The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 21179, 4 September 1930, Page 15

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By

“Columbine”.)

THE MAJESTIC. Naw Showing: "Pointed Heels” (IV illiara Powell, Helen Kane, “Skeets” Gallagher, Fay Wray). Saturday: "Young Eagles” (Charles "Buddy” Rogers, Jean Arthur, Paul Lukas), Paramount’s all-talking air spectacle. And "The Mounted Stranger” (Hoot Gibson), Universal Western. Coining attractions include Maurice Chevalier in “The Love Parade.” William Powell, who has made an outstanding success in talking films in the role of Philo Vance in "The Canary Murder Case ' and “The Greene Murder Case,” is seen and heard in the characterization of Robert Courtland, an urbane demi-villain in "Pointed Heels,” the Paramount all-talking picture directed by A. Edward Sutherland, now at the Majestic. He is co-featured in this production with Helen (“Sugar”) Kane, the girl with the "big eyes and little voice,” who is now under contract to this company. Fay Wray, Richard (“Skeets”) Gallagher, Phillips Holmes, Eugene Pallet: e and Adrienne Dore are also in the cast. The story, written by Charles Brackett, dramatic critic of “The New Yorker,” shows Powell as a big Broadway producer, introducing a remarkably fine colour sequence of a revue in which the Albertina Rusch ballet dances. On Saturday the feature at the Majestic will be Paramount’s talking picture successor to "Wings.” In "Young Eagles,” seven men bring the spirit of “Wings” to the talking screen. Charles (Buddy) Rogers, who played an important part in “Wings.” is the star of "Young Eagles.” William. U Wings”) Wellman, who directed “Wings,” directed “Young Eagles.” Richard L. Johnston, who acted as assistant director for “Wings,” was the unit business manager for the new air picture. Charles Barton, second assistant director for “Wings,” was the assistant director for “Young Eagles.” Two of the flyers for "Wings” slip into the cockpits of the planes used in “Young Eagles.” Lieut.. E. H. Robinson, an air cameraman, officiated for the picture, and Dick Grace, stunt-flying ace in “Wings,” has some new thrill stunts in “Young Eagles.” Paul Lukas, Jean Arthur and Stuart Edwin have the supporting cast. Coming shortly- to the Majestic is Maurice Chevalier in his second talking picture, "The Love Parade,” in which Jeannette MacDonald .(of “The Vagabond King”) is co-starred. According to one authoritative critic, "The Love Parade” has brought musical numbers to the screen story without the backstage situations that, have as a rule been needed to insert a song on a musical film since the screen found voice. “This production not only reveals a new Chevalier, but a new director, Ernst Lubitsch. Lutbitsch, of “The Patriot” and numberless other heavier film offerings, steps out of character in his direction of this producion. Once again does the German character demonstrate his uncanny directorial ability. The intimate musical comedy has but added another feather to his cap, marking his strings of success. Lubitsch has touched the production with an intriguing imagination, particularly in the scenes outside of the nuptial boudoir where statesmen and a retinue of servants with a sly humour describe what is taking place within the royal bedroom. Then there is a third surprise in the film in the work of Jeanette MacDonald. Miss MacDonald makes a eaptivaing queen. She has an innate sense of humour that fits nicely into the character of the queen, who, after all, was a woman at heart. ‘The Love Parade’ is a triumvirate triumph for Jean- I nette MacDonald, . Ernest Lubitsch and 1 Maurice Chevalier. Chevalier, through this 1 effort, has stamped himself as a prime fav- J ourite in the new realm of filmdom.” ;

Lois Moran, leading lady of Fox Movietone’s "Not Damaged” was another screen “accidental discovery.” Miss Moran was an experienced dancer and had appeared on the New York and Paris stages, although she was very young at the time. Before she was signed to appear in American-made films Miss Moran had been featured in French pictures. So when she went to Hollywood, Lois had experience which enabled her to make a success of her featured role in “Stella Dallas," and later she was starred. She has appeared in several talking films. The apnearance of Inex Courtney (featured in “Not Damaged”) on Broadway in “Some Day” was followed by numerous stories of the young ingenue “discovered” overnight. As a matter of truth Inex has been on the stage since the age of fourteen as a dancer. She played in vaudeville until she was seen by a producer and offered the featured role in "Some Day.” After that those who had never seen her before imagined, because of the stories, that she had been taken from the chorus and given a leading part. ARLISS IS CONFIDENT. The cinema is forcing the drama into the more intellectual reaches and following so closely behind that within an arbitrary period of possibly three years there will only remain those who attend the theatre because of the lingering desire to see an individual in the flesh rather than his twodimensional prototype. 'These were the thoughts expressed by the bemonocled George Arliss upon his return to New York from Hollywood, where he recently completed “Old English,” his third talking picture for the Warner Brothers. “I forsee a revival in the most selective drama," the actor said, “because people like the element of change. Even with all this coming business of television and like inventions, not every one will be content to sit in back parlours listening and seeing only screened beings. "When people will be offered all this entertainment for some such sum as eighteenpencc a week, that will be the moment when the return to the stage will be strongest. “Before the films there was the 6d, 1/-, and 1/6 type of theatre, in which the melodrama depended on the situation. The silent pictures took this over and did much better. Then there was the present type of stage play which the audible pictures have captured. The new drama is just ahead. “I believe that a great mass of persons here will be educated in dramatic literature. The standard of good English will be improved. I have never seen so many people any where else in the world as in America where individuals are eager to improve themselves culturally. I discovered that when I played in “The Merchant of Venice’ and probed for the reason of the play’s popularity. “The new popular drama will not be the : so-called high-brow play, for such a theatre , is only a foisting of ideas which have no > roots in human nature on an unsuspecting public. The mass is much too intelligent . for that. “Audiences go forward. At first the I producers of films were afraid that the I motion-picture audience would not listen. ] ‘Disraeli’ proved this untrue. It is only 1 a matter of giving them something to lis- ] ten to. ] “The whole thing is so wonderful. It > is a foregone conclusion that it is perman- i ent. But the desire for people to mix with ] other people Is overwhelming and we al- ‘ ways shall have both the theatre and ( films.” t Mr Arliss sailed on board the Leviathan i for a rest and a stage engagement in Lon- ( don. He will return in December to Holly- t wood, where he will begin another talk- t ing film, this time one for which Booth 1 Tarkington has written the screen adapts- t tion. It is a story Mr Arliss once made ‘ in the silent films under the title of “The ‘ Ruling Passion,” with a modern business t setting. s

Mary Doran has the chief feminine role opposite William Haines in the M.-G.-M. star’s new vehicle, "Remote Control” which Mai. St. Clair will direct. Miss Doran began her career at the M.-G.-M. studios as the hard-boiled chorus girl in “The Broadway Melody” and has since appeared in “The Divorce,” "The Richest Man in the World,” and “The Trial of Mary Dugan.”

British International Films have completed a batch of three “talkies” which are to be privately shown during July. They are “The W. Plan,” a mystery story, directed by Victor Saville, with Madeline Carroll, Gordon Harker, Brian Ahearne and Milton Rosmer in the cast; “Young Woodley,” from W. Van Druten’s play, in which Miss Carroll again figures, with Frank Lawton, who enacted the title role on the stage, and Sam Livesey; and “Suspense,” an adaptation of Patrick McGill's interesting, but not tremendously popular war play.

A tale of the life under the “big top” is that, of "Swing High,” the film in which Helen Twelvetrees is seen in the leading role as Maryan, a trapeze artist, and Fred Scott as Gerry, another member of the troupe. There is the story of the heartbreak experienced by those whose "hearts are breaking underneath the greasepaint.” The cast includes Chester Conklin, Ben Turpin, Dorothy Burgess, Nick Stuart, Daphne Pollard, George Fawcett, Stepin Fetchit and Sally Starr.

Associated Film Industries (London) are banking on a much less well known singer than John McCormack to make the success of a production entitled “The City of Song,” now being made at Wembley. This is Jan Kiepura, a Pole, who some few years ago sprang into sudden fame at Vienna and went to London on the strength of it. Fie is now the hero of “The City of Song” in which he figures as a Neapolitan guide who won a rich -woman’s heart by his carolling among the ruins of Pompeii. This part of the film was done amid those ruins, although the Italian authorities made considerable difficulty about it. “City of Song” is bilingual. Miss Brigitte Helm is playing the heroine’s role in the German version, and Miss Betty Stockfield in the English one.

The island of Jamaica, discovered by Columbus in 1494, was re-discovered by the Western Electric Company in 1929. In this latter year a Western Electric Sound System installation was made in the movie Theatre in Kingston and a survey made for the Palace, which opened on April 30 as one of the largest open air theatres in the world. This theatre has real moonlight and the starry black sky for a ceiling. The unusual problems of acoustics pertaining to the Palace were given consideration by the Theatre Engineering Department which placed its approval on the completed installation. The public, more skeptical than usual, jammed the theatre on the opening night to be in on what they believed would be a complete failure. Instead, Maurice Chevalier in “Innocents of Paris” was able to captivate in his wonted manner. The open air allows the surface noises to be practically unheard while the amplification can be raised so that a whisper can be heard in the farthest point of the balcony.

A new era in music for the screen will be inaugurated when Rudolph Friml’s melodic compositions for "Bride 66,” Arthur Hammerstein’s first all-dialogue production for United Artists, reach the ear of the public. This is the prediction of those who have heard the original Friml music written I especially for the Kammerstein film light. | opera. They call it the finest creation of the composer’s career, and where one remembers the musical splendour of “Rose Marie,” “Katinka,” "Firefly,” “High Jinks” and “Sweet Adeline,” the praise bears significance. The forthcoming musical sensations have just been completed after months of untiring effort during which Friml locked himself away from his friends and all contact with the outside world. Rehearsals are now in progress with the principals and large choruses at United Artists studios under direction of Paul L. Stein. In the cast are Jeannette MacDonald, who left the stage to become leading light opera nrima donna of pictures, Joseph Macauley, 'dramatic baritone; Robert Chisholm, popular Broadway singer; Joe E. Brown, comedian; Zasu Pitts and others. “Bride 66” is an original story by Herbert Stothart, who has been associated with some of Hammerstein’s biggest stage productions. Actual filming of scenes in magnificent settings has begun. It is planned to make the production the most spectacular musical success since the advent of sound pictures. CYRIL MAUDE'S RETURN. "I like the way the picture people take care of their actors. They treat them rather like racehorses—meet them at the train, provide pleasant quarters for them while working in the studios; on rainy days send a car for them —it’s all very pleasant.” This was what Air Cyril Maude, the eminent English actor, told a New York reporter on liis way to England from California, where he has just completed his first talking picture, “Grumpy.” "I didn’t find the talking pictures differed much from the stage,” said this veteran of some sixt” odd years, “except that the actor needs to be more delicate, more subtle in his movements in front of the comera than before an audience. The close-up demands the height of finish in one’s performance, but the technique of the two mediums is generally the same. After a few days’ rehearsing at the studios I was ready I to go right through my part. I’d like to ■ give credit for much of the excellence of the ‘Grum--’ picture to Miss Doris Anderson,- who did the adaptation, and to both George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, who directed it. I’m not sure what I shall play if I return to Hollywood in the fall. The dramas under consideration are ‘Beauty and the Barge’ and ‘Toddles,’ both of which I played years ago on the stage. The part I should love to do is Sir Peter Teazle in ‘The School for Scandal,' which, of course, I have played many times.”

Mr Maude, who retired from the stage in 1926 following a career which started, oddly enough, in Denver, Col., more than forty years ago, where he made his debut in Daniel Bandmann’s company in "East Lynne,” has found the “talkies” sufficiently interesting to win him back to the theatre again, though not to the footlights. He is optimistic over possibilities of talking pictures, believing that they can mean just as much to the actor as the stage does, and have the advantage of giving a fine performance permanence. He said how gratifying it would be to be able to look at Booths acting now, and mentioned the “Disraeli” screen production as an example of splendid work that will remain for other generations.

Cyril Maude was born in London, the son of Captain Charles H. Maude and the Hon. Mrs Maude, and was educated at Charterhouse. He studied for the stage, but had to leave England owing to ill health and so went to Canada and later to the States. He was still in his teens when he joined Daniel Bandmann’s company. His real debut came in London on his first night in “Frankenstein” at the Gaiety Theatre, December 24, 1887. A few years later he played "Kit Marlowe” and then followed "The School for Scandal.” "She Stoops to Conquer,” "The Second in Command” and dozens of other performances that gave him international fame. It was at Wallack’s Theatre in 1913 that he played “Grumpy,” touring America with it in 1914 and 1915 and appearing later in revivals of it in 1921. Altogether he has played it 1,300 times. In 1923 he acted Mark Sabre in "If Winter Comes” and Lord Grenham in “Aren’t we All?” He is both actor and actor-manager, having spent some years in stage producing.