GIVEN WAY AT LAST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 303, 23 December 1933, Page 11

GIVEN WAY AT LAST

IRENE VANBRUGH IN FIT,MS Irene Vanbrugh, for 40 years one of the most popular and delightful actresses of the English theatre, has succumbed to the studios. At the age of 60 she has begun work on her first film. Her part is that of the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, mother of the Russian Empress, in the elaborate film, “Catherine the Great,” now being directed at Elstree by Dr. Paul Czinner. with Elizabeth Bergner and Douglas Fairbanks, jun., in the parts of Catherine and the young Tsar. Eddie Cantor. Eddie Cantor’s latest musical comedy is nearing completion at the United Artists’ studios. The pop-eyed comedian, will be seen as a crashing charioteer, burning up Rome under his own horsepower. Throwing the bull in “The Kid From Spain” was nothing to keeping the chariot from throwing him, as he thunders down the arena. The picture is being designed to make a Roman holiday for film audiences the whole world over. Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge, who have achieved tremendous popularity among British film-goers, will shortly be seen in a new comedy-romance of the “Jack’s the Boy” style, entitled “Falling For You.” The amusing story concerns the experiences cf two Fleet Street journalists, Jack Hazelden (Jack Hulbert) and Minnie Tucker (Cicely Courtneidge), who are anxious to scoop one another on an “abducted heiress’’ story. The heiress is believed to be in Switzerland, and there the two of them meet. Jack is too busy falling in love with a pretty newcomer to worry about news stories, and Minnie gets a big laugh, as Jack is unaware that his beloved is none other than the missing heiress. The opening scones were taken in Switzerland above St. Moritz, 6000 feet up, and the magnificent background lends colour and charm to the comedy situations. On skis, Jack is helpless, to the joy of the onlooker, but on the ice rink he is a figure of agile 1 grace. Not to be beaten, Cicely shows* -A something new in the way of lugeing, and shot? of her careering madly down the mountain slopes are said to leave nothing to be desired in the way of riotous comedy. A newcomer to rhe screen, Tamara Dcsni, has the role of the missInf heiress.