THE SCREEN

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 6

THE SCREEN

FILM STARS AND PICTURES. Long-jawed, exuberant Tommy Trinder is having what he describes I as his first holiday since be became an actor. But it's not a conventional hcliday by any means. He has gone on tour with a tenting circus, and he hopes to be able to cover quite a lot oi tlie country before returning to Lcndon. Tommy, top-line ffim and stage star, is not being billed as a circus attraction, however. He is with the circus as an odcl-job man, helping to put up the tents and get the circus ready every night. "But," he admits, "l5ve no doubt that I II flnd my way into the circus itself somehow or other!" Hollywood hasn't yet discovered a substitute for rain, as it has for snow and other phases of the weather Margaret Sullavan found that out when she stood in a pouring, moviemade rain for two hours in a scene for the David L. Loew-Albert Lewin production, "So Ends Our Night," starring Fredric March, Miss Sullavan and Frances Dee. The scene was in a forest, and concealed high in the trees were large sprinklers which swished water down on the star. Miss Sullavan was well-protected," however, for she wore a raincoat,' rain-hat, and a special rubber suit underneath.

Zasu Pitts, of the eloquent eyes and fluttery hands, is a comedienne whether she likes it or not. The public is so used to laughing at her that it will not accept her as a tragedienne. She was given a few tear-jerking parts and gave competent performances, but audiences chortled when they should" liave wept. Miss Pitts went through a period of adversity before gaining recognition on the screen. Her first picture was "The Little Princess," starring Mary Pickford. The crowning achievement of her early career was in the feminine lead of the Erich von Stroheim success, "Gr'eed." Her latest role is that of the head of a women's fan club in "Broadway Limited." Surpassing in sea thrills even the magniflcent schooner sequences of "Captains Courageous," hitherto considered "tops" of their kind, "Thunder Afloat" is an epic story of naval courage, starring Wallace Beery in one of the most thoroughly satisfying characterisations he has ever enjoyed. As the tugboat captain who joins the Navy and wants to fight the war single-handed after an enemy submarine has sunk his craft, Beery is at his blustering best. The role is not all bravado, however. It pennits him to prove himself the versatile veteran that he is, schooled in every art of the screen. Chester Morris, as Beery 's bitter tugboat rival, is effectively convincing, while Virginia Grey, winning her most important opportunity to date as Beery's daughter, asks odds of no one in ability. Tlie plans of a new defence weapon, life inthe Marine Corps, the activities of a band of enemy agents and the roistering rivalry of leathernecks Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe are combined to form the exciting and uproarious basis of "Call j Out the Marines," RKO Radio's new [ feature offering. Famous for their I "sez you — sez me" quarrels in the | past, the McLaglen-Lowe pair are ! brought right up to date in the pic- j ture, which has them abandon civil- E ian life to re-enlist in the corps for I the duration of the present emer- f gency. Their real purpose, of course, [ is to make a greater impression on [ the ladies who frequent the Shore-

leave Cafe. Eut the blustering duo don't know that the cafe is a rendezvous for a group of foreign spies trying to steal the blueprints of the Marines' new amphibian tank, or that their favourite heart interest, an entertainer named Violet, is one of the spies. All this leads to hilarious complications when the two devil-dogs decide to capture the spies themselves and succeed only in wrecking the carefully-laid trap set by the Intelligence Service for the same purpcse. How the pair seek to redeem themselves comprises the hurricane finisli to the timely film. Thomas Mitchell, known as the fastest climbing character actor In pictures, was born on the wrong side of the tracks in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He encountered life in the raw from his earliest youth and built up a background of experience which he says has proved invaluable to his acting career Currently playing one of the top roles in John Ford's Argosy production, "The Long Voyage Home," Mitchell started out to be a newspaper man but found it dull work. He wanted most to travel, so he wrote a vaudeville act and travelled around the tank towns of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This got tiresome, too, but by then he knew he wanted to be an actor. So he joined the Ben Greet Players in New York and for four years played Shakespeare. He gave up the im- i mortal bard for modern drama, and ! after some success tried his hand at i playwriting. He wrote "Little Acci- j dent" and played in it on Broadway ] with great acclaim. When Hollywood beckoned the invitation was for a writer. He laboured in the scenario mills for some eight months j and then gave it up and went back to Broadway. • Goldwyn brought him back to Hollywood for "The Hurricane."