PUBLIC FINANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27078, 12 May 1949, Page 2

PUBLIC FINANCE

The highly unusual practice of seeking public support for film production as typified by " Monsieur Vincent," which was turned out by virtue of 75,000,000 francs contributed by 100,000 Frenchmen, seems to have caught on in France. Another film, “Dr Laennec,” a biography of the French physician who invented the stethoscope and discovered auscultation, has been produced under the same conditions, according to the Rev. John A. V. Burke, writing in Sight and Sound magazine, London. Oddly enough, the same writing-directing team which made " Monsieur Vincent " also fashioned "Dr Laennec.” When the director, Maurice Cloche, found that professional investors were not interested in " Dr Laennec," he again' turned to the man in the street and the response was immediate. “ Sums amounting to 1000 francs,” Cloche reported, " arrived at the studio each day till the film was finished.” Because of the filmmakers' devotion to their project, the picture, scheduled to be made in 69 days at the Billancourt studio in Paris, was completed in only 49 days. Father also revealed that “ The Divine Tragedy,” now being prepared for production, will be financed by subscriptions from interested persons throughout the world. This is a drama about the last hours of the life of Christ which Abel Gance, French scenarist-director, plans to produce in at least three languages. It is to be shot in Egypt and Switzerland by non-professional actors. * <• * The Milan opera's prospectus shows that 10 productions are being remounted this season. The redesigned ” Faust,” “La Favourita ” and " Kovantchina " have already been unveiled. Others are " Carmen, ” Lucia,” "II Matrimonio Segreto,” “La Forza del Destano," *' I Puritani,” "Die Walkuere,” and "Tales of Hoffman." y'

Ealing, undeterred by the luke-warm reception accorded to its second Australian effort, " Eureka Stockade,” has resolutely sent out a unit to Australia for a third production. * This will be " Bitter Springs,” an original story set in the earlv,nineteen hundreds, with the tricky problem of the aborigines as a theme. Stars will be Australia’s Chips Rafferty, Cockney London’s Tommy Trinder and Scotland’s Gordon Jackson. •• . • Script writers at the Fox Studios are frantically reading Australian novels to get background material for a film courageously called “ The Australian Story.” Set in the Australian bush, the picture will feature very American Jean Peters. * • • If some minor differences are successfully overcome, Sir Laurence Olivier will direct Tennessee Williams’s "A Streetcar Named Desire ” for H. M. Tennent in London. Vivien Leigh, is to play the role created by Jessica Tandy. Sir Laurence is also becoming active as a producer. He has started rehearsals on James Bridie’s new comedy, ” Daphne Laureola,” with Dame Edith Evans heading the cast.

One of Australia’s up-and-coming stage and broadcasting actors, Peter Finch, has come to London to work for Ealing in the omnibus picture, ” Train of Events.” Finch, who left for Australia at the age of 10, was running his own dramatic company in a Sydney factory when Sir Laurence Olivier saw him during the Old Vic’s recent tour. Partly on .Olivier’s recommendation, he decided to come to England and try his luck, with the result that he now finds himself strangling a young woman in the interests of the cinema and cramming her body into a theatrical hamper.

* Mme. Bodenweiser, protagonist of modern expressive dancing in Sydney, is at work on a ballet with a fascinating theme —the Capek play varioulsy translated as The Insect Play,” “ The Life of the Insects," and “Ad Infinitum.” Mme. Bodenwieser’s interpretation will bring out the idea of eternal struggle contained in the last title.

• \ • • Hollywood’s oldest permanent film set, Universal - International’s “ Western Street,” built in 1921, is being removed to make w r ay for a new outdoor Western set. This famous street, extending nearly a-quarter of a mile over the studio grounds, has been used for scenes in more than 1000 films. Hoot Gibson was the first actor to use it.

An out-of-print single-sided gramophone record, made by HMV in 1910, is heard in the film “ Scott of the Antarctic.” It is a recording of Dame Clara Butt singing “Abide With Me.” • * * George Bernard Shaw has written the dialogue for a marionette play which will be presented at the Malvern Festival due to open on August 8. for the first time since the war. Sir Lewis Casson and Dame Sybil Thorndike will record some of the lines. An Irish actor will be chosen to impersonate Shaw. The play is largely a dialogue between himself and Shakespeare. * • • .The New Zealand basso, Oscar Natzke, has commenced his concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. Natzke has been singing leading baSso roles in the New York City Opera Company. Besides standard works, he sang recently in the world premiere of a new opera by negro composer William Grant Still, ” The Troubled Island,’’ which deals with the struggles of the negroes in Haiti. • • • Sumner Locke-Elliott’s contentious play “ Rusty Bugles ” probably has the distinction of being the first Australian play to run in two States at the same time. There are hopes of a New Zealand tour. • • * Australia’s Federal Government is seriously considering establishing a National Theatre. To help in its foundation, Tyrone Guthrie, one of Britain’s leading producers, arrived in Australia last month.