GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18085, 19 February 1927, Page 23

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Adapted from the Xew York musical comedy success of the same title. ‘Take it from Me " is fine comedy, with Reginald Denny as the star. Starring with e bang as Denny, as an extravagant young heir sinks the last dollar of his inheritance on a horse which just cannot win first place, the picture moves rapidly from one comedy situation to another. It is all plausible, however fantastic it may seem, for every ridiculous situation is logically accounted for. In " Men of the Night,” to be released shortly by Universal, Herbert Rawbn son will make his first appearance in the role of a “ heavy ” This is quite a departure for Rawlinson, whose penchant for the past number of years has been the portrayal of the doughty hero who rushes in where angels fear to tread and saves the girl. K M K Patsy Miller made her • first screen successes as Esmeralda, the dancing girl heroine of “ The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” But as that romantic gipsy she did not have to prove what a really great dancer she is. Now, in her new picture, “ Why Girls Go Back Home,” a Master picture due for early release, she plays a dancing girl of the most up-to-date vintage. And she has to prove her dancii*g ability. The final scene for “One Increasing Purpose.” the big Fox special from the Hutchinson novel of the same name, has at last been shot, and the completed film will shortly be shipped to this country. Edmund Lowe, in the role of Simon Paris, rises to grea't emotional heights, giving a wonderfully absorbing characterisation. With him are many famous artists, the other leading roles being taken by Lila Lee, May Allison, Josef Swickard, Huntly Gordon, Jane Novak. Lilyan Tashman and a number of English artists. Not so many years ago, all that was necessarv to make a movie was a few scene wings, several lights, a piece of chalk to mark the side-lines of the set and a camera and the actors. Only several years ago. the film companies made their pictures on “ locations,” using streets and homes of residents of Hollywood for their sets. In the New First National studio, there is sufficient space and enough equipment to produce the biggest- epic possible, to create a lerest fire or to stage a flood. One of the interesting features that have gone to make up Rex Ingram’s production of Blasco Ibanez’s “ Mare Nostrum” for Metro-Goldwyn-Mever, is the famous aquarium in Naples, which •contains every known kind of marine life found in the Mediterranean Sea. Glass tanks filled with pure sea water are built into the sides and centre of the big aquarium in such a way that the sunlight can penetrate the water almost the entire day. Besides keeping the fish healthy, the sunlight shows them in all their natural colours. When the movie industry was a mere infant and Norma and Constance Talmadge were schoolgirls imitating the first motion picture stars, Florence Turner was the one Norma Talmadge chose most often to imitate. Miss Turner was the first star of the motion , pictures, and J. Stuart Blackton, her : director in Yitagrapli pictures. Now, .

after many years of popularity and temporary retirement from the acting end of the pictures. Miss Turner returns to the screen in ” The Gilded Highway.” a Master picture due for early release. Einar Hanson, the Swedish actor, has been signed for a long term contract by First National. Ilanson has been working in American films for less than a year, but his dramatic characterisations have made a deep impression on producers. He appears opposite Corinne Griffith in her latest feature for First National, “ Into her Kingdom.” Before going to Hollywood, Hanson was probably the most popular actor in Sweden. He appeared in both stage and screen productions with great success. Ilanson is the second artist of Swedish birth in the First National ranks, the first being Anna O. Nilsson. According to a cable publshed in the Sydney “Sun,” the London “Daily Mail” describes the latest production of British National Pictures, “London,” ‘ directed by Herbert Wilcox, and starring Dorothy Gish, as “calamitous.” "It is far worse than the average American film,” says the journal. “It is allegedly based upon a story of Thomas Burke, who, however, asserts that it does not resemble the manuscript sold to the producers. The picture shows Dorothy Gish as an East End waif escaping from the attentions of a Chinese, to whom she has been sold. A survey of the West End shows a family doing the Charleston on top of the piano.” Long considered as wonderful picture material, but pronounced “ too big even for the screen.” which is supposed to know no limitations, the famous Jules Verne melodrama, “Michael Strogoff,” seems to have more than justified the daring of its producers

and their lavish expenditure of time and money. More than eight, months were spent in filming the picture; more than 6000 people were employed in the cast, which included Tartar tribesmen, Cossacks, Russian cavalry and hundreds of aristocratic couples who dance the national “ Krakowia ” at the grand ball in the palace of the Czar. A large portion of the picture is in natural colour, which is especially effective in the scenes of barbaric Oriental splendour.

It is announced that Paramount will release two British pictures, ‘ The Flag Lieutenant ” and “ Second to None.” Both have been produced with the full authority, co-opefation and endorsement of the British Navy, and are great service. “ The Flag Lieutenant features Henry Edwards and the wellknown Australian actress, Miss Dorothy Seacombe. Following these two pictures, Paramount intends also to distribute an English film featuring Sir Harry Lauder in a production of John Buchan’s novel, “ Huntingtower.” The English film firm of Welsh and Pearson will produce the picture, which will be filmed in England and Scotland on a very lavish scale. The history of the famous -Canadian North-West Mounted Police reads like chapters from a sensational novel. Yet its truth is stranger and more amazing than any fiction could be. Tales of tracking criminals through Canada’s pathless forests, over its mountain fastnesses, and through its snow and ice bound wastes are so frequent that they are seldom mentioned. The historic events that led to the formation of this magnificent body of constabulary, and the colonisation of North-West Canada, are inspiringly depicted in “ The Flaming Forest,” the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer

special production, in which Antonio Moreno and Renee Adoree head a strong cast. It is adapted from James Oliver Curwood’s novel of the same name.