Film Stars Return to England

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 158, 24 September 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

Film Stars Return to England

Reginald Denny’s Plans BRITISH FILMS REVIVAL The popularity of Reginald Denny is due, and rightly due, not only to his charming and unique vein of light-hearted comedy, but also to the tone of his films. All of them are swift, amusing, clean, and good-natured. He represents perfectly the sort of young Englishman who is admired all over the world, and whose type has been perpetuated so ably by writers like P. G. Wodehouse and Roland Pertwee. Mr. Denny hopes, and so does everyone else, that he will be able to arrange to come back to England soon

to make a couple bf films, and to continue each year, if possible, to appear in one English picture. Nor is he the only Englishman who has won fame and fortune at Hollywood who wants to do this. Sidney Chaplin is to star in an Eng-lish-made film version of “A Little Bit of Fluff,” with

Betty Balfour. There are persistent rumours that his brother Charlie will follow his example. Another return from exile, however agreeable that exile may be, is Henry Victor, who is starring in yet another British picture wi.th Evelyn Laye. Percy Marmont has come back, too. He is said to have made enough to retire on and live quietly in England. But he may yet be persuaded to join the British film ranks. Besides the welcome return of so many prominent film people, another extremely encouraging sign of the times is the number of new recruits to English films. Carl Brisson, Frances Doble, Nelson Keys, and, of course, Sir Harry Lauder, are among the most prominent of these, while others as yet unknown to fame are shaping promisingly. There are great expectations of some of the dozen nymphs now playing in England in the film version of “The Arcadians” for the Gaumont Company. All are young and good-looking girls, and nearly all have had a sound preliminary training in dancing and musical comedy. On the production staffs of nearly all the English companies there are young men of the right, keen, intelligent type who are learning the busines of film-making. Besides young Mr. Asquith, there are Mr. Frank Wells, the famous novelist’s son, Mr. Andrew Sou tar’s son, Mr. Ivor Montagu, and half a dozen others. All are film enthusiasts, all have started at the bottom.

Film directors and brilliant film editors are not made in a day; but at last the door of opportunity is open and the results, in the British films of the future, cannot but be good.