THREE FILM INNOVATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

THREE FILM INNOVATIONS

FORERUNNERS OF GRAND OPERA

Three major trends in the film industry are being watched by the studios First of course is the change from the black and white films to those' presented in sharp, natural colours, free from blur and reproducing all the beauty and harmony of the large stage settings. The third dimensional picture is beginning to make its appearance, although confined at present to the colour cartoon. A third dimensional effect has been achieved in the Venetian setting now nearing completion at R.K.O. Radio studios, as a background for the action of “Top Hat,” musical film co-starring Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers. The huge setting, embracing canals, broad piazzas and a bathing lagoon, occupies the combined interior of two of the studio’s largest adjoining sound stages and is approximately 150 by 285 feet in size.

. The third innovation is the bringing of grand opera to the screen, with light operettas paving the way. Years ago. however, the great Caruso played in a silent picture, “My Cousin,” which was such a complete failure that a second picture he made was never released. The problem is to find first-rate opera singers who are sufficiently personable to screen well and able to act with the subtlety and restraint the camera demands. It is of no use to engage even a comely singer whose notions of acting are limited to “operatic” gestures. If grand opera is to be filmed successfully, the Fausts an ! Marguerit-s of the screen must look as attractive and behave as naturally as the heroes and heroines to whom we are normally accustomed. To-day the situation has changed somewhat. The new generation of opera stars is more promising, from the screen point of view, than the old. Members of the “younger set” of the New York

Equally attractive are Gladys Swarthout, a brunette mezzo-soprano of the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and Helen Jepson, a striking blonde, who has just made her opera debut. Both have been engaged by Paramount. Miss Swarthout will be directed by Ernst Lubitsch in “Carmen,” which will incorporate much of Bizet’s music. Lubitsch also plans to produce “Cavaleria Rusticana.” Cecil B. de Mille’s next film for Paramount will definitely be a musical. The studio has bought the musical rights of Saint-Safen’s opera, “Samson and Delilah,” which de Mille will direct, with Gladys Swarthout again as the probable principal. Competition for male operatic talent is just as keen. Fox has captured Nino Martini, a good-looking young tenor, Twentieth Century is bringing back Lawrence Tibbett, and Paramount will probably produce the future pictures of have thought of signing up Chaliapin, who proved himself a dignified and distinguished abtor in “Don. Quixote.”

Metropolitan Opera House, the American home of grand opera, are turning their eyes toward Hollywood. Grace Moore came to the screen from “the Met.” So did Lawrence TibbetL And Miss Moore’s sensational screen success in “Oite Night of Love” has inspired some of her colleagues to follow her example. Lily Pons, petite, vivacious, darkeyed coloratura soprano will begin her first film for Radio early next month. It is called “Love Song.” Miss Pons was born on the French Riviera and made her debut at the New York Opera House in 1931 when still in her twenties. She originally intended to become a pianist, but turned to singing with such success that she is now recognised as one of the world’s finest coloratura sopranos.