NEW UNIVERSAL RELEASES FOR N.Z.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 116, 6 August 1927, Page 23

NEW UNIVERSAL RELEASES FOR N.Z.

BIG PROGRAMME AHEAD GENERAL MANAGER RETURNS Mr. C. F. Eskell, gieneral manager in New Zealand for the Unisal Pictures Company, Ltd., has returned from Sydney where his company held the annual Australasian convention. It was an nounced that a wonderful group of pictures would be released under the “Universal” trade mark in Australia and New Zealand during the ensuing year. Universal certainly have something attractive, says Mr. Eskell, to offer in the matter of stars in their coming

pictures. In addition to Reginald Denny, Mary Philbin, and Norman Kerry, there will be Renee Adoree, Laura la Plante, Betty Compson, Charles Murray, Kenneth Harlan, George Sidney (of "Potash and Perlmutter” fame >, Anna May Wong, Neil Hamilton.. Lois Moran, Ivan Mcsjoukine (the

hero of “Michael Strogoff”), Lya de Put.ti, Conrad Veldt, Anna Q. Nillsson, George Lewis, June Marlowe, Marian Nixon and others. The Universal 1928 product, to quote a trade title, will celebrate its introduction to New Zealand with a mystery drama, “The Cat and Canary,” from the well-known stage play by John Willard. Other productions of a like quality are “The Cohens and Keiiya in Paris,” “Love Me and the jV’orld is Mine,” featuring Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry, the lovers of Merry Go Round” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” and directed by A. E. Dupont, the genius who made “Variety" and “The Big Gun,” an epic story of the navy in which an entire naval unit is featured. Other attractions include four pictures starring Reginald Denny. Two of these productions will be made by the director who was responsible for *'oh. Doctor” and “What Happened to Jones,” while the other two will be directed by Fred Newmeyer, who gav€s ns Harold Lloyd’s “Girl Shy” and College Days.” WELL-KNOWN NOVELS A feature of Universal pictures next year will be the extraordinary number of picturisations of well-known novels and stage plays. Among th€s novels to be screened are Mary Robert Kinehart’s “Finders Keepers,” Victor Hugo’s “L’Homme Qui Rire,” Earl Deer Biggers’s “The Chinese Parrot,’ 1 ••ames Oliver Cur wood’s “Back to God’s Country,” Leroy Scott’s “13 Washington Square,” P. G. Wodehouse’s “The Small Bachelor,” Wiluam McLeod Raine’s “The Grip of the Yukon” and Byron Morgan’s “Thanks lo L^ he Buggy Ride.” Well-known plays will be represented in “Alias the Deacon,” “A. pj „°* ®Dk Stockings,” “The Peasant Girl,” the screen version of which will be known as “He Knew Women,” Henry Dodge’s “Counsel for the Defence” and others. Those who remember Mary Pickford s “Little Annie Rooney” will be interested to learn that the director yponsible for that picture will make The Irresistible Lover,” while James Young, who gave us “Ponjola,” will direct “The Midnight Rose.” , Dther pictures of merit include Wild Beauty,” featuring Rex, the jjonder horse, “Cheating Cheaters,” Surrender,” from the famous European stage success, “Lea Lyon,” “The Girl Show,” “Buck Privates,” a story the Army of Occupation in Germany, -The Shield" of Honour,” direected by the man who made “The fourth Commandment,” ‘Hot Heels,” A Man’s Past” and “My Wonderful One.” In “Knock-out Reillly,” his latest Paramount starring production, shown p J' he Tle&ent Theatre last night, Hichard Dix appeared in a picture that ttlik ■ appea * to s P° r L and film fans

T> Menjou plays sophisticated aot B * ari roles better than any other a , lo F on the screen, it is generally *J“®itted. In “Evening Clothes,” comp ® to the Regent soon, he is again r * a Parisian, but he is not the thJ ” ou levardier all the way through Picture.