GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18340, 17 December 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

and gallant caballeros riding at midnight to kee ptryst with starry-eyed senoritas.

Monte Blue, who has just completed " The Black Diamond Express,” a Master picture to be released soon, has had a varied career as a property man around a studio and developing into one of the most popular of the male contingent of stars. At one time he served as private secretary to D. W. Griffith, and was also a script boy and assistant director befnrc becoming an actor. Monte Blue is the son of a locomotive engineer, and was born in Indianpolis. He has had a finished education in the hard school of practical experiences, having been soldier of fortune, soldier, sailor, lumberjack, miner, cowpuncher, locomotive fireman, commercial traveller, and Indian agent. Joseph M. Schenck. the American film magnate now visiting England, has scored neatly on those who criticise the American portrayals of English life and customs (writes the London correspondent of “Everyone’s,” Sydney). “ We employ an Oxford University man to see that our pictures are correct from an English point of view. When they come over here your critics say that the English scenes and titles are all wrong. What’s the matter with Oxford?” Mr Schenck’s visit is to arrange for the production of at least three pictures a year in England by stars under contract to United Artists. They include Chaplin, who will shoot part of his next comedy, “ The Suicide Club,” around London. Reginald Denny, Universal's famous farce comedy star, fulfilled a life-long ambition when he completed his role in “Out All Night,” the Universal super corned}". Denny, although still a young man, has travelled all over the world and seen practically everything of interest on the globe, but with all he has never been able to satisfy one particular craving. He has always wanted to be an officer on a large ocean liner. In his role in “Out All Night” he was required to masquerade as the ship’s surgeon. "Even if it was only a sham,” explained star, “I got a kick out of the uniform. Especially when we

went on location aboard the ocean liner and the regular passengers actually thought I was an admiral or something.” Charles Rogers, who will play “Abie” in the Paramount picturisation of Anne Nichols’s “Abie’s Irish Rose,” is one of the two boys who do such excellent work in '“Wings.” lie was picked for the Abie role, not only because of his ability to portray romantic leads, but because audiences and producers have acclaimed him as one of the screen’s potential stars. Rogers started theatricals in high school. lie was graduated from Kansas University, and then entered the Paramount Pictures School, the training camp for many of Pararaount’s present junior stars. After leaving there, he was cast for a role in “So’s Your Old Man,” which starred W. C. Fields, and this was immediately followed by one of the two leading male roles in “Wings,” the spectacular air service story. Very few innovations appear in the picture life of Hollywood (writes Winter Hall). It seems that every angle, of the business has been studied and amply provided for by expert technicians. But a recent development promises startling results to its recruits, and in a way fortells the birth of an order which, although it exists in more commonplace professions, has not as yet ventured to the kingdom of films. Young men and women aspiring to cinematic fame may now gain its favours through a university education. Through a co-operative plan agreed upon by university executives for motion picture producers, college education for motion picture careers will be shortly offered for the first time in the history of Hollywood. Upon matriculation, or graduation, the producers have agreed to place students immediately in the employ of Hollywood studio plants, granting them responsible positions, and ones with a career clearly outlined ahead. Mary As-tor has a flapper role in First National’s entertaining comedydrama, “No Place To Go,” with Lloyd Hughes and Virginia Lee Corbin in prominent roles. Laid mostly in the South Sea Islands, the charm of. the production is enhanced by its unusual wealth of colour, and the atmosphere of romance which balances the spirit of comedy. Hughes as a virile young business man is agreeably cast, and many novel and humorous twdsts lend

added entertainment value to the story, which concerns two young people who seek romance in the open and leave the yacht which has conveyed their party to the South Seas, to explore an island. They run up against a supposed tribe of cannibals, and their adventures are highly exciting and hugely funny. Other sequences of the story show the gay life of the social set and many colourful cabaret scenes are introduced with plenty of hilarious incidents, supplied mostly by the coloured dancers.

Five different methods of communication were used in directing the battle sequence of “ Wings,” Paramount’s epic of the air. In re-enacting the battle of St Mihiel which utilised the services of more than 8000 men and every branch of modern warfare, it was necessary to carry out the movements by means of radio, amplifiers, telephone, panels and semaphores. Each of the 100 aeroplanes used were equipped with receiving sets and regulated their movements according to instructions coming from the director. Troops in the foreground trenches “carried on” by means of ten loud speakers which were placed at various points of vantage. Explosions, controlled at 72 substations throughout the battle area, were directed by telephone. The move ments of tanks were taken care of by a semaphore device and as a precautionary measure for the fliers, a panel system of signals was installed near the. ground cameras. Twelve ground cameras and four in the air recorded the big scenes for the film.

“Irish Hearts,” starring May M’Avoy, a Master Picture shortly to be released, is a colourful romance of Ireland and New York, adapted from the story of the same name. It deals with the fortunes of Patsy Shannon and her old father from the day they left Ireland to go to America. Emmett, Patsy’s lover, had gone ahead, and when he had secured work in New York he sent for Patsy, promising to marry her. But when she arrived, Emmett told Patsy that he had lost his job, and that she must go out on her own. She got a position in a restaurant, there meeting husky Tim O’Shay, a young Irish-American, who turns the luck when Emmett deserts Patsy for a modern girl. The. story is packed with fun, fighting, tenderness and the humanness of Irish appeal. May M’Avoy lives the part with radiant i youthfulness. Jason Robards is splen-

did as the young American, and Warner Richmond gives another of those characterisations which are always true, forceful and absorbing.

Cecil B. De Mille undertook a formidable task when he set about the filming of “The King of Kings.” It can easily be imagined that the interpretation of such a stupendous theme would bristle with difficulties, particularly if an effort was to be made to please all schools of religious thought, and to offend none. How De Mille succeeded is evidenced by the many criticisms received from all classes, including ministers of all religions, on this really great achievement. Critics, some of them pointing to a few chronological errors, have much praise for the general reverential treatment, devotional atmosphere, absence of melodrama and false sentiment, and the usual Hollywood abnormalities. It is true that the artistic production, and photography is indisputable, the most outstanding scenes being perhaps “The Raising of Lazarus,” “The Crucifixion” and “The Resurrection.” These scenes, which could so easily have been marred by inartistic handling, show remarkable restraint and dignity. Why did Phyllis Gibbs, Australian winner of First National’s star quest, return from Hollywood? Soon after her arrival at the De Mille Studio it was announced that she had signed a five-year contract, then, like a bolt from the blue, came a cable stating that she would return. Miss Gibbs gave her reasons when she stepped off the Sonoma (says a Sydney paper). The whole atmosphere did not appeal to her, she said, and when homesickness was added to that she requested Cecil B. De Mille to cancel her contract. Under its terms Miss Gibbs had to keep her weight at 1191 b, cot injure her face or figure, and she could be subleased to other producers. The salary commenced at £ls a week, and rose to £25, £4O. £SO, until £7O was reached in the fifth year. If she proved a success during that period De Mille promised to arrange a new contract. She told him that she wished to come home in cancelling her contract; he stipulated that she should go nowhere else but back to Australia. “I appeared in several pictures,” she said, “but newspaper cables were sent to Australia saying that pictures were mine in which I never appeared. I was annoyed at that, and insisted that Australia should be cabled notifying that the pictures were not mine, so that any wrong impression would be removed.” “Singed” is the title of Blanche Sweet’s first starring vehicle on the Fox schedule. Miss Sweet is one of the popular dramatic stars, and in “Singed” she has given the opportunity for displaying her histrionic ability in this particular type. She is cast as DolljWall, ex-dance hall girl, who has been sacrificed by the selfish man she loves for many years. After a good speculation with Dolly’s money puts them on their feet, Dolly and he go to ’Frisco, where they move in the best social circles. He meets a beautiful young girl whom he decides to marry, and, despite Dolly’s warnings, the engagement is announced. She upbraids him. and on threatening him with acid, he shoots her, the bullet going through her shoulder. With tragedy facing him, he realises he loves the woman who has been so faithful to him, and when he finds that the supposed “acid” is only water, he uses every effort to convince her of his love. Wedding bells are the happy ending to this dramatic tale, with Warner Baxter and Mary M’Allister supporting Miss Sweet in the lead.