FLOOD OF REMAKES FROM OLD FAVOURITES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 89, 1 May 1937, Page 10

FLOOD OF REMAKES FROM OLD FAVOURITES

In an epidemic of .remakes, the screen has turned to the successes of the past for material, says a ivriter in The New York Times. Virtually every studio has rifled its flies seeking yams made prior to 1930 which did gratifying business at the box office. In additioii to those pietures which, in the light of • history, are regarded as epics, there is brisk trade aniong offerings of lesser importance. Old, but popular, scenarios are being dusted off, their backgrounds altered, their titles changed, and are being issued as new yarns. Most • of them are in the B and C category. Samuel Goldwyn attributes the remake trend to a ten-year cycle. He feels that it is only about once in a decade that stars, writers, director and producer can be brought togqther in proper combination to remake an • old- favourite satisfactorily. Strive as he. might, he says, unless a producer has the right personalities in each division, the film would prove a disappointment to those who remember.ed : the , original versipn, -and would loso money, Tq prove ,this point, Mr Goldwyn cites; the casting. of several films now being remade, . "Stella I)allas,,.' ."Seventh , Heaven,"., "Prisoner ! of Zenda," "Irene,"' "The Trespasser" among them. Among those already released during the season which have acquitted themselves satisfactorily are "Dark .Angel," ''Little Lord Fauntleroy", "Romeo ahd juliet," Ruggles of Red Gap" and "God's Oountry and the 1 ■ Woman." As a rule the original titles are r&tained in the first-grade pietures, for the studios are openly remaking old successes. When they are altered, it is generally for a reason. "The Student Prince," once mafie as "Old Heidelberg," was changed because the stage version of the piece is more famous that the film whichi Ernst Lubitsch directed for Metrd, New Backgrounds. Title changes on the B and O product are solely ior the pnrpose oi disguise, which is rarely a motive with the first-line films, "Swing High, Swing Low," which Paramount is making from "Burlesque," is the only one in the A classification whqge origin is being concealed. Warners have had particular snscess in inaking low-bud-get films from their old successes. They moved "Five Star Final" out of a newspapea: office into a radio station and it became "Two Against the World." The locale of "Cabin in the Uotton" was shifted to Arkansas and the fihn wll einerge afi "White Bondage." "The Butter and Egg Man," going from the stage to a night clu&, becomes "Dance, Charlie, .Dance," "Blessed Event" was' transmuted into "Here Comes Carter." Oue of the more interesting alterations is in "War Lord," for it shows what a change in background will do. It was originally l'The Bad Man" and the line which Holbrook Blinn delivered — "I : am the bes' dam' caballero in all Mexico" — will emerge from the. lips of Boris Karloff, in proper pigdin English, as "Me bes' dam' bafidit in all China." One studio has had some trouble with its remarkes because jt believed that a change of title; and cast was all that was necessary to conceal the origin of a series of Western stories it has been making for years. ' These westerns have gone out year after year under new names and with new players, but the same old plots have been followed. Hecently complaints have been coming in froin exhibitors saying that the patrons keep insisting they have seen the picture before. Many of the theatre men never bother to look at the second film on their dual bills ; if the custouaers want to, that's their responsi'bility.' Consequently, few exhibitors discovered the deceit themselves,. but when they learned they were paying rentala for the same pietures they had been showing for years they protested. No Now Plotsl There is another side to that situation, however.' A famous Western star transferred his ailegiance to a new lot a few inonths ago and the producer issigned to him began a frantic search for new material. The star halted him, saying, "Never mind. I've got my old .scripts here." The producer prptested, but the actor was firm. ."I've been getting by for years with these plots," he said. "I've made every one of them at least a half dozen times and I'm not going to jeopardize my popularity nojv by shifting to new stories." As for the audiences themselves, their essential desires and tastes, there is little change from twenty-five years ago. Audiences like to project themselves on the screen and live there in oue role or another fdr the timo they are in ihe theatre. I suppose Will Brady and I had this in mind when we started our first nickelodeons with a subject called Hale's Tours, a hairraising trip up Mount Blanc. AVe showed it in an abandoned railroad car in the interegts of realism, and by ruaning the film fast made people think tbey were rushing- up the monntain sxde. As an added touch we loosened the seats, and by means of belt. attached to a' motor, gave our patrons a good jolting.