BIOGRAPHY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21244, 14 January 1939, Page 12

BIOGRAPHY

CAREER OF ARMAND DENIS About the only thing Armand Denis, world-famous explorer and motion picture producer, hasn’t filmed is his own life story. And the chronicle of his 42 years would prove as fascinating screen material as he has put into his movies—Goona Goona, Wild Cargo and Dark Rapture, the latter soon to be released by Universal. The restlessnness that has sent Denis scurrying to all parts of the globe with his camera was apparent early in his life. World War Hero Belgium-born, Denis graduated from high school right into the trenches. He served with the Belgian army until captured, then escaped and finished the conflict with the British air force. After the Armistice, Denis tried to settle down to serious schooling. He achieved that aim, but never quite settled, jumping from the Paris School of Mines to the University of Florence to the California Institute of Technology and finally to Oxford, where he earned an M.A. degree. His hobby, radio, took him to film sound recording, and to movie production. So far, films seem to have captured his whole-hearted attention. Once a recluse in a monastry after an unfortunate love affair, Denis met Leila Roosevelt, cousin of the President of the United States. Denis and Miss Roosevelt were married and after a 5000-mile honeymoon in Europe they settled down to domestic life. Three children were born to them. Denis directed the Frank Buck picture. "Wild Cargo,” then, sponsored by the Belgian Government, undertook the Denis-Roosevelt expedition that made “Dark Rapture.”