The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 22042, 15 June 1933, Page 12

The SCREEN and its STARS

(By

“Columbine’.)

THE CIVIC

Now screening: “Tiger Shark” ners—Edward G. Robinson, Richard Arlen, Zita Johann). Saturday: “The Crash” (Warners— Ruth Chatterton, George' Brent, Henry Kolker, Lois Wilson). Coming: “You Said a Mouthful” (Warners—Joe E. Brown); “Marry Me” (Gainsborough — Renate Muller, George Robey, Harry Green),; ‘Lone Contract” (Winifred Shotter, Owen Nares); “The Man They Couldn’t Arrest” (Gainsborough—Gordon Harker); “In a Monastery Garden” (B.D.F.—John Stewart, Humberston Wright, Joan Maude); “Jack’s The Boy” (Gainsborough—Jack Hulbert, Cicely'Courtneidge, Winifred Shotter).

I would not miss seeing “Tiger Shark,” a photoplay from the Warner Brothers’ studio which is now showing at The Civic. Its star is Edward G. Robinson, in my opinion one of the best actors in America—at least that the screen has allowed us to see—sharing a place in my admiration with Walter Huston, Lionel Barrymore and Frederic March. His first screen appearance was as Toni in that very beautiful United Artists’ version of Sidney Howard’s play “They Knew What They Wanted,” that was Vilma Banky’s only full length talking picture, made in the days when the screen first became audible. He was also the harassed editor of “Five Star Final” (called here, I think, “Letters of Fire”), and it has been noticeable that under his interpretation minor roles have a habit of blotting out the rest of the film. Associated with him in “Tiger Shark” (which is based on Houston Branch’s original story “Tuna,” from which Wells Root prepared the screen play) is Zita Johann, one of the most interesting actresses in America. Of Hungarian birth, she has been a member of New York’s celebrated Theatre Guild for some years, and that fact alone entitles her to the respect of anyone interested in the theatre. She made her first screen appearance locally in “The Mummy” last week-end, and although the part allowed her little scope, there was something very impressive about her work. Others in the cast besides Richard Arlen, are Carroll Naish, William Ricciardi and Vince Barnett, also from the stage, in a practically all-Broadway cast directed by Howard Hawks.

Miss Ruth Chatterton and Mr George Brent, the screen’s most prosperous newlyweds, wrestle with the dual problem of sex and the depression in a new film, for Warners which comes to The Civic on Saturday. It is called “The Crash,” and was written for these two stars by Earl Baldwin and Larry Baratto. “In a drama so scornful of the shallow rich,” says one reviewer, “that it might be a big hit in Moscow, the dashing stars are two of the least admirable victims of economic collapse. Miss Chatterton is a luxury-loving wife who rushes off to gay exile in Bermuda because she cannot stand the sight of her husband losing his memory and, in the end, feels that she is being pretty noble when she decides that even deflated New York with her husband is preferable to romance on an Australian sheep farm with her lover. Mr Brent, the husband, is so unpleasant in his alternate whining and suspicion that you begin to feel that he is not much more admirable than his wife. Miss Chatterton is entirely credible as the shallow wife, and Mr Brent seems bewildered enough to suggest the stock market victim adequately. By far the most attractive portrayal, however, is that of Paul Kavanagh, as the sheepherder from Australia, who hadn’t been around long enough to realize that he was getting one of the best breaks of the season when his sweetheart decides to stick with her husband.” Others in the cast are Barbara Leonard, Henry Kolher, Lois Wilson, Ivan Simpson, Helen Winson, Hardie Albright, Edith Kingdon, Richard Tucker and Virginia Hammond. William Dieterle directed..

Joe E. Brown’s new picture at the Civic next week will make you forget the depression and that a hard winter is being had by all, according to reviews I have heard of it. It is that kind of a comedy, slapstick, spontaneously funny, without ever being maudlin or offensive. “It has little sense, sublety, or story for that matter, but it is pretty sure to make you laugh somewhere along -the line.” This screen comedy was based on a story by William B. Dover, adapted by Robert Lord and Bolton Mallory, and directed by Lloyd Bacon. “Ginger Rogers strikes just the right note in her supporting role, giving her ingenue the touch of sophistication and playful spoofing desirable. And Farina, who several years ago was a little boy in ‘Our Gang* but who has now grown up, adds much to the merits of the comedy.” Preston Foster, Sheila Terry, Guinn Williams, Harry Gribbon, Oscar Apfel and Edwin Maxwell are at the head of a large supporting cast. Marjorie Rambeau has been engaged by Jesse L. Lasky, independent producer for Fox, for the role of Hippolyta in the “Warrior’s Husband,” in which Elissa Landi will be starred ip the role Katherine Hepburn created with striking success on Broadway. Ernest Truex is another member of the cast announced for the film version of the play by Julian Thompson, which Walter Lang is to direct. Madeleine Carroll, England’s most beautiful, and it seemed, most intelligent film star, is to return to the screen after her marriage a year ago, to be starred by Gaumont-British in “I Was a Spy.” In addition to the nurseheroine, there will be Herbert Marshall as Stephan, the hospital orderly, Conrad Veidt, Sir Gerald du Maurier, Edmund Gwenn, Eva Moore, May Agate, D. A. Clarke Smith, Edmund Willard, Eliot Makeham, George Merritt and Herbert Lomas.

THE MAJESTIC Now Showing: “Play Girl” (Warners— Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster, Noel Madison, Flora Finch). Saturday: “The Sign of the 5. Cross” (Paramount — Frederic March, Elissa Landi, Charles Laughton, Claudette Colbert, lan Keith, Tommy Conlon). Coming: “They Just Had to Get Married” (Universal—Zasu Pitts, Slim Summerville, Roland Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Cora Sue Collins, Fifi D’Orsay). Special Encore Week: “On Our Selection” (Bert Bailey); “Politics” (Marie Dressier, Polly Moran, Roscoe Ates); “Song of the Flame” (Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Noah Beery, Alice Gentle, Bert Roach). * ♦ » * “Play Girl,”.a Warner Bros, and Vitaphone picture featuring Loretta Young as the business girl who thinks she can win financial security and a brilliant career without the responsibilities of motherhood or the bondage of love is now showing at the Majestic. The hero is played by Norman Foster, a recruit from the stage, who is Claudette Colbert’s husband. The emotional intensity of the story is lightened by the comedy of Winnie Lightner, as the heroine’s friend, and by Guy Kibbee as Winnie’s unappreciated wooer. Maude Fulton adapted the story and Maurine Watkins wrote it for the screen. Many of the scenes are in the thronging precincts of a huge department store. Ray Enright directed and mention should be made of the unusual photography by Gregg Toland. Others in the large cast are James Ellison, Edward Van Sloan, Dorothy Burgess, Polly Walters, Mae Madison, Noel Madison, Nat Pendleton and Flora Finch.

One feels there is little one can tell the older generation about “The Sign of the Cross”—it has seen it on the stage so many timer. With the younger it has become a traciition, fed to it with nursery tales, “Ben Hur” and the Bible. But it is not generally known that the ridicule of the Christian religion across the footlights by Colonel Ingersoll an American lecturer, was directly responsible for the writing of “The Sign of the Cross.” According to a report

in the Chicago Times of March 20, 1898, Wilson Barrett, an English actor of note, was staying at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis at Easter, 1894. Barrett was introduced to Ingersoll, whose claim to fame at the time was lecturing against Christianity. That night the newspaper men found Barrett determined to appeal across the footlights with a play that would show the purity and strength of Christianity. “The Sign of the Cross” was conceived a year later (1895) and presented for the first time on any stage in St. Louis. The actor-author then left for London and produced the play where it ran for over two years, bringing to the theatre countless thousands who had never before seen a stage performance. This was in 1896. The play met with the same enthusiasm in Australia and New Zealand as it did in other parts of the world, although Barrett himself never played it in this country. It was first produced at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney, on May 8, 1897, with Julius Knight as Marcus and Ada Ferrer as Mercia. From then to 1909 it was produced by Julius Knight some half dozen times. William Desmond, later known in pictures, and Alan Wilkie, well known Shakespearean actor, also revived the play in more recent years. The last performance was with Julius Knight again at the Old Tivoli Theatre in 1923. In the current picturized version coming to The Majestic on Saturday, Charles Laughton as Nero is said by reputable critics to have created the finest characterization of his career, either on stage or screen; Elissa Landi is Mercia, the Christian girl; Frederic March is Marcus Superbus, the Roman Prefect; and Claudette Colbert is Poppaea, Nero’s wife. Cecil B. de Mille, king of Hollywood’s spectacles, has a cast of 7,500 in this film. * * * * Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts are co-starred in another Universal comedy which comes to the Majestic next week, “They Just Had To Get Married,” a filmization of Cyril Harcourt’s play which was adapted for the screen by H. M. Walker and Gladys Lehman, and directed by Edward Ludwig. The supporting cast is interesting, comprising as it does Roland Young, Verree Teasdale (a very clever comedienne from New York) Fifi D’Orsay (who helped Will Rogers to see Paris, if you remember), C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Greig, David Landau, Elizabeth Patterson, Wallis Clark, Vivian Oakland, Virginia Howell, Cora Sue Collins (that very clever little girl who was in “The Strange Case of Clara Deane”), Henry Armetta, and others. Universal has certainly done well by its new costarring team in the matter of casting. On May 2, a command performance of “Cavalcade” was given at Windsor Castle for their Majesties the King and Queen, following a dinner party which I their Majesties gave for specially invited guests. “Forty-second Street,” the successful New York musical comedy based on the novel by Bradford Ropes, has been completed by Warners. The cast includes Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Una Merkel, Ruby Keeler (Mrs Al. Jolson), Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Dick Powell, Lyle Talbot, Ginger Rogers, Allen Jenkins, Henry B. Walthall, Edward J. Nugent, Clarence Nordstrom and George E. Stone besides a large chorus. Lloyd Bacon directed it.