INTENDS TO WRITE FOR FILMS IN FUTURE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 March 1931, Page 2

INTENDS TO WRITE FOR FILMS IN FUTURE

FREDERICK LONSDALE OUTLINES HIS REASONS Mr. Frederick Lonsdale, whose successes include "The High Road," "Canaries Sometimes Sing," "On Approval," "The Last of. Mrs. Cheyney" and "The Maid of the Mountains," has written his last stage play. This was only completed recently. It is called "Followed." It has seven characters and the theme is jealousy. "But I am never going to write another," Mr. Lonsdale told a London writer quite definitely recently. "In future I am going to write nothing but talkies, and you will find that in two years' time all the leading dramatists will be doing plays of the same order as Sir Arthur Pinero's 'The Second Mrs. Tanqueray' for the talkies. A Larger Public "I have just been commissioned by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation to write three talkie plays, in one of which Greta Garbo will play the lead, in another of which Norma Shearer will play the lead, while the third is for an all-star cast. Why are we all doing this? "The reasons are simple. First of all, if 50,000 people see a stage play it is a howling success. If only five

million people see a talkie it is a rank failure. Naturally, an author would sooner have a public of twenty millions than of 500,000. It is only human, especially if he is paid the same royalties for a talkie us he is paid for a stage play. "Another reason is that the talkie is a so much more flexible medium. In a stage play you cannot have more than three acts. On the screen you can have thirty-six. Instead of making a character say that the bailiffs are 'in' yon actually see them 'in.' Instead of saying that the hero has just arrived from East Africa you see him said from Mombassa and you see him arrive at the railway station in London. There is no comparison, is there? "Moreover, the audience are paying 3s 6d or 5s 9d, instead of 7s (id and 12s 6d, or even 14s fid. The proof of it all is that the best seats at the cinemas are now all occupied by theatregoers." * * * "Miss Adventure" "Miss Adventure," an adaptation of a French play, has been given Seymour Felix as his second Fox Movietone directorial assignment, it is announced. Felix's first picture, "Girls Demand Excitement," has been completed with John Wayne and Virginia Cherrill as the featured players. "Miss Adventure" is being adapted by Chandler Sprague, writer-director under contract to Fox Films. No cast has been selected.

"Three Rough Diamonds" Eddie Gribbon and Lew Cody, who played two of the three rough hornbres with Victor McLaglen, in Stollof's tentatively titled "Three Rough Diamonds," have been cast for other pictures. Cody will play the part of Marriott, in Sidney Laufield's "Three Girls Lost," and Gribbon appears as the waiter in "Mr. Lemon of Orange," co-starring El Brendel and Fifi Dorsay.

Sterling Films, Ltd.'s Next Sterling Films, whose production affiliate was responsible for "French Leave," and who have just presented the first A.S.F.I, film, the sensational "City of Song," which has received such amazing laudation from Press and public, have made plans for their next British picture, an adaptation of lan Hay's well-known success, "Tilly of Blooinsbury."

William Shakespeare's New Rival In writing of a comedy scene from the British Dominions Films, all dialogue comedy, "Canaries Sometimes Sing," representing a drinking bout between two miserable husbands who are wife-weary, the London "Morning Post" critic states: "The drinking scene between the two husbands remains one of the most comically-con-ceived things of its kind since Sir Toby and Sir Andrew waked the night, owl in Olivia's kitchen." Tom Walls and At hole Stewart appear in the roles of the two husbands, in the cast also are Yvonne Arnaud and Cathleen Nesbit, appearing in the original "Fortune' 'Theatre production.

Gainsborough Speed Up Michael Balcon, of Gainsborough Pictures, is to be congratulated upon the rapidity with which his company has progressed during 1930, ancMts impressive programme for 1931. Further stor'es for Gainsborough this year are "The Hound of the Baskervilles," "Michael and Mary," with Edna Best and Herbert Marshall in their original stage roles, "A Night in Montmartre," based on a drama by Miles Mallison, which will probably be directed by Leslie Hiscott. and "The Ghost Train," and adaptation of Arnold Ridley's thriller.