooting while a pumber of extras were being put in position for the train-smash scenes. Young and I were talking about Barbara Stanwyck; but 1 am afraid ithe charming Barbara was completely forgotten. For Lorre suddenly decided ,to make love to Madeleine Carroll. In pseudo-serious- style, he protested his passion in eloquent tones. It was ludicroUs love at its best. Then Hitchcock said: "Everything's ready." Lorre stopped his joking and was enshrouded immediately in his cloak of ' seriousness, On another occasion, I saw him chasing Miss Carroll across the set, pretending to be in a murderous mood. But this time he was merely re-enact-ing, for Madeleine's doubtful benefit, a scene he had to do in the picture. You 'might think, seeing Lorre do these things, that ho is simply consciously or unconsciously trying to attract attention to himself as so many actors do. 3i.it this is not so. These outbreaks of fooling are purely spontaneous. They are part of his i:ature. Lorre is in fact extraordinarily modest when he discusses his work. (The one thing that worries him is the j,. "typing" problem. He is acutely aware v,. fact that he has become associ-