POPULAR PROGRAMMES.

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21057, 8 March 1940, Page 8

POPULAR PROGRAMMES.

Cinema ♦,, Snapshots Britain's Choice in Films In 1938 the six films that made the most money in Great Britain were all American—“ You Can’t Take it With You,” That Certain Age,” “ Marie Antoinette,” “ The Rage of Paris,” “ Snow White,” and “ A Slight Case of Murder.” In 1939 the best sellers were all British —“ Lion Has Wings,” “ Four Feathers,” “ Pymalion,” “ Shipyard Sally,” “ Sixty Glorious Years,” and “ Spy in Black.’ It is interesting to note that “ Goodbye, Mr Chips,” made by M.G.M. in England, was elected the best picture of 1939 by newspaper reviewers (American) voting in The Film Daily’s annual poll. Other selections were “ Mr Smith Goes to Washington,” Columbia; “ Pymalion,” made in England by M.G.M.; “ Wuthering Heights,” Samuel Goldwyn; “ Dark Victory,” Warner Bros.; “ Stanley and Livingstone,” Twentieth CenturyFox; and 44 The Old Maid,” Warner Bros. Maureen O'Hara Almost a year ago 17-year-old Maureen O’Hara, red-haired and green-eyed, left her home town of Dublin and came to London. She had won a beauty competition, and part of the prize was a visit to Pinewood Studios, in England. An introduction to Erich Pommer led to a screen test. Maureen O’Hara had no experience behind her, but she had beauty and brains, and acquitted herself well—so well that Pommer and Laughton placed her under contract to “ Mayflower ” Pictures. Months of grooming followed. The girl took lessons in deportment and elocution, learned to sing and dance, and from time to time was given screen tests. Meanwhile, Alfred Hitchcock, director of the Paramount Picture, “ Jamaica Inn,” was testing dozens of stage and screen actresses in search of a girl to take the part of Mary Yellan in Charles Laughton’s newest starring film. Maureen came to the studios for one of her periodical tests. Laughton, Pommer and Hitchcock saw the result in a private projection room. Pommer had not intended that his find should go on the screen for another six months, but her progress impressed all three so much that she was given the feminine lead. The high-spirited Irish girl, who was born Maureen Fitzsimmons, is proud of her descent from the Rebel. John Lilburne. who was repeatedly vhipped, pilloried, and imprisoned a. Ration 300 years ago. if. 14 ’ Maureen was a student at the and Tt ? B ° , Actin S in Dublin, and at 16 passed her examination at Mnsf. ° n T° n ? Uildhall School of Music. In spite of these studies she was about to become a prosaic secretary when she won the beauty competition that took her to PineLoretta Young Features Simple Success Formula Few film stars have an assiduously maintained their own personality as has Loretta Young, who feels that one of Hollywood’s major problems for either male or female stars is to “be yourself.” Trends in pictures, trends in current events, and fads always exert their pressures on a star. Miss Young believes. There is the bugaboo of becoming typed in' a certain characterisation, the worry over stories and directors, and the always shifting public likes and dislikes. Every one of these troublesome problems comes “home to roost” in a star’s mind. Throughout the thirteen years she has been before movie cameras, Miss Young has never lost sight of being the “Gretchen” her mother and her sisters know at home. This she feels has been her principal asset and guiding star. Her only motto, she says, has been a paraphrase of Shakespeare: “Be true to yourself and you can't be false to anyone.” Feeling that many times success can be its own enemy, Miss Young has charted a conservative course around Hollywood's shallows. She has chosen friends carefully and limited their numbers, meanwhile living quietly and modestly without the elaborate “movie-set” frills many stars incorporate in their mansions. The above considerations have largely influenced her to help choose stories, directors and starring mates to the ultimate benefit of her career. By this token, she was happy to be selected for the role of Anita in “Eternally Yours.” a story which she feels offers every mood and range an actress could reasonably expect. When producer Walter Wanger asked her preference of costars, she immediately voiced her preference of David Niven. No one else she could think of was as naturally suited to th/! role of an adventurous, romantic young magician—a matinee idol whose ready sense of humour and engaging personality were as fascinating as his startling stage illusions. FLASHES JJETTE DAVIS is planning to do a stage play in New York as soon as film engagements permit. • • • • ur £HE LION HAS WINGS.”—Sir Joseph Ball, head of the film department of the British Ministry of Information, is presenting a 16mm copy of the film “The Lion Has Wings” to Their Majesties the King and Quee^

Cinema .. ♦ Snapshots Most Popular Juvenile Stars Nineteen hundred and thirty-nine will probably go down in screen history as the Adolescents’ Age. The two most popular stars in films in the past year were 'teens olds Mickey Rooney and Deanna Durbin. Mickey, according to the annual poll conducted among cinema owners by the Motion Picture Herald, headed the list of money-makers in America, while Deanna Durbin kept the box offices of Britain busier than any other star. Mickey runs her a close second among English fans. They were followed in this order by; Shirley Temple (who led the poll for three years), Robert Taylor, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, George Formby, Nelson Eddy and Gary Cooper. It is curious to note that of the ten there is only one adult actress, Jeanette MacDonald, while notable absentees among the matinee idols are Tyrone Power and Clark Gable. Geoige Formby again heads the list of the ten most popular British stars, leading Grade Fields, Robert Donat, Will Hay, Anna Neagle, Leslie Howard, Charles Laughton, Gordon Harker, Ralph Richardson and Will Fyffe. Here, in addition to Master Rooney. are America’s favourites: Tyrone Power, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable. Shirley Temple, Bette Davis, Alice Faye, Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Sonja Henie. “Gone With The Wind* 9 Triumph of Vivien Leigh After three years the screen version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller has been completed. The film, which has begun a phenomenal career in U.S.A., may break even more records than the book. At one time we used to talk with awe of “million dollar productions.” “Gone With the Wind” cost nearly four million dollars or, if you prefer it in sterling, nearly one million pounds. Whichever way you say it, it is a lot of money, but producer David Selznick is not worrying. He estimates that if the public responds according to expectations 58,000,000 ■ people will see it in the United States alone and that it win take at least 20,000,000 dollars at American box-offices. The name of nearly every glamour girl in Hollywood was mentioned at one period or another in connection with the role of Scarlett O’Hara, probably the most striking feminine figure produced by literature since “Becky Sharp.” The selection of English actress Vivien Leigh stunned Hollywood, but advance reports declare that her work is sensational. Clark Gable, “the People’s Choice.” is a ready-made Rhett Butler. Heading a strong supporting cast are Olivia de Havilland, Barbara O’Neill. Evelyn Keyes, Thomas Mitchell and Ann Rutherford. \4n Englishman 9 s Home 99 Thirty years ago Guy du Maurier wrote a play entitled “An Englishman’s Home.” The play enjoyed an exceptionally successful run. It dealt with a sudden invasion of England by an enemy who took adu vantage of a strike and a fog to descend on Britain from warships anchored along the coast. It is interesting to recollect that in Berlin it was hissed off the stage! The play has been made into a film, and the story modernised. A British company, Aldwych Productions, Ltd., has produced “An Englishman’s Home,” making of it a film that pictures aspects of the contemporary scene with startling accuracy, England’s leisurely preparations, and the average Englishman pretty well convinced that “it can’t happen there.” Meanwhile the enemy is preparing his plans, and getting ready for “the day.” When “the day” I arrives, enemy warplanes, co-operat-ing with a well-organised espionage system, drop armed parachutists at selected points whose job it is to hold their ground whilst the main battle squadrons concentrate on London. The Air Ministry put at the disposal of the producers whole squadrons of Blenheim and Wellington bombers, Spitfires, Bombay troopcarriers, and Lysander machines. Albert de Courville directed this United Artists release, and the cast is headed by Edmund Gwenn and Mary Maguire, with Geoffrey Toone, Paul von Hernreid, and Richard Ainley in the chief supporting roles. FLASHES J)ARRYL ZANUCK is trying to get Spencer Tracy for the title role in “ Brigham Young,” biography of the founder of the Mormon sect. • • • • CATHERINE CORNELL, leading Broadway actress, who has consistently refused all film offers, now thinks that she would like to appear on the screen. “ The only trouble is,” she says, “ that whenever I see a play I’d like to do on the screen I can always think of some actress who could do it much better than I could. Then I don’t w’ant to do it.” • • • • JAMES CAGNEY is getting away from gangster roles in his next I three pictures. “The Fighting 69th,* I “ City of Conquest,” and “ John Paid Jones.”