UNCLE CARL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 30

UNCLE CARL

Attended “Show Boat” Thirteen Times PREFERS SILENT FILMS When interviewed in London recently, Mr. Carl Laemmle, founder and chairman of Universal F otures, claimed that, personally, -he preferred silent films. A reporter talked to hint in the Golden Arrow train on the Paris-Lon-don service. Mr. Laemmle, a genial, bespectacled man of diminutive stature whose activity belies his 60-

odd years, was making a visit to London. He lias been engaged on the Continent with Herr Remarque, author of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which Universal Pictures is to make into a talking film both in English and German. While in London, Mr. Laemmle may discuss the possibility of his firm's interesting itself in an English production, a life of Shakespeare, to be made with dialogue and in colour. “JUNIOR IN CHARGE” Mr. Laemmle was eloquent on the topic of his own personal preference for silent films, though he admitted that he had seen his owii firm’s talking film “Show Boat” no fewer than 13 times, and that each time he had been moved to tears by scenes in it. The name of “Junior” crept often into the conversation; this is the magnate’s son, .who at the age of 21 is in charge of film production at Universal City, the firm’s big studios outside Hollywood. Mr. Laemmle admitted that “Junior” preferred talking films to silent ones, and that it was a telegram he received from “Junior” when he was at Yellowstone Fark on the way over to Europe a few months ago which was responsible for the present production plans for “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “ IT CAN BE DONE ” That the turning of the book into a film presented difficulties was obvious. But on the subject of difficulties Mr. Laemmle quoted his own motto: “It can be done.” It is plain that he believes in the efficacy of this personal slogan. Each of his managers all over the United States has a copy of it. When three years ago in London his life was despaired of, one of them cabled: "Y'ou must get better. It can be done.” To hear Mr. Laemmle —whose company today stands alone among the big film corporations, all of which, with this exception, have merged or amalgamated with some other corporation—talking about “Junior,” and with simple directness avowing his faith in his own motto, “It can be done.” is to appreciate the qualities of one film king at close hand, and to understand why, in the industry, he is called “Uncle Carl.”