DIRECTOR'S WORRIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 312, 27 August 1932, Page 7

DIRECTOR'S WORRIES

There now comes a new word to be added to the long list of those offering diflficulties to the talkies, and that word is "figure." It raised rather an amusing problem for the director during the screening of "The Man Who Played God," a Warner Bros. First National pieture, starring George Arliss. "Look here," said Violet Heming, famous stage actress, one day as she reh'earsed her lines — only she pronounced it "heah'." "I'm supposed to say 'That girl over theah has a nice figure.' Now over in England we pronouce it 'figgah,' but I notice that in America you say 'fiyure.' I don't know which to use." "Maybe you can compromise," suggested Ivan Simpson helpfully, "and say figyuah'." But Bett Davies eapped the climax. "In Australia," she interposed, "I hear that they call it 'figger,' she accented the last syllable, too! Indications are now that when the line reaches the screen the young lady in question will have ehanged her 'figure' for a 'form.' * _A new definition of Hollywood was given recently when Shri Meher Baba, an llndian mystic who hasn't spoken for seven years, visitad Tallulah Bankhead. When the star asked him why he had chosen Hollywood at which to break his silence on July 13, Shri Baba spelled on his alphabet hoard: "Because of the equal balanee which exists here between the spiritual and material forces." Chester Morris comes from a theatrical family. His father is William Morris, best remembered for his per-

formances in many Belasco successes. His mother was a noted comedienne known to theatre-goers as Etta Hawkings. x Colleen Moore who faded out, apparently unaceountably, after one or two exeellent talkies is back in the films and is once more a great success. A lot of mystery has been built up round her exile from the studios, but the real trouble was that she would not take a salary cut when her film future was made uncertain by the coming of sound.

"Wliere do you reckon the best tobacco comes from?" queried a Dunedin reporter of a local merchant who is a large importer of the weed. "Well," was the reply, "most imported hrands come from America, of course. South Africa sends a few, too. But I think the New Zealand , tobacco is about the pick of the basket to-day. Some of our choifcest leaf is worth over £200 a ton to the grower. Factr The oUtstanding merit of New Zealand tobacco is its comparatiVe freedom from nicdtine, The manufacturers put it through a special toasting or roasting process, from Which it emerges pure, sweet, fragrant and, hetter still, ahsol.utely innocuous; can that be said of all the foreign tohaccos? I am afraid not!" Quite correct, sir, And it is worthy of special note that there are only four