The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 22012, 11 May 1933, Page 12

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By

“Columbine " .)

THE CIVIC New Showing: “Frisco Jenny”' (Warners—Ruth Chatterton Donald Cook, Louis Calhem, Harold Huber). Saturday: “Love on Wheels” (Gainsborough—Jack Hulbert, Gordon Harker, Leonora Corbett). Coming: “The Mayor’s Nest” (B.D.F. —Sydney Howard, Claude Hulbert, Muriel Aked); “The King’s Vacation” (Warners —George Arliss) ; “The Flag Lieutenant” (B.D.F. — Henry Edwards, Anne Ngarle, Peter Gawthome, Louis Goodrich). * * * * The long step from the drawingroom to the Barbary Coast of old San Francisco gives to the screen an entirely new Ruth Chatterton, in her latest First National picture “Frisco Jenny,” which is now at The Civic. Coming as an interesting departure from her long series of portrayals as the rich, charming and cultured woman of high society, the title role in “Frisco Jenny” awards the star a chance for a new characterization. “Frisco Jenny” was a historical character in San Francisco during and after the earthquake period. She was the daughter of a saloon-keeper and a power in the underworld. Ruth Chatterton, reported to be glad of the opportunity to bring so picturesque a person to the screen, dons the plumed hats, gingerbreaded costumes and war-paint of the demi-mondaine, and plays her for all she is worth. Donald Cook, James Murray and Louis Calhern appear opposite Miss Chatterton in a triangle of prominent roles, while others in the cast include Harold Huber, Helen Jerome Eddy, Noel Francis, Pat O’Malley, Hallam Cooley, Robert Warwick, J. Carroll Naish and Robert Emmet O’Connor. The screen play is by Wilson Minzer and Robert Lord. Jack Hulbert, who made such a success of his talkie debut in “Sunshine Susie,” and appeared again in “The Ghost Train,” comes to the Civic on Saturday in his latest Gainsborough picture, presented by British and Dominions Films, and entitled “Love on Wheels.” “Here is Hulbert at his best,” says one English critic, “setting the pace in a production which is gay, irrepressible, and full of good fun, in which he is brilliantly supported by Gordon Harker as a Green Line ’bus conductor. A notable feature of the film is that a good number, of its scenes were actually taken within the great Selfridge Store in Oxford Street, London.” It is a story by Franz Schultz and Ernst Angel, directed by Victor Saville, and made light and gay with music -by Jean Gilbert and dances arranged by Hulbert himself, who is a very ingratiating dancer. The West End cast supporting Hulbert and Harker include Leonora Corbett, Edmund Gwenn (seen here in “The Skin Game”), Tony de Lungo, Percy Parsons, Laurence Hanray and Miles Malleson. Jack Hulbert’s equally fam ° us brother, Claude, will be seen at The Civic next week in his screen debut, as assistant-comedian to Sydney Howard, the London comedian who is starred in “The Mayor’s Nest,” which was especially written for the latter, and directed by P. McLean Rogers for British Dominion Films. Others in the cast are Muriel Aked, Frank Harvey, Michael Hogan, Miles Malleson, Al Bowley and young Dorothy Amos, a new screen child “discovery.” The story is described as a “satire on Bumbledom,” and was written by R. P. Weston, Bert Lee and Jack Marks. Janet Gaynor has now divorced her lawyer-husband, Lydell Peck, a her eighteen months of marriage. Will Fox still feature her as the unsophisticated heroine of the screen now she has had her first divorce? James Gleason has gone to London from Hollywood to play in GaumontBritish films. His first role will be that of an American film producer in “Orders are Orders,” with Charlotte Greenwood and Cyril Maude. “I want to raise babies instead of whoopee.” In this epigram Miss Constance Bennett, the film star, summed up her philosophy of life upon her arrival in Paris from London with her husband, the Marquis de la Falaise. Miss Bennett revealed that she was looking for a home in the south of France to which she could retire when her Hollywood contract expires in two years’ time.

Diana Wynward, the English actress who was the Mrs Marryot of the film “Cavalcade,” is returning to England to portray the part of Charlotte Bronte in G. B. Cochran’s London stage production of Clemence Dane’s new play, “Wild Decembers,” which is about the Bronte sisters. Katherine Cornell, America’s “first actress,” is to play Charlotte Bronte in the Broadway production of this play next season.

Ely Culbertson and Mrs Culbertson are now at work in Hollywood on their series of Bridge pictures. When I say this I am assuming that there is more showmanship than reality in the tales one reads in American papers of the “temperamental” disputes between the Bridge expert and his director. Mr Culbertson is reported to have left the set on several occasions because he said the cards were dealt wrongly—and he should know. But I have no doubt that thrilling entertainment for Bridge “fans” is well on the way.

Betty Compson, the film actress, has married again, this time to somebody as celebrated as herself! Her latest husband is “Jimmy” Walker, the exMayor of New York, and they were married in the Town Hall at Nice (France) on April 18. The bridegroom showed strong resentment at the activities of the photographers and talkie machine operators who were gathered outside the Town Hall, and he scattered them with his fists. By covering his head and turning up his coat collar, he prevented all but one photographer from getting a picture of himself Many of the men had gone from America for the event which shows what it is to be a film star —or an ex-Mayor!

Eisenestein is now working on a new comedy, following whose completion he expects to go to Hayti to make a historical film. He also desires to direct Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Pudovkin is making “The Deserter,” a film about German and Russian working-class life, and Ekk is making a new picture depicting the place of modern women in Russian life. It is not true, they say, that the Soviet is discarding Russian classics. Tchekov, Tolstoy and others are regarded as a legacy of the Russian people. They repudiate none of their great masters, but rather “build further from where they (the writers) left off.” It would be interesting to see a “comedy” directed by Eisenstein —more interesting still to see what he could add to Mr Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Anyway, there’s little use speculating—the works of these film “masters” don’t find their way to this part of the world.

THE MAJESTIC Now * Showing: “Lord Camber’s Ladies” (B.l.P.—Sir Gerald Du Maurier, Gertrude Lawrence, Benita Hume, Nigel Bruce, Betty Norton, A. Bromley Davenport). Saturday: “His Wife’s Mother” (8.1. P. —Gus McNaughton, Jimmy Godden, Molly Lamont, Jack Hobbs, Ma'rion Dawson, Jerry Vemo); Coming: “Strange Justice” (R.K.O. Marion Marsh, Reginald Denny, Richard Bennett, Norman Foster); Wedding Rehearsal” (United Artists —Roland Young, George Grossmith, John Loder, Wendy Barrie, Joan Gardner, Lady Tree, Kate Cutler); “Six Hours to Live” (Warner Baxter, Miriam Jordan, John Boles, Beryl Mercer, Halliwell Hobbes); “Trouble in Paradise” (Paramount —Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis. Charlie Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton, C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Greig). “Lord Camber’s Ladies,” the 8.1. P. adaptation of H. A. Vachell’s “The Case of Lady Camber,” at present at The Majestic, provides filmgoers with the opportunity of seeing two of England s most popular stage stars in a dramatic story which tells of the predicament of a nurse who finds herself accused of poisoning her former lover’s wife, by the man she loves. Sir Gerald du Maurier (London’s most lovable actor, introduced to the screen two years ago in the pictorial version of Galsworthy’s “Escape”) gives an excellent performance as the austere Dr Napier, and Gertrude Lawrence’s versatility is given plenty of expression in her role of revue star. Benita Hume, Nigel Bruce, A. Bromley Davenport, Clare Greet, Betty Norton (the New Zealander) and Harold Meade are also in the cast. It is interesting to note that this film is the first directorial attempt of W. Levy, the playwright, under the supervision of Alfred Hitchcock, and was specially chosen for the Midnight Matinee held recently at the Regal (London) in aid of Charing Cross Hospital. The play was adapted for the screen by Levy, Edward Greenwood and Gilbert Wakefield. Benita Hume, by the way, is now in America with a fat contract in Hollywood pictures. t Will Scott’s successful London farce, “Queer Fish,” was adapted by Harry Hughes for 8.1. P. to make the film comedy "His Wife’s Mother” which comes to The Majestic on Saturday as a companion-in-laughter to “My Wife s Family.” Gus McNaughton, the London revue star who has appeared here in the films' “The Maid of the Mountains” and “Lucky Girl,” is the star of this picture, which was directed by Harry Hughes with a big English comedy cast, including Jerry Vemo, Jimmy Godden, Molly Lamont, Renee Gadd, Jack Hobbs, Hal Gordon and Marion Dawson (the English comedienne who made her screen debut in “The Last Coupon”). “Strange Justice,” a melodrama coming to Tire Majestic next week directed by Victor Schertzinger from a story and screen play by William A. Drake, is a J. G. Bachmann production, and comes under the R.K.0.-Radio banner. An excellent cast includes Marian Marsh, Reginald Denny, Richard Bennett, Norman Foster, Irving Pichel, Nydia Westman and Thomas Jackson. It tells a dramatic illustration of how justice can be miscarried. Speaking at the annual conference of the Educational Institute of Scotland recently, Mr A. R. Cameron (Director of Education at Oxford) said that the Cinema had now a three-fold place in our National life; as a form of entertainment, as a means of visual and oral instruction, and as an art form. Mr Cameron strongly urged the value of films in schools, colleges and universities. “Films,” he proceeded, m the way of a general tribute to the screen, “have been looked at askance by those whom they might have served. Yet the film is gaining prestige. The entertainment film has often been criticized, but the criticism in too many cases has been neither informed nor constructive, and too much of it comes from people who have never visited a picture theatre.”

Noel Coward’s “To-night is Ours”— an old-fashioned Ruritanian affair is being saved by up-to-date dialogue, I hear, by the Americans —in the immediate form of the Paramount Company, with the title changed to “The Queen Was in the Parlour,” and those two excellent players—Fredric March and Claudette Colbert—in the title roles. Stuart Walker is director, with Alison Skipworth, Arthur Byron and Paul Cavanagh in minor roles.

Henry B. Warner (hero of the film version of “Sorrell and Son ) is suing his actress wife, Rita Stanwood, for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. A property agreement has been arranged. Mr and Mrs Warner have three children, who, they have agreed, shall live part of the time with their mother and part with their father. Bom in 1876 and educated at Bedford Grammar School, England, Henry B. Warner began on the legitimate stage. In 1905 he went to New York as leading man in “Merely Mary Ann” and remained there for film work.

If China’s troubles have done nothing else they have brought the distressful country a deal of free publicity on the screen. “Shanghai Express” started the vogue for pictures with oriental backgrounds, and still they come, the latest additions to this cycle of Cathay including Pearl Buck’s “Good Earth and Somerset Maugham’s “The Painted Veil”—the latter (it is reported) starring Greta Garbo. With “Rain” already completed, and “Our Betters, ’ “The Narrow Corner” and “The Painted Veil” on the way, it looks as if Hollywood has become definitely Maughamconscious. Odd that England’s greatest writers and our greatest themes are generally left for Hollywood to exploit.

Two current New York successes have been bought for Hollywood manufacture. These are “Dinner at Eight,” the Edna Ferber —George Kaufman play now to be seen in London also, and Noel Coward’s “Design For Living.” Ernst Lubitsch is to make the latter for Paramount, with Herbert Marshall. Fredric March and, possibly Miriam Hopkins as the three people “who love each other very much. ’ Miriam Hopkins does not seem to be ideally suited to the role played by Lynn Fontanne, and both Claudette Colbert and Kay Francis _ are being spoken of in connection with this role. M.G.M. is making “Dinner at Eight,” on a “Grand Hotel” scale, with leading roles by Marie Dressier, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Billie Burke and Madge Evans.