LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

Chronicle (Levin), 27 July 1946, Page 6

LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

w LES. M.

MURPHY) .

(SPECIAL— From

WELLINGTON, This Day.

Cary Grant wants to tour the world and make a travelogue, but his film contracts are the bugbear. Greta Garbo has arrived in • England to make a picture- for Sir Alexander Korda. Robei't Taylor is also expected to arrive there this month. A New York fllm critic says that "Sentimental Journey" starring Maureen O'Hara and John Payne, is worth making a long trip to see. News of British stars reveals that Gracie Fields turned doWn £1000 sterling a week to appear in New |York's Embassy Club. { David Niven is just recovering after the sudden shock of his wife's I death. He is talking of returning ;to England from Hollywood. j Freddie Bartholomew is getting a batch of film offers after a lean ; period. i The latest song craze in America is a dizzy ditty which goes, • "Onezy, Twozy, I'll kiss Youzy Twozy, Threezy, you kiss mezy." It is to be one of the song hits in a musical. the script of which is ; being prepared. 1 Hollywood film companies say they will bar Sir Thomas Beecham, the famous British musical conductor, from the film city for his | unfavourable comments on the industry. This will not be a very ; bitter pill for Sir Thomas to swallow. Deanna Durbin says she would like to settle in New York if she could find an apartment, but because of the congestion her agent can only promise to put her on the waiting list for a cave. Sonja Hsnie is in New York decorating Madison Square Garden in her "Hollywood .Ice Revue," and swelling her already enormous foi'tune. Always a penny counter, Sonja can now count in millions. Joan Bennett has published a book, "How to be Attractivc." Oue chapter is entitled "How to Attract a Man or Men and Keep Him or Them." Four times married, Miss Bennett is qualified to give advice. Frank Sinatra, that Box Office lure, has signed a five-year conTract guaranteering a minimum of a million and a half dollars, whether he makes pictures or not. Gary Cooper. has become the highest paid star in the world for a production, with half a million dollars for a single film. ' Told to shun gangster movies as harmful to America 's prestige abroad, studios have now plunged into a cycle of highly charged sex ■ and psychological films — raw and |harsh, but great -profit yielders. The churches' protests go unheard. Preview audiences at Columbia's "Gilda" were thrown into an , uproar when Rita Hayworth muses, from the screen, "Who would ever believe that I could marry two insane men in one lifetime?" Jinx Falkenburg intends calling her baby daughter — if the baby is a girl when it arrives — "Capri," and she and her husband Tex McCrary are a waiting the big event in Manhasset. Producer Leonard Picker has made the bold statement that tCornel Wilde has the best looking

Tegs; in Hollywood — including those of the feminine community. This is after Cornel's brief costume in !"The Bandit of Sherwood Forest." i Wallace Beery's latest film shows 'him as a prizefighter who joins the Balvation Army to please an lorphaned boy! Constance Bennett is having an exhibition of her drawings and illustrations — quite a surprise to those who didn't know that Connie could even hold a stick' of charcoal. Orscn Wblles will do the narration at the first performance of Marc Blitzstein's "Airborne" by the New York City Symphony with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Upon finishing his role in "The Jolson Story," Ludwig Donath immediately stepped before the cameras of the same studio's "The Devil's Mask." Collection of rare Ecuador beads, necklaces, bracelets, etc. seen in the elaborate museum set of Columbia's thriller, "The Devil's were originaliy owned by the late John Barrymore. Later bought oy Edgar Bergen, they were presented to the Los Angeles Museum from which Columbia borrowed them. After three weeks of rehearsals with a dance ensemble, Evelyn Keyes went before the cameras in the "Liza" number for "The Jolson Story," which marked her debut as a screen dancer. The number is one of a series from A1 Jolson hit shows which are recreated -in the technicolour music drama based on the entertainers life. With the addition of "Blue Bell" and "Rosie," scng numbers have reached what is believed an all time record of 43 in the film. Some songs are sung in their entirety, excerpts from others are used as bridges. Henry Travers, vet'eran character star, has been signed for an important role in "Gallant Journey," with William A. Wellman directing and producing. "Gallant Journey" is based on the life of John J. Montgomery, reputedly the first man to fly a heavier-than-air craft in controlled flight. Travers will play the part of Thomas Logan, wno heips in the construction oi some of the early-day planes. You saw Travers last in "None Shall Escape." Charles Starrett and Smiley Burnette were set by Columbia Pictures to co-star again in a series of eight Westerns to be produced by Colbert Clark. The pictures will be a continuation of the "Durango Kid" series, started by Columbia two years ago. In the first eight pictures of the series Starrett was the solo star. At the beginning of the current season the cast was strengthened by the addition of Burnette, who had long been a bulwark to Republic's Gene Autry and Roy Rogers Westerns. A young Australian ex-service-man has been signed up by Gainsborough for a leading role opposite Phyllis Calvert in "'The Root of All Evil." John McCallum is the new ,find, and he will play the part of Joe Bartle, an honest farmer in love with Phyllis. Tall goodlooking, with a charming smile and

|a good speaking voice, he has all j the attributes of a successful i Imatinee idol. " ! I Perhaps no other actor has had a more varied stage and film ;career than Robert Newton, whose i i performance in Noel Coward's TThis Happy Breed" will remain i . long in the memory of the ordinr j ary filmgoer. Though himself a ' I Cornishman, Robert Newton 's ; characterisation of the ordinary bred-in-the-bone Cockney father in 1 this film was a masterpiece. Newi ton is being sought after by Hollywood, but it is understood that he ; has signed a contract for another English produced picture. ! | The screen's 19-year-old newicomer, Marshall Thompson, divides i his time between the movie ; jcamera and the schoolroom. He is !a college student who went to the screen via Little Theatre stages. Thompson made his debut in the ; , j uvenile romantic lead in "Blonde , Fever," and followed it up with the part of the inarticulate boy in "The i Clock." His most important j assignment, so f ar is that of Greg- i I ory Peck's youngest brother in iM.-G.-M.'s "Valley of Decision." Lovely Greer Garson, who stars ; j in "Valley of Decision," with; : Gregory Peck is happy, becausc : ; husband Lt. Richard Ncy has i received his discharge from the !U.S. Navy and has returned to Hollywood. The couple were married during one of Ney's infrequent jleaves and, like most war brides, ! ' Greer has seen very little of her groom since her wedding. ■]