SCREEN and STAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24418, 2 October 1940, Page 4

SCREEN and STAGE

By Harlequin

Comedies in Favour “The trend .of public taste is towards comedy—something which will take people’s minds away from the tragedy of war —and therefore comedies are being made in vast numbers in Hollywood,” said Mr Gordon Ellis, general manager for British Empire Films, who has recently returned from an eight months’ visit to America.

“Propaganda films are not what the public want. ,and Hollywood, being a commercial proposition; is not making them to any large extent.” continued Mr Ellis. “On the other hand, a good story which has war for. a background is usually gripping entertainment, and therefore a good commercial proposition for the producers. “I think that, with the increasing popularity of the longer films, the producers will strive towards making pictures of a higher grade, so that only one full-length feature and some short features are required for a session. This should mean that we see more good and fewer second class productions.”

Among the actors Mr Ellis met in Hollywood was Cecil Kellaway, whom he describes as “ the greatest ambassador for Australia in America.” “ Cecil was very well and happy and was waiting for final news of a new longterm contract, just before I left.” *

Mr Ellis feels that, with the establishing of the flying-boat service from America, it might be possible to'obtain the services of well-known Hollywood stars for Australian flxm productions. “At the moment, most of them consider the ship jourhey would waste too much of their time. Both Allan Jones and Anita ■ Louise • professed a desire to come to Australia, but the financial situation which exists at present does not encourage Americans to wort: in Australia.” said Mr Ellis.

Empire Theatre A world-Wide following of fans will hail Buck Jories’s return to the screen, after an absence of nearly two years, in the Republic picture, ‘ Wagons Westward,” which opens at the Empire Theatre on Friday. For 18 years Buck Jones has ranked among the top cowboy actors. But he was a cowboy long before he was an actor. Born in Vincennes. Indiana, his parents moved to an Oklahoma ranch when he was six, and the cow-punchers taught him to ride his first horse. Although christened “Charles.” his friends thought “ Buck ” was more like the bronco buster into which Jones rapidly developed and he has been “ Buck ever since. Prior to his long acting career. Jones led a very exciting life in the cavalry, which he joined in his teens. He fought in the Spanish American War. and later, , when revolt flamed in the Philippines, he was in the thick of the fire/and action. When his enlistment expired, he turned to aviation and auio racing for excitement, and for a time surpassed all speedway records. Hi s love for horses drew him back to the saddle and he joined the famous 101 Ranch Wild West Show and became a featured attraction. Then fate intervened in Buck Jcnes’s career.' He

fell in love and married Odille Osborne. another bronco buster and they decided to make their home in HollyWood just at a time when western pictures needed cowboy actors. Since then, his career is the saga of western motion picture history. In “Wagons Westward ” he plays the heavy, opposite Chester Morris, who portrays a dual role of cut-throat and hero in a wild, gun-shooting town in New 'Mexico. A distinguished cast includes Anita Louise, Ona Munson, George “ Gabby ” Hayes, Guinn “ Big Boy ’ Williams, and Douglas Fowley,

From GREEN ROOM and STUDIO

can be the work only of Dr Hugo Norden, world-famous peace leader supposedly assassinated a year before in Warsaw. To Switzerland, then, come two young reporters—Ray Milland from London and Robert Cummings from the Paris office of a New York paper—to seek out the author of the world-rousing, revelations. The March of Time .Embarking in the near future on the sixth year of distribution in Great Britain, .the “ March of Time new series is assured; of playing in more kinertias than ever before in its distinguished! history, comments a-,writer in Kinematograpn.

A statement, emanating from R.K.0.Radio. tells of the remarkable success enjoyed by this entertaining news magazine in recent years and' the great plans made for the future. Since the inception of the “ March of Time ” in the United Kingdom the film has become a welcome feature at kinemas throughout the country. The originality and topicality of its presentation has been praised by newspapers in all territory, and every special issue has been made front-page news m leading national journals and magazines.

In their choice of stories. the sponsors of the “ March of Time select subjects with a widespread appeal. Such episodes as “ The Vatican of Pius XII," “Japan, Master of the Orient,” “Inside. Nazi Germany, “ Czechoslovakia,”: “ Poland and. War “ The Battle Fleets of Britain,” Soldiers with Wings,” “The Mediterranean, Background of War, Britain, Peace and Propaganda ” have been screened when these national subjects were occupying first place in the public eye. . ,

It is this foresight and endeavour that has carved for the “ March of Time ” the proud position it occupies in the film firmament to-day, and made it a great box office attraction. Strand Theatre An unusual now mystery film. Universal’s “Double Alibi,” co-starring Wayne Morris, Margaret Lindsay, and William Gargan. opens on Friday at the Strand Theatre. Morris, who rose to stardom in. His prize-fighter roles in “ Kid Galahad ” and other pictures, essays the triple role of a detective, a newspaper reporter, and a widelysought murder suspect. The performance is said to be one of the best of his career. Miss Lindsay and Gargan both appear as newspaper workers, and Roscoe Karns. probably the screen’s foremost portrayer of reporter roles, i$ seen as the photographer of a big city daily.

“Everything Happens at Night” Story value and acting performances are counted on in “Everything Happens at Night” more than in any of Sonja Henie’s previous five productions. It is a completely different type of story for the famous skating star and queen of the ice. It is a timely tale of modern intrigue, with the added attraction of Gonja’s artistry on silver blades and slippery skis. Ray Milland and Robert Cummings are featured as Sonja’s leading men _in the attraction whicl ■ opens on Friday at the Octagon Theatre The cast includes Maurice Moscovich. Leonid Kmskey, Alan Dinehart, and Fritz Feld. Signed by Twentieth Century-Fox originally just for her skating genius, the studio asked no real acting talent from Sonja Henie in her first few pictures. where they were content just to have her perform on the ice. But it was soon apparent that a real dramatic talent was possessed by the ice champion. Never, however, has Sonja had a part as demanding upon her new-found ability as in “Everything Happens at Night.” As the daughtei of a famous European statesman hiding in Switzerland from his enemies, she aids her father in revealing to the world the sensational inside story of the new international intrigue. These stories, because of their style and content lead news editors to believe they

Hard riding and smoking guns will be another attraction on Friday at the Strand Theatre, when “ Hopalong Cassidy comes back with' his pals “Lucky” and “Speedy” in his latest action-packed Clarence E. Mulford Western, Paramount’s “ Hidden Gold.” “ Hoppy,” celebrated character of fiction and film, is on a vacation from Bar 20 this time looking for the robbers who stop shipment after shipment of the Colby gold. William Boyd, the man who gave life to Clarence E. Mulford’s cowboy character, will again have Russell Hayden ,as “ Lucky ” and Britt Wood as “Speedy,” supporting him as his scrapping, laughing pals.

"The Secret of Dr Kildare” More thrilling adventures with young Dr Jimmy Kildare are revealed in “The Secret of Dr Kildare,” third of the popular scientific detective series, which comes to the Regent Theatre next Friday. This film embodies the type of entertainment that has strong appeal. As in the other pictures, Lionel Barrymore is the crusty, hardboiled physician who is at heart one of the most sentimental of humans, while Lew Ayres, as his assistant and the apple of his eye, works his way in and out of difficult,, situations and his superior’s good graces all with the best of intentions. Supporting players new to the “Dr Kildare” series include Lionel Atwill as the millionaire father of the “ mystery patient,” Helen Gilbert (recruited from the “Judge Hardy” family), and Sara Haden playing a fanatical nurse. Among those who continue the characterisations of earlier pictures in the series are Nat Pendleton as the two-fisted ambulance driver, Laraine Day as the attractive nurse, Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn as Lew Ayres’s parents, Walter Kingsford as the hospital superintendent, Grant Mitchell, Alma Kruger, Robert Kent and Marie Blake. The story revolves about the nameless terror of a young girl, which, through exciting adventures, Ayres traces down to the machinations of a fanatical nurse and a quack doctor. Barrymore, as the young doctor’s exacting mentor, guides him. Dramatic episodes, such as healing a girl’s blindness by practical mental suggestion, and the appar-

ent miraculous cure of a paralytic boy by a new medical discovery are mingled with hilarious comedy, such as Barrymore’s game of “ craps ’ with George Reed, to enlighten the central plot. Laraine Day is charming as Mary Lament, the nurse, and Helen Gilbert’s fragile blonde beauty is effective in her role as the ‘mystery patient.” The interior and exterior ot a great modern hospital, built especially for the series and presen ing the last word in hospital architecture, with operating roiams. laboratories and elaborate equipment; the palatial home of a millionaire, also a gay night club, are among details of the settings of the story.

Foreign Markets Lost A loss of approximately 2,500,000 dollars in annual revenue is being suffered by American producers as a result or the closure of over 1500 theatres, due to the German invasion of Poland, the Netherlands and France. Except tor South America and the East, what remains of America’s foreign market is further dangerously threatened. Britain is practically the only Western country that is still open. Recently in New York, the European general manager for R.K.O. Radio, said the changed conditions would necessitate an entirely new formula for operations in Europe. Other foreign department executives consider that the outlook could hardly be blacker than it is at the present moment. Turning to maps of Europe, they point in succession to Germany, Aus-

tria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Norway. Sweden Holland. Belgium, and the Balkans. One foreign head declares that the foreign market should be written off entirely, and considers that there *s little possibility of compensating for European losses in the Latin-American field. Most of the major distributors have been concentrating important sales activity in those countries for some years. „ , Besides the immediate and future disappearance of revenue, the war has brought important losses in physical assets. A report by Wm. C. Bullitt, United States Ambassador to France, indicates that all the American companies’ assets in Poland have been confiscated by the conquerors of that country. Several ships carrying films to ports in Western Europe were sunk by submarines or mines.

Up to the middle of May last, losses in Holland and Belgium were not known in New York, and could not be estimated, because of the disruption in communications. Communications even from France and England, at that time, were subject to long delay. The position at the present moment must therefore be worse.

Revenues from the British Empire, already reduced and restricted by war conditions, have been further affected by the agreement between American distributors and the Australian Government whereby 50 per cent, of their revenue is to be retained in Australia.

Grand Theatre As Portia in George Axiiss’s production of “ The Merchant of Venice,” Frieda Inescort won international fame for her “ quality of mercy ” speech. She appears as a modern Portia in Columbia’s “A Woman is the Judge,” which opens to-day at the Grand Theatre with Otto Kruger and Rochelle Hudson. Appearing as Mary Cabot, an honoured and distinguished judge, Miss Inescort resigns from the Bench to become defence attorney for a voung underworld waif who has been accused of murder. Hollywood has hailed “A Woman is the Judge ” as one of the finest vehicles in the distinguished career of the brilliant stage and screen star. Miss Hudson is seen as the girl on trial, and Otto Kruger is cast as the attorney whose romance with the woman jurist is not permitted to interfere with his prosecution of her daughter. Principal supporting players are Mayo Methot. Gordon Oliver and Arthur Loft.

Fifty thousand dollars in gold dust, packed tightly in tiny leather bags, play an,important part in Charles Starrett’s new starring picture, Columbia's tuneful Western drama. “ Outlaws of the Prairie,” showing at the Grand Theatre to-day. Appearing opposite Charles Starrett in “ Outlaws of the Prairie ” is Iris Meredith, beautiful voung leading lady. Others featured in the supporting cast are Donald Grayson, Dick Curtis, Norman Willis, Ed Le Saint, Edward Cobb. Art Mix and the Sons of the Pioneers a famous musical quintet.

St. James Theatre

“ The Stars Look Down ” Each of Dr Cronin’s sensational novels has had a motive: almost all attacked, openly and convincingly some grave public injustice which resulted in exploitation and misery for thousands of the world’s ordinary people. In “The Stars Look Down," coming on Friday to the State Theatre, the dangers faced by the British coal miners are graphically depicted, but the drab and heart-breaking existence is all the more realistic as the film, like the novel, shows how, but for the avarice and callousness of the mine owners, the plight of the miners could be greatly alleviated. Michael Redgrave is cast as the young scholar, ex-miner, whose aim in life is to gain a political position sufficiently prominent to make men listen to him and learn about the miners’ hardships. Margaret Lockwood is Jennie, his selfish and worldly little wife, who all but ruins his chances and career. The best-remembered of the novel’s characters, Jow Gowlan, is played by Emlyn Williams, who gives a fine portrayal of the attractive scamp. The film does not attempt to cover the whole scope of Cronin’s great novel, but confines itself more or less to the mining sequences and associate incidents. The scenes of flooded mining shafts and the struggles of entombed men are realistic and stirring.

Against a spectacular background of oil well fires, a tensely dramatic theme. Edward G. Robinson is said to play one of the greatest roles of his career in “ Blackmail,” which opens on Friday at the St. James Theatre. It is a vital, different, sympathetic role, one that, when coupled with Robinson s portrayals «f racketeering gang leaders and ruthless gunmen, finds him emerging one of the most versatile actors on the screen to-day. Although he is once more on the wrong side of prison bars, he is there for a crime he did not commit. The heavy is Gene Lockhart, curiously enough nearly as well known for his kindly or comic roles as Robinson is as a killer. Robinson is cast as an oil well shooter who nine years before had escaped from a prison camp after being sent there for a crime committed by Lockhart. Seeing Robinson s picture in a newsreel. Lockhart shows up in town, professes friendship, worms his way into Robinson’s confidence, then blackmails him for 25,000 dollars in exchange for a confession to the crime. By a ruse, Lockhart receives his confession back, destroys it. and turns Robinson over to the police. Robinson is returned to prison, escapes from a road gang camp in the swamps when he learns that Lockhart has secured all his property and forces the latter to make his confession. Bobs Watson, the brilliant boy star of “On Borrowed Time.” is cast in the role of Robinson’s son, while Guinn (Big Boy) Williams plays Robinson’s partner in the precarious business of dynamiting oil well fires. Laurel and Hardy are featured in another hilarious farce, “Blockheads." the associate feature at the St. James Theatre. Blockheads they are blundering their way from one ridiculous

situation to another throughout the length of the film. Even the opening sequence, which is ludicrious in the extreme, seems invested with an air of realitv when played by Stan and Laurel. Could anyone but Laurel serving in the great war keep on doing sentry duty in a' deserted trench for 20 years after the war has ended because no one had given him orders to stop. Twenty years after, however, the war-time comrades are united in their home city in America and are plunged into the battlefield of everyday life with a jealous wife and a flirtatious young lady in the adjoining apartment to add to their adventures. Mayfair Theatre

With the big increase lately In the number of Western films, it takes a really outstanding one to rise above the general level. Such a production, however, is the “ Oklahoma Kid,” which is the feature film to be screened at the Mayfair Theatre for the next three nights. Marking a return to the screen of James Cagney after a long absence, it combines all the thrills and action that are necessary to make a picture that will keep both children and adults hanging on to their seats. The cast is a big one to start with at any rate, but it is seriously depleted by the actions of the Oklahoma Kid, a

part played with rare dash by Cagney. Beginning as an outlaw in a newlyrisen Western town which is over-run by graft and lawlessness, he becomes a stalking Nemesis when his father, standing for Mayor, is framed on a murder charge. About this story, full of action and with not a little comedy, is woven a delightful romance between the kid and the beautiful daughter of a judge. In this role Rosemary Lane gives a performance that should do much to help her on the road to stardom. Donald Crisp is excellent as the judge, and Humphrey Bogart has a role that suits him to perfection as the leader of the outlaws. This film is not just an ordinary Western, and to say that it is just a superior Western is not doing it justice. There is some outstanding scenery of the Cherokee lands, and the photography is worthy of particular mention. _ The supporting picture is Paramount’s thrill-filled action romance “King of Alcatraz,” featuring Lloyd Nolan. Gail Patrick, J. Carroll Naish. Harry Carey, Porter Hall, and Robert Preston.

Topical Naval Film The people who go to the pictures want something to cheer. That is what Sidney Bernstein said to me when he took on his new job as technical adviser to the Films Section of the Ministry of Information (writes Seton Musgrave in the Daily Mail). If Sidney Bernstein is right, and I think he is. vou can get ready now. The film to cheer is here. “ Convoy,” at the New Gallery, is a tale of the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine, how happily they pull each other's sea legs, iiow quickly they get down to business when an enemy tries to push his long.

‘•grey nose into what is strictly the North Sea, the navy having decided there is no such thing as the German Ocean I used to hear about when I was a boy at school.

“ Convoy ” was planned and produced by Michael Balcon with a lot of help from the navy, none from the Ministry of Information. The navy gave permission to author Pat Kirwan, cameraman Roy Kellmo. and director Penrose Tennyson, now in the navy himself, to sail on actual convoys. The result is the best of all British war Aims —and the best film of the sea made in Britain or anywhere else in the world. “ Convoy ” has the tang of the sea in every foot or fathom of its length. There is a story about a lieutenant. a captain, and the woman they love, and a merchant skipper—John Clements. Clive Brook. Judv Campbell, and Edward Chapman, all excellent—but happily the story is slight enough to leave “ Convoy ” with more sea room than any other picture. It begins on the sea, it ends on the sea, it never leaves the sea. it has the .fine fervour of sea warfare, the courage, the endurance, the rich humour, the readiness to help a friend, the eagerness to engage an enemy, the ioy in meeting heavy odds and the exaltation that is the fleet in action “ Convoy ” has the right cut to its jib. As I watched the magnificent reproduction of a battle between the ship

Film Topics

commanded by Clive Brook and the pocket battleship Deutschland. I realised that here was something different.

Harry Edington has set Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard to team in “They Knew 'Vvhat They Wanted,” the Sidney Howard play purchased from M.G.M.. which filmed it in 1930 with Edward G. Robinson, Vilma Banky and Kenneth Thomson. Paramount teamed Laughton and Miss Lombard in “White Woman” in 1932. R.K.O. will start production on May 1, with Garson Kanin directing for- Erich Pommer. Carole Lombard’s commitments with R.K.O. for “ Unbreakable Mrs Doll ” and “Mr and Mrs,” and the Laughton starrer “ Half a Rogue,” have been set back in work after “ They Knew What They Wanted.”

The Hakim Brothers. French producers, are negotiating for Loretta Young to play the role that Helen Hayes created on +he New York stage in “ Ladies and Gentlemen,” the Ben Hecht-Charles McArthur pldy, based on a story by Ladislau Bus-Fekete. Clark Gable will have the top male role opposite Katherine Hepburn in the screen version of Philip Barry’s successful Broadway play. “ The Philadelphia Story.” This will be Miss Hepburn’s first picture in over two years: and will be produced by. Hunt Stromberg for M.G.M.