The SCREEN and its STARS

Southland Times, Issue 22192, 7 December 1933, Page 5

The SCREEN and its STARS

.(By

“Columbine”.)

THE CIVIC Now Showing: “The Little Giant” (Warner Bros. Mary Astor, Ed. G. Robinson), Helen Vensen, Shirley Grey). Saturday: “Sally in Our Alley” (Gracie Fields). Coming: “Girl Missing” (Vitaphone. Ben Lyon, Mary Brian, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibee, Lyle Talbot, Harold Huber). “Elmar the Great” (Warner Bros. Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd). “Working Man” (Warner Bros. George Arliss, Bette Davis, Hardie Albright, Gordon Westcott). “The Life of Jimmy Dolan” (Loretta Young, Doug. Fairbanks jun., Alene MacMahon, Guy Kibee, Fifi Dorsay). “The Good Companions” (Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwynn).

Edward G. Robinson end Mary Astor head the cast of “The battle Giant,” which is now showing at th« Civic Theatre. This is a First National comedy and an amusing chronicle of gangsters, racketeers, beer barons and bootleggers, though there is not a single shot fired, for Edward G. Robinson as “Bugs” Ahearn, Chicago beer baron and underworld ruler, abdicates from his throne at the opening of the story following the legalising of good beer. (This, I suppose, will be used by the opponents of Prohibition, for the moral is obvious). So he turns gentleman and lives the life of a “society guy.” And the story concerns what happens to him at the Santa Barbara society playground. The part of a blonde society girl is played by Helen Vinson while Roy Del Ruth directed.

It’s a new and somewhat dishevelled George Arliss, usually so immaculate, who comes to the Civic soon in “Working Man.” For he plays the part of a man whose long fishing trip is interrupted by a chance to do an old friend a good turn in disguise. Bette Davis has the leading feminine role, and John Adolfi directed.

A melodramatic mystery thriller comes to the Civic soon in the Warner Bros.’ picture “Girl Missing.” The story was written by Carol Erickson and Don Mallaby, who also adapted it for the screen. While the screen play is filled with thrills and a haze of mystery which holds the suspense to the end, it is written in the smart, wisecracking vein of modem fiction and carries plenty of humour to offset its more dramatic moments. Ben Lyon, Glenda Farrell and Mary Brian are in the leading roles, while others in the cast include Peggy Shannon. Lyle Talbot, Guy Kibbee, Harold Huber, Edward Ellis, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Helen Ware, George Pat Collins and Louise Beavers.

Joe E. Brown’s followers will sec him soon at the Civic in “Elmer, the Great,” a hilarious comedy-drama of big league baseball. How Elmer gets into jail, is liberated only to fall into a brandnew disgrace and be ruled off the team on the eve of the world’s series games, and how he finally goes to bat and pulls the game out of the mud—literally as well as figuratively—is said to make one of the most uproariously funny pictures that the screen has seen this year. Mervyn Le Roy directed, and the cast includes Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh, Preston S. Foster and Claire Dodd.

Warner Baxter has been assigned the starring role in Fox Film’s forthcoming “Odd Thursday” which is based on the best-selling novel by Vera Caspary. Rochelle Hudson, newly signed to a long-term contract by the Fox studio, will support Baxter in the leading feminine role. Production will start within a few weeks.

Alleging a deliberate policy on the part of American film interests to discredit British films and to spoil their markets abroad, Julius Hagen, managing director of Twickenham Film Studio, gives some remarkable figures in regard to Australia. These concern two of his films which were given good notices after their trade shows in London. “An American concern,” declares Mr Hagen, “insisted on handling the rights of these films for Australia. The results were tragic. One picture has taken £3 10/- and the other £1 10/- in Australia, whereas if I had been able to handle them myself, through a British firm, I should have received at least £7150 for each of them on account of a fifty-fifty share.” Mr Hagen’s statement was made in reply to a suggestion by Mr J. C. Graham, managing director of Paramount, that major British producers should be invited to allocate certain product for the quota needs of American companies, being in return “subsidized” by an agreed amount for this purpose, and retaining full distribution advantages to themselves. The plan put forward by Mr Graham is supposed to be designed to meet the demand for better quality British quota pictures. Mr Hagen, in condemning the suggestion in every aspect, described it as “a gratuitous insult to the British industry, because it reflects the prevailing contempt for the product of British studios by the American renting firms. “Every one of the American firms here, with one exception, is suspect, so far as lam concerned,” stated Mr Hagen. They impose terms that make the production of good class British films for quota purposes an impossibility, especially in the matter of finance. I cannot conceive of any major British companies considering the scheme for one moment. “The only real solution to the problem,” Mr Hagen declared, “is reciprocity. If Britain takes American films at high prices, they in return should take British pictures on equal terms, if they are of the same merit, as in many cases they undoubtedly are.” Opposition to Mr Graham’s proposal also comes from Mr S. W. Smith, managing director of the British Lion Corporation.

THE KEGENT Now Showing: “Best of Enemies” (Buddy Rogers, Marion Nixon, Frank Morgan, Joseph Cawthorn, Greta Nissen). Saturday and all Show Week: “Tell Me To-night” (Jan Kiepura, Sonnie Hale, Magda Schneider, Edmund, Gwenn) and “Our Fighting Navy.” Coming Attractions: “The Midshipmaid” (Jessie Matthews, Frederick Kerr, A. W. Bascombe); “Made On Broadway” (Robert Montgomery, Sally Eilers, Madge Evans); “Thark” (Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn); “She Done Him Wrong” (Mae West, Cary Grant); “Lord of the Manor” (Frederick Kerr). ♦ ♦ » ♦ Buddy Rogers and Marian Nixon have the featured roles in “Best of Enemies,” the romantic comedy now showing at the Regent. The story traces the development of a youthful love through the vagaries of events surrounding two young people, in which family differences are not the least of the complications. The romance is set against a background that reflects one of the most important events of the day in America—the return of beer. The supporting cast includes Frank Morgan and Joseph Cawthorn—best of enemies—Greta Nissen, Arno Frey, William Lawrence and Anders Van Haden. The film has a distinctive musical accompaniment directed by Arthur Lange and dance sequences arranged by Sammy Lee. Rian James directed.

Everywhere in Great Britain, Germany, and France the critics seem to be unanimous in their opinion of “Tell Me To-night,” the Gainsborough picture coming to the Regent on Saturday. Jan Kiepura, the opera singer, is said to make a personal triumph in this film, his voice being on more than one occasion compared with that of Caruso. I am told that, seven years ago, he took his native Warsaw' by storm when an ex-law student, he made his debut in “Faust” at the Opera House. He is now under contract at Vienna to the State Opera House, and you have probably heard some of his gramophone recordings. Though he is making a new musical picture in Berlin called “A Song From You” it is considered unlikely that he will permanently abandon opera for the screen. But there is more than this. The story of the film is delightful, and a Swiss village, with snowcapped mountains and tree-clad hills form a delightful setting for the melody and romance. Magda Schneider, a Continental actress, has the leading feminine role, while Sonnie Hale’s foolish inanities lend comedy to the picture. Betty Chester is cast as the dominant manager, while Athene Seyler and Edmund Gwenn are Mayor and Mayoress of the lovely Swiss village where most of the action takes place. The studio was quite continental, by the way, during the making of the film, Anatol Litwak, the Russian director, working in a German studio on Swiss exteriors with a cast having Polish, German and English players. But art, of course, has'no nationality! On the same programme is “Our - Fighting Navy,” an interesting film made with the co-operation of the British Admiralty.

Another Walls-Lynn comedy introducing once more the famous Aldwych team, comes to the Regent soon, titled “Thark,” the farce written by Ben Travers. Mary Brough and Robertson Hare, of course, have prominent parts.

Film producers, divided in all else, have one article of faith to which they cling. It is that costume spells ruin at the box office. Defying this conviction, with only such as “The Birth of a Nation,” “Ben Hur,” “The Covered Wagon,” “The Ten Commandments,” and “The Sign of the Cross” to encourage them, the Sound City company are busy bringing to the screen that engaging scoundrel Colonel Blood. It should be a great success. Blood is a fellow who needs the verve, the amplitude of the screen, to do him justice. He must have had the nerve of a Capone, or he would not have come within an ace of getting away with the Crown Jewels; Charles 11., a pretty good judge, evidently found him good company; and at the end of his Tower adventure, when his daring looked like costing him his head, he faced disgrace and death with a cool effrontery that probably did more than anything else to win him his mysterious pardon. Charles presumably considered him too amusing a ruffian to lose. “Colonel Blood” is being directed by W. P. Lipscomb. It is his first attempt. A scenario writer and something of a dramatist (his “Clive of India” is to be done shortly—l believe at Windsor), Mr Lipscomb has always cherished the scenario writer’s inevitable ambition to direct a picture. Well, Sound City have given him his chance. He has an alert intelligence, a sense of humour much subtler than some of his Hulbert epics would lead one to expect, and enthusiasm enough to acquire a sound working knowledge of his period. It is too early yet to judge his first film, but I shall be disappointed if it is not full of action, character and amusing incident. Pepys solemnly prophesying the speedy end of tea-drinking, the King running away from his statesmen to play with his perpetual-motion machine—out of such human touches he is rightly trying to build up a lively and credible picture of his age. Frank Cellier is playing the middle-aged Irish adventurer, and Allan Jeaves the King. Also in the cast, as Pepys’ maid, Susie, a demure little creature, is Mary Lawson, a newcomer to the screen. Yet another interesting person on the lot is Laurence Irving, Sir Henry’s artist _ grandson, who is doing the art direction.