THE SCREEN : ITS PLAYS AND ITS STARS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20096, 1 May 1935, Page 12

THE SCREEN : ITS PLAYS AND ITS STARS

“The Scarlet Pimpernel” Londoners are still falling over each other in their anxiety to see Alexander Korda’s production. “The Scarlet Pimpernel" which has now been running for eight weeks at the Leicester Square Theatre and is still doing phenomenal business. All box office records have been broken. Under the heading “Britain conquers the Film World” the “Daily Mail” comments as follows: —“The dazzling success of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” the film adapted from Baroness Orzy’s famous novel, the first presentation of which is still continuing in London, is a fresh triumph for British enterprise. It shows that in film production —one of the most important industries in the world— Britain is to-day right in front. . . .

The British industry has already broken into the United States by the spectacular success of such films as

“The Private Life of Henry VIII” . . . the appeal of the British picture to the film patrons of the world. It combines acting of the highest standard with exquisite setting and has a technical perfection which equals or surpasses anything Hollywood can show.” The picture is to be released by United Artists at an early date. “Whither Mankind?”

..Special music for the H. G. Wells’ film “Whither Mankind?” has been composed by Arthur Bliss, the wellknown composer and musician. On March 3, Mr Bliss, with 60 members of the London Symphony Orchestra which he personally conducted recorded the music.

“Carolina” The most important all-star cast assembled by Fox Film since “State Fair” is complete with the signing of two of the screen’s most popular young leading men and the assignment of Fox Film’s newest feminine discovery to “Carolina.” The roster of stars is made up of Janet Gaynor, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Young, Henrietta Crosman, Richard Cromwell, Mona Barrie and Stepin Fetchit. The three most recently named were Robert Young, Richard Cromwell and Mona Barrie. Robert Young continues his ascent toward stardom that has been marked by outstanding performances in “Saturday’s Millions” and “To-day We Live,” by winning hte star role opposite Janet Gaynor. Richard Cromwell, on the strength of his work in “Hoopla,” plays his rival. Mona Barrie, brilliant Australian actress recently discovered by Fox Film, won her role by her outstanding performance in “Sleepers Blast.” “Carolina” is based on the Theatre Guild stage success by Paul Green and was adopted for the screen by Reginald Berkeley, screen author of “Cavalcade.” It is said to afford Janet Gaynor the most dramatically emotional role of her career, and will be presented on a scale to realise the full sweep of this story of the new South. It is scheduled for an engagement at the Majestic Theatre beginning Saturday next. Henry King, who directed, made an extensive tour of the South, where he gathered data and material to assure a realistic and authentic production.

“Father Brown, Detective” A character endeared to millions by the “Sunday Evening Post” stories and the books of Gilbert K. Chesterton assumes real flesh and blood and comes to life on the screen in Paramount’s “Father Brown, Detective,” coming to the Regent Theatre next week. As acted by Walter Connolly, he is the same amiable, eccentric and foxy old character who catches thieves with kind words and intelligence where the police of the world had failed with their modern detection methods. The story of “Father Brown, Detective,” is built about the Flying Star diamonds in Father Brown’s possession and the efforts of Flambeau, notorious jewel thief, to get them. Although Father Brown has the thief well within his grasp severaP times, he refuses to apprehend him and turn him over to the police until he has recanted of his own free will . The fight for the diamands thus resolves itself into a battle of wit and will, with a beautiful girl who loves Flambeau taking a hand in the fight. At last Flambeau, convinced of the error of his' ways, gives himself up freely to the police, hoping to recant his crimes and earn the respect of the girl he loves. And Father Brown plays the double role of sleuth and Cupid. Paul Lukas and Getrude Michael are cast in the principal supporting roles, and Robert Loraine, Una O’Connor and Halliwell Hobbes appear Bing Crosby, Paramount star, who is currently working on 'Mississippi,” has for the third successive year been voted by the radio editors of America and Canada as the air’s leading singer of popular songs? “Clive of India” In “Clive of India,” Ronald Coleman’s latest picture, there is a cast of 75 principals and 3000 extras. There were no less than sixty casualities during the taking of the scene of the Battle of Plassey when sixty elephants stampeded and demolished the sets. “Clive of India” will be released by United Artists.

"Sanders of the River” Some of the largest war canoes ever made by natives will be seen in "Sanders of the Rive,” the film which will have its first world premiere shortly in. aid of the Newspaper Press Fund. These canoes, which were filmed in Africa, are hollowed out from huge tree trunks, and are capable of seating 80 men. They are propelled at terrific speed by the spears of the natives, which are used as paddles. “Sanders of the River” will be released by United Artists.

The gilded Louis XV. piano that is played by Mary Ellis in the palace scene from Paramount’s “All the King’s Horses,” was discovered 10 bear the coat of arms of the British Royal Family?

An exact replica of Windsor Castle as it was in the 12th century is under construction at the Paramount Studios? This will be utilised in the filming of Cecil B. De Mille’s spectacle, “The Crusades.”

Do You Know That That Janet Gaynor owns the finest collection of Lalique in America. She began the collection after a friend brought her a beautiful vase from Paris. That Henrietta Crosman, an antivivisectionist, refuses to eat meat or wear furs, and has lately adopted canvas shoes as footwear. That Janet Gaynor was once an extra girl who trudged from studio to studio without success for months before she won her first real chance that led to stardom.

That a fly buzzing in the microphone delayed production on “Carolina” for several minutes before the source of the strange sound was discovered.

That Stepin Fetchit is still half asleep. That following her first appearance in “As You Like It” in New York, Henrietta Crosman was proclaimed the foremost Rosalind of her time. That Janet Gaynor receives an average of 1,500 fan letters every day of the year. That Janet Gaynor refuses to have a telephone installed in her cottage. It is one place where she maintains absolute and complete privacy.

That Stepin Fetchit studied for the priesthood for three years. That Janet Jaynor’s favourite activity is dancing, yet she is seldom seen in public places, and attends private functions only at rare intervals. That Lionel Barrymore has worn more hirsute adornment on the screen in recent years than any other player. He is the master of make-up. That Janet Gaynor has won. with a single exception, every popularity contest in which she has been entered since her rise to fame in “7th Heaven.” That Lionel Barrymore thinks Stepin Fetchit the funniest human alive. That Robert Young became a father during the production of “Carolina.” That Mona Barrie is considered to have the finest diction on the screen to-day.

That Janet Gaynor is a prominent citizen of four American communities —Philadelphia, where she was born; Chicago, where she was educated: 1 Hollywood, where she works; and the beach at Kaikiki, where she goes to j rest. “Enter Madame” Richard Bonelli, one of the world’s outstanding operatic baritones has a role with Elissa Landi in Paramount’s “Enter Madame,” that marks his embarkation on feature-length motion pictures. “It is purely an experiment,” said Bonelli 1 , who has sung in the Metropolitan, La Scala, Paris, Chicago, Covent Garden, and every oter outstanding operatic centre. “I wish to see if grand opera has screen possibilities. If this experiment is successful, a complete opera may be offered later.” Bonelli and Miss Landi, who trained for an operatic career before the latter became an actress, sing in the second role of an Italian opera star in the act of “Tosca.” Miss Landi plays the film, and several scenes of her at work on the stage are included. Bonelli. who has come to Hollywood to sing in the famous “Symphonies Under the Stars” in the Hollywood Bowl, has appeared in a few short features, but this will be his first appearance in a full-length picture. Cary Grant is Miss Landi’s leading man, and Frank Albertson, Lynn Overman, Paul Porcasi, and Sharon Lynne are the other important members of the cast. Protest from Zasu Pitts Hands do not make the actress. Zasu Pitts, reputed to have the most expressive hands on the screen, waxed indignant when asked how much of her screen success she attributed to them.

“Why does everyone say that my hands make me a good actress?” she exclaimed between scenes of Paramount’s “Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.”

“A good actress should use her hands, like every other part of herself, in portraying a role. But to say that my hands made me an actress is silly. I use my hands, my eyes and my voice unconsciously when I act because I try to be the character I am portraying. I use no tricks.”

INTERESTING TOPICS ON FILM ARTISTS AND CINEMA ATTRACTIONS

“The Wedding Night” Tall, lanky Gary Cooper and blonde exotic Anna Sten are paired for the first time as a new romantic team in “The Wedding Night,” which United Artists will shortly release. It is a Samuel Goldwyn production directed by King Vidor, and features Ralph Bellamy, Helen Vinson and Siegfried Rumann. “The Wedding Night” is a dramatic romance in which Anna Sten portrays a modern American girl rebelling against the dictates and restraints of tradition, and Gary Cooper appears as a successful, sophisticated New York author with whom she falls iin love. Miss Sten’s part is a sharp contrast to her previous performances in “Nana” and “We Live Again.” In the first she was an exotic, languorous woman of Paris, and in the second a simple peasant of Russia. In “The Wedding Night” she emerges thoroughly American in dress, talk and actions. The film marks another milestone in the career of Cooper. Nine years ago, Goldwyn gave the tall, broad-should-ered young cowboy his first important part in a motion picture, the role of Abe Lee in “The Winning of Barbara Worth.” and it was the beginning of Cooper’s long string of successes. His salary then was 75 dollars a week; it was rumoured to be about 100 times that in “The Wedding Night.” Success Story The career of Mitchell Leisen, director of Paramount’s “Behold My Wife,” starring Sylvia Sidney, is a typical Hollywood success story. Leisen, who originally came to Holly-

wood to act in films, acepted a position designing costumes for * Cecil B. De Mille productions. Within six months after his arrival, he was art director for De Mille. A short time after, Leisen received the directorial assignment on Paramount’s “Cradle Song,” “Death Takes a Holiday” and “Murder at the Vanities” followed in short order. Those pictures placed Leisen in the forefront of motion picture directors and won him the assignment on “Behold My Wife.” In support of Sylvia Sidney in her new Paramount picture are Gene Raymond, H. B. Warner and Laura Hope Crows. For sequences of Paramount’s forthcoming “Renegades,” the company was compelled to send a number of cameramen to Alaska, which established a record for distant location trips.

“Folies Bergere” In filming “Folies Bergere” Darryl F. Zanuck has brought to the screen for the first time the most widely-re-nowned of all musical productions. Not even the Ziegfeld Follies at their height could boast the international fame enjoyed by France’s foremost theatrical institution which for more than forty years has drawn its visitors from the four corners of the globe. Hollywood producers have long sought the film rights of “Folies Bergere.” When, at last, its owners capitulated to the demands of the screen, Kanuck won the right to film it for 20th Century Pictures by out-bidding all competition. Maurice Chevalier was at one time a star of the Folies Bergere and it was there that he first gained fame as the partner of the incomparable Mistinguette. Now in the film the affable French star will be seen in his first dual role, as his gay strawhatted singing self and as an amorous, be-mustached be-monocled French baron whom he impersonates on the stage of the Folies Bergere and in real life as well. United Artists will release the film.

World’s Heavyweight Champion Max Baer’s request that he return to the movies as an actor and not a fighter was answered by Paramount with the announcement that the world’s heavyweight champion will be starred in an original Damon Runyon story, “Kids on the Cuff,” a story based on the events of Baer’s early life and wholly away from the ring.

Khyber Pass on Screen Rhapsodised in scores of books and sung about in a dozen lusty soldier songs, the steep, carved sides of India’s historic Khyber Pass at last become motion picture background. The Paramount Studios echo to the plaintive and eerie whine of reeds of cobra charmers and boom to the vocal discords of innumerable Pathans, Afghans, Sikhs and Punjabi-Mohamme-dans. At last, Paramount’s “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” is stepping from the interesting print of Francis YeatesBrown’s book into an elaborate film spectacle with Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Sir Guy Standing, Colin Taploy and Kathleen Burke. To capture this turbulent and mystic Indian atmosphere, Paramount three years ago sent a large expedition into the very heart of this country and as a result, tens of thousands of feet of film were returned to Hollywood. Much of this extraordinary footage portains to the activities of the Bengal Lancers, mixed-native troops officered by British, and shows them at peace and in war. Of equal interest and value as atmospheric, background are the 20,000-odd feet of film showing the lives and working secrets of several tribes of desert people. With great difficulty the expedition invaded the Khyber Pass country and through a stroke of luck, managed to photograph one of the most picturesque of all human occupations—the manufacture, by hand, of the celebrated Khyber rifles. Solo Dancing, Good Exercise Claudette Colbert has discovered what she believes is the perfect exercise for a woman—solo dancing! The Paramount star recently began a series of dancing lessons under the instruction of Le Roy Prinz, nationallyknown dancing master, in preparation for her role in her forthcoming picture, “The Gilded Lily,” which Paramount will shortly release in New Zealand. She tripped and whirled and tapped for almost three hours and kept up the instruction from Prinz for two weeks.