LATEST DOINGS FROM STUDIOS

Chronicle (Levin), 27 April 1946, Page 7

LATEST DOINGS FROM STUDIOS

M.

Murphy)

(Special — From Les.

WELLINGTON, This Day. Joan Leslie and John Howard, Paramount star just out of the Navy, are a romantic twosome. Errol Flynn gave his wife, Nora" Eddington, a black caracul coat for her birthday, which indicates that all i's well now in the Flynn home. Best supporting actors "Oscar" for 1945 went to James Dunn of 20th Century-Fox, for his outstanding I performance as the drunken hus- ! band in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." | Kathryn Grayson, singing finely land acting to match in Metro's ! musical, "Two Sisters from Boston," gave the best performance of Hollywood last week. Turhan Bey, on his way overseas from Hollywood, was farewelled at, the airport by none other than I Susanna Foster. Hollywood gossip' jhas it that the charming Susanna is more than friendly inclined toiward Turhan. Can it be so? Melvin Levy has been set by Col- ! ! urnbia to collaborate with J ohn ! iJacoby and Sarrett Tobias on the| Iscreenplay of "Rendezvous in Rio,''i ia big-scale musical on the studio'S; j future schedule. j Ever since "Gone With the Wind," j : movies have been getting longer, land their titles are also expanding.l I The latest is "The House on 92nd | ; Street" which has more syllables I | (eight) than any other title. Run- j ■ ner-up is the soon to be released I | Universal thriller, "The Spider ! ! Woman Strikes Back," with seven j | syllables. j Barry Fitzgerald, who co-starred . ; with Bing Crosby as the old parish ! priest in "Going My Way," cele- j j orated his 59th birthday last week. i I Bing was the first to extend greet- ! i ings to Barry, on the day. j Looking for meatier melodramas | j to film, Hollywood studios have dis- | ! covered — politics. United Artists is ; j now producing "Mr. Ace nd the ; Queen," in which Sylvia Sidney : plays politics and love against poiij tical boss George Raft. She wears , I 22 different dresses and a new hair- : do for eac.h scene in the film, and a ' £9000 silver-blue mink coat, foi | which producer Bogeaus pays £17C j a week rent. } Our cheerful friend Reginald i Denny appears in the cast of ' "Escape Me Never" the Errol FlynnIda Lupino picture just completed 1 by Warners. : Lauren Bacall gave her second ! command performance at Bucking- 1 | ham Palace on New Years' Day. : jPreviously their Majesties had seen Iher in Warner Bros. "To Have and i Have Not." Repeat occasion was the filming, by request of the Royalj j . I

Household, of "Ccnfidential Agent" in which she plays opposite Charles Boyer. Ann Blythe will be back in pictures soon since re lovering from her recent accident while tcbogganing. accident which kcpt her in plastei for over six months and which alsc kept her from accepting numerous roles ofiered her after her magnificent performance in "Mildred Pierce" with Academy Award winner Joan Crawford. Ray Milland has been award ?d the Hollywood Academy Award for being selected as the best actor for 1945, his performance as the drunkard in Paramount's "The Lost Weekend" earning him the coveted honour. The best film award went to Paramount for "The Lost Weekend," and the best direction : "Oscar" went to Billy Wilder, direc- ; tor of the film. j A seven piece orchestra typical of the ensembles of rural France eported to Columbia Pictures to accompany Micheline Cheirel as she sings French folk songs for "So Dark the Night," a mystery drarna teaming Miss Cheirel and Steven Geray. Rudy Sternad, noted directcr, has been assigned to design the scts forj Columbia Pictures' most lavish production- of the sedson, "Do'wn to i Earth," a technicolour fantasy I which Don Hartman will produce | with Rita Hayworth as star and A1 j Hall directing. The prQd,uc.tjp.n, one. of the most lavish ever'plaiined at: Columbia, will iiave 119 secungo. , ranging from ancient Grcek paiace^ and temples to 1946 pcnthouse apartrnents appointed t in the' modetn manner. "Liza," George and Ira Gcrshwin's number which was the hit of Flo. Ziegfeld's "Show- Girl,"- was prerecorded at Columbia Pictures foi inclusion in a scene of "The Jolson Story," the technicolour musical based on A1 Jolson's life. The sequence will depict the famoiu incident in which Jolson did volunteer entertaining on the opening night of a show in which he was not a member of the cast. Morris Stoloff wielded the baton for a large orchestra and a male chorus at the recording. Director Alfred Hitchcock is anything but Hollywood in his approacb to a picture. In casting. for instance, he overthrows tradition and, outside of the stars in his picture, goes after players who fit the parts regardless of their so-callcd box office appeal. This policy was never more noticeable than in hii handling of the players for "Notorious" when it was to be shot at RKO, with Ingrid Bergman, Carv Grant and Claude Rains in leading roles. There are nearly two dozen other good parts in the movie and yet not one of these ! has been assigned to what Honywood calls a "name" player. Most of them werei picked personally by Hitchcock dur- j ing a trip east, with Louis Calhern and Lenore Ulrich being the best ! known of the field. j Helen Walker, blonde young j former Broadway actress, and more j recently a Paramount starlet, has j been chosen by 20th Centurv-Fox j for the choice role of "The Honour- ; able Betty Cream" — the beautiful j other girl — in Ernest Lubitsc.h's f "Cluny Brown," co-starring Charles : Boyer and Jennifer Jones. She joins I a supporting cast that includes j Peter Lawford, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, i Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen,! Margaret Bannerman. Richard | Haydn, Sara Allgood among others. j ■ Don Ameche is in the throes of j organising a conference for professional football teams 011 the Westi Coast. Apart from that, now thatj he is an owner of thoroughbred horses, Don and "his six children can be seen any clear day at the Santa Anita race track in Hollywood. His family, by the way, consists of two adopted daughters and four sons. Coulter irwin, young Columbia Pictures contract actor who made his debut in "She "YVouldn't/Say Yes," has. been assigned the second male lead in Columbia's new thriller, "Night Editor." William Gargan has' the leading role while Janis Carter and Jeff Donnell are the feminine featured players. Irwin was recently discharged from the Royal Canadian Air Force and was diseovered by Columbia talent sccuts in a Hollywood little theatre group. A round-up at Columbia the other day shows that even the stars have time for hobbies. Alfred Drake collects records, hook match-covcrs

S | hold a strange fascination for Adele Jergens, George Murphy is in a class by himself with the unique hobby of collecting maps, Janet Blair goes in for .lipsticks (to date she has ov'er 200 but hasn't found one that won't kiss and tell) , and Van Johnston spends his spare time, rnark you — looking at movies!