The Moving Row of Magic Shadow Shapes OMAR RHAYAM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18820, 7 March 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

The Moving Row of Magic Shadow Shapes OMAR RHAYAM

Modesty is a rare trait among actors and actresses, and generally accepted as hardly conducive to progress along the road to success, yet modesty has been a big factor in making Lewis Ayres, the young Universal star, the most popular male actor in pictures to-day. At a recent popularity contest. conducted by the “New York Dally News,” which has a circulation of H millions, Lewis Ayres topped the poll by a comfortable margin of over 5000 votes, and having included, among his rivals for public affection, such stars as Maurice Chevalier, Ronald Colman, Roman Navarro, Charles Farrell, and Charles Rogers. Lewis Ayres’s charm lies in his appealing simplicity and genuine naturalness. He was a

triumph in his first important portrayal, that of Paul Baumer in “All Quiet on the Western Front.” He has since appeared in in “Common Clay” and “East is West.” Universal pictures, who have Lewis Ayres under a five-year contract, are so pleased with

his progress that they are starring him in “Many a Slip” and “Fires of Youth,” two pictures due for early release. For years Mary Brough has played cook and maid roles—“apron parts,” and she has always had an ambition to cast aside the apron and wear beautiful clothes and jewels. She achieves this in the forthcoming Ralph LynnTom Walls production, “Plunder,” but as far as her ambition is concerned, there is a fly in the ointment, as she does not play the wealthy motherly soul of her dreams, but a shrewish old adventuress trying to claim her stepdaughter’s inheritance. After entertaining about 500 veterans at a huge Armistice ball and banquet, Marion Davies had to appear for work on “The Bachelor Father” set bright and early the next morning at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. “Am I dreaming or do I still hear bands playing?” she asked when she reported for work. Investigation disclosed a military band rehearsing for another film on the stage next door. The longest talking film scene yet recorded was made for Nancy Carroll’s current Paramount dramatic picture, “Stolen Heaven.” • The scene is six minutes >in duration, involving a number of dramatic passages by Miss Carroll and Phillips Holmes. George Abbott is directing, with John Carr, Dagmar Oakland, Joseph Drehan. Buford Armitage, and Edward Keane in the cast. The first production assignment on “Seed,” Charles G. Norris’s phenomenal best seller which Universal will film immediately as a super-picture, was mads when Carl Leammle. junior, selected John M. Stahl to direct it. The success of “A Lady Surrenders,” the screen version of John Crskine's novel “Sincerity,” brought Stahl a fiveyear contract with the Laemmle organisation. He is now completing the added scenes on “The Boudoir Diplomat.” Stahl’s ability to handle stories with social problems as their themes, such as "Seed” will be given full opportunity in the picturisation of the Norris novel. Richard Arlen, Paramount star, is planning to put in a swimming pool on his Toluca Lake estate. He's going to set the tiles himselT. Carles Rogers is going for a vacation trip to Europe, and his mother will be the guest of honour. Leon Errol and Mitzi Green have been selected for two of the three featured roles in “Mr. and Mrs. Haddock Abroad,” Paramount’s forthcoming talking picturisation of Donald Ogden Stewart’s amusing story. A search is now under way for a comedienne who will play Mrs. Haddock, and work or. the screen adaptation has started.

A new recording system, by which hissing, scratching, and all other extraneous noises are eliminated, is introduced in Ruth Chatterton’s latest Paramount production, “The Right to Love.” Under this new process, the most softly-spoken words, whispering, and sobbing are clearly recorded. Richard Wallace directed the film.

Bert Lytell, who plays the title role in “Brothers,” has fallen victim to the superstition of the theatre. He never allowed anyone to speak to him before he goes on for a performance—says it upsets him from doing his best work. He never changes his theatre wardrobe during the run of a show. Last year he didn’t have a bathrobe when “Brothers” opened, and he refused to put one on throughout the entire season for fear of "jinxing” the play. Lytell has also developed other eccentricities. He takes two baths a day and insists that the temperature be exactly adjusted. In addition there must be a small nail-brush close at hand, and his favourite brand of soap must be available. Josef von Sternberg. Hollywood’s leading artistic director, has completed camera work on “Dishonoured,” his latest directorial effort for Paramount, 1 in which Marlene Dietrich and Victor MLaglen co-star. It is a romance of spies in Austria during the war. with Lew Cody, Norman Kerry, Warner Hand, Gustave von Seyfftertitz, and Barry Norton playing featured roles. Robert Z. Leonard, having finished filming “The Bachelor Father.” Marion Davies’ new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talkie, is working on the final cutting while preparing to screen her next picture, “It's a Wise Child.” This will be the sixth occasion on which Leonard has directed Miss Davies. An unusual departure in screen stories will be undertaken by Paramount with the filming of a picture called “Confessions of a Co-Ed,” based on the diary of a feminine university student. The screen version of this diary will feature a cast of popular players of the younger generation. An adaptation is now being prepared and cast selections are under way. Six pictures nearing completion for Fox Films are “Just Imagine,” the De Sylva, Brown and Henderson second musical romance; “Fair Warning,” featuring George O’Brien; “Play Called Life.” with Lois Moran; “Scotland Yard,” featuring Edmund Lowe; “Up the River,” with an all-star cast, and “Renegades,” featuring Warner Baxter. The role of “Sabra,” the leading feminine. character of Edna Ferber’s "Cimarron,” a part which has been eagerly sought by the majority of the free-lance stars in Hollywood, has been allotted to Irene Dunne. Miss Dunne, who makes her first screen appearance in a forthcoming Radio picture, “Leathernecking,” was formerly Magnolia in the stage version of “Show Boat,” when presented by Florenz Ziegfeld. Buster Keaton has begun production on his newest starring vehicle for Met-ro-Goldwyn-Mayer under the direction of Edward Sedgwick. Sally Eilers plays the leading feminine role, Natalie Moorhead is cast as the “vamp,” while Dorothy Christie and Joan Peers will play assistant charmers. Charlotte Greenwood plays a comical role as Polly, and Reginald Denny is cast as Jeff, the jealous husband. Keaton’s new picture is as yet untitled. One of the most thrilling and dramatic plays of war time aviation. “Squadrons.” was written jointly by | Elliott White Springs, the noted American ace. and Augustus Thomas, the well-known dramatist. The story goes into production soon by Fox I Movietone, with Alfred Santell directI ing.

Closely following their engagement of Bobby Jones, the champion golfer, for Vitaphone Varieties, Warner Bros. First National have signed S. S. Van Dine, creator of the fictional character, Philo Vance, to write a eefies of tworeel thrillers for Vitaphone. He will create an entirely new sleuth, a master criminologist who approaches crime at a different angle from Uhilo Vance. British talkie directors have found recruits from the London stage. In recent film casts such names as Lilian Hall Davies, Winifred Shotter, Mary Borough, and Constance Carpenter have appeared. The latest acquisition is Jane Baxter, secured by the Gau-mont-British Company for their second all-talking farce “Bed and Breakfast.” Miss Baxter, in addition to having had two years’ training in farce comedies with Tom Walls at the Aldwych Theatre, has played tn “Thark” on tour. Later, for three years she played various roles in “Peter Pan,” playing Peter for a while. Wallace Beery, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer player in “Min and Bill,” in addition to being an aviator is an expert cameraman. He has a complete moving picture outfit, and makes a practice of filming telephoto views from his ’plane. He is making a complete aerial map of California with his camera. Fox’s vice-president and general manager, Winfield Sheehan, has announced that Will Rogers’s first picture under his new contract with Fox will be “The Heir to the Hoorah.” This will follow the “A Connecticut

Yankee” on which Rogers is now working. and will be the first time that Rogers has appeared in a cowboy role, although in real life that was the way the great comedian really started.

Jack Oakie’s current Paramount comedy, originally announced as “On the Spot,” has been retitled “The Gang Buster.” In this he appears as a cocky young insurance agent, who conceives the idea of selling life insurances

to gunmn, with hilarious results. Jean Arthur is featured opposite the star, and William Boyd, Tom Kennedy, Francis MacDonald k and Ernie Adams head the cast.

Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett were practising a song on the set at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Suddenly a small table on the set be-

gan to vibrate. “That’s funny,” said Miss Moore, “I’ve heard of spirit medium moving tables with spirits—but he does it with a low note!”

“The talkies have not triumphed. This year we have made some silent films. Next year we shall make more. And the Vear aftr that still more. The silent film will never die.”

Mr Samuel Goldwyn, the American film producer, made this statement at Southampton on his arrival from New York. He went to England with the primary purpose of presenting his film, “One Heavenly Night,” in which Miss Evelyn Laye makes her debut ia singing films.

Among his other statements were: “English a'/tists are the best in the world.

“Miss Evelyn Laye is going to make films in Spanish and French for me. She is a great artist. No one could have played her part in ’One Heavenly Night’ as she has played it. I spent £160.000 on the picture.

“Mr Frederick Lonsdale is the only man who has mastered the job of making the perfect script for the talkingfilm. He was always a great dramatist,, but the stage limited his appeal. The talkies will give him fame with every class of people.”

Mr Goldwyn added that Hollywood producers will bankrupt themselves if they go on putting quantity before quality. “The public are laughing at them.”

Nora Lane has joined the cast of “The Leather Pushrs.” Universal’s alltalking version of the famous H. C. Witwer prize ring stories, in which Kane Richmond. Carl Laemmle junior’s latest find, has the leading role. The cast includes Sally Blane, Joan March, Sam Hardy, and Jack White. Albert Kelley is directing. Miss Lane’s numerous pictures include “One Hysterical Night” and “Sally. ’

A Frenchman, a German, a Russian, and an American form comradeship that neither death nor a woman can break. This is the basis of ’Renegades,” directed by Victor Fleming, Warner Baxter's latest Fox Movietone picture, which is to be screened in the cast are Myrna Loy, Noah Beery. George Cooper, Gregory Gaye, and Bela Lugosi.

“Ladies’ Man,” Paramount's adaptation of th Rupert Hughes novel, starring William Powel, has gone into production at the Hollywood studios under the direction of Lothar Mendes. Kay Francis is featured in the feminine lead, and Carol Lombard, Martin Burton, Gilbert Emery, and John Holland are in supporting roles.

Harry Cohn, vice-president in charge Df production for Columbia Pictures, announces that Columbia will make foreign language versions of certain Columbia pictures. All those pictures deemed particularly well suited for foreign distribution will be usd. The wo features to receive first considera.ion will be “Brothers,” starring Bert Cyttell, and “The Criminal Code,” in vhich Walter Huston and Phillips lolmes are featured.

The name of Richard Cooper British ctor-comedian, is one which will aerit watching. As a result of his ,’ork in recent films, “House of the Arow,” -At the Villa Rose,” and “The ast Hour,” he has been starred by the aumont Company in a talkie version J a celebrated farce, “Lord ichard in 13 Pantry,” and he is co-star with le English musical comedy actress, me Baxter, in the second Gaumont meen farce, “Bed And Breakfast.”