PICTURE PLAYS and PLAYERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 56, 28 May 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

PICTURE PLAYS and PLAYERS

British from beginning: to ena—is tne noW famous film, "London,” starring Dorothy Gish, which is being released hv Paramount. The Regent has secured this attraction for screening during the week commencing July In her new Paramount picture, ‘‘A Kiss in a Taxi.” Bebe Daniels plays rinette, the tantalising waitress of a Montmartre cafe. Each patron seeks to kiss her, but all advances are met with a rain of tumblers, goblets and wine glasses. Consequently, Director Clarence Badger found his production one long rioL ■Was there ever a more sophisticated suave, debonair fellow than Adolphe Menjou, the ar about whom ah women rave, and whom husbands hate but flock to see. "Blonde and Brunette” is his next Auckland release, anc it is everything that its title suggests. Hin-Tin-Tin’s latest picture, "Hills of Kentucky.” is said to contain a number of new tricks that leave an audience gasping. In support of Rin-Tin-Tin ar«* Jason Roberts, Dorothy Dwan Tom Sansehi, Rin-Tin-Tin jun., anc Nanette. The picture is due for release in Auckland shortly. Scenes of the Eiffel Tower, the Pantheon, and scores of other famous Park landmarks, are seen in Bebe Daniels’s new Paramount starring comedy “Stranded in Paris,” coming to tht Princess and Tivoli Theatres soon. * * * Romance, adventure and intrigue ar« the principal ingredients in the Uni versal Western attraction, "Looking fo: Trouble,” starring Jack Hoxie. Uni versal has given Hoxie a great sup porting cast, including Marceline Day James Gordon Russell, Peggy Mont gomery, Edmund Cobb and others.

Some intimate touches into animal life are shown in the Universal release, "Then Came the Woman.” Different scenes during the sequence of the forest fire show various kinds of animals, including bears, cougars, coyotes, opossums, and also birds forsaking their native haunts in fear of the fire scourge. * * *

Madge Bellamy has completed the title role in "The Telephone Girl,” Herbert Brenon’s new Paramount picture, and has returned to California, featured with Miss Bellamy in this film version of W. C. de Mille’s "The Woman,” are Holbrook Blinn, Warner Baxter, May Allison and Lawrence Gray.

Edward Everett Horton, the comedian who stepped into screen fame through his work firstly in "A Beggar on Horseback,” and just lately in

"Poker Faces,” is the star of another hilarious Universal comedy, “The Whole Town’s Talking.” Seventeen-year-old Virginia Corbin plays opposite Horton in this picture.

"Rose Marie,” musical comedy success, will be presented soon in moving pictures, screen rights having been purchased by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. William Nigh, director of "Mr. Wu” and "The Fire Brigade,” will direct the picture. Rights to the music score by Rudolph Friml and Herbert Stothert were also purchased in the deal with Arthur Hammerstein.

An emotional role different from anything she has attempted on the screen, but one in keeping with the training she received as a star on the stage, has been blended into Pola Negri’s next starring drama for Paramount. The production is “The Woman on Trial.” based on a stage play by Ernest Vajda, brilliant Hungarian dramatist. It will be directed by Mauritz Stiller.

Adapted from an irresistible stage comedy and telling the joyous adventures of a girl whose object in life was to provide for her sister, “Love ’Em and Leave ’Em,” a new Paramount picture, is billed for early release at the Regent. The film marks Esther Ralston’s first appearance as a full-fledged star. * $ * She is vivacious, coquettish, irresistible. She is as slim and gracile a* a young birch tree. She is as changeable as a March day, and as pretty as a picture. All of which seems rather extraordinary, but the fact remains that every thinking person will agree otter they have seen Clara Bow in Arrow’s newest cinema success, “My Lady of Whims,” which opens soon at the Princess and Tivoli Theatres.

Hollywood has made an old man out of Emil Jannings. Although he has been in the moving picture capital but four months he has changed so that few who met him upon his arrival now recognise him. It is because of a make-up so painstakingly done that it requires two and three-quarter hours to apply; a make-up that James Montgomery Flagg, upon a recent visit to the Paramount studio, declared to be the finest he had ever seen on stage or screen. Flagg came to the studio at the invitation of Victor Flemming, directing Jannings in “The Way of All Flesh.” The famous American artist and illustrator spent the entire day on the set. watching Jannings in his work, although he had intended to devote but an hour to the sightseeing when he came.

“Stranded in Paris,” the Paramount farce to be shown sopn in Auckland, starring Bebe Daniels, is a story of an American shop-girl who, on winning a free ticket to the French capital, arrives there ‘penniless and without a friend. How, through an innocent error, she finds herself mistaken for a famous countess, and how, after - a series of breath-taking episodes, she manages to return to the United States, goes to make one of the breeziest comedies in which Bebe has ever appeared.

“Old Ironsides,” James Cruzes’ epic of love, heroism and courage on the high seas, will be shown at the Regent Theatre in the near future. The film has been described as “The Covered Waggon of the Sea,” and is of particular interest to this part of the world, in that an Australian schooner recreates history. This is the barquentine “Llewellyn J. Morse,” which was converted into “Old Ironsides.” The cast includes Esther Ralston, Wallace Beery, ' George Bancroft and Johnny Walker.

The training camp chapter was tonio. . Two of the veterans, John Tait, of Chandler, Ariz., and David Hughes, of the Old Soldiers’ Home at Sawtelle, Cal., were brought to San Antonio to supervise the erection of a duplicate of the original camp. They also lent their aid ii> the portraying of numerous incidents connected with the training of the old days. From the training camp the camera follows Colonel Roosevelt and his regiment to Cuba, where are pictured the sufferings of the American Army, due to pestilence and lack of proper food. The picture closes with the«demobilisation of the Rough Riders at Montauk Point. It shows Roosevelt making his address to the men. The picture was directed by Victor Fleming.

Without previous announcement, Norma Talmadge’s version of “Camille” was taken to a theatre in Westlake Park, Los Angeles, for its initial showing. Back in a secluded spot sat Fred Niblo, director of the production, watching the reaction of the audience and taking mental notes of scenes that went over best and others that would have to be cut. The director listened to comments of the patrons, too, when they were leaving the theatre. Repeatedly he heard—“ That’s the best thing Norma Talmadge ever did! It’s delightful.”

Stories of stage and circus life have reached the screen showing intermittent flashes of actors, dancers, acrobats, and magicians. But it remained for Paramount to logically introduce in a picture’s action a complete vaudeville bill. The picture, “You Never Know Women,” starring Florence Vidor, is now in Wellington. The story deals primarily with the members of the Balagan Variety Company. Its central figures are the team of “Vera and Norodin,” played by Florence Vidor and Clive Brook.