SCREEN AND STAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21601, 23 March 1932, Page 3

SCREEN AND STAGE

FROM GREEN ROOM AND STUDIO

BY HARLEQUIN,

Edgar Wallace in Hollywood

Edgur Wallace, who was engaged in the writing of scenarios in Hollywood at tlie time of his death, found life in the great film centre extremely congenial to his active spirit. <- I am a newspaper man who has spent mv life getting on the inside of obscure situations, and the situation in Hollywood is a fascinating study,” he said in a newspaper interview published just before his death. “ People who think of me only us a man who turns out stories with a rapidity which they regard as uncanny do not realise that I am first and foremost a publicist, and newspaper work is the breath of my nostrils. 1 d sooner dig out an inside story than write a beat seller. It isn’t all straight-away writing. I have done some doctoring, though I refuse to have my name as a credit title to any story which I have not wholly written, even if I have doctored

the greater part of it. I have been in Hollywood six weeks, and I have written four complete scenarios. One of them in its present form is no use whatever, but I have a twist for it which will make it filmable. Nobody on the executive staff has told me it is no use, and I don t have to be told. I have met very few stars, but those few have been worth meeting. In fact, I haven’t met anybody in Hollywood about whom 1 could say, ‘ I don’t like that mau or woman.’ Mr Wallace insists there is no mystery about his quick writing. “ I’m a newspaper man, and in the hard training of a newspaper office I have learned to marshal my thoughts and give them terse expression. The highbrows tell me that my writing is not literature, and I retort that literature is too often unintelligible. What is a highbrow? He is a man wlio has found something more interesting than women. When I get that way I’ll stop writing and take to art. I work very early in the morning and very late at night, and well into the afternoon, and for three or four hours before lunch. “ Most of my work is dictated, but I write quite a lot, and it isn’t all stbry work or newspaper work. Since I left England at the end of November my letters to my wife amounted to 40,000 words, probably more. I have a very big correspondence. All the time I am in Hollywood I keep in touch with my various activities in England, and I have probably worn out the boots of more telegraph messengers than any other client. I have a play in rehearsal in London, which Sir Gerald dp Manner is producing and in which he is appearing. When he started rehearsals he discovered he did not like the end of the last act. To change it means rewriting almost the whole of the last act and a portion of tile second. I got up early one morning, rewrote the acts and cabled them to London as a night letter. They were in rehearsal the next day.”

Fu Manchu’s Return One of the most interesting features of the final adventure of Dr Fu Manchu, which will be screened at the Regent Theatre during the Easter holidays under the name of “Daughter of the Dragon,” will be the return to the screen of one of the most popular of all silent stars, Sessue Hayakawa. Associated with Sessue Hayakawa in Sax Rohmer’s thriller will be Anna May Wong, the beautiful Oriental star, who speaks delightful English, and Warner Oland, who has already appeared in the earlier pictures of this series. In conjunction with the screening of this picture the Regent Theatre management has specially engaged Mr Arthur Frost and his new Symphonic Dance Orchestra, who will present the latest dance tunes in a specially prepared stage presentation. Mr Alee Regan will sing some of the songs with this popular presentation. New Duke of Plaza Toro

Now making his appearance in New Zealand is Ivan Menzies, the notable Gilbert and Sullivan comedian, a member of the J.C. Williamson Company, which will open its Dunedin season on Saturday. Mr Menzies has had a varied and most interesting career. He is a Lancashire man, the son of a well-known surgeon at Kirby-in-Furness. But for an accident in his life—the European War—which curtailed his studies at a public school, he would have been practising medicine himself, but a regimental concert party, a village pantomime produced near his home, and one or two other exploits of the kind finally led him astray. He joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, spent a short time in musical comedy and the Chauve Souris, and went over to legitimate comedy at the Lyric, Hammersmith, as understudy of Sir Nigel Playfair. Before stepping into the black bustle of Charleys Aunt, in the recent London production, he took over the part relinquished bv Ernest Truex in “Good Morning, Bill.” Mr Menzies’s hobby is motor boating. The Marx Brothers Again

Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo, the Marx brothers, are the stars of a new and hilarious comedy which has been entitled “Monkey Business,” and which will be presented at the Empire Theatre on Saturday next. “ Monkey Business ” is heralded as the funniest picture the brothers have yet made, bounding in ludicrous situations, “ Monkey Business ’ reveals Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo as noisy, boisterous stowaways on a giant transatlantic liner. From the moment they are found hidden in four barrels labelled “kippered herring.” the Marxes do everything but sink the ship. They order the captain about, become the ship’s barbers, the ship’s doctors, and the ship’s nuisances. They pursue every good-look-ing girl from bow to stern; they become embroiled with a couple of desperate gangsters, and, just to tqp things off, rescue a girl in distress from the clutches of a villain. In the midst of these uproarious situations Harpo steals a minute or two to play his magic harp, and Chico, performs at the piano with his incomparable trigger-fingered technique. In addition to Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo,

Development of News Theatre

there is a large cast which the Marx brothers lend a merry chase. Among these arc Thelma Todd. Ruth Hall, Tom Kennedy, and Rockliffe Fellowcs. “ The Yellow Ticket ” As a wolf of the Czarist Secret Service, with two young lovers marked as his special prey, Lionel Barrymore excels his ever-remembered performances in “A Free Soul'’ and “Guilty Hands” in his latest triumph, “ The -Yellow Ticket,” in which he has with him no less a star than Elissa Landi. The third featured player, Laurence Olivier, created the role of Captain Stanhope in the London stage production of “Journey’s End,” which won him a role in the New York production of “ Private Lives,” and in turn a Hollywood contract. Other important players are Walter Byron, Rita Laßoy, Sarah Padden, and Mischa Auer. “The Yellow

Ticket ” will be the next attraction in the St. James Theatre.

The name of the Oxford Theatre, Birmingham, was recently changed to the Birmingham News Theatre, and this house has practically become a replica of the famous London News Theatre. I venture to prophesy (writes Seton Margrave in the Daily Mail) that this enterprise, now reaching for the first time outside London, must rapidly spread throughout the length and breadth of Britain. In point of sheer fascination, the News Theatre provides an unparalleled entertainment. Loudon has given remarkable evidence of this fact. In less than 18 months move than 1,500,000 people have paid for admission to the London News Theatre in Shaftesbury avenue. There are many reasons for this enthusiasm. Most of them are summed up in the News Theatre slogan: “Round the World in Fifty Minutes.” The News Theatre is not limited materially by a studio or emotionally by a triangle. Its setting is the world, and its stars are men and women of every nation and station. British Movietone News, which has contributed the programme to the London News Theatre, and which has inspired the Birmingham News Theatre, has recording units in every country. Literally it is searching day and night for film facts from China to Peru, and is, therefore, able to present before the eyes of the audience the world of wonderful reality. In the News Theatre you can see the world from a tip-up seal, which makes a tremendous appeal to me, because, for one thing, I am the world’s worst sailor. Every week Movietone News is seen in 36 different countries by more than 100,000,000 people. Every week 37 foreign or non-English-speaking editions are printed with material selected for different audiences, and with sub-titles in 19 different languages. Unfortunately, the development of the News Theatre ideal is greatly handicapped by the duty imposed on imported film, regardless of its character. I have no statistics on this subject, but the duty paid expressly in respect of the London News Theatre must be greater, out of all comparison, than the duty paid upon any ordinary kinema showing the most injurious of imported films. There is no good reason for this lack of distinction between the duties on news and fictional films. The News Theatre, in pursuit of its purpose, is compelled to import films from every country in the world. I defy the wit of any legislator to devise a Films Act whereby such pictures as “ Hail ami Farewell at the Gateway of India ” and the Tour of the Prince of Wales in the Argentine could be produced at Elstree. More than three years ago an exception was made in respect of scientific films because of their educational value and their restricted circulation. At that time the idea of a News Theatre had not been born. ‘Now it is in active being, now we know by experience its real educational value, and now we know that its films are restricted in circulation, not only because of being shown in specialised theatres, but also because the News Theatre programme of events is changed every day.

“ Alexander Hamilton ” Of all the screen stars there is one who stands out head and shoulders above most of the others from the point of view of world-wide popularity, and that is George Arliss. Recently picturegoers had die pleasure of seeing him in his first modern role. “ The Millionaire.” Arliss will be seen shortly at the Regent Theatre in a second “ Disraeli.” which is at the moment breaking records at the Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney. The picture is called “Alexander Hamilton,” and George Arliss returns to his favourite type of role—that of a histroical character. He seems to go from strength to strength, and has apparently succeeded in doing the impossible in presenting a greater success than ever before. “Alexander Hamilton ” is refined, intellectual, but all the time full-blooded entertainment.

St. James Bookings A remarkable series of outstanding film successes has just been announced by Sir Benjamin and Mr John Fuller for screening at the St. James Theatre. It includes “Politics,” with Marie Dressier and Polly Moran, “The Squaw Man.” with Warner Baxter and Roland Young; “The Sin of Madelon Claudet,” a dramatic gem. starring the sensational new star, Helen Hayes, with Lewis Stone in support; “ Out of the Blue,” the latest British International comedy. with Gene Gerrard. the comedian of “My Wife’s Family”: “The Cuban Love Song,” presenting the renowned singer and actor, Lawrence Tibbett; and “Susan Lennox. Her Fall and Rise,” starring together for the first time Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. Later films will include “Over the Hill.” the “ talkie ” version of the never-forgotten melodrama of silent days; “Mata Hari,” based on the story of the most famous spy and courtesan in modern history, with a superb cast, including Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone. Ramon Navarro, and Alex. B. Francis; and “Possessed,” which brings Joan Crawford and Clark Gable together.