LATEST MOVIE TRENDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 484, 13 October 1928, Page 14

LATEST MOVIE TRENDS

COLOUR, SOUND AND TEAMS PARAMOUNT CHIEF’S VIEWS The first new developments in motion pictures will carry out the idea that this is the “age of colour,” according to Mr. John W. Hicks, junr., managing director of Paramount Pictures

in Australia. It marks the coming of the greater use of photographic colour in an increasing number of pictures. He points out that colour is the rage everywhere; black fountain pens giving way to those of brighter hues as are kitchen and bath fixtures, and

motor-cars must shine with gay colourings. Paramount’s initial step in this direction is the decision to use technicolour in its most recently developed stage in several sequences of “The Abater Hole,” Zane Grey’s newest story, now being filmed with Jack Holt and Nancy Carroll heading the cast. Colour may be utilised for future Zane Greys. Young, romantic partnerships are to be in vogue, in Hicks’s opinion. Four such teams will be featured by Paramount this season. These are Fay Wray and Gary Cooper, Ruth Taylor and James Hall, Evelyn Brent and Clive Brook, and Richard Arlen and Mary Brian. The Wray-Coopers teams’ first effort will be “The First Kiss,” now being filmed on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, in Massachusetts the actual locale of the original story. The Tay-lor-Hall combination is being launched with the picturisation of “Just Married,” by Anne Nichols, author of “Abie’s Irish Rose.” Sound, also, is coming as a part of these changing times, according to advice received from B. P. Schulberg associate producer in the Hollywood studios. Paramount expects to perfect and to place synchronisation in a number of pictures in the near future. The advent of sound will further increase the value of short subjects. In other ways, too, are the movies changing. Bebe Daniels is being removed from farcical slap-stick coniedies, and in the future will do light drama. Esther Ralston is to be lifted from comedy to emotional drama, and Clara Bow’s productions are to be released exclusively on a long-run basis. MEETING THE DEMAND PICTURES IN THE MAKING As a reaction to the increased public interest in motion pictures, the production schedule at the Paramount studio has been increased until the entire producing units are working at the peak of activity. All of the Paramount pictures now in production at the Hollywood studios will be screened in New Zealand in the near future. As an instance of the rate of modern picture production, there are at present being filmed at these studios no less than nine big productions. Emil Jannings’s fifth American picture, “Sins of the Fathers," started recently, and also a new picture with Richard Arlen and Nancy Carroll in the principal roles. “The Docks of New York,” with George Bancroft leading the cast, has been one of the biggest filmed for some time at the studio. There is a Clara Bow production, “Three W'eek Ends”; the Richard Dix picture, “Moran of the Marines,” with Ruth Elder in the f£minine lead; “Interference,” from the famous stage play shortly to be produced in Australia; “The Canary Murder Case,” and Charles Rogers’s second starring production for Paramount, titled “Just Twenty-one,” all filming simultaneously. Production has also started on another Bancroft picture overlapping the first. It is titled “The Wolf of Wall Street.” “The Silent House” is adapted from the thrilling stage play of the same name, which was recently played throughout New Zealand by Maurice Moscovitch. Walter Forde is directing the production, and has chosen a location in Middlesex, where his construction staff have built a complete Chinese village consisting of a huge wharf, bungalows, huts and stores. The delightful little British film star, Mabel Poulton, plays the lead, and is supported by an exceptionally fine cast of British players. “One of the Best,” a lavish and powerful production, is adapted from the famous stage play of that name by Seymour Hicks, and will be released by British Dominions Films. The late James Lindsay (who died recently in Melbourne during his to.ur with the Margaret Bannerman company) has had a great and varied career on the British screen. He was an adept in the art of polished villainy on the screen, and gives a superb performance in this production. The leading feminine artiste is Eve Gray, a talented Australian actress. Walter Butler, a very much sought after British juvenile player is also in the cast.