PICTURE PLAYS and PLAYERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 23

PICTURE PLAYS and PLAYERS

y«rv Astor and Lloyd Hughes will co-star in “No Place to Go,” adapted ty Adelaide Heilbron from “Isles of Romance.” m m *

Warner Brothers’ picture*, “The Third Degree,” has been completed. Dolores Costello is featured in this version of the old play. Richard A. Rowland has engaged Max Ree, Danish scenic and costume artist, to superintend the costume designing for First National Productions. • * *

John Barrymore has returned on his yacht, The Mariner, to Hollywood after cruising off Southern Mexico. Mr. Barrymore is undecided as to what his next film will be.

Cyril Harcourt’s comedy. “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” is to be filmed.

Otis Harlan is expected to have an important part in the film version of • Show Boat.”

Leon Errol is to make another screen effort. It is to be known as “The Little Cafe,” an adaptation of a French musical comedy.

Mr. Kirby, manager for Paramount in Auckland, was a passenger by the Jlarama for Sydney yesterday to attend the annual convention of his firm. He w'as accompanied by Mrs. Kirby.

Malcolm Strauss has begun work on a spectacular film to be called “Life.” Some of the exteriors for this picture were made in Europe.

“Dynamite,” is the name of a police dog being trained by Universal to star in four pictures, the first of which will be known as “The Call of the Heart.”

Every week 2,000 fans write to Johnny Hines to ask for his picture. The comedy star employs a secretary now to answer letters and post photographs.

Richard Barthelmess recently broke a small bone in his foot while playing tennis in Beverly Hills. Despite the injury he is able to go ahead with work in his new picture. “The Patent Leather Kid.” Robert T. Kane has announced that Sam Hardy will play the lead opposite Lois Wilson in “Broadway Nights,” a picture of New York theatre and night club lire. to be made at the Cosmopolitan studio.

It does not seem that Charlie Chaplin’s popularity is on the wane, with three of his old comedies being revived on Broadway. “Shoulder Arms” is to be exhibited with “An Affair of the Follies” at the Mark Strand and “The Pilgrim” at the Cameo. * * *

The Film Arts Guild has leased, for Sundays, the Times Square Theatre in New York. A double feature bill has been arranged, including “The Dark Angel,” with Ronald D. Colman and Vilma Banky, and Nazimova in “Salome.”

Herbert Brenon announces that he has signed Alice Joyce and Mickey McBann for roles in “Sorrell and Son.” Miss Joyce will play Fanny Garland, woman friend of Stephen Sorrell, during the Hotel Angel sequences.

The Fifth Avenue Playhouse in New York has revived “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” which ran for five weeks when the films were started in the little theatre. With the feature will be shown an Essanay comedy featuring Charlie Chaplin, called “Carmen.” In it are seen also Edna Purviance and Ben Turpin.

Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, has made her initial Broadway appearance since her remarkable aquatic accomplishment, at the Paramount. Two other swimming stars assisted Miss Ederle. They were Helen Wainwright and Aileen Riggin.

With the finishing of the final scenes In “Naughty Carlotta” Constance Talmadge completed the thirtieth feature production of her screen career. It is a little more than ten years ago since Miss Talmadge achieved distinction in David W. Griffith’s famous production, “Intolerance.'*

Belle Bennett, who triumphed in the pictorial conception of “Stella Dallas,” is to play opposite Emil Jannings in his first American picture. “The Man Who Forgot God.” Lil Dagover, a famous German actress, will be seen in the same film in a featured role.

W. C. Fields’s next picture is to be known as “The Timid Soul.” Fields is to be seen as a meke slave at home and at work, until, under the spell of a hypnotist, he is deluded into the belief that he is a big, lion-hearted fighter.

Mary Alden, who acquitted herself so ably as "Ma” Potter in the film version of “The Potters,” (in Auckland •ast week) has been engaged to play the role of Olive Borden’s mother in “The Joy Girl,” Neil Hamilton will figure in the male lead. This feature will be directed by Allan Dwan.

Two hundred Hollywood girls submitted to one of the most unusual ’’screen” tests during the filming of ‘‘Ten Modern Commandments,” Esther Ralston’s latest comedy. Dorothy Arzner insisted upon a hand-picked chorus for some of the sequences, so before the girls were given tests with the camera, they were forced to conform with certain measurements of ankle, calf, thigh, waist and shoulder. Forty passed the “figure” test and out of this number 20 were finally selected for parts in the production.

No picture, so far as is known, has been viewed by so many members of jne British Royal family as “Ben Hur.” h has been seen by King George and JjJteen Mary at a special command Performance at Windsor, at which the of Canterbury was present, curing the visit of the Duke and "hchess of York to Australia, “Ben *tur” was five times screened on board nf R en °wn. The King and Queen Belgi um> the Kings and Queens of Holland and Denmark are rj*>° among those who have seen this *oreen presentation.

men” because it is considered one of the strongest pictures on the Fox list. The appeal of the Prosper Merimee story has been -enhanced by giving it an exceptional cast, a rich investiture, and a box office director. After completing “What Price Glory?” director Walsll’s first step in preparing for the filming of “Carmen” was to secure the services of his “Glory” stars, Miss Del Rio and Mr. McLaglen, for the new picture. Old Spain had been invaded for costumes. Spanish artists and architects aided in reproducing the authentic atmosphere of Seville. Miss Del Rio’s Spanish heritage and temperament enabled her to give a most artistic portrayal of the fiery Carmen. With the same skill shown in his interpretation of Captain Flagg in “Wliat Price Glory?” McLaglen played the role of Escamillo, the rugged bull-fighter, with convincing realism. The part of Don Jose was assigned to Don Alvarado, himself a Spaniard. Nancy Nash. Mathilde Comont, Fred Kohler, Carmen Costello, and Jack Bastian have other important roles. “Carmen” will be screened in Auckland, under the Fuller-Hayward direction. It has already been booked by this firm for New Zealand.

Ramon Novarro, who is being called one ot the most prominent and popu-

lar stars iri the movies since his recent success in “Ben Hur,” has since appeared in his latest MetroGold wyn - Mayer picture, “Lovers.” The picture was adapted from the New York stage success, “The World and His Wife.” Novarro is supported by a

large cast headed by Alice Terry and which includes George K. Arthur, Roy D'Arcy, John Miljan and Edward Martindel. The vehicle tells a story of modern Spain, and concerns particularly an elderly statesman, and his young and beautiful wife, who take into their home to live a young and handsome artist. Although his friendship for the wife is purely platonic, the gossips •will not have it so, and ntart a false scandal, which ends in a duel.

Irish Republican Army. He was in charge of the Volunteers that freed the prisoners from the Manchester jail in England. Una Shiels, who is a stenographer in private life, and also a member of the Dublin Opera Company, figures as Moira Barry, a school mistress. Peggy O'Rorke, the stellar player of “Irish Destiny,” is an Irish colleen from Dublin. She won the first prize in an all-Irish beauty contest held at a Dublin garden party in 1925. “CITY FROM NOWHERE” HOLLYWOOD’S NEW WONDER FAMOUS PRODUCER'S “SET” F. W. Murnau’s “city from nowhere” on the Fox lot in Hollywood—a huge set a mile and a-lialf wide—is now one of the wonders of the film community. The “city” is being used in producing “Sunrise,” Mr. Murnau’s first American picture. While the shots of the “city” were being photographed, 2,000 extras are said to have been employed to run taxicabs, street cars, elevated trains, as well as to serve as pedestrians, shoppers and tradespeople. Now that these big scenes have been finished visitors are having their innings. This set is said to have cost 200,000 dollars. Mr. Murnau was recently engaged on an interior restaurant scene, with the “city” plaza and passers-by in the background. George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor are the principals in “Sunrise,” the theme of which is based on Herman Sudermann’s novel, “A Trip to Tilsit.”

The big film makers have gone back to the classics. Not only are they thus assured of famous characters and stories already familiar in every country but annoying copyrights have expired and costly film rights need not be purchased. The true scenarist now turns out to be Ibsen, Dickens, Wilde, Hawthorne, Thackeray, Anatole France, Byron, Goethe, Dumas fils, Barrie, George Eliot, Conrad, Rostand, Hugo Pushkin, Melville, Scott, Tolstoy or Dumas pere.

Lionel Belmore, a British stage and character actor in American films, has been cast in “Quality Street,” Marion Davies’s next for M-G-M. The Belmore family is represented on the Australian stage just now by two of its members. “Down the Stretch” the Universal Jewel production, directed by King Baggot, is adapted from “The Money Rider,” the last story to be written by Gerald Beaumont before his death. It is the tale of the romance behind the scenes at a race track. A strong cast is headed by Robert Agnew and Marian Nixon. The novel by the English humorous writer, K. R. G. Browne, provided the basis for “The Cheerful Fraud,” the Universal-Jewel farce comedy starring Reginald Denny. The supporting cast includes Gertrude Olmstead, Emily Fitzroy, Gertrude Astor, Otis Harlan, Charles Gerrard, and others. * * * A location situated in the heart of the high Sierras in California, was the place where most of the exteriors were filmed for the Universal blue streak Western, “The Terror,” starring Art Acord. The supporting cast includes Velma Connor, Dudley C. Hendricks, C. E. Anderson, Edmund Cobb, Jeff Deffebach and Hank Bell. * Laura La Plante, noted as an amateur equestrienne, took several leaps over a five foot well for her role in “Butterflies in thi Rain,” a Universal-Jewel, soon to be released. James Kirkwood co-stars. In the supporting cast are Robert Ober, Edwards Davis, Ruby Lafayette, Dorothy Cummings, Dorothy Stokes, and Clarence Thompson. Tom O’Brien, whose screen portrayals include “Bull” in “The Big Parade,” and Joe O’Neill in “The Fire Brigade,” has been added to the cast of Jackie Coogan’s “The Bugle Call.” Others in this film are Claire Windsor, Herbert Rawlinson, Harry Todd, Mary Jane Irving, Nancy Price and Nelson McDowell. AT WORK AGAIN DOUG’S NEW FEATURE

New York advices state that Douglas Fairba nk s has commenced work on his new feature. It is to be called “ The Gancho.” It is a special story written by Elton Thomas, who

was responsible for “ The Black, Pirate.” F. Richard Jones will be the director. 4 4-

Johnny Hines lias bought the film rights to “The iGrl Friend,” a musical comedy. Victor McLaglen, the Captain Flagg in the screen version of “What Price Glory,” has turned toreador. Cast as Escamilla in the film version of “Carmen,” which is now in production under the direction of Raoul Walsh, McLaglen has devoted a month to the study of bull fighting. He has just returned from Mexico City. Dorothy Mackaill lias voiced an ambition unusual in the ranks of the moving picture actresses. She wants to become a director when her acting hey-dey is past. She is playing at present in “The Road to Romance,” opposite Jack Mulhall. Herbert Brenon has joined the United Artists. His first independent production will be a picturisatien of Warwick Deeping’s novel “Sorrell and Son.” He will confer with Mr. Deeping about the scenario. Some of the scenes of “Sorrell and Son” will be filmed in England. A Hollywood correspondent sends the following:—“Richard Dix is suffering from a broken rib, sustained while boxing with Jack Renault for scenes in a picture called “Knockout Riley.” Against his physician’s advice, Mr. Dix insisted on finishing the few remaining scenes of the production. He is acting with a plaster belt.”

A note from a New York correspondent: “At Carnegie Hall, the National Board of Review will exhibit publicly for the first time the compilation known as ‘Thirty Years of Motion Pictures,’ or ‘The March of the Movies.’ Among other scenes that have been added to this interesting film are those from the Ufa productions, ‘Siegfried’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.’ ” Gilda Gray's new picture, “Cabaret,” is said to have interesting reproductions of cabaret settings. For her big scene, Miss Gray introduces a new dance called “Cabarabian,” because of the Arabian motif against a cabaret background. The cast includes Tom Moore and Conklin. Pola Negri was the inspiration Tf"a song which Rudolph Friml, compose*, of “The Vagabond King,” and other successes, dedicated to her. It is called ‘Beautiful Eyes,” and he planned and played it at a musicale where he was a performer and she a guest. Warner Brothers have made good progress with the selection of the cast to support Syd Chaplin in “Nightie, Night, Nurse,” which has already gone into production. Patsy Ruth Miller will play opposite Chaplin, while others in important roles are Gayne Whitman, Pat Hartigan, Edith Yorke and David Torrance.

Australasian Films have received word from their London office that “Blighty” has been purchased by them. This picture has a wonderful cast, headed by Ellaline Terry, the wellknown musical comedy star. Lillian Hall Davis and Jameson Thomas are also prominent artists.

Cecil B. De Mille has engaged Rochus Gliese, a German who has directed several Ufa pictures. He is better known, however, as an art and technical director, having served as such in the making of “The Golem” and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”

Some weeks ago Miss Phyliss Gibbs the Australian girl selected for picture work, passed through Suva on her way to Hollywood. Miss Gibbs is now engaged to star in “Angels of Broadway,” a picture now in course of production.

John W. Considine has engaged Louis W olheim on a long term contract as a result of his performance *? r . 1 ,! Tw ° Arabian Nights,” in which vY llliam Boyd and* Mary Astor are also featured.