Screen and Stage

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26842, 5 August 1948, Page 2

Screen and Stage

5 By JAXON*

“HAT TRICK”

One does not expect cinematic masterpieces at the rate of one a month so, after we had recovered from the first impact of Sir Laurence Olivier's noble “ Hamlet,” most of us felt content to sit back and wait for six months or so until something else exceptional should arrive on London's screens, writes our London correspondent. But within a fortnight Cineguild's " Oliver Twist ” made its debut and is currently breaking all records at the giant Odeon, Marble Arch, breaking even Samuel Goldwyn’s " Best Years of Our Lives.” Produced by the same team that made “ Great Expectations,” with a beautiful musical score by the Master of the King's Musick, Sir Arnold Bax, it is rated as the finest example of screen Dickens we have yet nad. This week, hot on the heels of ' Oliver Twist," comes the most ambitious of all ballet films, "The Red Shoes,” which uses technicolor in a way never before attempted. With these three spectacular successes running simultaneously in tne West End, Mr J. Arthur Rank has accomplished a cinematic hat-trick. Tne only Hollywood competition offering is the ludicrous " Green Dolphin Street and the boring “ Forever Amber. • A New Zealand ballet dancer, Bryan Ashbridge, is making his first screen appearance in “ The Red Shoes, figuring as one of the corps de ballet in the company whose story makes up the picture. Ir.sa audiences are usually difficult to Plea~e. At the press review of ‘The Red Shoes thev broke into the middle of the film to applaud the great ballet sequence, causing the operator to delay for several minutes the beginning of the following reel.

The Theatre Guild’s press department came up with the startling news last month that “Oklahoma! had won the worlds' long-run musical championship after all. According to . the apologetic and at the same time triumphant press department, it had failed to include a couple of benefit performances along with 44 special matinees given during the wai for members of the aimed forces. Puttm-, them together with the previous calculation gives “Oklahoma! a total of 2248 performances, eight more than London» “ Chu Chin Chow ” and the title. This •= as it should be, but drama writers undoubtedly will be settling bar-room squabbles for another generation to come.

The completion of the runs of several long-lived musicals has left Harvey, the whimsical saga of Elmer Dowd and his man-sized invisible rabbit, well out in front on the Broadway longevityroster. " Harvey ” now has 1519 performances on record, and is followed by "Born Yesterday” (986 performances), “Annie Get Your Gun" (859), ‘ Finian s Rainbow” (587), " Brigadoon ” (516), “The Heiress” (287), “Command Decision” (285), “Man and Superman (277) "High Button Shoes (also 277), and "Allegro” (275). Additional presentations have, of course, been given since the list was compiled. • * •

Hugh Herbert, the screen comedian In “A Song Is Born,” started (his professional career as the “ voice behind the screen” during silent films. He spoke the lines of all the male players in the pictures. • » .*

It is necessary from time to time to investigate Walt Disney’s operations, because his plans are always subject to change without notice and he is an Inveterate experimenter. His latest venture is a projected series of medium-length films to be called “ True Life Adventures.” Both whimsy and animation will be kept to a minimum in the adventures. and they will be designed for distribution wherever possible as a Disney package including also a short subject and a feature film. The first of the true life adventures, " Seal Island,” a factual account of the life cycle of the fur seal, is now in the final narration stage. It was photographed in •Kodachrome in the Probilof Islands.

The American Army Department is processing a dozen feature films with military backgrounds, a quantity which is almost up to war-time levels. This post-war upsurge is earlier and more prolific than was the similar trend after the First. World War. which produced “All Quiet on the Western Front,” " Dawn Patrol,” ana " Hell’s Angels ” in the early 1930'5. And it is also significant that there is no current tendency towards the pacifist viewpoint as there was in the 1930’5. The major projects claiming the army’s attention, in addition to “ Beyond Glory, a West Point picture now in the cutting rooms at Paramount, are “ Command Decision ” at Metro, “ Fighter Squadron ’ at Warners, “ Battleground ” at R.K.0., ■■ Rogue’s Regiment ” at Universal, and “ C.I.D. Agent ” at Columbia. • • • William Saroyan has attributed the shortcomings of the screen version of his play, “ The Time of Your Life,” to “ various restricting influences in Hollywood.” I saw the film,” he added. " and I must say X was entertained.” • • • Sophie Tucker received one of the greatest ovations of her career when she returned to the London stage. The critics were unanimous, one of them remarking that you “ could almost near odd fragments of austerity breaking up into chuckles.”^ The first tentative steps towards the establishment of a motion picture industry in the State of Israel have resulted to date in the production of a feature-length entertainment picture, “A Place Called Home,” and completion of the first in a series of monthly news films generally titled “ Israel To-day.” Less concrete at the moment, though optimistic none the less, are future expectations of bringing Israel recognition as the “ Hollywood of the Middle East.” Prime movers behind the campaign to develop a cinematic counterpart to the noted Habima theatre group are Norman Lourie and Joseph Krumgold, president and vice-president of Palestine Films, Inc.