"TOVARICH" FOR MAJESTIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 4

"TOVARICH" FOR MAJESTIC

Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer,

'"Tovarich," the world-famous comedy dealing with an exiled Russian Prince and Grand Duchess, which has been playing on the stage in - America and England for several years, comes in film form to the Majestic Theatre next Friday. Starring Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer, it is said to be the most massive and expensive production that Warner Bros, have turned out since "Anthony Adverse" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade.'1 The director selected to handle the making of the immense production was Anatole Litvak, Russian-born genius who several years ago in France made the highly successful "Be Mine Tonight." Anton Grot designed the settings for

"Tovarieh." The largest one, a copy of the Belleville section in Paris, covered two acres and cost £12,000 to build. The set, under construction for four weeks, is seen in the opening shot of the picture. Three-storey buildings, complete in every detail, surround a courtyard, paved with thousands of real cobble-stones. Fullystocked wine shops, book -stores, clothing stores, .boot shops, cheese shops, and the like open on to the streets. Another tremendous setting was a market scene where Miss Colbert is caught stealing food. The entire stock of a wholesale vegetable concern in Hollywood was purchased for three days to dress the set, which was a copy of a market in the working man's section of Paris. This set covered a city block. A feature of the production is the camera technique. Charles Lang, who has photographed Miss Colbert in her latest pictures, handled the cinematography, 'and under Litvak's direction filled the film with difficult and intricate moving shots. Seldom was the camera still, and this gave the picture movement and pace and kept it from becoming static. Besides the players already named, the cast includes such popular actors and actresses as Basil Rathbone, Morris Carnovsky, Melville Cooper. Montagu Love, Heather Thatcher, and Reine Riano.