THE SHADOW WORLD.

Southland Times, Issue 19658, 7 October 1922, Page 15 (Supplement)

THE SHADOW WORLD.

Latest Real News of Reel Folk.

Mr Andrew MacDonald has been appointed general manager of the Paramount service of New Zealand, Ltd.

‘‘Notoriety” William Nigh’s latest picture took two months to produce. In the caste are Maurino Powers, Mary Alden, Rod Le Rocque. George Hackathorne, J. Barney Sherry, Richard Travers and others. Weber and North will handle the distribution of ‘Notoriety.” Weber and North have another pretentious film in “The Curse of Drink,” featuring Marguerite Clayton. The star in “Phil for Short,” one of the pictures included in the Albion programme to-night, is Evelyn. Greeley, who has a delightful part in this comedy drama. She plays the part of a young wife who sets herself the task of making her husband love her. The play takes many original ’ comedy twists which cannot fail to please those who see it. Another actor who has forsaken the stage for the screen is Jean de Briac, who played as leading man to Sarah Bernhardt for many years. Mary Pickford engaged him to play in one of her productions while she was touring Italy on hcr honeymoon. Norma and Constance Talmadge have sailed for Sydney. Among the countries they will visit is Egypt, where possible locations for “The Garden of Allah,” in which Norma Talmadge is to appear, will be inspected. Before beginning this production either abroad or in America, however, Miss Talmadge will return to America to work on a screen version of “Within the Law.” The picture she completed in the West before I coming to New York is “The Voice from the I Minaret.” Miss Constance Talmadge has just finished “East is West.” This, as well as the other productions mentioned, will be distributed by First National. Fighting forces, which are powerful and destructive, is the task given Phillip Wittemore, a young engineer played by Henry B. Walthall, in “Flower of the North, ’ a north west picture which is being screened at the Albion. Romance also figures largely in this clean, wholesome picture and the hero is given a great work to accomplish when he sets out to take Jeanne back to “Fort o’ God,” a locality unknown to the oldest inhabitants of the rugged district. The climax comes in a big night fight in which Indians wipe out the enemies of Whittemore. The alliance of music and the photodrama opens a new and wonderful field of art which has barely been explored yet. Such is the opinion of Mischa Guterson, one of the foremost of America’s symphony orchestra leaders. His latest effort has been the writing of music scores for some of the First National productions. He attends at the studio during the production of the film, and thoroughly absorbs the spirit of the drama so that the atmosphere and theme are reflected in the orchestration. Mabel Trunnelle, the heroine of so many of the old time Edison films, is coming back to the screen. Famous Players-Lasky have given her a part in “Singed Wings,” Penrhyn Stanlaws’s next picture. There was a time when she was the most popular of women artists. Cullen Landis, who has been the earnest young hero of numerous photoplays, has been dubbed a star by the Film Booking Offices of America and. will head the east* of a series of productions to be put out by that organisation, whose other stars and featured players are Ethel Clayton, Harry Carey, Johnnie Walker, Helen Jerome Eddy, Jane Novak and Carter De Haven. Noted as one of the smartest actresses on the screen, Louise Glaum’s appearance in a new photoplay means the latest hints in fashion to a feminine audience. In “Greater than Love,” Mahlon Hamilton and Louise Glaum have been provided with a remarkable story. Twenty changes are made by the star during the film which will be shown at the Albion on Tuesday. The United Artists’ Corporation screen version of “The Three Musketeers” is reported to be one of the best films that has left those studios. To those who have been accustomed to see Fairbanks in humorous 1 roles, the work he does as D'Artagnan, the chief musketeer, will come as a surprise. He is the dashing, daring soldier of fortune who fights his way through some of the most tragic incidents in the history of his country in a manner which leaves no doubt as to his ability as an actor of the heroic type. The careful selection of the other actors to support the star has guaranteed the success of the picture, which could not have been assured - with only a medium supporting caste. No one man, however talented, could hope to make the film a success on his own. Although the film is a great deal longer than the classic of to-day every inch of it is of good quality. The threatened law suit between the First National and Thomas Ince has been settled out of court and the latter has agreed to produce eight pictures for that corporation. The eight in the order of their release are: “Skin Deep,” with Florence Vidor and Milton Sills; “The Hottentot,” an adaptation of Willie Collier’s play, with Douglas McLean; “Jim,” with John Bowers and Margaret De La Motte; “The Brotherhood of Hate,” with Frank Keenan, Lloyd Hughes and Margaret De La Motte; “Bedboy 13,” with Douglas McLean ; “Sunshine Trail,” with Douglas McLean; “Someone to Love,” with Madge Bellamy and Cullen Landis, and “A Man of Action,” with Douglas McLean. Pat O’Malley, who is included in a strong caste which supports Bessie Barri.scale in “The Breaking Point,” which will be screened by the Aibion on Tuesday, is one of the most popular juveniles of the day. He registered a triumph as a reporter in “Go and Get It.” Alexander Dumas’s great novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” has been screened by W. Fox, and the film was recently released in New York, where it received great support-. John Gilbert has the leading role and he is supported by Estelle Talyor as Mercedes. The supporting artists make a strong cast. Shirley Mason, the Fox star, has a room in her Hollywood bungalow that she calls her “clothes room.” In it she has 110 dresses for use in pictures, and shoes and stockings to go with each costume. As the “Kid” with Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan was an immediate success and he added to his reputation in “Peck’s Bad Boy.” Jackie Coogan will be again seen at the Albion on Friday in “My Boy,’’ a First National attraction. As an orphan, who arrives in New York friendless and homeless, Jackie makes an appealing picture. The story has been specially written for him and fits the little star to perfection, allowing him full to demonstrate his histrionic abilities. Claude. Dallingwater and Mathilda Erandage are in the supporting caste.

Mme. Olga Petrova returned to the United states recently after a hurried visit to Europe, accompanied by her husband, Dr J. D. Stewart.

Coincidently, Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, the famous scenario writer, spent their honeymoon at the same time, and at the same place. The result of this is “The Love Light” the latest United Artists’ production. Seated upon a high rock overlooking the Mediterranean, these two leading lights of the picture world cvolvea an emotional drama, set in a little fishing village in Italy. Properties and players were taken from Italy to the Pickford studio so that the production might acquire the right, atmosphere. Mae Murray has just finished “The Broadway Rose” and has chosen “Coronation” for her next picture, which will be put into shape by Edmund Goulding. Miss Murray, hcr husband, Robert Leonard, and the scenario writer always plan the scenes in her pictures together, frequently improvising scenes on the motion picture stage that were not in the scenario proper. Evelyn Greely, who played the feminine lead in “Bull Dog Drummond,” a film made in Holland, has returned to America. William Fox’s production of Victor Hugo’s immortal work “Les Miserables” is coming to the Civic next week. William Farnum gives a most realistic interpretation of the role of Jean Vai Jean, and is supported by a notable cast which includes Jewel Carmen, Dorothy Bernard, Sonia Markova and others. “The greatest epic and dramatic work of fiction ever created or conceived; the epic of a soul transfigurged and redeemed, purified by heroism and glorified through suffering; the tragedy and f comedy of life at its darkest and at its | brightest, of humanity at its best and at 1 its worst.” This is the verdict of that supreme authority the Encyclopaedia Britannica regarding this most melodramatic of all melodramas. Hobart. Bosworth has been engaged by Marshall Neilan for an important part in “The Strangers' Banquet,” which is the first picture Mr Neilan will do for the Goldwyn company. Rupert Hughes will adapt his latest novel, “Souls for Sale,” to the screen for the Goldv.yn Company, and. says the announcement, the “picture will differ in many ways from the printed version,” which may mean that it will establish a record as the only novel ever altered in the process of adaption which, in the author’s opinion, was not “mutilated.” Priscilla Dean, who has been delighting Invercargill audiences by her work in the great thriller "Conflict,” is to be. seen again at the Civic next week in “The Wicked Darling,” a Universal Special Attraction produced under the direction of her husband, Tod Browning. Lon Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces” is also in the cast. - During the making of “The Shiek,” Agnes who plays the part of the English girl captured by the Arabs, came very near to being trampled under a horse’s hoofs. About nine months ago. William Hart surprised the movie fans by getting married, but the venture has not been a success and he is now separated from his young wife. IJttle is known of the cause, and many people are trying to reconcile them. Hugh Buckler, an English actor who made many friends when touring the Dominions some years ago, will be seen on

the screen at the Civic next week in the pictured version of Ethel M. Dell’s AngoIndian romance “The Place of Honour.” The story is largely set in India, and tells of the tribulations of an officer's wife in most uncongenial surroundings. Along melodramatic lines, the picture is one to hold the interest all tlie time. Elsie Ferguson is returning to the screen and will be given the star part of “The Outcast,” a part in which she made a great success on the stage. The film will bo made in the Famous Players-Lasky studios. Rex Ingram, who directed “The Prisoner of Zenda,” and, before that, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and “The Conquering Power,” lectured before the students of photoplay composition at Columbia University recently. “The Silken Gloria” as Gloria Swanson has been picturesquely styled, wears some more ravishing gowns in “Hcr Husband’s Trademark,” which is coming to the Civic next week. With the idea that a show of money attracts money the busband in the story (Stuart Holmes) lives extragantly and keeps his wife lavishly gowned, telling her that a beautifully gowned wife is

the trademark of a prosperous husband. From New York the action swings to Mexico where incident follows incident, and the picture develops a powerful appeal, quite apart from the sartorial attractiveness of the star. Richard Wayne, Charles Ogle, Lucien Littlefield, Edythe Chapman, Olar- • ence Burton and others are in the strong cast. The entertainment value of this picture is very high. A screen actor, John Stevenson, was killed during the making of a sensational film recently. Stevenson had to jump from a. moving bus to a rope ladder suspended from an overhead bridge. At the time of his accident he was wearing women’s clothes and was reported to be “doubling” Pearl White. When he jumped from the bus he missed the rope and fell eighteen feet into the street below. He died the following day from injuries received. The report that he was “doubl- { ing” for Pearl White was subsequently denied. “Mind Cher Motor,” one of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s “Tish” stories, is to be picturised by Ward Lascelle, who, it is said, may undertake to film the whole series. Trixie Frigana, making her screen debut, will have the leading role in the first one. Rudolph Valeintino’s next picture will be directed by Alan Dwan, who has just finish- 1 ed Douglas Fairbanks’s “Robin Hood.” The. ■ picture will be “The Spanish Cavalier,” I which has been adapted by June Mathis from "Don Cesar de Bazan.” Nita Naldi, the Dona Sol of “Blood and Sand,” will play opposite Valentino in it. The production will come out via Paramount.

An epic tale of surging passion sweeping from the wide plains of the Argentine through the fascinating frivolities of prewar Paris into? the blazing turmoil of the German invasion of Northern France is unfolded in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” the Rex Ingram production made for Metro that has enpoyed a screen sensation in all parts of the world. The picture, adapted by June Mathis from the great novel of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, has intensified the dramatic force of the original story and holds the spectators intent as it hammers home the terror and grandeur of the war—and a great deal of the humour and light-hearted gaiety that kept bubbling up through the turgid stream of struggling humanity when the world was in arms. The director, R6x Ingram, has admittedly succeeded in concentrating the great struggle in a series of pictures that flash out the quintessence of life at white heat. The cast includes Rodolph Valentino (now appearing in “The Sheik”), and Alice Terry. “The Four Horsemen” is due for early screening at the Civic.

“The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” has opened a ten weeks’ engagement at the Palace Theatre, in London.

“Thorns and Orange Blossoms” will have Edith Roberts in the leading role. The picture is a typical melodrama, and is being prepared by z\l Lichtman and Louis Gasnier.

“When the Desert Calls,” an adaption of a story of the same name by Donald McGibney, is being picturised under the direction of Ray C. Smallwood, with Violet Heming, Robert Fraser and Sheldon Lewis in the cast.

Ramon Novarro, a new screen actor of the Valentino type, is coming to the front in America. He is the protege of Rex Ingram, who has high hopes for this young man’s future. Novarro will have a part opposite Alice Terry in "The Passion Vine.”

Who killed B. Morris Beiner? The wellknown theatrical agent was found stabbed to death in his office, one hand clutching part of a woman’s dress. On a memorandum pad is the name of a woman. Where is that woman? That is the mystery developed by “Find the Woman,” a Cosmopoli-tan-Paramount picture coming to the Civic shortly. Alma Reubens is the featured player, with Harrison Ford also in the cast. The work of Nita Naldi in “Blood and Sand” was of such a high order that there is more than a possibility that she will shortly be given a leading role. With Elinor Glyn as the author, and with Bruce Mcßae, Dorothy Phillips, Kenneth Harlan and Otis Harlan in the caste of “The World’s a Stage,” the picture should be a good one. During the screening Mrs Glyn tells her impressions of Hollywood. The Guy Bolton-George Middleton play, “Adam and Eva,” will be picturised as a Cosmopolitan Production with Marion Davies and T. Roy Barnes in the principal parts. Rose Coughlin, who has just passed through a serious illness, has recovered sufficiently to take the part of The Owl in the screen version of Eugene Sue’s “The Mysteries of Paris,” which Charles C. Burr and Whitman Bennett are producing under the title, “The Secrets of Paris.” There is no mistaking the universal appeal of the big Paramount production which is being shown this week at the Municipal Theatre “The Sheik.” This is a picturesque film of that most picturesque region, the desert of Arabia, where men take what they want first and inquire about it afterwards. The story is an excellent one and contains all the necessary ingredients of suspense and romance. The star, Rodolph Valentino, has attained an immense popularity for his work in this film alone. He is ably supported by Agnes Ayres, who has the role of a beautiful white girl, Lady Diana. She is captured by the young sheik who proceeds to make violent love to her. How this strangely associated couple work out their destiny is entrancingly told in the course of this great, picture. William Fox will have a season in Berlin if plans now said to be in progress materialize. He is negotiating for the Berlin Alhambra, where he will show "Nero,” “Monte Cristo,” “Queen of Sheba,” “Over the Hill” and other of his recent productions. Nita Naldi has been cast in “Anna Ascends,” the Alice Brady picture which is now in course of construction at the Paramount studios on Long Island. Since her work as Dona Sol in “Blood and Sand,” Miss Naldi has been much in demand by the various companies. BIOGRAPHY OF CASSON FERGUSON. Casson Ferguson is a native of Louisiana. He was born in Alexandria, a city in that State, in 1891. He finished his education there and went to Paris for advanced studies. Before entering motion pictures he had ten years of stage experience, and this ex[>erience had been extensive and varied. He first appeared in Shakespearean plays and later in musical comedies. In New York, London and Paris he achieved success. He developed a remarkable voice and made quite a reputation as a concert singer in London. Later he appeared in Grand OjXira in Paris. Mr Ferguson started his screen career with Morosco. His first, picture was, "How Could You Jean?” His successful roles are numerous and for his sincerity and artistry he is well-known in the motion picture world. Mr Ferguson is five feet eleven inches tall and weighs only one hundred and fifty pounds. His hair is brown with a decided

wave and his eyes are grey blue. The following is a list of the Paramount productions in which he has played important roles: “The Prince Chap,” “At the End of the World,” “Law and the Woman,” and “Manslaughter.” The latter is Cecil B. De Mille’s special all-star production. He also appeared in the Rcalart productions, “The '1 ruthful Liar,” and “The Virginia Courtship.”