FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 25

FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

■JOINT PRODUCTION It Is announced that Columbia Pictures have made an arrangement with the Victor Talking Machine Company by which joint talking will be made. This arrangement was made before the Victor Company was taken over by the Radio Corporation of America. Columbia will have as an asset the use of all the artists previously under contract with Victor, including Kreisler and Heifetz. SPECIAL ■MIKES" During the recent tests of voices at the Paramount studios it was found that, although low resonant tones were recorded without trouble, soprano voices required extremely careful handling. Engineers set to work to perfect special microphones which would be tuned to cover certain definite vocal ranges, and these instruments have now been successfully employed. 810 TALKIE DEAL A talkie deal involving over £200,000 has been completed by Mr. Stuart F. Doyle, managing director of Union Theatres, Australia. The transaction was made with Warner Bros., Inc., New York, and concerns the purchase of 33 talking pictures, which will be shown in every State in the Commonwealth. i v>;. the would From Hollywood comes a good story of Cecil B. de Mille, maker of spectacular films. De Mille, it appears, understands the full value of publicity. One night, when Jack Buchanan and Charlie Chaplin were dining together in a Hollywood restaurant, a brass band went by in the street. J.B. asked what the occasion was. “Oh, nothing in particular,” answered Chaplin nonchalantly. “Only de Mille going out to buy a packet of cigarettes.” FIGHT REALISM - Ronald Colman suffered a broken rib, a sprained ankle, and a number of bruises last month during fight sequences in “Bulldog Drummond,” a melodrama being rehashed as a talkie by United Artists. In one batie royal, Colman was pitted against a giant Russian, three Chinese, and a crowd of Limehouse thugs in a melee that threatened to demolish the studio set. Not since the classic fight in “The Spoilers” years ago has a more realistic fist fight been staged, according to studio executives.