GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1931, Page 25 (Supplement)

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Movie Fan.—Colleen Moore married John M’Cormick, a film magnate. He 10 no relation of John M’Cormack, the iamous singer. They are now divorced. Letters which do not bear the sender’s full name and address (not necessarily for publication) cannot be answered. “ HELL’S ANGELS.” “ Hell’s Angels,” which required three years to make and cost millions of dollars, is the featured attraction at the Theatre Royal. This film is the supreme sensation of the industry and has created records wherever it has been shown. Ben Lyon and James Hall, the principal players in this stup-

endous drama of war in the air, are supported by Jean Harlow, a comparatively unknown actress who appears in her first screen role. The largest air fleet ever assembled, except by Governments, participates in the picture. The aerial squadron comprised 87 'planes, including more than forty true war-type ships. The air fleet included German Fokkers, British T.M’s., S.Es’s, de Havillands, Snipes, a German Gotha bomber and a Zeppelin. A

total of 137 pilots, and as many mechanics, were employed during the eighteen months’ filming of action above the clouds. The pilots included every stunt flyer and war ace in America. East Lynne.” “ East Lynne,” which has scored such an outstanding success at the Crystal Palace Theatre during the past week, will be screened for another week. To the present generation of theatre patrons, “ East Lynne ” is merely a distant memory, but it brought tears to the eyes of countless thousands when its sad story was unfolded to audiences of the Victorian era, and proved to be the most popular play of its generation. The screen version, which is from the Fox studios, has all the novelty and freshness of a new drama, the leading roles being played by Ann Harding, E ® S! ® ® ® @ HI ® gj H! g g g s gl ;*j [*] g]

Clive Brook, Conrad Nagel and Beryl Dramatic Film. Helen Twelvetrees is the star of “ Millie,” the intensely dramatic film at the Plaza Theatre. There is an excellent supporting cast including Lilyan Tashman, Robert Ames, Joan Blondell, James Hall and John Halliday. This is the story of a red-headed village beauty who elopes with a college boy, the son of a wealthy New York family. Her happiness is complete when a daughter is born, but later she finds that she has lost her husband’s affection through another woman. Millie wanted love, tenderness, devotion and honesty, but she found that she had married the wrong man. After her divorce her beauty attracts many admirers, but she resolves to be independent and never marry again. Later, when her daughter grows to womanhood, her troubles begin anew and she shoots one of her former admirers to save her daughter from shame. The story then moves on to a sensational climax. Season Extended. The season for the excellent British talkie, “ The Middle Watch,” has been extended by the management of the Regent Theatre. This British International picture is very amusing and has an outstanding cast which includes Owen Nares, as the Captain of the British war vessel; Jack Raine, two brilliantly comic Cockney Marines, played by Henry Wenman and Reginald Purdell, and also Dodo Watts, the bewitching star of “ Almost a Honeymoon.” The leading feminine role is taken by Jacqueline Logan, who is the one American in the production. The comedy, which deals with two girls, accidentally marooned on a • warship after a dance, apd their encounter with an admiral is most amusing, both in dialogue and situation. Frederick Volpe enacts the role of the admiral, who is both shocked at the irregularities and terrified of what his wife will say. “Min and Bill.” Marie Dressier and Wallace Beery, who have scored many successes separately, are now to be seen in their first co-starring talkie, “ Min and Bill,” heads the new programme today at the St James’ Theatre. The film is based on Lorna Moon’s powerful story of the waterfront. Marie Dressier ElSiUillSlSlllElSEE®®®®©®®®®®

is seen as Min, proprietress of a waterfront hotel, and Beery has the role of a boisterous fishing-barge captain. The plot centres round Min, who has done her best to give Nancy (Dorothy Jordan), her adopted daughter, a better environment than that of the disreputable neighbourhood in which she was left by her mother, a woman of bad reputation. By saving and self-sacrifice, Min has been able to send the girl to a fine school. The son of a rich owner of the canneries wants to marry Nancy, but her real mother turns up and attempts to blackmail her prospective son-in-law. This leads up to a brilliant climax in which Marie Dressier has the chief interest. , “ Don’t Bet on Women.” “ Don’t Bet on Women,” a modern sophisticated comedy of lessons in love, will head the new programme at the*

Majestic Theatre on Monday. Edmund Lowe and Jeanette MacDonald have the principal roles, and they are assisted by J. M. Kerrigan, Roland Young and Una Merkel. In this Fox production, Lowe makes a wager with his lawyer that within forty-eight hours he will kiss the first woman who crosses his path. Jeanette MacDonald (his lawyer’s wife) is that woman, and when he endeavours to call off the bet to save his lawyer embarrassment, the man refuses the offer. Both men later want to call the bet off when the wife learns of it, but she insists that the wager is on and that it will give her an opportunity of studying Lowe’s technique. This she does, but teaches both men more about the ways of a woman than either of them dreamed it w’as possible to know. George Arliss Again. * On Monday, at Everybody’s Theatre, picture theatre patrons will have an opportunity of seeing again one of the talking screen’s greatest character actors, George Arliss, in “ The Green Goddess.” Also in the cast are H. B. Warner, Alice Joyce and Ralph Forbes. ' The Green Goddess” was one of the most successful plays ever produced on the legitimate stage and the talkie version has had an even greater appeal. The first professional appearance ever made by Arliss was in England over forty years ago and since then heTrhs risen to the great heights he has attained, through hard work and a lifelong study of the characters he has potrayed. This melodrama of the Far East is one of Arliss’s best-known stage plays and he has appeared in it in the United States and England for several successive seasons, during which time it drew critical approbation. Two British Talkies. The new programme at the Liberty Theatre features two British talkies, “ Why Sailors Leave Home ! ” and “ The Lady From the Sea.” Leslie Fuller, the well-known London music-hall comedian, is the principal player in “ Why Sailors Leave Home!” He takes the part of a seaman who blunders into an Eastern harem, with the inevitable result that he is mistaken for a great sheik and duly robbed. All that remains is for him to choose his wives from a choice selection of veiled beauties, and this, of course, leads to comedy situations that Leslie Fuller knows best how to manage. Moore Marriot, Anita Graham, Raymond Milland and Bruce Gordon have the leading roles iu Lady From the Sea,” a dramatic talkie, the action of which takes place near the dreaded Goodwin Sands. It tells of the rescue of a girl from a wreck and the happenings that follow.

“ Just For a Song.” Lilian Davies, a well-known English musical comedy star, makes her first appearance in motion pictures in “ Just For a Song,” the British production which commenced to-day at the Civic Theatre. This film strikes new ground—instead of the familiar backstage of revue or musical comedy, it takes the spectator behind the scenes of variety, and shows the loves, the jealousies, the heart-burnings and the drama in real life of the actors in the halls. The title of the picture tells the story—a young music-hall girl, whose popularity has waned, and who resorts to a desperate expedient, even at the expense of what is dearest to a woman, in a desperate attempt to retrieve her fortunes. With Lilian Davies are Roy Royston, Constance Carpenter, Cyril Richard and Nick Adams. Syd Seymour and his Mad Hatters contribute the orchestral music. Buck Jones At The Grand. Although “ The Big Hop,” the Buck Jones special production which heads the new bill at the Grand Theatre, is an aviation picture, his famous horse’ Silver, performs remarkable feats and contributes to the thrills on the ground. Jobyna Ralston and a distinguished cast support the leading player. The second attraction, “ Black Magic,” with Josephine Dunn, John Holland and Henry B. Walthall, strips South Sea life of the background of idealism with which it has been surrounded and unfolds a story of heroic love and courage, under the shadow of a diabolical witchcraft plot. Will Have Company. Joan Crawford, the M.G.M. star, who plans a holiday trip on the Continent soon, will have company while there When Tito Schipa, the famous opera star, visited her at the studios, it was agreed that Joan and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, jun., and the Schipa family should meet in Rome and take in opera together. Tito Schipa promised to introduce Joan to Mussolini. Hughes and His Millions. Whether Howard Hughes will recouo the £1,000,000 he is supposed to have spent on “ Hell's .Angels," the epic of the air, still is the cause of' considerable speculation within inner film circles. American at Elstree. Claire Windsor, the well-known American picture star, is at Elstree looking for work in British films.