GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

STARS FROM AUSTRALIA. In Nancy O’Neill, another young Australian to seek film honours overseas, Jack Hulbert ha v s found a new leading lady, and she achieves the greater success in Hulbert’s latest picture just completed in England. She now is starring with special success in the London stage play. “ Man Proposes.” Commenting on Nancy’s place of birth, a writer in the ‘Era’ London states: — “ She comes from Australia, but don’t they all.” He then refers to Merle Oberon, the Tasmanian girt, whose success with Charles Laughton in “ The Private Life of Henry VIII.” has won her the Hollywood tribute of being the most promising player in the world. Merle now has been cast in a singing role opposite John Garrick (known in. Australia and New Zealand as Reginald Dandy) in “The Broken Melody,” a new Twickenham film, and is to star in “ Exit Don Juan,” Alexander Ivorda’s next big production. Still another young Australian to star in English films is Judy Kelly, who has been placed under a year’s contract at Twickenham by Julius'Hagen. Hagen is famous as a discoverer of new talent, and many youngsters owe their first chance to his perception. Since the release of the spectacular “ talkie ” “ The Wandering Jew,” starring Conrad eidt, the Twickenham Studio has stepped into the forefront of British companies. “ The Wizard of Oz.” The W izard of Oz ” is to be made into a screen musical extravaganza by Samuel Goldwyn, for release by United Artists. As a book, it has been the greatest juvenile best-seller in the history of American literature since its publication in 1900. 800,000 copies have been sold and its popularity continues at the rate of 50,000 a year. It was written by Frank Baum, with illustrations by W. W. Denslow. It will be an all-star special production, separate and apart from Goldwyn’s regular schedule. A new score will enliven the story and the fantasy will probably be done in full natural colour. No decision has yet been made as to the cast. Novel Production. A British film written around the theme of the Loch Ness “monster” is now in production.

“ Colonel Blood.” “ Colonel Blood ” Sound City’s colossal production follows the tradition that has been revived in England with the making of the “ Private Life of Henry VIII.” and “ Catherine the Great The full and roaring life of the reign of Charles the Second, and the array of famous personages from Samuel Pepys to Johns, the old-time forty-round boxer, make the picture i a landmark in British achievement. Cantor’s “ Roman Scandals.” A Hollywood critic states that the goggle-eyed Eddie Cantor’s “ Roman , Scandals ” is the best film the corned- ' ian has yet made. Remarkable Solo Performance. Under the caption, “Where Was the Censor?” a noted London film critic writes as follows regarding Mae West and her latest film “I’m No Angel.”: ’ “No one knows how old she is. It l has been said that she was born in ; 1900, but friends claim they saw her around before then. She is fat, at least forty, and she is married to a ■ Tammany politician of Italian descent . called James Timmoney. She calls him • Apple Dumpling. She calls herself ; Mae West. The most incredible woman ; who ever appeared on the screen. By ; padding her hips, and a brilliant flair , for innuendo, she has worked her way up the ladder of show fame (wrong • by wrong she calls it) until to-day she is the highest paid woman in HollyL wood. They are now paying her £50,000 a film, the same as Garbo, but - her earnings top those of the Swedish Sphinx because she writes her own stories. To-day she is probably earning , more than £150,000 a year. And it r all started with a phTase—“ Come up [ and see me some time.” This glitter- , ing woman has swept America off its feet with her latest and most daring ; picture. “ I’m No Angel,” This is . no film. It is a cinematic jumping cracker. The cracks are wisecracks, mostly questionable. How some of [ them got past the censor is past my . comprehension. She acquires men, ' bracelets, fur coats, and litigation with ‘ a complete unconcern that sometimes crystallies into a wink, In the final [ scene, where she sues a man for breach of promise, .judge and jurors scramble » f°r her telephone number. The judge, having a greater experience of life, wins the race. It is a remarkable solo performance by a woman who has had : the brains to make a six-figure fortune ; out of her own figure, a couple of slogans., and Sex with the capital S.”

Walt Disney’s Triumph. In the course of his annual screen review for 1933, Mordaunt Hall, film critic for the “ New York Times,” said: “ No comments on the year’s productions would be complete without a word or two concerning the splendid short features made by the redoubtable Walt Disney. One might safely venture that his prismatic ‘ Silly Symphony, ‘ The Three Little Pigs,’ has been shown at more theatres simultaneously than any other film, short or feature length. After spinning its story in English for months, ‘ The Three Little Pigs * cavorted across the screens of different theatres in Spanish and French. But this ‘ Silly Symphony * is by no means the only sign of Disney’s genius, for his most recent offering, ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ was filled with the same delightful whimsy. Among Disney’s other works that have been thoroughly enjoyed by thousands of thousands are “ Father Noah’s ‘Ark,’ ‘Santa’s Workshop,’ ‘ Lullaby Land,’ 4 King Neptune,’ Flowers and Trees,’ ‘ Babes in the Wood,’ ‘ Old King Cole ’ and * The Pied Piper.’ ” Set New Record. RKO Radio Pictures “ Little Women,” started its career in exhibition by es- i tablishing a new record at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. All opening day records were broken when “ Little Women” entered the Music Hall on Thursday, November 16, with Friday topping the previous day’s figures, and of particular significance is the fact that on the last day of its first week the box-office receipts were higher than the opening day. “ Little Women ” entered its second week at the Music Hall showing an amazing final gross for the week of £23,600, and with the enviable distinction of having beaten the previous all-time record there by approximately £2OOO. Katherine Hepburn is the star of this film adaptation of the famous Alcott story.

About Dorothea Wieck. Three distinguished men and three well-known women influenced the life and career of Dorothea Wieck (pronounced “Veek”), Paramount’s new Continental star, who will be seen shortly in “Cradle Song.” The men, in the order she met them, were the poet Klabund, the stage director, Max Reinhardt, and Froehlick, director of “ Maedchen in Uniform,” in which Dorothea Wieck first found film fame. If it had not been for Klabund, whom she met at the age of fourteen, when she was holiday-making near the Tyrol, she might never have had the artistic training at the Hellereau Academy that eventually led to her success. Her reading of his poems convinced Klabund that she should attend the school. At sixteen, Dorothea met Max Reinhardt, and her portrayal of the tragic child in Ibsen’s “ Wild Duck ” was rewarded by a five-year contract. Froehlick, on the other hand, rediscovered her as a motion picture possibility. Gazing through the Wieck family album (he was a friend of the family), he recognised in Dorothea just the type needed to play Fraulein von Bernberg in “ Maedchon in Uniform." The three women who played important parts in her climb to fame were: The wife of Alexander Moese, noted German actor, who was her guardian during her early days in Munich. It was she who taught Dorothea the history of drama that led her to seek a stage career. Helen Thimig, the beautiful wife of Max Reinhardt, was her next inspiration. When Dorothea first arrived in Hollywood from Germany last year, she selected Nina Moise as her English and voice teacher. Now the two are close friends. A Keen Photographer. Richard Tauber, the famous Austrian tenor, is an amateur cinematographer and a home “ movie ” enthusiast as well as a keen collector of travel pictures. lie owns two large motion picture cameras, and in his home in Vienna he has a sound theatre where he can run through his own films and records. He says that he will take some of the exteriors he proposes for his new British International film of Schubert’s life, before the studio executive decide whether or not to send a fully-equipped film unit to Vienna. This way he thinks he may be able to save them time by assisting 8.1. P. to select exact locations before their technicians leave England to make the exteriors.