STAGE AND CINEMA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 190, 13 August 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

STAGE AND CINEMA

ALLIANCE IN AUSTRALIA. j There is a definite alliance between | Stage and cinema in the theatrical j world of Australia, according to Mr. T.i A. O’Brien, who has returned to Auck-1 land after a short business trip to Syd- [ ney. Orchestras were appearing at all Sydney’s leading picture theatres, Mr. O’Brien said, and there was a return to well-produced stage entertainment, presented in conjunction with films. There was a considerable revival in legitimate stage enterprise. Musical comedy, comedy and drama, presented by the Williamson management, were drawing large audiences in Sydney and Melbourne and revue was definitely returning to popularity. Radio entertainment was also exceedingly popular and was considerably ahead of that presented in New Zealand. Jimmy Durante and Ctyde Cook have been added to the cast of Marion Davies ’ new starring film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The new picture, as yet untitled, is an. original for the screen by Frances Marion. Edmund Goulding* is directing with Robert Montgomery, Billie iDove and James Gleason in the supporting east. Durante has just completed a role in Busier Keaton’s “Speakeasily.” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announces that “The Washington Show” is the final title for the production formerly known as “Washington Whirlpool.’’ Based on Henry Bernstein’s stage play, “The Claw,’’ the new picture presents Lionel Barrymore in the leading role as a senator and political ruler in a vivid drama of politics. Karen Morley is the leading lady and Charles Brabin is directing. Important members of the sup porting cast include Nils Asther, Berton Churchill and Diane Sinclair. ! Marian NLxon was just about to step I on the train for Illinois to visit her sis I ter and an eight-months-old niece when | Fox Studio officials ’phoned her to announce that she had been selected for the leading feminine role in “Walking Down Broadway,’’ a down-to-the minute down to earth romance of zYmerica’s most romantic city. James Dunn has the chief male role in this story which Erich von Stroheim wrote from Dawn Powell’s play. Alan Crossland will direct. ♦ ♦ * * Mitchell Lewis and Niles Welch will be seen in “villain” character roles m Columbia’s next Buck Jones special, “McKenna of the Mounted.” In this red-blooded story of the Northwest Buck plays a member of Canada’s crack Royal Mounted Police. Mitchell Lewis, a veteran of the stage and silent pictures appeared recently in “The Cuckoos,” “Squawman,” etc. Niles Welch returns to the screen in this picture after an absence of several years during which time he appeared in vaudeville and on the stage. Welch, who made his screen debut in 1921, and achieved prominence as a leading man appears for the first time as a “heavy” in this production. Intimate glimpses of home life of gorillas, most dangerous of African big game, almost human in intelligence feature, “Congorilla,’’ the Fox production filmed by the-celebrated explorers Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson. It is the first talking picture ever made in Africa, and shows the pygmy inhabitants of the mysterious Itura Forests, lion? on the prowl and charging rhinos stopped within 20 feet of the camera. Little men three feet tall, too primitive to be able to make the simplest of weapons or build, yet cunning enough to be able to trap elephants, are seen with all the jungle’s denizens in “ Congorilla-''