TALKIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 62, 15 September 1939, Page 3

TALKIES

NEW ZEALAND'S OWN SCREENING OF HEI TIKI,

On the shores of Lake Taupo, Alex ander Markey spent eight months making New Zealand's first great national production "Hei Tiki."' It cost Markey £30,000 to make this saga of Maoridom before the coming of the pakeha, but the money has been, well spent ( for this film has been most enthusiastically receive:! by critics in England and America —a sincere tribute to the success of the film. Every foot of "Hei Tiki," every native sound, was made and recorded in the Taupo district, wheie Markey constructed an entire Maoii pa, and built six huge eighty foot war canoes. The story deals with love of Manui, a warrior, and son of a great for Mara, daughter of the chief of an opposing tribe. Their romance is kept secret, as after the tradition of her people, is to be offered as the virgin bride of the dread War God, who is to appear in a cloud of smoke, and carrj away his bride, and leaving her tribe invincible to war. At the time of the coming of the War God. Manui impersonates this mythical character and escapes with Mara. But the girl's people discover the deception, and pursue the lovers in great war canoes. They reach safety, but a pitched battle -between the two tribes follows, which is only stopped by the sagacity of the girl's father— the old chief.

THE SPOTLIGHT ON GARY COOPER

He's "The Virginian" in person . . with a dash of the boy scout in him ® . a streak of the philosopher . - and a good deal of "Beau Geste' .» • He's shy among strangers, doesn't I say much even in a circle of old * friends, likes to daub in water-col-ours, go hunting, fishing, and drive r his automobile, and take naps oa c the set. c Is currently starred in Paramount'* i adventure romance, "Beau Geste.' t One of the greatest roles of his career, in the making of which he spent ] a month on location in the Californ- j ian desert, living in a 2-room-and- ' bath tent, which is a far cry from- ] hi? first location trip, when the then ( extra shared a tent with a cook. Gary is the second son of cx-Jus-tice Charles Cooper of the Montana L'iate Supreme Court. His brother } Arthur, runs a fuel company in, Helena. Both boys went to school for a while in Bedfordshire, England. The rest of Gary's education came in America. Originally wanted to be an illustrator, worked l'or a while as cartoonist on a Helena newspaper, fell for a girl, came to Los Angeles to make a start and get established with a view to marriage, but the newspaper didn't want him. Turned to move extra work, mostly in westerns, because he could a horse well. Then came the lead in a cowboy picture made on "Poverty Row,'" then in "The Winning of Barbara Worth," then "Wings" and a Paramount contract. But by this time the girl he had left behind him had run off with an lowa druggist, and strangely enough Gary wasn't heartbroken, guessed he hadri't been in love after all. A few years later he went on an African hunting trip, and came back with 84 mounted specimens, with he proudly proceeded to decorate his house, the one formerly occupied ■ by Greta Garbo, and made it look like a wild life museum. Married a Park Avenue debutante, Veronica Ball'e, screen name, Sandra Shaw, and they honeymooned in Arizona, now they're the proud parents of a' 2 year old daughter., and is Gary happy? He says hp doesn't think being a papa lias hurt ins screen career at all. "And anyway,'' he grins, "if I tried to live up to the characters I plav on the screen I'd be a pretty miserable guy." . . Some day. -when he retires from ' the' screen, he wants to go back to Montana and have a ranch.

News* Views and' Forthcoming Events

HOLLYWOOD LOOKS AT AUSTRALIA

Hollywood is priding itself on the fact that it has made a picture having an, Australian setting without introducing a single "cooey-call'' someone ought to tell them it is spelt "coo-ee"—and with kangaroos appearing only momentarily. The picture is "Captain Fury." Let the Hollywood-prepared publicity speak for itself. Here it is: "There is not a single cooey-call, boomerang or kangaroo in 'Captain Fury.' And it's all rather odd because the setting of the picture is and most people inevitably associates these oddities with that continent. "It is even stranger when one remembers that there is a madness in Hollywood called authenticity which always has producers standing on their ears. "Yet the explanation is quite simple. 'Captain, Fury' mirrors the colonisation period in Australian history. when the country was still a frontier peopled by hardy pioneers. "These people Ave re busy with problems of wrestling a livelihood from the barren bnvh soil and fighting the evils of greedy land barons. "It was not until generations lat-. er, when colonisation was an accomplished fact, that the colonials learned of the cooey-call, a peculiar ci y used by Australian aborigines to attract attention. Natural History. "Similarly, the boomerang belonging to the native races of Australia, "nd as for the kangaroo, he didn't ppear on the screen until the brushrood had been cleared away. "True, Mr Roach might have com iromised the issue to add colour *o lis production. "He decided, however, that too nuch familial ity deadens the effect if realism, and chose instead to con:cntrate on koala bears, kookaburns and a special type of eucalyptus ;ree. "Koala bears are best described as ittlc animals which were the orignal models for children's teddy bears They eat nothing but eucalyptus eaves and die almost at once witlijut them. "Kookaburras are birds which belong to the kingfisher family and ire easily distinguished by their long and loud laugh. Australians call them laughing jackasses. They arcabout the size of seagulls, but are equipped with longer and sharper beaks.''