LATEST DOINGS FROM STUDIOS

Chronicle (Levin), 16 May 1946, Page 7

LATEST DOINGS FROM STUDIOS

(Special — From Les. M. Murphy) WELLINGTON, This Day. The new Columbia star, Nina Foch, is a talented pianist . and when in her early 'teens, gave a piano recital in New York's Aeolian Hall. Edgar Buchanan, the son of a dentist, is himself a dentist, and-to top it all, he's married to a dentist! Richard Lane holds the record for being the fastest talker in Hollywood. He has been clocked speaking over 400 words in 51 seconds. Wallace Beery, believe it or not, was once a chorus boy! Comedian Jack Haley say's he got to be a live wire when he worked as an elec'trician. Clark Gable has been getting a lot of free -publicity by squiring a different girl about Hollywood each week, though according to Walter Winchell, who should know, it's actress Virginia Grey who affects him most. Harry Davenport, who will be 80 years old this year, has spent 75 of i these in the theatre. l Allen Joslyn is avoiding Boston. i The cracks he makes about that city in his latest film render it unsafe. John Sheppard, back after three years in the Navy, is being mistaken for Joseph Cotten. Barred from showing in New York in its original form Columbia's "Scarlet Street" had to undergo a few changes before it was eventually passed ,by the Board of Censors. It is how showing to capacity audiences in New York. Don Hartman, the man who wrote some of the screen's best originals for Bob Hope and Danny Kaye, has been signed up by Columbia Pictures. Did you know that red-headed Lucille Ball goes in for raising prize tomatoes? Lucille has won several prizes lately and her tomato-raising knowledge is being keenly sought after in Hollywood. Boris Karioi! used to sell real cstate — a Hollywood wag has asked if he also dcalt in cemetery plots! The plush-lined bathroom, mirrored ballroom and dining room from the luxurious 5th Avenuc Vanderbilt mansion hav been sold to none other than a Hollywood film studio! Though she averages four movief a week, Barbara Stanwyck doesn'i go to thcm the way you and I do When she sees a movie she's working. Carefully she notes everj entrance, every exit. She watche? carefully for directorial touclies. eager to pick up anything new and good others have to offer. Then homc again, she reviews whafc shc has seen and makes -notes for future refcrcnce. She's a real worker anc any Warner Bros. director will tel. you "that on a Stanwyck set you relax." 1 Tarzan Ihe Modern j After 12 years of jungle grflnting in Tarzans, Johnny . Weissmullei gets a haircut, wears modern clothes, dances, and has mbre tc say in one speech in "Swamp Fire' than in all his dozen Tarzans pui together. "It's wonderful," say; Johnny. The scene to-day is a barroom. Weissmuller has to dance with Virginia Grey. Buster Crabbc is footing it with Carol Thurston and before you know it, Buster and Johnny are having a fight and so are the two girls. ^ Thinks Some Beds Deceitful Things Joan Leslie, Warner Bros.' star, thinks people should know that some beds are deceitful things. The most luxurious, seemingly softesl beds in pictures are actually bed; from which all semblance of spring*: have been reniovea and boards used in their place, as in her latest picture. Reason; So the body won't sink out of camera sight but, is pleasantly outlined under the covers. Beds are fun though, aren't they? Wants "Bad" Man Roles Dick Powell has resolved never to accept another part in motion pictures which demands the use of his singing voice. He wants to continue the "bad" man roles, a la Humphrey Bogart even though the latter should protest at the competition and threaten to sing in reprisal. "Bogey's" versalile enough to star in one of Warner's musicals and might be tempted with a lavish bath-tub sequence. Challengc to Film Industry "This year represents a challenge to the film industry to supply postwar entertainment, essentially cscapist in its primary objective, but which should prove at the same time adult and intelligent," said Mr. McClure, Managing-Director of Warner Bros., N.Z. Ltd., in an interview yesterday. "I believe our studio's current season's schedule of films will be welcomed not only as a complete reply to this demand but also for its general all-round excellence and varied nature of screen material used. As the films are now in our vaults awaiting release arwi I have seen most of them, I can honestly say that no company at any time has been privileged to handle a more imposing array of first rate entertainment." High on the list is the much discussed Edna Ferber's story, "Saratoga Trunk" (Gary Cooper — Ingrid Bergman), regarded as one of the film industry's most important offerings forsome time. Equally impressive, but in a different field", is "Rhapsody in-i Blue," in which Robert Alda, Alexis Smith and Joan Leslie set out the jubilant biography of that wideiy famous composer, George Gershwin. Faul Whiteman (conductor)

and Oscar Levant (pianist) both appearing in person, have stamped the film with their own genius and brought it to the plane of musical artistry. Bette Davis appears in "The Corn is Green" a distinguished version of Emlyn Williams' famous. stage play. With a Welsh setting and St. Luke's choristers in featured numbers this is a fine emotionallymoving film. Another Miss Davis picture, equally well presented, is "A Stolen Life," which will be remembered by moviegoers as a starring vehicle some years ago for Elizabeth Bergner. This year's Academy Award for the best feminine performance has been made to Joan Crawford for her work in "Mildred Pierce," one of the studio's major properties. Her magnificent dramatic performance reveals the full maturity of talent and her sound judgment in waiting over two years to find the right story. "Devotion," a truly moving picture of the Bronte sisters, is a beautifully balanced piece of work set against au.thentic English backgrounds. Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Henreid and Arthur Kennedy have made a magnificent success of this. A virile, lu'sty sHow"'"San "Antonia,"" in technic'olour, presents Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith in another timeless picture of the outdoors. In happy contrasting veih "Indiscretion" (Barbara Stanwyck— Dennis Moi'gan ) is straight comedy In the modern manner. Popular. Humphrey Bogar't, shows his versatility in "Conflict" and with Sydney Greenstreet and Alexis Smith, stars n a brilliantly prOduced study of .nental conflict in the detection of x crime. A different Bogart is at his very best in this masterly portrayal. "My Reputation" is one of Barbara Stanwyck's finest dramatic | itories. George Brent .and Lucille Watson ("Fanny" of "Watch on the Rhine") star with her.