CHALIAPIN IN TALKIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHALIAPIN IN TALKIES

PLANS FOR APPEARANCE “DON QUIXOTE” ADAPTATION One of the most famous film directors in the world. Mr. G. W. Pabst, has arrived in London to direct the talking picture “Don Quixote,” in which the great Russian singer Chaliapin will bo starred. Air. Pabst directed Miss Greta Garbo in “The Joyless Street,” the last; European film in which she appeared before going to Hollywood. In this film Miss Garbo gave what is generally regarded as her most beautiful performance. Mr. Pabst has just completed a spectacular talking picture, “Atlantide,” in German, French and English, with Mr. John Stuart and Miss Brigcttc Helm in the English version. There will be tremendous competition among English players for a place in the cast of his new picture. The cast will be selected immediately on his arrival, because the English, French and Gorman versions of “Don Quixote” must be completed before Chaliapin sails to the United States for an autumn engagement. The adaptation of “Don Quixote”

to talking pictures was originally discussed by Chaliapin with Mr. Charles Chaplin, and the broad lines of Mr. Chaplin’s suggested treatment have been followed by the distinguished French author, M. Paul Morand.

The company behind Pabst is prepared to spend £BO,OOO on the production. Chaliapin has been engaged to play the title role. Paul Morand, the popular French author, is doing the adaptation, and it is felt that, with Pabst directing, only good support for Chaliapin is needed to make the picture an outstanding success. Herr Pabst, however, has not yet found his Sancho Panza or his Dulcinea, not to mention a number of minor parts. He had thought of Mr. George Robey, the English comedian, as Sancho, but since Mr. Robey had to leave London temporarily for Scotland there, was no chance to arrange an interview. Instead, Herr Pabst was going to study two reels of one of Air. Robey’s more recent pictures. It had been stated that Herr Pabst wanted an ugly actress for the part of Dulcinea. What ho does want is an actress capable of suggesting the

buxom Spanish peasant girl that Cervantes’ Dulcinea of Toboso undoubtedly was. This rules out slender, ! willowy blondes of the sort regarded as typically English, and even too ethereal brunettes, but Herr Pabst wishes to make it clear that the actress must possess charm as well as a gift of comedy. Alost of the exteriors will be “shot” in Spain, in the districts actually referred to by Cervantes. The interiors will be filmed at the Associated Radio Studios, Ealing. “We feel,” the organiser says, “that ‘Don Quixote’ will be notable, not merely as entertainment, but as a study of the eternal struggle between idealism and materialism.”