The SCREEN and its STARS

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 757, 10 May 1933, Page 3

The SCREEN and its STARS

13 USTER KEATON. the screen comedian, has confirmed the report that he married May Scribbens, a young brunette, on January S, at Ensenado, Mexico. He added that his divorce from Natalie Talmadge was not final until August 12. ' “ Consequently,” he said. “ I presume I am not legally married in the United States, although the marriage is legal in Mexico.” Mrs Natalie Talmadge Keaton, the comedian’s first wife, obtained a divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty and wrongful treatment last vear. to a report from Rome, “Alice in Wonderland” is to be filmed for the first time at Hollywood, with Mary Pickford in the role of Alice. This fact was revealed by her husband. Douglas Fairbanks, while in Rome training for the Italian amateur golf championship. It is said that the picture will be a Walt Disney animated cartoon in natural colours, with Mary Pickford as the only living character. This is in the cinema to-day who can create life, subtlety, rhythm, and, above all, originality, it is Walt Disney, and few film actresses, one regrets to say, are able to stand comparison with the creatures which spring to life from his imagination.

ONE does not get much change when one questions Joseph von Sternberg, does one? One is liable to find, for the first time in one’s experience, a film director who does not like talking about himself. If one asks him, as I did last night (writes a “ Daily Herald ” representative) why he is in London, one gets the reply: ‘‘When one comes to London does one need to explain one’s reasons for being in London? ” ‘‘lf one is the film director who put Marlene Dietrich on the screen and Hollywood in a stew, and if one’s plans for one’s film future are as mysterious as yours, one is liable to be asked why one is here,” I said. “ One does not need necessarily to be negotiating a film production.” was the reply, “ because one pays a flying visit to see one’s friends. Nor does one need to be planning a film because one decides to spend part of one’s holiday in Bagdad.” “ One might go there to collect atmosphere, might one not? I suggested. That spoilt the sequence. ... “I wouldn't do anything so silly,” snapped von Sternberg. “ But you are going to Bagdad? ” “I was going to-morrow, but I may have to put it off. I have too much to do.” “Seeing one’s friends? ” “ Tchah. “ What about a film of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. . There was a noise like the Shanghai Express passing through a very deep gorge. It was one expressing one’s annoyance.

BOOTH* who suddenly soared to fame as the result of playing the lead in ” Trader Horn ”, but whose health was ruined by overexposure to the sun in Africa during the making of the picture, is reported to have suffered a serious relapse. She has never made a screen appearance since “ Trader Horn ”, and now it seems extremely doubtful whether she will ever be fit enough to resume her career. She is onlv in the twenties. :: JTJRNST LUBITSCH, producer of a long line of screen successes, is considered one of the most interesting of the German directors domiciled in Hollywood. Lubitsch started life as a boy clerk in his father's clothing store in Berlin, but his dream was always of the stage. Eventually his ambition was realised when he became associated with Max Reinhardt, the grand old man of the German theatre. With the coming of motion pictures he found his real medium, first as an actor and then as a director. It was his version of “ Carmen ” with Pola Negri in Germany and their later pictures together which took them both to America. In Hollywood Lubitsch made history with “ The Marriage Circle.” and has worked there ever since. He believes there is no greater school in film acting than comedy, from which so many of the greatest stars have graduated. lie estimates that he sees his own films a thousand times before they are released for exhibition to the public.