ACROSS THE FOOTLIGHTS

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

ACROSS THE FOOTLIGHTS

THE REGENT. » New Plymouth. i To-night, Monday and Tuesday.— “Dynamite'’ (all star), MetroGoldwyn all-talking special production. X September 10 to 16.—“ Sally” (Marilyn Miller), First National all-talking, singing, dancing teehnieolour special. September - 17 to 19.—“ Side Street” (the three Moore Bros.—Tom —Owen — . Matt), fe.K.O. all-talking produc- ' tion. September 20 to 23.—“ Chasing Rain- ■ bows” (Charles King-Bessie Love), M.-G.-M. all-talking, singing, dancproduction. . ■' • . • ~t EVERYBODY’S • New Plymouth. ( , September 6 to 9. —“Their Own Desire” (Norma Shearer), Metro-Gold- < ' . wyn-Mayer all-talking production. September 10 to 12. —“Atlantic” (allstar), British all-talking special. 1 < ■ -.. /September 13 to 16. —“Undertow” • (Mary Nolan), Universal all-talk- ■ ing production. September 17.t0 19. —“The Cocpanuts” : (Marx Brothers), Paramount inusi- • cal production. 1 — I OPERA HOUSE., • j 7.■' September' 6.; —New Plymouth Choral Society (assisted by Wellington Society). « * •. * ' * ; “SALLY.”;. Regarding “Sally,” the 100 per cent, talking, singing, dancing teehnieolour production, coming to the Regent, the ; . 7 Film Weekly says:—There is considerable difference in the stage and screen versions,, the latter calling for more of •.J.' the spectacular. In this direction no effort has been spared to show to what extent natural colour can improve the film. Some of the scenes are a blaze of colour and a continual study in anima- '". j tion. The story of “Sally” is the strug-'j-.ii gles of a foundling who eventually finds lierse’' waitress in a big restaurant. /!■'' Most of her tifne is given over to learn- / ing dancing steps; and her big opportunity comes when she is engaged to «, impersonate a famous Continental dancer at the home of a leading society woman. From this period the adventure • ..'of Sally and her retinue is one of deception, .with the inevitable unmasking, which, however, brings happiness to the girl, her wealthy admirer, and others ■who count most. Marilyn Miller, in the •. stellar role, is a bewitching beauty, who more than lives up to' the very excellent reputation which preceded her. Admirable support is forthcoming from Joe Brown as the Duke; Fordi Sterling, ex-chief of the province of Checkogorvinia, Pert Kelton (Rosie), T.” Roy Barnes (entrepreneur), and Alexander Gray, a most pleasing leading juvenile. ■i; (Any way you take it, “Sally” is high terade entertainment. /■■■ ’ * ' * • \ ‘‘DYNAMITE.’' r*7 is Cecil B. Do Mille’s first under his new affiliation with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This is De Milled first talking picture and can now lb» seen and heard at The Regent. “Dynaimite” has a society background, reituming the director of “The. Ten Commandments” to the sort of theme and jatmosphere which made “Manslaughter,” [ ■'“Male and Female” and “Why Change (Your Wife?” so successful. De Mille has created many fashion novelties for the C picture, and a special staff was engaged to design the gowns and other dress , '? effects for the picture. Conrad Nagel is the star of the picture, in his greatest role, but movie-goers will just be as pleased with two talented stage stars X. ■ who make their screen debut in “Dyna- ‘ mite” with Nagel, Kay Johnson and Charles Bickford. When you join the i crowds to see this picture, watch them! ‘/.. / # # * * , “THEIR OWN DESIRE.” Two new. song hits are introduced in “Their. Qwn ■ Desire,” Norma Shearer’s all-talking picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They are “Blue is the Night,” and “She’s. Got the Boy Friend Blues.” In her last picture, “The Last of Mrs. ■ Clieyney,” Miss Shearer surprised her >1 fans by playing the piano. In the new 'film, the star again plays the piano, '■< ■ for the “Blue is the Night” number. “She’s Got. the Boy Friend Blues” is snug by a quartet. Robert. Montgomery plays opposite Miss Shearer and the ■'.'■. supporting cast includes Lewis Stone and Belle Bennett. “Their Own Desire’’ commences at Everybody’s talkies to-day at 2 and 7.45 p.m. ■■ ■ ~■'#' - .■■ ■ ♦ “ATLANTIC.” A great liner speeding across the Allan. - to a new world! The finest pleasure palace afloat ablaze with a thou- ] sand .lights, gaiety, dancing! Then with s . appalling suddenness comes a terrible 3 heartrending crash. Pandemonium , reigns. The cry goes out: “All passen- ( gers on deck with lifebelts on!” Scenes ; of unprecedented agony; frantic strug- j gles of the passengers; sailors hurling i women into the boats; a mass of seeth- | ing humanity seen facing death with in- : effaceable courage. The greatest calam- < ity of all time. These are only a few ( of the thrills to be seen and heard in j - the big British all-talking production < 4 “Atlantic” coming to Everybody’s next s Wednesday. Franklin Dyall, John . Stuart, John Longden, Donald Calthrop, ] Ellaline Terris, Joan Barry and Monty , Banks all play prominent parts in this j production. ; * * * » “SIDE STREET.” “Side Street,” a story of New York police and racketeers, behind a tender theme of family love, co-fcatures the three Moore brothers, Tom, Owen and Matt, for the first time in their long association with motion pictures. George O’Hara put away his make-up box to write it as an all-talkie. Along with the Moore brothers, the cast includes Kathryn Perry, Emma Dunn, Frank Sheridan, Walter McNamara, Al. Hill, Dan Wolheim and other notables. Interwoven with the ffist-moving story of .Manhattan, politics, policemen and racketeers, is a fund of old Irish humour and a musical background that alioids a fine setting. “Side Street” will be pre- ,. sen ted at The Regent in the near future. • • • • “ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.” A German' army training camp of tlrn war days, the most rigorous in mili.ary history, by which schoolboys i were transformed into Germany’s famed “Iron Youth,” was established at Universal Citv in preparation for the production of “All Quiet ora the Western Front”pas a Universal picture. I'ifly Lus Angeles boys, including the seven

featured players of the pictures, were trained by a German. drill sergeant exactly as the boys were trained for the German army. The training included calisthenics, marching, drilling in the manual of arms and every detail of training exactly as it was in the days of the war. Otto Biber, who served in the German army, had complete charge of the boys at the training camp and, under the direction of Lewis Milestone, whipped them into military shape with the same discipline he used as a German drill sergeant. Included in the platoon which could be seen any day marching over the hills adjacent to Universal City were William Bakewell, Allen Lane, Walter Browne Rogers, Ben Alexander ami, Owen Davis, jun., the schoolboys of .Erich Maria Remarque’s best-sell-ing book of the World War. * # * * '“CHASING RAINBOWS.” Five song hits from the pianos of seven of America's most popular composers provide the tuneful background of “Chasing Rainbows,” musical extravaganza, which will be offered to New Plymouth theatregoers shortly. The combined talent responsible for the “Broadway Melody” and “The Hollywood Revue of 1929,” were joined in the making of this new all-talking, singing -and dancing picture. Charles King and Bessie Love are given the leads and Jack Benny, Marie Dressier, Polly Moran, George K. Arthur, and Gwen Lee give the supporting roles. TELEVISION AT HAND. TRIALS MADE RECENTLY. A hint has been dropped by Mr. Harry Warner, of Warner Bros., that the advent of television for motion pictures is imminent. Two years ago the talking picture burst upon, exhibitors and minor producers, throwing those in Britain and elsewhere into a condition of panic. The probability is that this new announcement will have a similar effect if time proves that it is a practical advance in the science of films and their presentation. “Television in cinemas is as certain as the next day’s dawn,” asserts a London expert in discussing the present trend. When talking pictures arrived in Britain production was stopped. Exhibitors rushed into the arms of the electric companies and mortgaged their incomes for 14 years so that their natrons might thrill to the tears of ME Al Jolson. The combined hosts of English producers and exhibitors presently lifted their heads in worship of this new Moloch of sound, writes an English critic. It happens that people in this country are getting just a little weary of the elementary essays in entertainmen, and clearly films are now in the mood for a new development. They were in this condition just before Mr. Harry Warner flung his bombshell of “sound” at the world. People had grown blase to the delights of silent pictures. And Mr. Warner’s new conception of a “televised” news reel is obviously the development of which film-goers are.now waiting. i • In point of fact the news reel is more often than not the most interesting item in a cinema’s programme. That memorable film, for example, which British Movietone News issued of its record of the Trooping of the Colour was a classic. I have sat in a theatre in the West End of London at nine o’clock evening of Derby Day and watched Blenheim gallop past the post and heard all those cheprful, raucous noises which thrill you at Epsom. And afterward'the tremendous pagenatry of the Guards trooping their flag. That film stirred me as few films could. It was real and graphic. It was history being made. And I warrant that within five years from now people will ba sitting in cinemas and watching a picture of the Derby not six hours after the race is run, but at the instant of, its running. I was in New York last autumn and spent one whole evening in the projection room of the renowned Roxy Theatre. There were a dozen amusing gadgets to watch in that gargantuan temple of sound. But chiefly I was interested in some discs which looked like (enormous gramophone records. I asked what they were used for. They told me then that every day the Western- Electric engineers were in the Roxy experimenting with certain ideas in television. Every night during a recent month moving pictures were “radio-ed” from Washington and picked up more or less perfectly in New York. Some of these pictures have an amazing clarity. Yes, television is at hand. HANDSOME ENGLISHMAN. GRACE MOORE’S CO-STAR. Reginald Denny) that handsome English lad who made such a success, jn silent pictures and created some of the most attractive prize-ring films ever made, is having an interesting vogue ence again. After an absence of some time from 7 the larger lots, during- Which interval he made his own pictures, Reg. Denny comes back in talkies as one of the lads most in demand. Cceil De Mille seized on him for his lead in “Madame Satan,” and that had no sooner been completed than he was put into the lead opposite Grace Moore in “Jenny Lind.” Grace Moore will sing several operatic arias in the production —launching into coloratura, which has been considered beyond her range in her operatic career. But all things are possible in Hollywood —even when they are not probable. “THE JEALOUS WIFE.” ALAN WILKIE DOES NOT FEAR. While the Sydney stage is divided between hopes for musical comedy and fears of the “talkies,” Allan Wilkie pursues the even tenor of his way with the best plays culled from the past of the British stage. To an excellent audience at the Grand Opera House, he staged “The Jealous Wife,” a play by the Elder Colman, contemporary of Sheridan. While perhaps not so line a play as “The School for Scandal” or “She Stoops to Conquer,” this piece lias something of the wit, and the finelywritten English of the. best of 18th century drama. It was a rare treat to hear the language free from the ’slaiio- of the modern corrupted stage, writes a Sydney critic. A programme of English music in tone with the quality of the play helped the artistic success of the evening. It is the story of a bad-tempered and suspicions woman who suspects her meek husband of many mistresses. A rustic beauty is missing, and immediately her worst suspicions are aroused. There are a hero and a villian in the good old manner, plot and counterplot and plenty of comedy.

MOVIE PROGRESS. STUDIOS LIKE CITIES. (Exclusive to Daily News by Jesse L. Lasky, vice-president of Paramount.) Since the first motion picture camera turned in Hollywood, more than a score of years ago. the industry has progressed beyond the farthest stretch of the imagination. Not only has it undergone vast changes in methods of production, improved photography, more effective direction and audibility, but the studios at which the motion pictures are made have been similarly improved and expanded. From the small, one-storey buildings in which equipment, artists, technicians and settings were once housed, these studios have grown to the point where they are now likened to small industrial cities in themselves.

Few persons outside of the industry realise, the magnitude and completeness of a large film centre. It has been said that, given a day in which to .stock up, a studio could withstand a long siege. We have at. the Paramount studios a cafe where every employee could be fed. We have a large building of dressing rooms with all of the accommodation of a hotel room. There is a huge wardrobe department with clothes enough to equip our personnel for years. Neither is it known that our studio comprises carpenter shops, paint rooms, a plaster shop for / the making of statuary, machine shops, foundry, plumbing department, electrical shops, a nursery to' o-row all our plants and shrubs, a school house and hundreds of other departments. Figures show that there are 200. carpenters employed steadily at the studio, constructing settings for pictures. During the past year that department used more than 4,600,000 feet of timber for the 60 pictures we produced.

Each feature picture .requires from twenty-five to sixty settings. These vary from royal palaces to western frontier houses. An impression of the importance of this department may be rrathered from the information that for Ernst Lubitsch’s new screen operetta, “Monte Carlo,” in which Jeanette MacDonald and Jack Buchanan appear, a huge and authentic replica of the famous gambling centre had to be constructed. This assignment included many interior settings of unusual lavishness and detail as well as the outdoor portions of the buildings. Oregon pine, white pine, redwood and spruce are used in the largest quantities for set construction. The detailed report’compiled by the studio purchasing agent, L. H. Buell, lists the year’s consumption in approximate round figures as follows: Oregon pine, 3,000,000 feet; redwood, 1,000,000 feet; white pine, 300,000 feet; spruce, 300,000 feet. The Oregon pine is used for the rough, | heavy construction work. Redw.oodJ plays the more showy role in the films as it is employed for all surfacing and so comes u.nder the direct eye of the camera frequently. White pine and spruce are utilised for lighter construction. 1 Several thousand feet of hardwood, not listed in the detailed report, is consumed each year for-panelling, flooring and in the construction of special furniture. Large quantities of wood lath and redwood shingles also swell the unlisted lumber consumption. In addition to the carpenter’s department, many hundreds of other tradesmen and technicians are employed at the studio. There are 107 labourers, 17 workers in the art plaster shop, 25 men in the property making department, 75 in the grip department, 44 handling properties, 46 scene painters, 134 stage electricians, 48 in the electrical construction, 45 in the mechanical departments, 48 in the camera department, 48 cutters, 188 at work in the laboratory, 85 scenarists, 19 directors and 15 assistants, 122 handling stock equipment, 50 in the transportation department, 64 handling wardrobe, 10 in sound., recording work, 36 employed in the cafe, 10. in the nursery, 43 in the general offices, 47 in the accounting department, 42 in publicity and still departments, 22 in the machine shop, 14 architects and 10 in the print shop. This makes a grand total of nearly 2000 employees on the pay-roll, not including the large number of extra players used in many scenes. In spite of the present magnitude of the modern motion picture producing centre, with its many picture-making facilities, it is still impossible for us to film all of our productions within the studio walls. This was accomplished when talking pictures first came into being, but with the public demand for adventure-talkies, we have once more had to return to outdoor settings. Eight units filming talking pictures for Paramount were recently in location many miles from Hollywood. One of these groups were en route to Honolulu, shooting as it travelled, while another was filming sound and action beneath the ocean waves.

Harold Lloyd has just returned from Hawaii, where he went with a company of fifty persons to film atmospheric scenes for “Feet First.” Richard Arlen and Fay Wray headed a cast of players photographing “The Sea God” in the Pacific Ocean, using a small island near southern California as the base of operation. Atmospheric' war scenes for Gary Cooper’s new production, “A Man from Wyoming” were recently completed at the Paramount ranch, thirtyfive miles from Hollywood, and Cooper immediately joined a camp of 500 actors

and technicians at Point Hume, California, where “The Spoilers” is in pro- ■ duction. ! The golt sequences lor the all-colour’ musical “Follow Thru,” were made at i an exclusive golf club, and Clara Bow's I company made "Love Among the' Millionaires” in the railway yards 1 twenty miles from the studio. The! opening scenes of “Grumpy” were filmed i 100 miles from Hollywood, on the Kern < River, and Ernst Lubitsch, Jeanette MacDonald and Zasti Pitts spent several nights at the Southern Pacific station in downtown Los Angeles, making certain episodes for “Monte Carlo,” As mentioned above, the motion pic-I tine industry has progressed beyond I flic farthest reach of the imagination.! It will continue to change and expand-

because, as a business, it is of a nature that must always go ahead. It eaters solely to the public tastes and whims. These are continually opening and expanding with increased worldly knowledge and personal experience. The motion picture will grow with the public mind until both reach what may be termed the saturation point.

RUTH DRAPER’S GREAT ART. WONDERFUL DRAWING POWER. I don’t know if there is an official Eighth Wonder of the World, blit if 1 had to nominate ’a candidate for the post I should unhesitatingly vote for Ruth Draper, writes a correspondent in The Theatre World. For a long time 1 had heard tales of her amazing talent, but as so aften happens this served merely to prejudice me against her, even as people used to boast to incrudulous friends that they had never seen “Uhu Chill Chow.” This time, however, 1 determined to judge for myself, and so one sultry June afternoon found me, with a score of ’devotees, standing two deep at the back of the Vaudeville Theatre. Only that morning 1 had read in my paper of a theatrical slum]). Spectacular productions, it appeared, were playing to a handful of patrons; films on which millions of dollars had been lavished were droning on to half empty cinemas. And yet here was a woman packing a West End theatre from floor to ceiling and by sheer force of personality drawing nearly £3001) to the box-office every week! Hitherto 1 had regarded a onewoinan show with a feeling of dread, akin to revulsion. 1 conjured up visions of recitals (through gauze or down a megaphone) of unscannable verse which sought to justify itself by some high-falutin’ title and into which neither rhyme nor reason ever crept. 1 was soon to be enlightened. Ruth Draper’s character sketches are all drawn from life and coloured by an acute perception of the trivialities that go to make up a complex individual. Her show is surely the most economical ever staged. Just a background of yellow curtains, with a chair here and there. Nothing more. But those yellow curtains become in turn a charity bazaar, a Scotch pit-head, an American office, the interior of a limousine and a church in Florence, as Ruth Draper causes each character to live before our eyes. Her voice, in some miraculous manner, changes perceptibly in] every sketch. Her Countess opening a bazaar denotes ah astonishing familiarity with English village conditions. The muddle-headed, but well-intentioned interest in ‘ the parishioners, the dreadful mistakes about the exhibits of stall holders, the incessant strain of small talk—are all perfect, yet we are left with a cledr impression of the grande dame,.. with an inflexible sense of duty< and tradition. The best sketch, by far, was “Three Women and Mr. Clifford.” Here the art of Ruth Draper reached its zenith of observation and wit. In turn she introduced us to the secretary, wife and mistress of, an American business man, contrasting the deadly efficiency of the first, the innate selfishness of the second, and the restful sympathy of the third. ' Not only was each character perfectly conceived and conveyed; but in some uncanny way Ruth Draper managed to show us the man himself, just as distinctly as if he had. been present throughout the sketch. Her study of the wife, driving home at night from the theatre, was a masterpiece of satricial insight that should make many an. American wife writhe. If we may judge by American novels and by our own observations at Continental pleasure resorts the type is by no means uncommon, and the world is now familiar with these monuments of cupidity whose chief communication with; Poppa “way back home” is a cable for further funds. ’ ; The programme concluded with a church in Florence, Where a number of tourists, pass swiftly through, the German bewailing the eternal macaroni at her pension and ' the American Worshipping the Great God Baedeker with all the devoutness of her kind. Like all cultured Americans, Miss Draper is especially savage at the expense of tourists who rush everywhere and observe nothing. By this time it was stiflingly hot at the back of the theatre, and had it been an ordinary play we Should have been out in the Strand hours ago. But time and discomfort were both forgotten, for we were held by the spell of a great genius. JOHN McCORMACK. FIRST SINGING PICTURE. John McCormack’s first singing and talking picture, “Song o’ My Heart,” is soon to liave its premiere. The great singer receives £lOO,OOO for his work. A little more than a year ago the company selected for the picture went io Ireland where, under the expert direction of Frank Borzage, twice, winner ot the gold medal for distinction in photoplay production, exteriors were taken. Some of the scenes were made at Mr. McCormack’s home, Moore Abbey, in Monasterevan, ‘County Kildare. Others were taken in the villages of Rush and Lusk, not far from Dublin. Returning to Hollywood the interiors were shot at the Fox Movietone studio just out of Hollywood, while the concert sequences were made at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles where, of all things, an audience was paid real money to sit and hear the great tenor sino- the numbers which will soon oe heard from the screen. “Son o’ My

Heart” can best be described as a lyrical romance, for It tells a true Irish story with sympathy and rare beauty. During the course of the story Mr. .VI"C'ormack sings no fewer .than eleven songs, including old favourites as well as new ones specially written for the production.

STAGE TITLES. FIRST “EMPLOYED” ACTOR. The opinion has been expressed that Sir Henry Lytton, the veteran Gilbert and Sullivan player, is the first “employed”actor to receive a titk\ Many managers aiid actor-managers have been so honoured, and dramatists and composers have been well represented in the lists. Titles were unusual, even for actor-managers, until Henry Irving received one; but in later years there were Sir Herbeit Beerbohm Tree, Sir Charles Wyndham, Sir Charles Hawtrey, Sir John Martin Harvey and Sir Gerald du Maurier. An carlv honour in the musical field - was “that of Sir Michael Costa. Sir Arthur Sullivan was knighted some years before his collaboiatoi became bir William Gilbert. Muoic in various phases has been repiesented in the lists of honours by Sn Edward Elgar, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Hamilton Harty and others. Ellen Terry was not an actressmanageress,” but she became Dame Ellen. Dame Madge Kendal has been in management with her husband foi some years. Among dramatic authois who have received titles are Sir Aithui Pinero and Sir James Barrie. A number of holders of hereditary titles have become actors, sometimes under stage names. Years ago the Earl of Yarmouth made amateui appearances in Melbourne. As James Erskine the Earl of .Rosslyn appeared for lon<r seasons as a professional in good companies in Britain and America. Sir William Don, a baronet, Ayas a popular player in early Austialian days. Lady Diana Manners and Lady Constance Stuart Richardson weie names that became known in theatres of our own day. Lady Monckton, the mother of Lionel Monckton, composer of “A Country Girl,” was a competent actress in London productions. She was the wife of an officer of the City of London. ... Actresses have been marrying into the peerage for the last two centui ies. About 1724 Anatasia Robinson became Countess of Peterborough. Lavinia Fenton was married to the J)uke of Bolton in 1752, Elizabeth Farren to the Earl of Derby in 1797, Louisa Brunton to the Earl of Craven in 1808, Mary Bolton to Lord Thurlow in 1813, Susannah Paton to Lord William Pitt Lennox in 1824, and Harriet Mellon (the widow of the banker Coutts) to the Duke of St. Albans in 1827. Later marriages from the sta°*e were those of Maria 1' oote to the° Earl of Harrington, Katherine Stephens to the Earl of Essex, Belle Bilton to Visco mt Dunlo (afterward Earl of Clancarty), Constance Gilchrist to the Earl of Orkney, and Rosie Boote to the Marquis of Headfort. That Lakes the list to the beginning of the present century. In later years there have been other peeresses from the stage; and at various times a number of baronets and knights have married actresses. “THE SWAN.” < j COMEDY LOSES SUBTLETY. The title of Ferenc Molnar's play, “The Swan,” was the only cool thing in St. Janies’ Theatre, on the opening night, writes a London critic. And when the Princess Alexandra was described as a dignified swan moving slowly through the waters, the irony was too bitter to bear. Edna Best looked cool, at any rate, but she was a swan with difficulty. She was simple, but not with tne romantic, strange simplicity the dramatist evidently intended her to posses. For the whole .idea of this play is that the Princess! Alexandra lends herself to her mother’s plan of . making the backward Prince Albert jealous of the good-looking tutor, and then finds herself in waters too troublous for a swan. She really learns what love may be. As a protest against Prince Albert’s insulting manner to the tutor, she actually kisses him. The tutor looks on it as only a mark of pity, and so does Albert the next morning. Even Alberts mother, the Princess Maria Dominica, as well as her brother and uncle, all consider the kiss a natural expression of kindliness. But the Swan herself, while ready to accept Albert as husband for the sake of the dynasty, knows in her bewildered little heart that the kiss was not inspired by mere kindliness. Ferene Molnar’s plays have never been successful in London. Their stiffness and heaviness of translation has obscured the subtlety of their satire and the delicacy of their sentiment. Nor have they been well cast. “The Swan” is no exception. Colin Clive is not the actor to impersonate a reserved young professor who has the heart “of a poet, and Herbert Marshall is wasted on the lethargic but generous Prince Albert. 1 should ]’ to exchange the parts. Henrietta VVatson, as the managing mother, Princess Beatrice, is splendid. She and C. V. France, as Father Hyacinth, are the making of the play, and Irene Vanbrugh as Albert’s mother, brings a breath of real vital comedv into the end of the piece. It is glorious to sec her sweep across the stage which has been the scene of many of her triumphs. In spite of the heat, the stiff translation, and the errors in casting, “The Swan” interested the audience. It has style ‘ind a certain delicacy of thought and treatment. LIONEL MONCKTON. CHALLENGE TO SULLIVAN. To the world of playgoers in the davs before talkies, Sir Arthur Sullivan was the musician who was held up as the greatest composer of light operas. Even to-day, when the dry bones rattle in dressing rooms, and the dust is thick in the stalls of legitimate theatres,'Sullivan’s reputation for “composition” is unchallenged. Nevertheless, Lionel Monckton, whose name adorned many a play bill in the past, has a record equal to that of Sullivan in the light opera field. Most of his tuneful numbers are known to the oldei generation of New Zealand playgoers, and he is remembered best, perhaps, for the music of “The Arcadians” (1909) and “The Quaker Girl” (1910). His first compositions were heard in public at the London Gaiety, in the prosperous days of George Edwardes, and he i contributed many popular SOW'S to . “The Shop Girl.” “The Geisha,” "San Toy,” “The Cingalee, “The Greek Slave” and “Cinder-Ellen-up-too-Late.” Monckton was part composer oi “The Toreador” (1901), “The Orchid (1903), “The Spring Chicken” (190 a “The New Aladdin” (1906), “The Girls of Gottenburg (1907), “Our Miss Gibb (1909), “Bric-a-Brac” (1915), “Airs and Graces” (1917), and “The Boy” (1917). All these musical comedies wore highly successful, and solos from the pieces are still favourites with many amateurs to-day. Monckton was the son of an actress, and came well by his stagecraft.

IN LONDON NOW. PLENTY OF PLAYS. London managers are busily preparing for their autumn season, which opens in September. There is no falling-off in new productions and the month promises to be one of the busiest on record. Almost every prominent West End manager has plans for new productions —one or two of them for new theatres!—and as the majority of them seem to be aiming at September as the best month to launch them, there is likely to be some scrambling for dates. One of the first in the field will be Gilbert Miller, who is to present Ta.lulah Bankhead’s latest comedy, “Let Us Be Gay!” at the Lyric. Rachel GTothers, the American authoress ot this play, is already in London, for she believes in acting as. her own producer. It is Isidore de Lara, the indefatigable composer whose opera “Messalina’’ is being given during the Carl Rosa season at the Strand'Theatre, win has just secured the rights to set “Trilby” to music. He intends to ma Ke du Maurier’s famous novel and play into an operetta —with spoken dia-' logue—and hopes to have it ready for production in the West End this year bv a syndicate which is backing him. Mr. de Lara is looking forward to enjoying himsldf over the passage where Trilby goes flat in her last song! The selection of the cast should be interesting. Laddie Cliff has now completed arrangements to present the new Franz Lehar operette, “Friederikc,” at rhe Palace Theatre during the second week in September. The English version has been completed and will be given the title of “Frederica.” \ Apart from the interest of hearing all of the music of this work—some of it has become familiar through the gramophone and Continental broadcasts —this production will mark the debut in any stage piece other than grand opera of Joseph Hislop, the popular tenor, who is to play the lea<|incr male role. Another interesting appearance will be that of Fraulein Lea Seidl, a wellknown Hungarian soprano who has played the heroine's role in Vienna. This operette is expected to mark Hen - Leliar’s “come-back” in England as it has on the Continent; up to now he has never quite succeeded in getting back to the “Merry Willow” plane. In the second week of September—■the same month —Leslie Henson and Firth Shephard will present, probably at the Prince’s, a new farce by. the German authors of “A Warm Corner,” adapted by Austin Melford. It will oe entitled “Hurray! It’s a Boy!” and will be played by W. H. Berry and other artists who ’ have been romping, their j way through the present farce j including Heather Thatcher, Connie' Eddiss and Mr. Melford. BRITISH WILL NOT FORGET. . SHOWMAN’S AUDACIOUS TRICK. Mr. J. V. Bryson, the American whose humiliating hoax on a British territorial unit in tricking them into escorting a film from Southampton to London was i denounced in the House of Commons in 1925, declares that he is to try once again to have it exhibited in Britain, and that the first showing will take place in Glasgow. Mr. Bryson seems to imagine that the British public have forgotten the insult which he offered them by his action five years ago (says a Loudon newspaper). The film, “Phantom of the Ope.-a,” was made in Hollywood by the Universal Film Company, and brought to England by Mr. Bryson, its London representative, in the Cunarder Berengaria. ft happened that the Hampshire Territorial Brigade of Heavy Artillery was at the time engaged in a recruiting campaign.. By an audacious exhibition of smart trickery, they were deceived into lending a detachment to act as a “guard of honour” to the man who carried the tin can containing the copy of the film. That unhappy detachment of British territqrial soldiers escorted the film from Southanipton to the London offices of the company in Wardour Street, Soho. In face of a storm of ob.oquy, the film was not shown to the general publie. JACKIE COOGAN RETURNS. TITLE ROLE IN TOM SAWYER > . A unique feature of Paramount’s production programme for 1930-31 will be the creation of several screen stories of childhood, designed for grown-ups as well as youngsters. These product’m:s will represent- the first audible fuiilength pictures to deal with juvenile characters priiharily; This innovatio'i will mark the return of Jackie Coogan tq the screen as a talking star. JacKie will play the title role in "Tom Sawyer,” a screen version of Mark Twain’s humorous epic of boyhood. Junior Durkin will have the role of Huckleberry Finn in this production and will repreat it in an adaptation of •'Huckleberry Finn.” Jackie Coogan is now well along in the schooling which his . parents'-felt should not be hampered by his professional career. Since his last appearance on the screen, he has grown into a healthy, jolly boy,\who has kept a-11 the enmijrintr vouthfulness which first made Ju in i a inotifi. The third picture of this type will be “Skippy,” a talking version of Percy Crosby's famous “kid” cartoons. The youngster for the title role and his supporting juvenile cast have not yet been selected. The production will be filmed at the New York studios with Crosby assisting in the direction. SHAW A FILM FAN. CAUSTIC CRITIC OF PICTURES. When I was at Beaconsfield the other day with Mr. Shaw watching the work of Mr. Basil Dean and Sil - Gerald du Maurier in “Escape,” he had some pretty caustic things to say about the talkers, writes a London critic. Mr. Shaw thought that producers are only now beginning to learn their business, that..the distinction between the flesh-aud-bood theatre and the screen was one of intelligence. Now, nobody wants to convert the cinema into a sort of university extension course. The “pictures,” primarily and ultimately, are a mode of entertainment, but 1 do submit earnestly that English people at the moment are in danger of wasting a. precious heritage; the joy and the unforgettable experience of line words finely spoken. We might have said that those excursions in the long ago to His Majesty's and the Lyceum were irksome affairs. The fact is that something then s was gained which can never be lost, and it seems' a tragedy that that impermeable influence of noble speech should be in danger now of vulgarisation because the American picture industry has fallen lock, stock and barrel into the hands of people who quite clearly know nothing of tlw wonders of the English tongue. And, clearly, care less.