Screen and STAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27392, 18 May 1950, Page 2

Screen and STAGE

by Jaxon

KEATON LOOKS BACK

Buster Keaton, who made his last Hollywood appearance as a comedy star exactly 15 years ago, is back at his favourite pastime—handing out fun via the motion pictures to a public that he believes is starving for real laughs. He is trying to answer the public’s craving, not as a star, but as what might be termed an unseen “ man behind the gag." Keaton has been working on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s sound stages, where he turned out 10 comedies from 1928 to 1933. Employing the same comedy sense that took him to the top in those days, he constructed sequences involving Red Skelton in “A Southern Yankee." In this capacity he is considered something of a specialist in Hollywood.

Eifty-one years old and twice a grandfather, Keaton looks much the same as when he was the toast of the comedy world. His face, without a wrinkle, is as frozen as ever in its dead-pan expression, always the Keaton trade mark. He also is still quick with jokes as Hollywood has noted in calling on his aid. Keaton obviously likes being around a studio, although he confessed to missing “ the good old days." He recalled, as typical of former times, the day he left his own set between scenes to visit Lew Cody on an adjoining stage. A stunt man was having trouble doing a fall for Cody, so Keaton stepped in and did it. He was back on his own stage before he was missed, and nobody was the wiser. “ There just isn’t as much fun in the business now," he lamented. Keaton first reached the top in Hollywood in 1917, when he began a string of 16 pictures in team with Fatty Arbuckle. In 1919 he started making his own films in the Keaton Studio, and in

1928 he joined M-G-M. His pictures averaged a gross of 2,000,000 dollars and cost approximately 250,000 dollars each. “ That was a lot for those days,” he remarked. The same pictures today, made just the same way would cost 2,000,000.” He is convinced that such films as “ The Navigator,” “ The General,” " Battling Buster.” and “ The Cameraman,” among his best, could be filmed today scene for scene, and be just as funny as ever. " Comedy does not change,” he said. Asked to name the outstanding comedians of all time, Keaton replied quickly, “On the stage—Marceline, the original Hippodrome clown; Slivers Oakley, the clown; and Fred Stone.” He was a trifle more thoughtful about his choice for the screen. Finally he settled on Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, W. C. Fields, Lou Costello and Skelton, whom he described as the best all-around comic of recent years. He modestly left out the name of Buster Keaton.

Until the Ballet des Champs Elysees arrives in Australia, it will not be known whether this excellent French group will make a tour of New Zealand. Advice to this effect was received in a letter from Mr R. L. Grant, director of Fullers Theatres, this week. Only the arrangements for the Australian tour had been completed, he stated, and any extension would be a matter for negotiation after the ballet company arrived.

Two American producers have arrived in Sydney to launch forthcoming Williamson shows—Peter Bronte (“ Song of Norway”) and Paul Foley (“Harvey”). Both these productions will open in Melbourne in June or July. People in Sydney are beginning to ask whether they will see all the shows that Williamsons have promised this year, what with " Oklahoma ” still doing robust business at the Royal, the Empire stopped up with " Hellzapoppin ” and the National Ballet season until July; and five seasons —“A Streetcar Named Desire,” “ Song of Norway,” the Gilbert and Sullivan company. “ Harvey,” and more remotely, ” Brigadoon ” —yet to come. There has been a certain amount or optimism that New Zealand may get an earlier glance at some of these shows than would normally be the case. There is no enthusiasm in the industry for ringing down the curtain on shows which are still good friends of the box office, and for this reason it is thought possible that some of the shows may be “ kept on ice ” by making a preliminary tour of New Zealand while established favourites end up their seasons in Australia. • * *

Actor-producer John Gielgud may make an antipodean tour with a company in 1952. He is anxious to make such a tour, but next year—like most leading British stage people—he has commitments for the Festival of Britain.

The transition from professional wrestling to film acting is not an easy one. “ Tiger Joe ” Marsh is finding that out since he joined 20th Century-Fox, for which he is now making his second film, “ Panic in the Street.” “ The Tiger ” plays the tough boatswain’s mate of a tramp steamer which is boarded by Paul Douglas and Richard Widmark as detectives seeking a murderer. The exwrestler had his own ideas on how he should manhandle them. “ I told director Elia Kazan that I ought to give Widmark a ‘ Japanese belly pitch ’ that would make him sail through the air about 10 feet,” said “The Tiger.” “Then I suggested turning on Douglas and giving him the old ‘ rolling knee lock.’ I thought maybe, too, I could pull down a firehose and maybe strangle Paul a little with that. This would be something new. I don’t believe it's ever been done in wrestling even. But, no! ”he sighed. " Kazan won’t have any of that. All I do is grab Widmark by the arm and sort of move behind Douglas, lady-like, with my bodv. They won’t even let me throw a * hula hip hold ’ into Douglas. A wrestler who goes into films has certainly got to suffer some frustration; but I guess it’s the same with all creative artists I”

Tlie first entry for the 1950 “ Miss Australia ” contest was sponsored by the duo-pianists, Ivor Moreton and Dave Kaye. It was Margaret Fitzgibbon, a soubrette who was in Dunedin in the same Tivoli show as Moreton and Kaye last year. #

Films often have an uncanny way of predicting actual happenings. This has been the case with a new British film named “ Morning Departure,” the story of a submarine disaster, starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough. It was completed just before the recent loss of HM submarine Truculent. Its story and the facts of the Truculent tragedy are so similar that for a time it was doubtful whether it would reach the screen. The film, made at Denham, Portland, Weymouth, and at sea with complete Admiralty co-operation, cost less than £150,000. The first complete print reached the makers three days after the Truculent disaster. Was it too late to show the film? Some wanted it put on the shelf indefinitely. Others—the Admiralty included—thought it should take its chance on its merits as a sincere naval story and not be allowed to suffer for having inadvertently foretold a real tragedy. The censors said: "Had we found a false note in it we might have hesitated to pass it at such a time, but we think it deserves to be seen.” They therefore gave it an "Adult ” certificate subject to this foreword: “This film was completed before the loss' of HMS Truculent. Careful consideration has been given to the desirability of showing it so soon after the grievous disaster. The producers feel, however, that the film will be accepted in the spirit in which it was intended, as a sincere tribute to the brave men, and as an expression of oride tn the Royal Navy.”

Roland Culver and Betty Ann Davis were in the middle of a dramatic scene for ” Sanatorium,” one of the three Somerset Maugham stories in “ Trio,” being made at Rank's Pinewood Stadios, when the sound technician reported an insistent squeaking. Cause of the trouble was the studio cat which had just had kittens and was firmly installed in a sheltered spot.