FEWER, BETTER FILMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 18 (Supplement)

FEWER, BETTER FILMS

MORE SCOPE THAN' STAGE. “In spite of occasional lapses the picture industry has very clearly demonstrated that the screen is the most compelling and widespread entertainment medium since the dawn of civilisation. There are going to be fewer and better pictures in the future,” said Mr L. C. Fama, publicity manager in New Zealand for United Artists, in a recent interview in Christchurch. 44 The money doesn’t come running in at the door any more as it did in the early days of the talking picture boom, 77 said Mr Fama. 4 4 The public has become organised and has learned to shop for its motion picture entertainment. A picture with outstanding quality still has gilt edged possibilities, ' however, and will return more money than ever at the box office. The public seeks entertainment in bad times as well as good, but a poor quality talkie will do less business than a silent film.” Mr Fama said that cultural, dramatic . and literary influence ■ were being 1 focussed on the production of talkies to ■ meet the discriminating taste of the ■ public for worth-while films. The manner in which the stage had been eclipsed by the screen was shown by ■ the engagement of Evelyn Laye, the famous English musical-comedy artist, to appear in American talkies under the banner of United Artists. This star . will receive a salary of £lOOO a week ; for the next five years. She was very popular in England, and did not want ’ to leave the stage. 4 4 Then take the case of Ronald Colman. Turned down in England, he landed in America with five cents in his pocket. He now receives £1250 a week, work or no work! (Dramatists like Frederick Lonsdale, Stephen Vincent s Benet, Louis Bromfield and William Anthony Masguire are earning enormous fees, and now George Bernard Shaw has agreed to having his plays filmed. Comparisons and contrasts reveal the screen as far more magnificent in scope, reach and performance than the stage.”

Dell Henderson will be a director for the first time since he tossed the megaphone aside five years ago and donned grease paint. In Paramount’s current juvenile film, “Let’s Play King,” which is a story about a child screen star, Henderson will enact the role of Movie Director. He will work under the direction of Norman Taurog. Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl and Louise Fazenda are feature'!. Two types of love are depicted in 4 ‘Man to Man,” the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone production of the Ben Ames Williams 44 Saturday Evening Post” story which will be shown here shortly. One is the love of man and woman; the other of father and son. Phillips Holmes has the role of the boy; Lucille Powers of the sweetheart, in this poignant, human and amazing story, the scenes of which are laid in a small town in Kentucky.

Sidney Fox, in the leading feminine role of Universal’s sparkling comedy drama, “The Bad Sister,” was born in New York City on Dt*eember 10, 1910. At the age of 13 years, through family reverses she was forced to earn her own living, and in the years that followed engaged in a number of pursuits, including newspaper writing and model ing gowns in a fashionable Fifth Avenue shop. Finally she went on the stage, appearing for a short time at the Civic Theatre in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Returning to New York, she played in 44 1 t Never Rains” and afterwards appeared in the leading feminine role of “Lost Sheep.” Following this. . she was placed under contract by Universal Pictures, and makes her first I screen d£but in 44 Bad Sister.”