The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 21429, 25 June 1931, Page 11

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By

“Columbine.” )

THE REGENT.

Now Showing: “The Royal Bed” (Lowell Sherman, Mary Astor, Hugh Trevor, Nance O’Neil). Saturday: “Playboy of Paris” (Maurice Chevalier, Frances Dee, O.'P. Heggie, Stewart Erwin, Eugene Palette). Coming Attractions: “The Perfect Alibi” (Robert Loraine, Warwick Ward, C. Aubrey Smith) ; "Feet First” (Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent, Alec B. Francis); “Du Barry” (Norma Talmadge, Conrad Nagel, William Farnum) ; “City Lights” (Charles Chaplin); “Let’s Go Native” (Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald) ; “The Right to Love” (Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas). •» » » *

Now comes the cinema’s expose of the inside facts about Central European royalty, dazzling courts, cold but regal queens, human, playful kings, the love affairs of princesses forbidden to marry outside of the royal families. It’s all in fun in Radio Pictures’ "The Royal Bed,” adapted from Robert E. Sherwood’s whimsical, satirical stage success, “The Queen’s Husband,” which is now at The Regent. That suave actor, Lowell Sherman, plays the principal role in the picture which he also directed. Nance O'Neil, so well known to the older generation' of theatre patrons, who played with such remarkable success in “Magda,” “Fires of St. John” and “Macbeth,” throughout Australia and New Zealand, is the queen who dominates and “henpecks” her husband; Mary Astor is the princess, who has a love affair with the king’s secretary, enacted by Anthony Bushell, and turns down the Crown Prince of another mythical kingdom, Hugh Trevor. Robert Warwick, Alan Roscoe, and Gilbert Emery also have prominent roles. I recommend this film to those who feel like being amused.

“The Playboy of Paris,” Maurice Chevalier’s fourth screen comedy, adapted from the Tristan Bernard stage farce, “The Little Cafe,” the screen play being by Vincent Lawrence and directed by Ludwig Berger for Paramount, comes to the Regent on Saturday. “It is so shy and deft in its methods and its results that it comes as a surprise when you glance at the programme and discover that it was directed' by Ludwig Berger, rather by Lubitsch,” writes one critic. “All of the qualities that went into the manufacture of the Lubitsch pantomimic works, from their subtle resourcefulness to their air of what we, who write about the cinema call, for lack of a better word, ‘sophistication,’ are presented. In addition, ‘The Playboy of Paris’ offers what is certainly the shrewdest and most ingratiating performance that Maurice Chevalier has yet contributed to the films. It is hardly necessary to add, therefore, that the new photoplay is one of the most delightful and, as we say, ‘civilized’ entertainments that the audible cinema has been able to provide. And Stuart Erwin is practically perfect as the dumb friend of the hero.” Frances Dee (the Hollywood “extra” who has soared recently), Dorothy Christie and Cecil Cunningham are the. females in the film, and O. P. Heggie and Eugene Pallette are also prominently cast. Chevalier sings three new songs—“My Ideal,” “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken,” and “In the Heart of Old Paree.”

Next Wednesday the Regent will present A. A. Milne’s mystery drama, “The Perfect Alibi,” a British talkie made in England for Radio Pictures by Basil Dean, with an English cast headed by Robert Loraine, Warwick Ward, Dorothy Boyd, C. Aubrey Smith and Frank Lawton. Reports have reached me that this is a thrilling drama, and the cast certainly looks promising. IN THE BRITISH STUDIOS. London, April 27. Britain has at last replied to such aerial achievements as America featured in "Wings” and “Hell’s Angels,” by the construction of “A Day in the Life of the Air Force.” Made by British Movietone News, at Andover, it is stamped with the approval of the Air Ministry, and shows the No. 12 Day Bombing Squadron using Hawker-Rolls-Royce-Hartz aeroplanes. The audience has the vivid sensation of accompanying the squadron above the clouds, and there sees an exhibition of formation flying that is described as sheer perfection. The breath taking conclusion shows the ’planes diving at 240 miles per hour. It is hoped that this film will lead to co-operation between the Air Ministry, and the film companies, so that British dramas of the air may soon be made. “Tell England,” the Gallipoli epic made by Anthony Asquith over a period of 18 months, was screened to big business on its opening at the London Palace Theatre. In addition to extra daily sessions, the film was shown twice each Sunday evening. B-I-P are starting on a version of Bizet’s “Carmen,” which, it is said, will not be merely a photographed sound-replica of the opera. This company will also produce an audible film of “The Maid of the Mountains,” a musical comedy of which the author was Frederick Lonsdale and in which Miss Jose Collins was the star. It is announced that Mr Lonsdale will personally supervise the production, but it is not stated whether Miss Collins, whose health recently caused her temporary retirement from the stage, will be asked to sing the role in which she was so successful or not. Anthony Asquith is directing a version of Compton Mackenzie’s novel “Carnival.” Alfred Hitchcock has started work on what is stated will be Elstree’s most ambitious work this season —a film called “Rich and Strange,” most of the scenes in which will have an Oriental setting. A camera man has been taking shots in Ceylon, and Mr Hitchcock will himself go as far East as Cairo! Donald Calthrop, who figured in many of the recent productions from Elstree. but only in subsidiary parts since his successful appearance in “Blackmail,” has parted company with the organization which hitherto employed him, and will undertake the leading role in a version of “The Bells,” Henry Irving’s great success, which is to be done by Associated Sound Film Industries. Mr Calthrop will have several capable actors in ‘ his supporting cast, -including Louie Tinsley, who is 70, and well-known to music hall audiences.

Last but not least in the record of British production, C. B. Cochran has definitely made up his mind to transfer some of his activities from the stage to the screen, and he will begin work in this latter direction as soon as may be with a version of Noel Coward’s musical comedy “Bitter Sweet,’’ which, with Miss Peggy Wood, an American actress, playing the leading role, has had a record run at His Majesty’s Theatre. Mr Cochran’s star in the screen version will be Miss Evelyn Laye, who took Miss Peggy Wood’s part during the latter’s absence in the United States,' where Miss Laye created a great vogue in the same role.

Mr Walter Summers has a promising company for his next picture, “The House Opposite.” It includes Celia Glynn, Henry Kendall, Wallace Geoffrey, Wallace Everett and Frank Stanmore.

Stanley Lupino’s first talking film, to be made at Elstree, is "Love Lies," in which he appeared at the Gaiety, but I am told that in its film form it will not be done as a musical play. I hope that “Fascination,” the picture that Mr Miles Mander is to direct under the supervision of Mr Clayton Hutton, will provide Madeleine Carroll with a better part than some of those she has had recently. This beautiful and accomplished young woman will not make the progress

she should unless she is given first-rate characterizations.

Dion Titheradge has written a play fot the screen. It is called “The Shadow Between,” and is being made by Norman Walker for B-I-P.

Joseph Schildkraut, who will be remembered as the gambling husband in “Show Boat,” will be with Matheson Lang in the British and Dominions production of “Carnival,” at Elstree. Mr Schildkraut, whose ancestry mingles Rumania, Hungary, Turkey and Spain, is said to speak seven languages—including English—with an American accent. Jil Esmond More, the beautiful daughter of the late Henry Esmond and Eva Moore, who went to the New York stage in “Private Lives” after acting .at Elstree, is another English actress with a Hollywood contract. Her young husband, Laurence Olivier, a playwright, will probably be with her when she goes to California. Meanwhile, Edna Best, who threw up her picture with John Gilbert to dash back to her husband, Herbert Marshall, in New York, is going to make two films with him in London before they go to Hollywood together. They are Mr A. A. Milne’s “Michael and Mary” (in which both appeared at the St. James’s Theatre) and Mr Monckton Hoffe’s "The Faithful Heart.”

Nelson Keys and Sydney Howard are to appear together in “Almost a Divorce,” described as a modern comedy, which is being made in the British and Dominions studios at Elstrea

CIVIC TALKIES. Now Showing: ‘Fast and Loose” (Frank Morgan, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard.) Saturday: “Madonna of the Streets (Evelyn Brent, Robert Ames, Josephine Dunne). , „ „ Coming Attractions: “The Argyle Case (Thomas Meighan, H. B. Warner, Lila Lee) ; “Anybody’s War” (The Two Black Crows— Moran and Mack) ; “Rookery Nook” (Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter) ; “Song O’ My Heart” (John Mac Cormack, Maureen O’Sullivan) ; “Charley’s Aunt” (Charles Ruggles); “Common Clay” (Contance Bennett, Lew Ayres). * * * *

Those people who saw the American company that toured New - Zealand about five years ago with Marian Lord as its star, will remember their bright production of “The Best People,” the modern comedy written by David Gray and Avery Hopwood. Paramount has now made it into a talking picture, with three stage stars featured — Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan. Charles Starrett, Henry Wadsworth, Winifred Harris, Herbert Yost and David Hutcheson (who specializes in English comedy character work) are also in the cast of the production, now called “Fast and Loose,” which Fred Newmeyer directed. This comedy at The Civic revolves round the love affair of a society girl with a society mechanic, if I remember rightly, and the dialogue of the play was very bright.

“Madonna of the Streets,” the Columbia film adapted from the story “The Ragged Messenger” by W. B. Maxwell, is coming to the Civic on Saturday. It features the following prominent stars —Evelyn Brent, Robert Ames and Josephine Dunn, and was directed by John S. Robertson (who directed Greta Garbo in “The Single Standard”), and has Ivan Linow, J. Edwards Davis, Zack Williams, Ed Brady and Richard Tucker also in its cast. Much of the story is laid in the Barbary Coast and along San Francisco’s waterfront, and Edward Jewell was the art director. Evelyn Brent portrays the unscrupulous woman whose reformation is effected by the man she had set out to hurt.

Thomas Meighan (a silent screen favourite, whose outstanding successes were in “The Miracle Man,” “The Admirable Crichton” and “Cappy Ricks”) makes his first appearance on the talking screen in Warner Bros.’ adaptation,of Ford O’Higgins’- play, “The Argyle Case,” which comes to the Civic next Wednesday. 'He is supported by an interesting cast, including Lila Lee (with whom he played in many silent films), 11. B. Warner and Zasu Pitts.

THE MAJESTIC.

Now Showing: “Men of the North” (Gilbert Roland, Barbara Leonard). Saturday: ‘The Man who Came Back” (Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell). Wednesday Next: “Those Three French Girls”' (Reginald Denny, Fili Dorsay, Cliff Edwards, Yola d’Avril, Sandra Ravel, George Grossmith). Coming: “Sin Takes a Holiday” (Constance Bennett), “The Seas Beneath” (George O’Brien, Marion Lessing) ; “Let Us Be Gay” (Norma Shearer, Marie Dressier) ; “The Great Meadow” (John Mack Brown, Eleanor Boardman) ; “A Lady’s Morals” (Grace Moore, Reginald Denny) ; “Min and Bill” (Marie Dressier, Wallace Beery) ; “Reducing” (Marie Dressier, Polly Moran) ; “Within the Law” (Joan Crawford). * » * * “Men of the North,” M-G-M’s adventure romance of the North woods is at the Majestic, with Gilbert Roland and Barbara Leonard. Directed by Hal Roach, the picture is based on an original dramatic plot by Willard Mack. The play deals with the adventure of Louis the Fox, French Canadian trapper, wrongly suspected of theft and dogged through the snows by the Northwest Mounted sergeant, Mooney. Roland, who plays the hero, will be remembered as Norma Talmadge’s leading man in “Camille,” “The Dpve,” “A Woman Disputed,” and Miss Leonard was in “Son of the Gods.” The cast includes Robert Elliott, George Davis, Nena Quartaro, Robert Graves and Fletcher Norton. * * * *

The screen’s most popular sweetheart team, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, are reunited in Fox-Movietone’s production of Jules Eckert Goodman’s dramatic success, “The Man Who Came Back,” which comes to the Majestic on Saturday, and which Raoul Walsh directed. It is a romantic drama of regeneration, and much interest is centred round its release by those who saw this pair in “7th Heaven” and “Street Angel.” The supporting cast includes Kenneth Mac Kenna, William Holden, Mary Forbes, Ulrich Haupt, William Worthington and Peter Gawthorne. Joseph Urban, the scenic artist, has created colourful settings for this drama.

Next Wednesday the Majestic will screen P. G. Wodehouse’s first original screen comedy, “Those Three French Girls,” which Harry Beaumont (who made “Broadway Melody”) directed for M.G.M., with an imposing cast headed by Reginald Denny and Fifi Dorsay, and with George Grossmith, the celebrated English actor in the cast. Most of the plot is unravelled in Paris, and Miss Dorsay’s specialty feature song is “You’re Simply Delish.”