LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

Chronicle (Levin), 6 July 1946, Page 6

LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

Les. M.

Murphy)

Blondes To Order In "Smithy"

- *• ' (Special— From

WELLINGTON, This Day.

Hair fashionists are trying to jring back short hair as the latest style, but the movie studios won't co-operate and the girls in the; small towns still take their tips , from the Hollywood glamour girls. •' Pat O'Brien is probably the only; man in the world to get a commercial plug on a vocal recording. Listen to Bing Crosby's disc of "Dear Old Donegal," Pat's favourite song. Columbia recently had trouble in i finding six erooked roulette tables 1 fo'r a sequence in "Gilda." When ' „he hunt was over experts were ; called in to fix the wheels to stop : at specific numbers. Wlien you see ''The Devil's Mask" remember that the five shrunken heads used in the film are authen- : tio, once prize trophies of the jivaro Indians in South America, and borrowed from the Los Angeles Museum. i Girls taking up fencing Is not : unusual unless you're talking about i Adeline de Walt Reynolds, who is 84. She spends an hour a day at ihe i'oils on the set of "Gallant Jcurney." Life can be very full for an octogenarian these days. Tito Guizar, noted Mexican singer and guitarist, has been signed to appear in "Rendezvous in Rio," a iarge scale Latin American musical vVhich wiii star Eveiyn Keyes, Melvin Douglas and Ann Miller. He will join an array of top-flight entertainers which will also include Veloz and Yolanda and Enric Madriguera and his orchestra. "The Phantom Thief" is the new citle given by Columbia to the thriller which was filmed as "Boston Blackie's Private Ghost," with ; Chester Morris starring and Jeff Donnell in the feminine lead. Directed by D. Ross Lederman, the picture is the latest in Columbia's "Boston Blaekie" series. i Regardeti as one of the most promising of the lot's younger male | players, Robert Scott had his ! original conuract torn up and was awarded a new seven-year deal. The decision to give Scott the new deal was based on his work in his first important assignment, one of the chief supporting roles to Rita : Hayworth and . Glenn Ford in "Gilda." Rudy Mate, one of Hollywood's ace cameramen, has been assigned by Columbia Pictures to lens • the Rita Hayworth technicolour musical ' fantasy, "Down to Earth," which will bs the fourth consecutive Hay- . worth starrer Mate has photographed. He previously handled the camera on "Cover Girl," "To-night and Every Night," and the recently ■ completed "Gilda." Comedian Red Skelton has started work in "The Show-Off," his .first film since his discharge. from the'U.S. Army. His leading" lady, is Marilyn Maxwell, just returned from starring in "Nelly Bly" on Broadway. Others in the cast are 1 Virginia O'Brien, Marjorie Main ] and Leon Ames. Greer Garson was crowned i Queen of the Rockefellow Centre Music Hail in New York, in recQg- . nition of her record of seven films ; \yith a total running time of fiftyfour weeks in the music hall. Over 1 eight million patrons have seen Greer Garson films in this, the , largest theatre in the world. After three years with the U.S. Coastguard, actor Richard Quine has resumed his scrcen career with ;.he male lead in 'But Not Goodj bye," opposite newiydiscover char - mer Audrey Totter. This is the second time in his short career that Dick has played a romantic lead. The first time his leading lady was Susan Peters — now his wife. A sevcre case of influenza contracted by Janet Biair in New York : caused her physician to order the Columbia actress to bed immedi- : ately upon her arrival by plane from the East. She had flown to • New York recently as one of the ■ i special party, including Cary Grant, Paulette Goddard, William Powell, . » . ^ ^ y v ^ ^ V y ^ V ^ ^ >

Ronald Coleman and Rosalind Russell, to mention a few, invited by Howard Hughes to be his passengers upon his attempt to break the transcontinental airliner record with his "Star of California." While Miss Biair was in New York, the studio decided to cast her in the most important role of her career, the lead opposite Gxenn Ford in "Gallant Journey," the air epic to be produced and directed by William A. Wellman. With the picture set to start soon, Wellman will be forced to shoot' around her, pending her recovery.