The Moving Row Of Magic Shadow Shapes

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18653, 23 August 1930, Page 11

The Moving Row Of Magic Shadow Shapes

Charles (Buddy) Rogers and Thelma Tcdd, who were film students together at the Paramount Picture school in 1926, are in the same picture for the first time since those days, both having parts in Paramount’s all-tech-nicolour production of the musical comedy, “Follow Thru.”

“Song O’ My Heart,” John McCormack’s first Movietone effort, which has been given a warm reception throughout the United States, will open in Dublin during August, on the Friday preceding Horse Shoe Week. The McCormack film opened its London engagement on May 27th, at the Prince Edward Theatre, at Old Compton and Greet Street, just off Cambridge Circus. The theatre is London’s newest and finest playhouse seating about 1600. The picture scored a sensational success.

Mabel Poulton, since her first talkie performance in “Taxi for Two,” has been concentrating on stage technique and voice production under the training of Madame Clara Novello Davies, Ivor Novello’s clever mother. Mabel has never yet been content to rest on her laufels, and it seems that her many fans will be very enthusiastic over her talkie debut in “Taxi for Two.” According to reports, she was an instant success in this film, and she is now playing a leading role in the Basil Dean-Sir Gerald du Haurier dialogue feature, “Escape,” from a John Galsworthy novel.

News has been received by Paramount Pictures to the effect that the Byrd film, “With Byrd at the South Pole,” will arrive in New Zealand in the very near future. Its release is expected shortly after its arrival. This epic of the icy wastes is at present enjoting a very successful season on Broadway, where it is receiving the unanimous praise of the critical New York Press. Willard Vanderveer and Joe Rucker. the two Paramount cameramen who accompanied Byrd on the expedition, brought back with them in all twenty miles of film. This has been cut and edited into a feature-length picture that tells one of the most gripping stories ever told. Sound and dialogue has been added, included in which is a special address by Rear-Admiral Byrd to the people of the British Empire. In his speech he pays a marvellous tribute to the people of New Zealand, who gave the expedition every reasonable assistance. There is no question of doubt that “With Byrd at the South Pole” will prove one of the most outstanding pictures of the new season.

Harold Lloyd’s comedy “Welcome Danger” met with such opposition from certain quarters in Shanghai that the local theatres were obliged to withdraw the film. The picture was objected to on the grounds that the Chinese represented in the film were entirely of the criminal class and accordingly were not representative. The setting for the film play was San Francisco. Agitation against the picture began when a Chinese professor rose during a Saturday night performance and delivered an address in which he characterised

“Welcome Danger” as an insult to the Chinese nation. Later the Chinese press and the local Kuomingtang lodged protests against the film with the result that the two local theatres which had been offering it felt constrained to withhold it from further exhibition. The China Times, a local

vernacular paper, lauded as a patriot of the first order the professor who initiated the agitation. The paper charged that most of the motion pictures screened in China were imported from abroad, but few had any value to China. “The Chinese film industry,” the paper goes on to say, “must make every effort to produce Chinese films to replace foreign importations. As regards the Film Investigation Committee, it must exercise a stricter censorship of films so that an incident similar to that involving Harold Lloyd’s picture may be

QMAR KHAYAM

avoided.” The film in question was submitted to the local Chinese Film Censorship Committee prior to being shewn in any local theatre and the censors saw nothing objectionable in the comedy. A similar agitation was started previously against the screening of Douglas Fairbank’s film, “The Thief of Bagdad.”

The latest member of the Royal Family to take an interest in the films is the Duke of Connaught. A portable projector was installed at Clarence House, and the Duke was able to enjoy a reel provided by British Movietone News.

More than £60,000 worth of recording equipment was installed in a wild, lonely spot 250 miles from Los Angeles in order to take the scenes for Warner Bros, and Vitaphone’s all-talking, outdoor technicolour production, “Song of the West,” featuring Vivienne Segal and John Boles.

Gloria Swanson’s latest picture was made after the major exhibitors, sales

executives and the principal motion picture editors in America had been asked what kind of a picture Miss Swanson should do after her tremendous success in “The Trespasser.” The verdict was unanimous that she should turn out a comedy in which there was a romantic interests. Consequently Josephine Lovett was engaged and wrote the story demanded for Miss Swanson. “What a Widow” is the title.

The transformation of John Galsworthy’s famous play, “Escape,” into a talking picture, for Associated Radio Pictures, under the direction of Basil Dean, in England, is proceeding rapidly. The cast has been transferred to Dartmoor from the studio at Beaconsfield for the filming of the escape of Matt Dennant from prison, the part being played by Sir Gerald du Maurier. For the first time the authorities had granted special facilities which ensured authentic settings for the various Dartmoor scenes.

Johnny Arthur, popular stage comedian who has achieved equal screen favour with his portrayals in “The Desert Song” and other productions, will play the part of the Press agent in “Alone With You,” Richard Connell’s story, which brings forth Dixie Lee as a full-fledged Fox Movietone leading woman. Others in the production which Sidney Lanfield will direct, include Arthur Lake, Olga Baclanova, “Whispering” Jack Smith, and Charles Judels.

When Dorothy Sebastion visited the Casino at Agua Caliente, Mexico, following the completion of her work in Metro-Gotdwyn-Mayer’s all-star comedy “Free and Easy,” she leaned against a roulette table in a moment of excitement and accidentally pushed a pile of chips on to a number. Imagine her embarrassment when the owner of the pile was handed £4O when the number won the very next spin! “Now, do you suppose for one moment that I could have done that for myself!” declared the fun-loving brunette. “Free and Easy” was Buster Keaton’s first alltalking picture.

Sara Allgood (who was in New Zealand as “Peg o' My Heart” some years ago), Maire O’Neill, Edward Chapman, Sydney Morgan, John Laurie, and Kathleen O’Regan a famous group of Irish players—are all featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of the Sean O’Casey play, “Juno and the Paycock.” This brilliant talkie, in my opinion, is certainly he best yet produced in England (says a London writer), though I am not prepared to accept it as a completely authentic picture of Ireland, or of the issues with which it deals. The drama is concerned with an egotistical loafer and his long-suffering wife, and ends in dire tragedy and gloom, though a lambent flicker of humour relieves the story throughout.

Shayle Gardener, the New Zealander who has won distinction in England and America on stage and screen, has returned to Hollywood.

Lillian Gish, soon to be heard in her first all-talking picture, “One Romantic Night,” is back on the New York stage, and according to New York’s drama critics her return is a triumph. She is the Helena of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.’

O. P. Heggie, the Australian actor, who won world-wide acclaim for his characterisation in “The Vagabond King,” has been given an important role in Maurice Chevalier’s current Paramount talkie, “The Little Cafe.’* Ludwig Berger, who handled “The Vagabond King,” is directing. Frances Dean, Stuart Erwin, Tyler Brook, and Cecil Cunningham head the supporting cast.

Dennis King, who takes the lead in the screen version of “The Vagabond King” (now being screened in Hamilton) started his theatrical career as a callboy at 5/- per week in England. Going to America, he had years of hardship before he became a star on the New York stage in musical plays. Then he went into the talkies. A few months ago Mr King returned to his native England to play the lead at Drury Lane, England, in the musical play “The Three Musketeers” as a salary of £6OO per week. Playing with Mr King at Dury Lane is Marie Ney, the New Zealand actress, as Miladi, the “villainess of the piece.”

Irene Rich has been handed one of the best acting assignments of the year by Fox Movitone—the leading role in “On Your Back,” adapted from Rita Weiman’s “"Liberty Magazine” story. Miss Rich is a familiar figure on the Fox Movietone lot since she played the part of Will Rogers’s wife in his first talking picture, “They had to See Paris.” Miss Rich is now playing the part of Will Rogers’s wife in “So This is London,” the star’s second talking picture. In “On Your Back” she will enact the part of a fashionable modiste in New York, who becomes a social leader through the use of her wits and charm. H. B. Warner has been signed for a featured role in this production.

Reports from Sydney chronicle an amazing success made by the world famous tenor, John McCormack, in his one and only vocal picture, “Song </ |My Heart.” Beginning its season in the very widst of the Australian financial depression which now prevails and ; when most theatres are feeling the pinch, John McCormack’s success has been electric—no less. The great singer appears as “himself' in the play, and is heard in eleven song and aria numbers, which have been recorded so perfectly that it is difficult to realise that the great artist is not personally present and singing to his audience in propria persona. The Sydney season of “Song o’ My Heart” promises to establish a new long-run record for Sydney. A cable just received showed that Sir Benjamin and John Fuller

have secured the attraction for very early release in New Zealand.

John Battfen, the ex-Aucklander, has been making films in Germany. He and a London girl, Lilian Harvey, have the romantic leads in “The Love Waltz.” Mr Batten also appears as the here in Jack Raymond’s Soccer drama, “The Great Game.” The Cup match final which provides the climax to this first British outdoor talkie was “shot” at the Harrod’s Sports Ground, Barnes. A travelling crane with a 70ft jib which held a railed-ln platform carrying microphones and electricallydriven cameras, was specially constructed to secure goal-mouth and mid-field play. The long jib could be swung easily by hand to and fro across the field, while the platform could be adjusted to any angle desired. The teams were comprised of Internationals with the exception of Mr Batten.

“Young Woodley” has been made as a talkie at Elstree, England, by Thomas Bentley in collaboration with John van Druten, the author of the play. British International Pictures allowed the first public showing of “Young Woodley” to be given at a charity matinee at the Regal Cinema, Marble Arch, organised by Lady Bertha Dawkins in aid of tiie Brompton Hospital for Consumption. The performance realised nearly £I3OO. “Young Woodley,” as a film, contains all that charm of innocence cast into the uneasy waters of adolescence which made the play so admirable. You may say its story is sentimentalisation of public school life. Frank Lawton is admirable in the film, as he was in the play; but Miss Madeleine Carroll, as the housemaster’s wife, is more than admirable, Madeleine Carroll goes on from accomplishment to accomplishment in her films.

British talkie directors have found excellent recruits from the London stage for their casts. In recent films I such players as Lilian Hall Davies, ! Winfred Shotter, Mary Brough, and Constance Carpenter have appeared, all i possessing high reputations in the West End. The latest acquisition is Jane ; Baxter, secured by Gaumont for its ! second all-talking farce, "Bed and Breakfast.” Miss Baxter, in addition to having had two years’ training in farce comedies with Tom Wallis as the Aldwych Theatre, has played in “Thark” on tour, and in “Ba Ba Back Sheep,” while for three years she played various roles in “Peter Pan,” after which she was engaged for “A Damsel in Distress.” Later she understudied Winifred Shotter in the stage version of “Rookery Nook.” and is now playing at the Shaftesbury in "The Middle Watch” in addition to her new film role. Having completed the starring role in the Twickenham talkie farce, ! "Lord Richard in tile Pantry,” Richard Cooper (by arrangement with Julius Hagen), is to replace Billy Leonard for the co-starring role with Jane ] Baxter in “Bed and Breakfast.**