HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 754, 6 May 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

(By MOLLIE MERRICK). HOLLYWOOD, April 6. Musical pictures have a decided trend upward in popularity at the present time. Francis Lederer’s voice will be featured in “ Troubadour,” his first starring picture for R.K.O. Richard Addinsell, the London composer, has just arrived here to do the music for his numbers and Clemence Dane will write the lyrics. Warners “ put over ” a box-office sensation in “ Forty-Second Street,” so M.G.M. is going to dig up an old revue from its ashes and infuse it with new life. At the time this revue was made, everyone of any consequence on the “ lot ” contributed numbers to it, including Lawrence Tibbett, who was then starring in musical pictures for the Culver City studio. Since then Tibbett has scored one of his major successes in “ Emperor Jones.” If I remember correctly, Tibbett had recorded “In Alcala ” for the revue which was never released. Must Return. Ramon Novarro signed his name to a new contract one hour before leaving for Paris to begin a concert tour which will take him through British and European capitals. He must return in three months’ time to make “ The Cat and the Fiddle ” for M.G.M. How It Is Done. When they want to photograph a ragged amjy in Hollywood, they go about it this way: They secure a few hundred almost new uniforms and then the boys set to work to rip and tear them, to stain them and pull them out of shape in order to obtain realism. Then a species of air gun filled with brown water colour is brought into play. It reproduces dirt stains without filth. The mutilated uniforms are then thrown in a vast heap on the floor and the men about to wear them

trample over them for fifteen minutes or so. Wants to Buy Her Film. It is stated that Marlene Dietrich doesn’t think very highly of “ Song of Songs,” her latest picture, and would like to buy it- if Ann Harding once tried to buy a picture, and the studio would not sell it to her. It would have cost Ann a good deal of the money she had accumulated during her motion picture career, but she felt that it was worth it. The studio thought differently. When I saw the picture I felt that she was right: they should have allowed an . actress of such sincerity to buy the pictufe at no matter what cost. It travestied her talents—it hurt her soul —and it did injure her career. Just what “ Song of Songs ” will do to Marlene Dietrich is a matter for the future. Rouben Mamoulian is a fine director and Alfred Henry Sudermann’s novel ranks with the classics. It isn’t a “ p*>t-boiler ” stirred up in a Holly-' woo^-tudio; it is a picture to which the V ducers have brought every bit of sincerity, financial support and artistic contribution which they command. Marlene Dietrich, accustomed to Josef von Sternberg’s direction and photography—he plans all her closeups himself—may not be pleased with the camera work of the present picture j She is sufficiently beautiful not to worry about camera angles. Tempo is J her difficulty: perhaps the change in tempo effected by Mamoulian seems strange to her after the pace she had 1 established with her other director; ; but it may come with a vast relief to 1 audiences who have wearied of the von 1 Sternberg pace. Into the Light.

The picture industry of Hollywood—most famous mushroom growth of big money return in the world’s industrial history to-day—stands in a fair condition to come out of the dark cellars in which it has been fostered and into the light. If the attitude of the workers—writers, directors actors—who have been asked to take a 50 per cent cut in blind faith from men who have done little in the past to build up any faith of any type whatsoever—continues at its present tempo, the mysterious “ overhead ” of the motionpicture industry may come to light after all with the result that motionpicture making may be put on a sound scale.

Bankers who have grown grey wondering why they could not check this tremendous financial landslide in Hollywood, should put their ears close to the ground and listen carefully to some of

the questions being propounded the moguls of Hollywood by some of the bright young men they have brought out here to write scenarios and dialogue for pictures. The contention of this group, that there is nothing sincere behind the producers’ request for a 50 per cent cut co-operation from studio workers unless those producers themselves take 50 per cent cuts on their own salaries and on their percentages also, brings to light the general situation of Hollywood’s account books and gives the banker some faint idea of what type of emolument the producer receives for “ risking his health ” in his strenuous endeavour to “ work night and day ” making motion pictures. “ Horror ” Films. Hollywood “ horror ” films continue to have a tremendous amount of proving that producers who turned to this medium of entertainment when gangster stories became banal weren’t so far wrong. “ Murders in the Zoo ” is the best of the wild animal school, plus the horror theme, and should go well in the box-office. You cannot keep your mind on bank holidays, lack of cash, or any of the attendant worries of 1933, including earthquakes in this vicinity, when the people on the screen before you are dying like flies from green mamba bites, being squeezed to death by giant pythons, and having schools of alligators cheerily twirl them into eternity. I doubt if the studios of Hollywood will ever turn out another picture with wild animals as convincing as “ Murders in the Zoo " —it was too convincing in the making. The troubles the studios went through were soft-ped-alled, for good reason; but a puma was killed by a lion in a horrible! fight before the palsied actors’ eyes; and the escape of two creatures of the jungle from their cages while the Press representatives were being feted at a luncheon (on the set, and by way of novelty) almost ended in a human tragedy. The picture gives you Lionel Atwill in the role to which -Hollywood loves best to assign him—a sadistic, jealous sportsman-millionaire who finds the quickest way out of his little difficulties of heart and head in disposing of those who interfere with him by novel methods of murder. Two of Paramount’s new school of young starlets make their appearance in this film. John Davis Lodge, of whom I wrote enthusiastically after seeing that most difficult trial the screen can offer—the cold test —qualifies for a Hollywood future of magnitude. He can, with his tremendous poise, create an entirely new technique on the screen. Lodge is one of the few men on the screen who can stand perfectly still without appearing awkward or ill at ease. Gail Patrick, of Alabama, who looks something like Florence Vidor, has breeding and quality and charm. She is a natural actress, with fine human voice tones and a depth of sympathy and understanding. by the “Star” and the N.A.N.A. All rights reserved).