SCREEN SNAPSHOTS

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13285, 17 June 1936, Page 3

SCREEN SNAPSHOTS

WEE SHIRLEY TEMPLE HAS IDEAL ROLE. ( O-STARS WITH LIONEL BARRYMORE IN POPULAR ROMANCE, THE LITTLE COLONEL,” That bunille of screen magic, live--4 year-old Shirley Temple, will soon be thrilling and delighting her army of local movie fans in a new picture Reports from other centres indicate that in “The Little Colonel,“ Kox . Eihn has given her an ideal vehicle , for her acting, singing and dancing wdl come to. the lying’s--1 heatre on Tuesday next.. Siie co-stars with fa on el Barrymore in this popular story of Soiitheiii prejudices, adapted from Annie Fellows Johnston’s series of “Little Colonel ” stories, which were the favourite reading of millions a generation back, and whose appeal is perennial. “The Little Colonel 77 is the'story °f a Kentucky belle who marries a

JOAN BLONDELL TURNS C ARTWHEELS TO PLEASE BABY. Joan Biondell, who has a leading role in Warner Bros. 7 production, “Broadway Gondolier,' 7 which comes to the King's Theatre on Saturday, is literally heels over head in love with her baby son. In an effort to amuse him during a crying spell in the studio, the young actress turned a cartwheel in front of him. Norman Scott Barnes stopped crying and gurgled delightedly. But as" soon as Joan went on about her motherly duties, right side up, he .started again. Joan tried the acrobatics a second time. She's good at cartwheels and this time she turned three of them, one after another, for the baby. He squealed with delight, but began to cry almost immediately,

Clarke Gable, Hollywood’s Number One th rill-seeker,- has -completed plans to seek new thrills in China. ! ‘■The beginning of my China vacation depends upon Metro-Goldwyn- ; Mayer’s plans for me,” said Gable, during his filming of “Wife Versus ; Secretary'' (to be screened in Wei- j lington shortly). “1 understand I ; jjMist do one more picture before 1 j rate a vacation’. \ have toured Eu- i rope, I have flown over South Ameri- j cn, so I ain seeking a new itinerary for my next trip.”

Yankee, against her father s wishes, and is promptly disowned by the proud old aristocrat, who is still Jiving in the days of the Civil War. Barrymore is the obdurate Southern aristocrat. Shirley plays the cameo colonel whose dancing feet, smiling eyes, and licney-coloured curls make a withering attack on the heart of the stern rebel

In keeping with the importance of this picture, Technicolour graced part of this De Sylva production 1 . They real Shirley as she really looks is seen for the first time by her following of movie fans. Critics m cities where “The Little Colonel” is playing, hail it as Shirley’s most superb vehicle. There is blent drama and comedy, in the plantation, frontier and army scenes. .Attention is being called everywhere to Shirley’s -dancing with Bill Robinson in his original stair elaborately staged in one sequence of the picture

once she stopped. So she turned somersaults in front of his crib until he got sleepy and closed his eyes. And the next night, when Joan got home from her work at the studio, Norman Scott Barnes was waiting in his crib for a repetition of the performance. Nothing would satisfy him except cartwheels This started a regular routine. Joan works hard all day at the studio and turns cartwheels at home for a half-bour each night. “Anyway, it’s good for the waistline," 7 she explains, “but it begins to look as though the old vaudeville curse, ‘may all your children be acrobats, 7 has fallen on our baby.” “Broadway Gondolier” reunites the young stars of “Gold Diggers of 1933,” Dick Powell and Joan Blondell. Adolphe Menjou and Louise Fazenda are included in the all-star cast.

In order to film “The Prisoner of Shark Island, 7 ' 7 which stars Warner Baxter, the largest indoor set ever constructed in motion pictures was set up in the 20th Century studios. Eight hundred men worked on the set, a replica of the island prison where Or. Samuel Alexander Mudd suffered years of prison agony for having set the leg of the man who murdered Lncoln. “The Prisoner of Shark Island” will be released throughout New Zealand bv Fox Films.

FROM ALL PARTS OF GLOBE. A cast gathered from the four corners of the earth will be seen in the Edmund Gou lding production of “The Flame 'Within, 7 ' which opens an engagement at the King’s Theatre on Thursday . Ann Harding was born in San Anton o, Texas; Herbert Marshall in London ; Maureen O'Sullivan in Boyle, Ireland • Louis Hayward in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Henry Stephenson in the Isle of Granada* in the British West Indies.v This new Metro-Gold wyn-Mayer picture, an original story by Goulding, related a period in the life of one of the world’s most famous women psychiatrists. BARRYMORE LAUDS SHIRLEY TEMPLE. Lionel Barrymore, eldest member of the “royal family 77 of the theatre. pays a unique compliment, to little Sh’rley Temple, his co-star in Fox Film’s “The Little Colonel.” “She is a rare combination,” he says. “She is a highly capable actress and sweet, a combination rarely encountered in a star.” NEWS FROM HERE AND THERE Another bundle of bright nonsense is tied up in the celluloid reels of “Silly Billies,” wherein Mr Wheeler and Mr Woolsey go back to the wild and woolly ’sixties for the atmosphere of their latest RKO Radio Picture. Dorothy Lee-is once again acting .with * tile comedians. Films due for release by British Empire Films include: “King .of the Castle,” with Claude Dampier and Billy Milton; “Cheer Up,” with Stanley Lupino; “Public Nuisance, No. 1” ; “Invitation to the Waltz, 77 with Lillian Harvey; and some new releases featuring Charles “Buddy” Rogers While Fox executives were occupying themselves with the Dionne quintuplets,, figuring that these five were the only members of the family who count so far* as ; public* interest is concerned. Universal big chiefs have put over a “fast one” by signing up Mr and-Mrs Dionne and five, .older children for a production to be entitled, “Where Are My Children ? 7 ’ The parents, two boys and three girls, are proceeding to Ho 11 ywood immediately to commence work on the picture, which should be good box-office. Watching Henry Fonda and his ex-wife, Margaret Sul la van, work together in “The Moon’s Our Home,” would remind one of the story about, the man who stalked dramatically out of the house after saying to his wife: “Everything is all over between us! You will never see me again Good-bve!”—and then had to go back for his hat. But if you ask them, 'they will toll you the story isn't applicable to their case. They give you the “still good friends” formula, and to watch them as they do a scene together, three years or so after their divorce, you believe it.

IRENE DUNNE. CONTRACT WITH PARAMOUNT. Announcement has just been made of the signing of Irene Dunne to a contract with Paramount, whereby she will make three pictures a year, starting with the 1936-37 programme. 'Miss Dunne, who a promising career on the New York dramatic and musical comedy stage fir> transfer her talents to the screen, lias been building prestige steadily since his first appearance in rhotion pictures and has won for Herself a reputation for competence sjnd dependability of performance Unexcelled by any other star. ? Recently she shared top honours With Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers in “Roberta,” in' which she carried the leading feminine role. Her latest syooess] “The Magnificent + Obsession,” is one of the top grossing .pictures of the present season, and her performance has been acclaimed as ofie of the finest of recent years. She iff yet to be seen in the leading role in Universal “Show Boat,” which has just been completed. In signing Miss Dunne, Paramount has acquired a distinct asset, for she not only possesses good looks and pronounced acting ability, along with a fine singing voice which can he effectively utilised in musical productions, but has a steadily growing following among fans who rate her as the’r favourite woman star. Plans for her first picture for Paramount will be announced shortly-

Two new pictures are being produced by Ga u m out— British at their Shepherd's Bush studios. The first is “Seven Sinners,” featuring Edmund Lowe and Constance C ummings, and the second is “Everything Is Thunder,’’ a story of a British officer, who escapes from a German prison and is befriended by «a waif in Berlin. The popular Constance Bennett makes her first English appearance in this film. Director James Cruze, who made his name fifteen years ago with “The Covered Wagon,” is creating an even more pretentious and colourful epic in Universal's “Sutter’s Gold, Edward Arnold’s latest picture. Cruze is a master of outdoor historical drama, and in filming this story of the founding of a golden empire, he has a job after his own heart.