STAR DUST

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4220, 6 December 1939, Page 9

STAR DUST

“THE LION HAS WINGS.” GLORIOUS EPIC OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. London Films’ “The Lion Has Wings,” sponsored by the British Government, is Alexander .Korda’s great new British production, and tells the stirring story of how Great Britain . gradually awoke to the menace of \ Hitlerism, the threat to the life and liberties of all Europe which the German war machine proclaimed. Written by lan Dalrymple, who is also associate producer, it tells of the swift and efficient transformation of a nation devoted th«v pursuits of peace into a people mightly armed to resist aggression. It contrasts in a sequence of fascinating shots the spirit of the Empire, devoted to sport, seeking education, concerned with progress, with the spirit of Nazi Germany, drilling, marching, organising, preparing day and night for one purpose and one purpose only—war! The first episodes of the war are brilliantly reconstructed, including actual shots of the daring raid on Kiel, and featuring the men who carried out the raid. The whole film reflects the power and confidence of the British people, and the certainty of ultimate victory.. Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, Flora Robson and June Duprez contribute memorable performances and are admirably supported by Robert Douglas, Anthony Bushell, Derrick de Marney and George Carney. The film was directed by Michael Powell, Brian Desmond Hurst and Adrian Brunel, with the full cooperation of the Royal Air Force. The picture is on its way to New Zealand by air mail, and will be released at an early date by United Artists. ERROL FLYNN AND BETTE DAVIS SCORE HIT IN “THE SISTERS.” Flynn and Miss Davis do the most striking acting jobs of their respective and brilliant careers, in roles that are completely new departures for them both. The starring combination is a truly happy one, and film audiences will undoubtedly be clamouring for more. “The Sisters” covers the story of the three Elliott sisters, played by

Bette Davis, Anita Louise and Jane Bryan, who are the most beautiful girls at an election ball, but from that night on the sisters leave heir chequered careers in widely varied patterns. Bette elopes to San Francisco with a fascinating young newspaper man, played by Flynn. Miss Louise, the second sister, succumbs to the wooing of a middle aged millionaire (Alan Hale), who promises her a glittering cosmopolitan life in New York and London. Miss Bryan marries the small town banker, played by Dick Foran. Life with Flynn brings both happiness and suffering to Bette. He is possessed of an incurable wanderlust and at last, believing that she will be better off without him, he ships as a seaman aboard a boat bound for the Orient.

That night the historic San Francisco earthquake begins, and Bette narrowly escapes with her life. Later, when Jane’s banker husband becomes involved with a “shady” lady, she sends out the S.O.S. signal to her two sisters and they come home to help her. In helping her they settle their own affairs in a climax that is unrivalled for sheer drama. "AN ENGLISHMAN’S HOME.” Thirty years ago a far-sighted Englishman, Guy du Maurier, wrote a play entitled “An Englishman’s Home.” The play enjoyed an exceptionally successful run. It dealt with a sudden invasion of England by an enemy who took advantage of a strike and a fog to descend on Britain from warships anchored along the coast. It is interesting to recollect that in Berlin it was hissed off the stage! The play has been made into a film, and the story modernised. A British company, Aldwycli Productions Ltd., has produced “An Englishman’s Home,” making of it a film that pictures aspects of the contemporary scene with startling accuracy. England’s leisurely preparations, and the average Englishman pretty well convinced that it can’t happen there! Meanwhile the enemy is preparing his plans, and getting ready for “the day." When "the day” arrives ememy war planes, cooperating with a well organised espionage system, drop armed parachutists at selected points whose job it is to hold their ground whilst the main battle squadrons concentrate on London, The Air Ministry put at the disposal of the producers whole squadrons of their latest planes, including Blenheim and Wellington bombers. Spitfires, Bombay troop carriers and Lysander machines. The result is a marvellously realistic production with some tremendously impressive flying shots. The film cost £lOO,OOO to produce, but its production is as much a national service to-day as that of the original play in 1911. Albert de Courville directed this United Artists release, and the cast is headed by Edmund Gwenn and Mary Maguire, with Geoffrey Toone, Paul von Hernried and Richard Ainley in the chief supporting roles. JAMES CAGNEY EXPLAINS. HECTIC SCREEN LIFE. On one day during the filming of Warner Bros. “Angels With Dirty Faces” I killed two men—George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart. The whole scene will take less than two minutes on the screen but it took an entire working day to photograph. Some two weeks later I paid for my crimes in the electric chair movie ver-

sion. I met my end a sniveling, cringing coward, because that was a part of the story and the moral of the whole unpleasant affair.

I have been asked repeatedly how many men I have killed in pictures. I can’s answer because I don’t know without going over the list of pictures I have made. I do know that I have been killed almost as many times as I have killed others, just as I have been hit by more women than I have ever struck at a director’s insistence. In both instances it is easier, I think, to be on the receiving end of the screen violence.

I’ve lived a rather hectic screen life along with a very calm personal one. It is probably too late to change either.

But few women can separate their screen personalities from their own. Not many are ready to accept a whack on the chin as a necessary part of a picture story. No actor, I think enjoys a rough scene in which a woman is to be physically hurt or in which there is the slightest chance that she may be hurt. The public seem to be just a little less particular. I can still remember the laugh the Noel Coward line, “Some women should be struck regularly—like gongs,” got when “Private Lives” was first played. I will probably continue to shoot and fight my way through pictures. It is a light penalty to pay for all that Hollywood has done for me. “STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE.” “Find Livingstone!” When James Gordon Bennett, famous publisher of the old New York Herald called in his star reported, Henry M. Stanley, one day in 1869 and gave him this order he was giving the young newspaper man more than a decidedly tough and flattering assignment. Bennett was, as a matter of fact, instigating one of the greatest historical adventures on record, and to the unsuspecting young Stanley he was unwittingly offering an experience which was to change the whole course of his life —an experience which was to transform a very great reporter into a very great man and win him undying fame. It is this great adventure which that astute producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, has chosen to dramatise in his latest motion picture production, "Stanley and Livingstone,” which stars Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly and Richard Greene ■ with Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn, Sir Cedric Hardwlcke, Henry Hull and Henry Travers.

Tracy, twice academy award winner, has the role of Stanley while the distinguished Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays Doctor Livingstone and Hull portrays Bennett in this 20th Century Fox picture. Until this fateful morning in 1869, Henry M. Stanley was typical of all that'is best in a newspaper man—lie was tough, talented, hard boiled and determined—considering every assignment a challenge and his life a small item to risk in the vital business of “getting the story.” ROSES ARE BLOOMING BLUE. Many queer things are done in a film studio. Many ridiculous jobs are performed for the benefit of the filmgoer that in the ordinary way would never be attempted. Chief gardener George Catt had a call from the art department asking for a blue rose. Not an ordinary blue, but something between and Oxford and Prussian blue. To the horticulturist the request would have been madness. But not to Mr Catt. In ten minutes a blue rose was on the set, growing from a a healthy plant. When “The Thief of Bagdad” is shown many a keen eyed gardener will wonder where such a perfect specimen could have originated. Perhaps from “The Arabian Nights” itself.