The Moving Row of Magic Shadow Shapes OMAR KHAYAM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 12

The Moving Row of Magic Shadow Shapes OMAR KHAYAM

Raymond Hatton, screen comedian, and Fuzzy Knight, featured pianist, singer and entertainer in cabarets throughout America, have been given featured parts in Paramount's Zane Grey western, "Under the Tonto Rim.” Stuart Erwin will have the leading vole in this production.

Lee Tracy will next be seen in "The Chasers.” Charles Buterworth .who w r as seen in “Love Me Tonight,” will be in the supporting cast. Jack conway, whose last picture was "Hell Below,” will direct the new picture. Tracy’s first Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture was "Clear All Wires.”

The motion picture players work under a battery of lights so large and powerful that an inexperienced person could not keep his eyes open. Yet the screen player never gives them a thought. Light comes from every possible direction—above, below, to the sides, and from the back—in the filming of a scene. On the set of Paramount’s “Under Cover Man,” George Raft, Nancy Carroll, Roscoe Karns, and Lew Cody worked under rays that equal in power those of the sun. The temperature where the players work is kept down by a ventilating system which delivers fifty-de-gree air to the stage. Yet in closeups the players sometimes work in 95 degrees, and in the longer shots in eighty-degree atmosphere. The heat on a large setting with many lights has been known to reach a record of 110 degrees.

The leading male role in “Heads We Go!” the new 8.1. P. film in which Constance Cummings stars, has been given to Frank Lawton. This young actor has only just returned from Hollywood, where he played an important part in the film version of Noel Coward's “Cavalcade.” In this picture he plays a young man who falls in love at first sight with a girl, but his ensuing conduct leads to misunderstanding. He is able eventually to explain matters and all ends happily. The cast of this original film also contains Binnie Barnes, Gus McNaughton, and Claude Hulbert.

Leon Errol, the comedian with the weak knees, will have the starring role in the next Columbia, “Lambs’ Gambols,” titled “The Poor Fish.” It is one of a series of comedies being made by the famous theatrical club. Besides Errol, numerous other American stars will be seen in “The Poor Fish.’’

Universal will have as one of its mo6t pretentious productions on next season's programme a picturisation of Edward Everett Hale’s dramatic story of American treason and patriotism “The Man Without a Country.”

Two command performances of Walt Disney’s “Mickey Mouse” and “Silly Symphonies” were recently given for their Majesties the King and Queen. One was for themselves, and the other was presented for the entertainment of the Princess Elizabeth.

The title of the 8.1. P. film "Help!” starring Gene Gerrard, and now in preparation for an early release, has been altered to “Leave It To Me!”

A film studio is essentially a workshop and rarely a place of beauty, but at the 8.1. P. Studios there is one lovely feature—an acre of ornamental garden fronting the main studios whch is preparing now to blossom like a rose. The studio folk cherish it dearly. Alas, a fit of temperament thrown by three bovine stars have nearly wrecked Elstree’s beauty spot, and the studio is plunged in grief. Patsy, Pansy, and Pearl, three handsome cows, were cast for “walk on” parts in Norman Lee's new film “The Pride of the Force.’’ With such a popular star in the film as Leslie Fuller, the three “extras” from down on the farm should have had no complaints. Whether it was that Lee did not give them enough “close-ups” or whether it was professional jealousy no one knows, but all of a sudden Patsy, Pansy, and Pearl did a “Garbo.” “We tank we go home,” they mooed, kicked up their heels, and galloped off the “lot” via B.LP.’s cherished rose garden. Lee’s assistants and the cowman pursued them in vain, and it w T as after half an hour’s remorseless damage had been done that they gave themselves up.

“The Birth of a Nation,” one of me greatest M D. W. Griffith’s lamott* silent films Is to be remade as a talkie. ~I learned about screen men from them,” says Gloria Stuart, Universal'* busy blonde star. Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Charles Laughton, James Dunn, Karloff, Pat O’Brien, Ralph Bellamy and Melvyn Douglas are Just a few of Gloria’s leadifig men since she made her screen debut fourteen months ago. Gloria’s record is eleven pictures in a little more than a year. She is now vacationing and resting in Old Mexico. With her sculptor husband, Blair Gordon Newell, she is visiting and studying the ancient Mayan ruins.

After making three comedies in a row, Gloria Swanson will be seen in straight drama again when "Perfect Understanding” has its opening. The star’s last dramatic role was in "The Trespasser,” released in 1929. Then she produced three light comedies, “What a Widow,” "Indiscreet” and “To-night or Never,” the last of which was released in 1931. Now in "Perfect Understanding” Miss Swanson is back in a serious role, one which she is convinced is the strongest she has had in years.

Adolphe Menjou, who speaks English, French, Spanish and German like a native, has an opportunity to speak them all in one short sequence in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s production entitled “Diamond Cut Diamond.”

Marion Davies wears pigtails and “hand-me-down” clothes in the opening scenes of “Peg o’ My Heart,” her new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talkie. In the latter part of the film, however, she wears beautiful gowns designed by the talented Gilbert Adrian.

In “The Kiss Before the Mirror," the Continental stage success which Universal has made into a talkie picture, the new use of musical arrangements aids the screen story. A Viennese tango is employed throughout this film, the tune having an important bearing on the dramatic events of the screen play, and occurring naturally, instead of being interposed as a theme song.

Jan Kiepura, who has been cited as the great Caruso successor, presents

one of the most glorious galaxy of musical offerings the screen has yet presented, in the captivating musical romance, “Tell Me To-night,” a B. and D. release, filmed entirely in Switzer-

Thirty-two graphic years of modern history provide a vivid background for the great Fox Film production of Noel Coward's “Cavalcade” with an absorbing story skilfully interwoven. High spots of history briefly etched include the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, Bleriot’s first flight across the English Channel, the Titanic disaster, the World War, and a kaleidoscopic record of the present day in world affairs.

The unique results of a dancing camera can be seen in one of the sequences of Mary Pickford’s "Secrets," when the star glides about the floor with Leslie Howard, permitting the audience to follow every movement of the couple.

“King’s Cup,” the B. and D. flying film, which has taken nearly a year to complete—the weather played havoc with production—will be released in New Zealand soon. Dorothy Bouchier and Harry Milton are starred.

Edward Everett Horton has returned to America. Like Fred Kerr, who played in the B. and D. film, “the Man from Toronto" and "The Midshipmaid.” Mr Horton went to Europe for a holiday and stayed to work. He appears with Cicely Courtneidge in “Soldiers of the King.”

A cablegram from Hollywood announces that Joan Crawford has obtained a divorce from Douglas Fairbanks, Jnr. This news will probably come as a great surprise to mahy, for Joan and her husband have always been looked upon as Hollywood’s most contented couple. Recently, however, it was rumoured that all was not going too well in their household, and finally came the announcement that they had agreed to separate. The sensation caused by the announcement was all the greater because it followed the citing of her husband in a suit for £IO,OOO brought by Mr Jorgen Dietz, of Los Angeles, for the alleged alienation of the affections of Mrs Dietz. Mr Fairbanks denied the accusation and Joan joined him in describing the suit as an attempt at extortion. Some time later. Miss Crawford, in conversation with the “Daily Express," London, said:— "We separated because we were unhappy. That's all there Is to It. We couldn’t get along as husband and wife. That's not unusual, is it? That isn’t confined to Hollywood is it?” Miss

Crawford is said to have stated that after she and her husband returned from their recent trip to Europe, they had become more estranged than ever. Somehow, she said, they could not hit things off. She denied that there w* any other man in her life, and asked that no blame should be placed on her husband for anything that had hap pened. The husband’s version of the whole affair has not been given much prominence so far, although he Is reported to have been very definite In his assertions that the breach would be healed. That, of course, was before the divorce proceedings had been ro>*iti4-iL