More Talkies of Private Lives

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18589, 27 December 1934, Page 13

More Talkies of Private Lives

THE craze for biography .among film ■ producers shows no sign of dying. On the contrary, every day the gallery of portraits in the making grows larger and stranger. They range from Saint Joan to Captain Kidd and Henry Morgan, from Clive and Mr Lloyd George (as yet only a possibility) to the Emperor Maximilian, Tod Sloan, the jockey, and Samson and Delilah. From a list published for the benefit of the trade one learns that two of the film dramas are to be concerned with the work *of Pasteur-—“ Man Against Death” and “Humanity. First.” Theodore Roosevelt is to be the hero of a story of the building of the Panama Canal—an idea probably suggested by the success of “Disraeli,” the climax of which was the acquisition by Great Britain of the Suez Canal.

Katharine Hepburn, nothing if not ambitious, 1 is tt> play both Elizabeth and Joan of Are; and wo are'to have, of course, another Joan from Elizabeth Bergner.

'George Sand, with her men’s trousefs and cigars, should suit Gfeta G.ai‘bo, quite literally, down to the ground; VVallaec Beery should be immeiiscly amusing as 'Barnnm, greatest of 'old-time 1 'sbo’wmcn; George Avliss and Ronald Colrtiau are to play Richelieu and Clive; and Helen Hayes, a gifted actress, • btit none too suited physically br vocally, is to hate a shot at Mary Stuart.

■lt will be interesting to see what comes of a plan to film the life of Sir Basil isaharoff, under the title “To the ■'Victor arid iff'this never secs the light there should be something i'or tnost tastes in Martin LuthCtJ'Mbc Bronte sisters, Casanova, Marie Antoinette, Suiter (the first Californian millionaire), Napoleon (Edward' 'G. Robinson), and the pirate brothers, the Eafittes.