ACROSS THE FOOTLIGHTS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1934, Page 20 (Supplement)

ACROSS THE FOOTLIGHTS

STARS AT WORK AND PLAY.

LATEST NEWS FROM EVERYWHERE. All Mae West’s. “I’m No Angel” is all Mae West’s picture. She wrote the script, helped write the music and assisted in casting. Beauty Defined. Beauty is: “Between 115 and 125 pounds of femininity with each pound in just the right place.” This succinct definition of what constitutes beauty was given by George White who made “Scandals” for Fox Film. Synthetic Oysters.

Some oysters were required for the 8.1. P. film “The Magistrate,” and there were none in Elstree, so they made some synthetic ones. The secret process will not be disclosed in case it might harm the industry of Whitstable.

Laughton as “Scarlet Pimpernel.” Charles Laughton will be seen in the title-role of Baroness Orczy’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” which Alexander Korda will personally direct. The adaptation is being done by Frederick Konsdale, and the part is being treated to allow for disguises in the action. Has the Laugh.

Stephin Fetchit, Fox Film midnight star, who is doing a come-back in “Carolina,” says he has the laugh on folks who, back in 1927 and 1928, were telling him how to invest his money, and warning him against spending it as fast as he got it “They told me what to buy, and how much to pay for it, and now them folks is as broke as I is —and they didn’t even have a good time like I had.”

Cooper; Fruit Experiments. Passion fruit, pomegranates, dates, grapefruit, and tomatoes are the hobbies of Gary Cooper, Paramount star. He owns a 5000-acre ranch about ninety miles from Los Angeles, where he goes for quiet and watches the progress of the experiments of his foreman, who is inventing new fruits in the manner of the late Luther Burbank. Experiments also are being conducted with fruits that never before were grown in this locality; Lionel Barrymore Sings.

Lionel Barrymore has made his bow aS a singer in talking pictures. It was for a dramatic sequence in “Carolina. Barrymore, as the confederate veteran, tired of this life, and visualising his troops of ’65 on the march again, marches out of the room to join them in death. As he calls for his 'sword and pistol, he begins his song—“ln Dixieland where 1 was born, Early on one frosty morn— Barrymore sings it with gusto an-’, sing! every word, of * the three verses.

New Zealand Girl Makes Good. A London correspondent writes that Miss Rose McCarthy (Christchurch) has a part in “The Country Wife,” which is playing to crowded houses at Ambassadors Theatre, and which is .described as “the most amusing play in London. Miss McCarthy played a French part at the Grafton Theatre in a recent production of “Poor Old Bill.” Friends in New Zealand will be interested to hear that Alexander Korda has asked her to play the part of a Spanish girl m Douglas Fairbanks’ new film, but she does not know whether it will be possible to accept the offer as “The Country Wife” is being performed twice each day—except Mondays—and she does not want to be released from the cast. Russian Offer.

A Russian committee is en route to Hollywood to buy American pictures, find acting talent, gain, first-hand information on picture production, and to make definite arrangements for signing a Hollywood directorial nucleus, it was revealed recently. Boris Petroff, stage director for Paramount in New York for ten years, and associated with Mae West in her pictures, has been approached with a Russian offer. “The Russian Government has detailed a woman representative, now in Hollywood, to arrange things for the committee en route there,” Petroff said. “An official offer has been made to me to take a company to Russia to introduce American production and directorial methods into picture companies there. If the deal goes through I would insist on taking an ace cameraman, sound technicians, and script assistants, the entire group to operate as a unit.” Pouishnoff-Stevens Tour.

Leff Pouishnoff, the pianist who is now touring Australia under the aegis of Mr. Hugo Larsen, with Horace Stevens, baritone, has in his possession a cigarette ease of beaten gold, so deftly fashioned as to have no apparent hinge. It looks like a solid nugget of gold, exquisitely shaped. The interior discloses an embossed crown of ruby settings with the inscribed signature of a sian royal personage, the Archduke Dimitri, who has been mentioned m connection with the sensational lawsuit against the makers of the film story of the sinister Rasputin. Pouishnoff was the prince’s favourite pianist 1 in the days of Tsardom, and the cigarette case is a tribute from royalty for performances enjoyed. Pouishnoff and Mr. * Stevens will be touring New Zealand after the Australian season. Their recitals have been packing the halls where they appear, and the great pianist has also been playing symphonies and concertos with the best orchestras in Australia. He will play some of his own compositions when in New Zealand.