THE MAKING OF ENGLAND'S FUTURE STARS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 196, 4 September 1937, Page 10

THE MAKING OF ENGLAND'S FUTURE STARS

There has been so' much talk and so little uotion by film producerp, , both visitors and natives, about the dis- ■ covery of unknown Stars in ' the teashops- and byways and repertory companiea of England, - that it comes aa something: of a shock to learn ; that _ somebody is really doing something at • .last towards discovering one, writes 4 a London correspondent. :• Alexander Korda • and Osoai Deutsch have hit on a plan to produce, at Mr. Korda 's ' studios at Denhain, » W number of short pictures, in each • of which three, or perhaps' four, newcomors will sing, or ce, do a bit- of "staight" acting, a-i.l altogether give a sample of their quality. The pictures will be shown regularly in the programmes of Mr. Deutsch's two hundred and fifty theatres, and every momber of.the audience will be given a voting card on which to register approval or disapproval. The vote will — or shall we say, may — decide the qualification . of these. candidates for star rank. How It Alrose. - The plan, which seems to me an excellent one, mutually advantageous to producers, exhibitors, actors and picturegoers, axose in a curiously accidental way in the course of the norma! studio curriculum. Mr. Korda and his associate producers at Denham, finding themselves f aced at the beginning of this year with a large number of pictures requiring large casts of players, set about a widespread roundup of taleut. Maxwell Wraye, the theatre producer, who was already working as dialogue director on Korda 's ' 'Knight Without" Armour," was commissioned to hunt for new faces, faces that would stand out in the small parts — individual faces that would make us say, as we do of the players in Hollywood pictures, "Wlio was the girl who played . the typist?" "What was the name of-that gangster f ellow?" and, "Dammit, why can't, they give us cast lists at ihe end of the film?'* . ...... Maxwell Wraye sent out his scouts into the worlds of the -prof essional' and amateur theatre, xang -up the j agents, let it be known .amongst his theatre friends what he was doing. . The resuits were overwhelming. At his first audition they came in by tbeir bundreds, from the West End theatre, from the repertory companies, from the music hall, from the dance bands. There were amateurs who have never spoken- a line on any stage, and veteranS who had been playing B towns for- thirty years. Thero wero elderly ladies who periodically oiled the throat with, a drop. of port from, a medicine bottle, and pathetic little girls who had risked seven and sixpence on a dancing lesson for tho

great occasion. There were opera singers and low comedians; eccentric dancers and society maidens; Poles and Swedes and Canadians, Yiennese and Americans and Cockneys. From these hundreds Mr. Wraya weeded out tho most promising twenty or thirty, taiked to them, . rehearsed them, tried to discover their -individual bent, and made.yarious tests of them. Then he called another audition, weeded out another twenty , and so on, again and; 'again. Tests for Small Parts,, From these tests some of the small parts have already been cast in coming Denham productions. But a number of interesting candidates are still unplaced. Mr. Wraye was .doubtful and the studio was sure. Or 'Mr Wraye was sure and the studio was doubtful. Ir simply there was no part. for them _ in the current schedule. These are the tests that the public will judge. Some may prove to have what is known as star personality. Some may do well as sm'all-'part character players. Some ma,y get the bird with just and forthright unanimity. Anyway, it's up to us. Having seen between twenty and. thirty of Mr. Wraye's seeded tests, I can promise something re'ally interesting to any picturegoer who joins in this curious canvass. There are at lease three potential stars in the. batch, and quite a dozen others with enormous possibilities. There is a .crooner, a personable young man, not unknown in this country, who might well turn out to be, for better or worse, a second Bing Crosby. There is an old, large music-hall star with a lovely gusto who would knock tkem flat in Walthamstow or Mayfair. There is a few girl, with flying .eyes, who doesn't yet know. her medium, who might be the world's. best Mary Rose, and yet again she mightn't. -There is the sister . (tlioiigh you will never know it) of a . well-Jmown film . star, who has been . overlooked, quite mistakeniy I faucy, in fayour of brighter looks and clearer .charm '.and more. obvious fialents. There is a grand Cockney lad who does skat-singing, and tlie budding spring of a theatrical royal family. There is a wistful soubrette with the lost look of a Zasu Pitts, whom I should sign up quick if I were a producer, and a young Canadian girl who has never spoken a line on any stage, who plays, quite • touchingly, a scene from ' ' The Coigtanant Nymph" in monologue. And 'there is- a young Polish dancer with exquisite limbs, a broad, urgent little face . )and a voice like liquid honey. Nobody can persuade me that somewhere here, amongst all this talent, you .will not find the bright stuff of which stars can be made.