The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 21273, 19 December 1930, Page 12

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By

“Columbine”.)

CIVIC PICTURES.

Now Showing: “Hie Broadway Hoofer” (Marie Saxon, Jack Egan, Louise Fazenda). Saturday: “Africa Speaks” (Sound, dialogue record of the Paul L. Hoefler expedition through Central Africa). • Coming: “The Song of Love” (Belle Baker, Ralph Groves, David Durand). “The Golden Calf” (El. Brendel, Marjorie White, Jack Mulhall). “Let’s Go Places” (Joseph Wagstaff, Lola Lane, Charon Lynn, Dixie Lee), “Hell Harbour” (Lupe Velez, John Holland). Marie Saxon, the vivacious Broadway musical comedy stir who was featured in such popular successes as “Battling Butler,” “Aly Girl,” “Merry Merry” and "Ups-A-Daisy,” makes her motion picture debut in “The Broadway Hoofer,” the Columbia all-talking musical romance that is now showing at the Civic Theatre. Co-starred with her are Jack Egan ami Louise Fazenda, George Archainbaud directed. Miss Saxon brings to the screen beauty, personality, a • charming mezzo-soprano voice and the ability to dance. Columbia has cnosen her first vehicle with care and has surrounded her with a cast of uniform excellence. Four songs, “I love to love only you,” “Mediterranean Moon,” “Oh so Sweet” and “Hawaiian Love Song” are the excuse for elaborate staging and frocking. Howard Hickman, Gertrude Short, Eileen Percy and Ernest Hilliard hetid the supporting cast. * * * * On Saturday the Civic will screen that unusual film, “Africa Speaks” which is referred to elsewhere in these columns. On Wednesday next Belle Baker, said to be the greatest vaudeville star on the American stage, makes her motion picture debut in Columbia’s "Song of Love,” a back-stage drama written especially for her. Ralph Graves and David Durand play the leading roles in support of her. It is the story of the small-time vaudeville team, “The Three Gibsons,” Tom, Anna and their little boy Buddy. There arc numerous songs written especially for this picture, which Eric C. Kenton directed. The story concerns a mother’s desire to give her boy, who is part of a family vaudeville act, the opportunity to go to school, and become something more than “just an- actor.”, The father objects to breaking up the act. Conflict follows, and the appearance of Eunice Quedens in the role of the blonde menace. FIRST AFRICAN SOUND FILM. . Paul Hoefler, leader of the Colorado African Expedition, who is responsible for the film “Africa Speaks,” which is now released in America, is said to be the first white man to cross Equatorial Africa from Mombasa on the east coast to Lagos on the west coast. While trekking this territory he photographed GO,QUO feet of film with sound by means of a portable microphone set, which constitutes a record of tribal and animal life he encountered en route, and is the first sound film to emerge from the dark continent. With Harold Austin, a Californian and a few assistants he met at Mombasa, the party, in two automobile trucks, went in search of a land of giants, pygmies, disclipped women and other curiosities found in Africa. They at first went in search of the Raunda, a tribe of seven-foot giants in the Belgian Congo, but when they reached the edge of. the territory they were told by the authorities that a plague was wiping out the natives by the thousands and that thirty to forty thousand natives had died within the stricken zone. The news of this major African calamity did not reach the civilized world, according to Air Hoefler, until two years after it had occurred, so difficult is it for such events to penetrate to the civilized world. The explorer brought back motion pictures of the big-lipped women of the race of Sara Kyabe or popularly known as the Übangi and recently exhibited in New York at the circus. This tribe lives at the edge of the Sahara Desert and the story of how the discs became popular was told by Mr Hoeffler. Alany years ago, according to the traveller, the Arabs swept down across the Sahara and raided the native villages for slaves. They took with them all the comely young girls of the Sara Kyabe whose good features and graceful figures had made them long desirable in the slave market. The natives tried to resist the invaders with little success until finally they clubbed together at a large water hole, built a fort of matted grass and awaited the Arabs But their preparations were of little avail. Their primitive spears and bows and arrows were no use against guns, and the women were taken away. The chieftains once again came together and this time decided that the only way left to discourage pillaging was to disfigure their beautiful women. So each man returned to his home and slashed his wife’s cheek, rubbing dirt in the cut to make huge, ugly blisters and sores, and slit the girl child’s lip and inserted a small disc in it. This disc was enlarged as the child grew older until maturity, when the disc sometimes reached a diameter of eight or nine inches. With this disc in the mouth the women are unable to dance, for it falls out, and when eating they must remove it, so that their countenances are indeed a discouraging sight-for any covetous trader. Trading and raiding have long since stopped, however, and the’reason for the disc having been forgotten, the disc itself is now recognized as a thing of beauty and a customary procedure. It remains a sign of the haute monde among Übangi women. The expedition encountered many difficulties. In Nigeria Air Hoefler found a curiosity. There is some sort of a telegraph system installed in the country and when one wishes to send a message from one town to another one enters the station and writes the message in English, which a black takes and sends over the telegraph wires in Alorse code. The messages are usually transmitted correctly, despite the fact that the senders cannot read a word of English! They are trained to recognize symbols and wire one letter at a time, all of which remains meaningless to them. Air Hoefler did not lose a foot of film due to heat or other climatic conditions that usually destroy much footage. He prepared a special substance with which he protected his pictures and then sent each package out to America as soon as it was exposed. It was developed months later in America. Once, several months after, when he had not heard for a long time whether or not his pictures were successful, he had a dreain that all his film melted and when the technician in America received the cans the melted celluloid just poured out of the can! Of such stuffs.are dreams of African explorers made.

A complete German version of Vihna Banky’s latest film, “Die Sehnsucht jeder Frau” (“What Every Woman Desires”) was made under the direction of Victor Seastrom at United Artists’ Studios.

THE REGENT.

Now Showing? “Is Everybody Happy?’’ (Ted Lewis, Ann Pennington, Alice Day). Saturday: “All’s Button”—English Talkie Comedy (Tubby Edlin, Alf Goddard, Cyril McLaglen, Nora Swinburne). Coming: “On Approval”—by the “Rookery Nook” cast. Edgar Wallace’s “The Squeaker” (Percy Marmont, Trilby Clark), “Such Men are Dangerous” (Warner Baxter, Catherine Dale Owen) “The Gay Nineties” (Marion Davies, Lawrence Grey).

Ann Pennington, the famous Broadway dancer (who appeared in “The Gold Diggers of Broadway”) performs her famous Hawaiian dance in the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone production, “Is Everybody Happy?” which is now showing at the Regent. In the story Ann is a member of the “Follies,” and sings and dances before a chorus of beauteous maidens entirely filling the stage of a theatre. The setting is said to be the most complete theatre ever constructed in a motion- picture studio. This structure entirely fills one of the great sound stages at the Warner Bros.’ studio, and is complete in every detail from the street entrance to the back wall of the stage. Ted Lewis, the musical entertainer, is the star of “Is Everybody Happy?” which was directed by Archie L. Mayo. It is Mr Lewis’ Vitaphone debut.

Three all-English productions follow one another at the Regent commencing next Saturday, when the famous war farce, “Alf’s Buttons,”-by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, will be shown. With the most musical revue, “Splinters,” the motion picture farce, “Rookery Nook,” and the. sensational talkie “Atlantic,” to their credit, British production executives now lay claim to one of the most perfect colour productions to date. Natural colour is used in an English talkie for the first time in British Dominions’ "Alf’s Button,” and the Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed it as the most perfect colour photography yet seen in any picture. Although by far the greater , part of “Alf’s Button” is in black and white, the few natural colour scenes introduces a colour system which is miles ahead of anything yet seen in many lavish colour pictures that have come from the U.S.A. With the new British system blue is blue, red is red, and green, gold, pink and so on are themselves. Consequently, the colour enhances rather than depreciates the value of the sequences in which it has been used by Director W. P. Kellino. Of course the picture is interesting from the point of view of cast alone —Alf Goddard (the original Alf), Cyril McLaglen (brother of Victor), Nora Swinburne, Polly Ward and Tubby Edlin are all well known players on the West End stage.

Following “Alf’s Button” is the Aldwych players’ dramatization of Frederick Lonsdale's comedy, “On Approval,” made by the same people who appeared in “Rookery Nook”—Tom Walls, Winifred Shotter, Mary Brough and Robertson Hare heading the cast. Tom Walls was again the three tor.

Lya de I’utti, the Hungarian screen star (seen here with Emil Jannings in "Variety” some years ago) is now appearing on Broadway in “Made in France.”

Joan Marsh, the seventeen year old blonde discovery about whom Universal went into ecstasies earlier in the year, has signed a contract with M.-G.-M.

Wesley Ruggles, director of the forthcoming Radio picture “Cimarron,” started his screen career portraying “cops” in Keystone comedies.

After completing “Lightin’,” the Will Rogers starring picture produced by Fox, Henry King will direct “The Spider,” adapted from the play by Fulton Oursler. Warner Baxter will have the leading role.

Regis Toomey has just been cast for the role of “Thomas Warren” in “Luxury” which Guthrie McClintic- will direct for Fox Movietone. H. B. Warner has also been cast for a prominent role.

Eight- stage players most of whom have never appeared in pictures, will be seen in Fox’s “Up the River,” directed by John Ford. The artists are, Claire Luce, Goodce Montgomery, the Keating Twins Althea Henley, Spencer Tracy and John Swor.

“Scotland Yard,” is a Fox movietone drama with Edmund Lowe in a dual role. He portrays an underworld character and a society man, both of whom are deeply concerned with the operations of the British detective service. Joan Bennett, Barbara Leonard, Donald Crisp, Lumsden Hare and David Torrence are in the cast.

“War Nurse,” deals with the part of some women in the war zone. Some of the scenes are laid in Paris, where officers and nurses alike attempt to forget the sanguinary aspects of war in riotous living. Edgar Selwyn directed “War Nurse,” for M.-G.-M which introduces June Walker to lhe screen. Among others in the cast are Robert Montgomery, Robert Ames, Anita Page, Zasu Pitts and Marie Prevost.

When Maurice Chevalier returns to the United States next year he will be featured in “A Cavalier of the Streets,” a romance by Michael Arlen which has just been purchased by Paramount. Mr Chevalier, now making a stage tour in his native land (under guarantee of £4OOO per week!) will play the part of a gallant wayfarer of the boulevards who blackmails a woman, saves her from a scandal, and falls in love with her.

Will Rogers has signed a new contract with Fox, under which he will appear in Movietone productions for the next two years. The announcement was made following previews of Mr Rogers’ third talking picture, “Lightnin’.” “A Connecticut Yankee,” now in production, with Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick, Lumsden Hare, Myrna Loy and William V. Mong among the featured players, will be the star’s last picture under the old agreement.

A criticism of, the film “Disraeli,” in which. George Arliss appears in the main part, is voiced in a letter to the editor of The London Times. “The most daring departure from fact,” the writer states, “is the appearance of Lady Beaconsfield three years after her death. Lady Beaconsfield died in December, 1872; the Suez Canal shares were bought in November, 1875. The scene at the Foreign Office, which is the ‘close-up’ or something like it' took place in IS6B, when ‘Dizzy’ became Prime Minister on Lord Derby’s resignation and when the Prince of Wales walked about with Mrs Disraeli (not yet a Viscountess) on his arm.”