BASED ON HISTORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 10

BASED ON HISTORY

“PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND.” 1 History furnishes the incidents upon i which “The Prisoner of Shark Island,” looming on Saturday next to the Plaza i Theatre, is based. It is the dramatisation of the tragic story of Dr. Sami uel Alexander Mudd, the physician ! who mistakenly gave air to Abraham j Lincoln’s assassin. The screen play is Iby Nunnally Johnson, who wrote “The House of Rothchild.” Eight hun- | died craftsmen, technicians, and lab- ; ourers were employed for three weeks in this reproduction of America's Devil Island, so that 20th. Century- | Fox could bring to the screen the searing, tragic drama of the man who was treated most inhumanly by his 'countrymen. The picture stars Warpier Baxter, and features Gloria ■Stuart. Arthur Byron, and Harry Carey at the hand of a supporting cast | of one thousand. • Costing more than £260,000 “Things Ito Come.” is easily Britain’s most lavish and ambitious picture. Five years (ago £50,000 was considered enough i for the most “super” of British epics. [ The Private Life of Henry VIII,” the first home-produced film set the world agog, cost £60,000. i “Conquest of the Air.” A great speed-up on the production ■ of London-Film’s great air picture has i been made by a second unit, which is ’at work at Denham. Two units are (now busy on this enormous task; the first unit, under the direction of Zoltan Korda, is occupied with the Gonesse balloon shots; the second unit is working on the scene where Nero watches an early attempt at flying. | Lee Garmes, the famous camera-man ’director of “Crime Without Passion” lis in charge of this sequence. It is ’his hist assignment since his arrival | from Hollywood.

’ in Paramount’s “De re. ' is >a •; >o have the fastest autud H"liy\\ood. It is oa-pable of >!>••<’ j o f 2(>7 miles an hour. i ants to Get Married. This being Leap Year, certain dcflopments out here, states a Hollyood message, may be of special inTest to feminine readers, especially > Dick Powell admirers. For Dick ime out in so many words the other ty and announced that he wanted > get married. It seems that a achelors’ Protective Association was flng formed -perhaps seriously, for ley do all sorts of funny things in juthern California, perhaps as a gag. nyway, a delegation went to Dick id invited him to become president the society. “I don’t want pro•ction.” replied the eligible young an whose name has been linked roantically with those of Mary Brian, >an Blondell and various other fair id famous ladies. “I want to get carried. I don’t like being single, m too lonely.” He seemed to speak ith conviction. Of course it may ive been only a mood but he went i to say: “Marriage is the only kind real happiness. The rest of it—ight clubs, gaiety, success, money—s all empty and worthless without •meone to share it. I’d hate to think growing old without children, rowing old is not yet a serious dan?r to Mr. Powell, who celebrated his lirty-first birthday last November, ut it seems that he is definitely earying of single blessedness even hen it is accompanied, as in his case ith the fame and fortune that folw success on the screen. His latit picture is “Hearts Divided,” m hich he is featured in support of arion Davies. “Hearts Divided,” a □smopolitan production, will be ceased by Warner Bros. Perhaps by lat time Dick Powell will have be>me a benedict. W’ho can tell?