HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 543, 27 August 1932, Page 24 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

(By

MOLLIE MERRICK.)

“ Slave-driving ” Alleged. HOLLYWOOD, July 27. Josef von Sternberg made his debut in the role of a 1932 Simon Legree the other day, when it is alleged, he worked a tired film crew from noon until 9.30 at night without any pause for dinner. All this because of his tremendous interest in 1* The Blonde Venus,” the current Marlene Dietrich film over which he and his studio exchanged some bitter words, not so long ago. Since that trouble was smoothed out, the studio has been leaving Sternberg much to himself and so was in ignorance of the working conditions imposed by the director on players, “ extras ” and the company crew. When one of the workers on the set complained officially to the Cameramen’s Union, there was enough of a pause in the work to permit the company to snatch a hasty sandwich, after which the implacable von Sternberg .worked on until midnight. The next day. however, he was served with an official notice from the union, that any future “ slave-driving ” by a director would mean immediate withdrawal of the camera staff for that particular day. What will happen next remains to be seen. Lavish Production. Cecil B. de Mille, the producer, has always done things on a lavish scale, and his latest picture, “ Sign of the Cross,” gives promise of living up to his reputation. De Mille needs so much jewellery for the women in his film that the studio has set up a small manufacturing plant and intends to turn out more than 2000 ornaments within the next three weeks. These will include rings, bracelets, tiaras and brooches, the designs of which will be based on specimens unearthed in Rome and Pompeii. The Best News. The best news around Hollywood these days, especially to the “ extras,” is that Paramount is beginning to muster troops to be drilled for the filming of the great Italian retreat in Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms,” which is now being made with Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper playing the leading roles. Incidentally, the great Italian retreat will take place at the old Lasky ranch, about forty miles out of Hollywood. There will be foot soldiers, bicycle and motor-car troops used in the picture, which ensures work for hundreds of "extras” for a few weeks, anyway; and this is good news coming at a time when production costs, including the money spent on large casts, have been cut to the lowest figures. Not So Easy. Edmund Lowe is working about eighteen hours a day, these days. This is because his present picture, “ Riddle Me This,” was not finished in time to allow him to begin work on “Chandu,” ■ which was scheduled to follow it. So they fixed matters up by filming j " Chandu ” at night, when the day’s work was over. You might think of I this the next time you envy the easy \ life of a leading man.

asHsussssasnsegßßßssfflfflßßß Another Divorce? Once more Natalie Keaton and her husband, Buster, are said to have parted. It all happened over the Fourth of July, when the Keaton - Talmadge

clan were weekending at Catalina. Whatever happened on Buster’s new yacht was evidently not to Natalie Keaton’s liking, as she took an aeroplane home and moved from her home in Beverly Hills to the home of her mother. For good? Well, she says she is going to take a few

days to think it over; after that, she will tell the world her plans. Meanwhile, Buster Keaton, still hoping for a reconciliation with his wife, Natalie, says that he gave her j his new yacht because he thought it : would be a nice thing to do. Then she | left him. “ I don’t care about the yacht.” says ; Buster, “ but I left my old ukulele on | it, and I’d certainly like to get that.” Not the Real Thing. Frances Dee, when congratulated on her marvellous sun tan. which is too smooth to be true, laughingly admitted that it wasn't the real thing at all, but the kind acquired by sitting under a light in a beauty parlour. Frances Dee, who is working in one picture after another, hasn’t the time to dash thirty miles to the beach every day, and isn’t going to be cheated out of that healthy summer effect.

Lured Back. Edward Everett Horton, a very able comedian, has been lured back to the films, this time to play a part in Ernst Lubitsch’s next picture, “ Honest Finder.” I don’t know much about

iv.nuw iiiui.il auuui I the part, but it is I enough to know I that Horton will I play it. I don’t I know of any come--1 dian who has the L “ fans ” that Edi ward Everett HorI ton manages to I hold Some say I they like the manI ner in which he I says his lines; i others insist that it is the amusing and

enlightening look following his remarks that does the work. At any rate they all go to see him, myself among them. Aids to Acting. Jackie Cooper has adopted the use of a gramophone in order to help him act. The records are played between scenes to keep him keyed up to whatever emotions he is showing. He says his favourite* “ crying record ’* is “Little Grey Home in the West,” and his “cheerful” record is “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Mary Pickford’s Plans. Mary Pickford, on her way east by aeroplane, assures Hollywood that she will make two pictures by the first of next year. One, an original by Frapces Marion, is already well under way, and Mary Pickford hopes to find a suitable story for her other film while she is in New York. The Countess Dentice de Frasso will accompany Mary Pickford during her New York visit, and Douglas Fairbanks and Johnny Mack Brown will fly with them as far as Albuquerque, New Mexico.. You’ll never guess what Doug. Fairbanks is looking for in New Mexico. He wants to find an old-fashioned frontier saloon —building, bar and all—for an art gallery to be erected on his estate in Beverly Hills. Bancroft’s Idea. Hollywood is waiting to see just what George Bancroft will do now that he has left Paramount and plans to make a picture in association with Edward Small, the head of Reliance Pictures. Bancroft’s idea (and it's a good one) is that a star, should make about four pictures during the year and have those few as near to perfect as possible. There is a chance that Bancroft’s first picture with his new company will be “ Brooklyn Bridge,” an original, and it’s certainly fate that his last Paramount film, “ Lady and Gent,” in which he appeared with Wynne Gibson and Charles Starrett, is making a big hit. Still Waiting. Anna Sten, the only member of Hollywood’s professional colony who is a citizeness of the United Soviet Republic and an accredited member of its Communist Party, is spending a few lonesome months while waiting for Samuel Goldwyn to decide when she is ready to appear on the screen. In the meantime, Goldwyn sends word to Anna telling her what she must and what she must not do. She must learn to speak flawless English, from which the slightest trace of an accent has been banished. She must master the art of speaking with a Cockney accent, and she must be ready to play the part of a typical “ N’Yawker,” with the. true New Yorker’s inflection. Besides all this, she is strictly forbidden to eat any more “ baumkuchen,” a German pastry that she has been importing from Berlin; in its place she is given orange juice. But when she appears as Ronald Column's leading lady in his second picture this year she will probably think it was all worth while. Really Surprised. Hollywood is really surprised to hear that Maurice Chevalier and his wife, the former Yvonne Vallee, will be divorced. While they were in Hollywood neither Chevalier nor his wife took any part in the gay social life of the colony. In fact, they rarely, appeared in public at all, but lived quietly to themselves. It is said that Chevalier filed suit for the divorce on grounds of incompati-

bility, saying that he had no statement to make aside from the fact that he intended going to his villa at Juan les Pins for a rest. Chevalier is due back in Hollywood in October to make a picture that is being written for him now by Gouverneur Morris. The tentative title is “ The Pied Piper of Paris.” Still in the News. Greta Garbo continues to hold the headlines, with no one really knowing a thing about her future plans. In all probability she will return to Hollywood after her trip to Sweden, and it is also very probable that she will return to the Metfo-Goldwyn-Mayer lot and continue to make pictures there. This is all guess work, as Greta Garbo is a past master in the art of keeping her plans to herself. Whatever she intends to tio, she is pleased about it, as I saw her coming out of a boulevard shop the other day chatting gaily to her companion, with no trace of the frown she usually reserves for public appearances. Hard at Work. Talk about work! Motion picture

actors and actresses never had an easy time, but it seems to me that they have been overdoing it a little lately. Claudette Colbert, for instance, will begin work on two pictures at the same time, rushing from sound stage to sound stage, and from costume to costume. Well, perhaps not quite as bad as that, but alternating in different pictures on different days is no joke. Claudette will play the role of a vamp of Nero’s day in “ The Sign of the Cross,” and will also take the part of a modern girl in George Cohan’s picture, "The Phantom President.” You realise just how much work this means when you stop to think that there are lines to be learned besides the changes of costume and hairdress. Successful Director. Rouben MamOulian has long been considered one of the most brilliant of the young Hollywood directors. Not only did he come to the screen with a significant record from the legitimate stage, but he has since accomplished some amazing talkinj picture victories. Most recent of them is the musical “Love Me To-night” (Maurice Chevalier-Jeanette MacDonald) which, I am told, has been made with the fine finish found only in Ernst Lubitsch productions. This last rounds out a cycle in Hollywood in an astonishing way, and places Mamoulian in a singularly enviable position. Mamoulian, who is in his early thirties, arrived at his position in Hollywood through no series of happy accidents. He is one of the few men making pictures to-day who have a thorough knowledge of music as well as an exceptional stage record to bring to his motion picture activities, and wishes to step out of studio work sufficiently long for a European holiday of several months, and to direct a Broadway play before he returns to the cameras again. This is no easy thing to do. When a man is successful in filmland the moguls dread letting him get farther than they cau see from his cameras. When a man makes a smash-hit picture it is not in their reckoning that he should take a five-months holiday. So if Rouben Mamoulian carries out his present plan he has more determination and force of character than most of the fighting successful. (Copyright by the “Star” and the N.A.N.A. All rights reserved.)