Cunard Film Starts

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20862, 21 July 1939, Page 4

Cunard Film Starts

Cinema ♦ • Snapshots

Paramount's large-scale film of the founding of the Cunard steamship line, "Ruler of the Seas," has now gone into work in Hollywood. Opening in Britain just about a century ago, the story deals with the bitter rivalry between the early steamships and the old sailing packets, which had for so long reigned supreme in the Atlantic passenger service. Already, a unit of cameramen and technicians, skilled in sea photography, has sailed into the Pacific in replicas of two famous vessels, the "Dog Star," the first ship to cross from the British Isles to New York under steam, and the "Falcon," a full-rigged packet boat that was one of the last sailing ships in the regular Atlantic service. Heading the cast of the Him are Will Fyfife, whose Hollywood debut this will be, Margaret Lockwood, who is also a recent arrival in America, and the now married Douglas Fairbanks, Junior. In supporting roles are George Bancroft, David Torrence and Montagu Love. Frank Lloyd, who made "Mutiny on the Bounty" and is generally acknowledged to be Hollywood's greatest maker of sea films, is working as producer-director.