LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

Chronicle (Levin), 6 September 1947, Page 7

LATEST DOINGS FROM THE STUDIOS

(SPECIAL — « Fro.m tes. M. Murphy)

Virginia Mayo became a bride and a; grandmother on the one day. Virginia . married actor Michael O'Shea sa f ew hours after . O'Shea's daughter, by a previous marriage, had given birth to a baby girl. Virginia copied former Deanna Durbin and Judy Garlrind, wearing a frock of grey chiifon for her wedding and carrying pink roses. Margaret Lockwood is a strong favourite for the leading part in the British film "Mary Magdalene," written by Clemence Dane. Dayid Selznick once talked of making this super production in conjunction with the Rank organisation, but it will now be an all-British affair. How the "Wicked Lady" will fare in this role is speculation which will" have to wait until the film. gets cracking. Joan Crawford has burned her fingers, romantically and literally, in the past few days. She has admitted that her so-called romance with cowboy actor Red Barry has fizzled. She has returned to him some of the gifts — and paid for others which she wanted to keep. It seems that the actress became angry when lBarry, wlthout consulting her, made^n agreement with a Hollywood agent to make her available for a film. Charles Laughton will enact the key role of Haake, the Gestapo agent in the Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer co-starring film "Arch of Triumph" for M.-G.-M. To assume the role of Haake Laughton was forced to postpone the opening of the Broadway stage production, "Galileo," in which he has the title role. One of England's foremost stage actors prior to entering films, Laughton has been one of the screen's busiest performers. Robert Young made his debut as a producer when he put "Three Were Thoroughbreds" before the camera, with himself in the starring role and Marguerite Chapman in the feminine lead. The production, a large-scale Western drama in technicolour, is fOr Columbia release. As Nick Buckley, an itinerant cowboy made fugitive from the law by an unwarranted murder charge, Young has a role which is a radical departure from the dressy, urbane parts with which he has previously been identified. When Samuel Goldwyn sent his Georgeous Girls to South America on a goodwill tour they met some Latln American millionaires. One celebrated the girls' arrival plane at Lima, Peru by shootirig a revolver. He was jailed while. he sobered up. Another in Chile dis=- [ guised himself as a waiter, and served the girls a seven-course dinner. The girls promised Goldwyn no dates. Commenting on Hollywood men stars, Academy winner Olivia de Havilland says: "There's a conspiracy among men in Hollywood to break women down. Hollywood attracts the type of men who prey on women, and how angry they become when a girl gets married— they start rumours trying to bfeak it up. She is temporarily out of circulation. The idea is that all women should be available." Charlie Chaplin and Elliott Roosevelt are considering the distribution of Russian films in America. Chaplin's latest picture, "Monsieur Verdoux," has caused a stir among cinema theatre managers in some of the States, recently quoted in these notes. This time Chaplin does not appear as a tramp, but elegantly dressed. Divorcee Joan Blondell surprised Hollywood by marrying divorced stage producer Mike Todd at Las

Vegas, with the couple's children, j Norman Barnes, Ellen Powell and j Michael Todd, Junr., as witnesses. ,\ Much to the . disappointment of j her mother,. Marlene* Dietrich's ; daughter, .Maria" Sieber, married ! scenic designer William Riva in j New York. ' The Hollywood marriage of last , week was film actress Mary Brian I and film edi'tor George. Thomasini. The pair chose a civil ceremony at Santa Mohica, with .Glenda Farrell as matron-of-honour. Joan Crawford recently received the most thrilling fan letter of her career. It was from Winston Churchill, praising her work in "Humoresque." The film will. not be shown here for some" time. Susan Hayward is said to give an Academy performance in R.K.O.'s "They Won't Believe It." A close second and third are Robert Young and Jane Greer, who star together in the same film. . Waiter Huston in future will make only one film a year. At present he is playing with Humphrey Bogart in Warner's "Treasure of Sierra Madre." Huston, who recently celebrated his 63rd birthday, says he feels it is time for a v Gene Kelly, iri "The Birate," costarring Judy Garland, is upsetting the riile that usually it's the girls whose chapeaux'win all the attention in a motion picture. In his role as a swash-buckling pirate, kelly wears an even dozen hats — one a three-cornered affair, specially designed and not like anything else in men's headgear; Latest survey made by Columbia as to the fan mail received by members of its contract list discloses Rita Hayworth as tops,- with Glenn Ford following. Surprise in the survey is$ Australian star Ron Randell, who is .rated tenth in the fan mail poll at the studio. His career as a real-life politician will corrie in handy for Albert Dekker, who has the role of Boone Havock, business tycoon and political boss in M.-G.-M.'s "Cass Timberlane," starring Speneer Tracy and Lana. Turner. Recently Dekker, one of the screen "strong men," has been' featured in such hitstas "The Killers," "Two Years Before the Mast?' and "California." Goldwyn-Mayer is to remake that old romantic drama, "Secrets," ! with Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright in the' top roles. Older fans will remember the 1924 silent version, with Corina Talmadge, and the 4933,. yerson with Mary Pickford. Goldwyn is cnanging the setting of-.Ms-. "Secrets" from .England to >America>