HATS OFF TO SHAW

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

HATS OFF TO SHAW

NEW PLAY IN GERMANY. NAZI CHORUS OF APPROVAL. i Bernard Shaw’s latest play, , The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles,” has been given for 'the first time in Europe at Hamburg and Leipzig. Some German critics are disappointed with the play. They find nothing new or surprising in it. Others, however, seem to find in the works of the ageing Shaw elements in common with the Nazi Weltanschauung. Indeed, one critic goes so far as to declare that Shaw “has acknowledged the strength and independence of blood and soil, and preaches the ruthless affirmation of life,” which,of course, makes his ideas palatable in Germany. Shaw’s' dogmatic ideas on the value of work, and his final judgment that the world is for those who work, is particularly pleasing to German ears. Naturally, the fantastical plot of the play, in which there is an attempt on a South Sea island belonging to the British Empire to breed an ideal race by a mixture of Eastern , and Western blood, amuses Germans very much, for racial purity is a cardinal point of the Nazi programme. The final fiasco of this biological ’ Utopia, in which the children shall be the forerunners of a wonderful new race, confirmed Nazi racial purity ideas.

Shaw’s cigarette-smoking angel, who comes to announce the Last Judgment, which is not the end of the world, but the beginning of real responsibility on the part of humanity, evoked much laughter. The audience roared when he “liquidated” all the worthless people from the earth, a swift act which took off all stockbrokers, members of Parliament, and doctors. >

OLDEST ANCESTOR HOLLYWOOD’S MAGIC LANTERN. Hollywood’s oldest “ancestor” —a magic lantern—is still in daily and efficient use in the picture < capital. Alongside modern sound-proof cameras, and high-speed projection machines, the lantern looks like something the Pilgrim Fathers brought across in the Mayflower. In modern usage, the magic lantern is rather prosaic. It' is used by the painting department to aid in the decoration of walls. The artist simply draws his design on a small piece of glass, puts it in the machine, focuses his light beam on the wall to the desired size, and starts tracing the lights and shadows. The lantern was used on the stage set where Elissa Landi sang opera in Paramount’s “Enter Madame.” With the aid of the lantern, the painters repeated a single design around the walls, each being an exact duplicate of the other, with the lantern saving iquch and energy usually wasted in sketching designs on the wall. i Likes Acting. | Noel Coward’s initial venture before motion picture cameras in the starring role of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur production ‘‘The Scoundrel,” now nearing completion and set for early release by\ Paramount, has been such a pleasing experience that he has agreed to appea- in a second film role under the Hecht-MacArthur banner. Five Attractive Men. “I love my husband.” says Norma Shearer, “but I shall always find men attractive. I can easily think of five men whom I have found attractive, each in a different way. Five men with whom it was easy to pretend I was in love” (in her screen work). The men Norma, refers to are Leslie Howard, Clark Gable. Robert Montgomery, Fredric March and Herbert Marshall.