Cheques Appeal

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

Cheques Appeal

Why America Secures Choicest Film Talent DOLLARS ARE TEMPTING IThe most obvious uyealcness of British film production lies I not in the shop window but behind the cashier's grille. Producers in England are ■pitifully and perilously devoid of Cheques Appeal. j now and then a new and brilliant British star appears in a British picture. He or she becomes instantly popular. Then Mr. Jesse J. Lasky or somebody else arrives from America. Into the startled ear of the star he croons a lot of figures, ending with the word “dollars,” writes a London critic. Restoratives having been applied, the star recovers and signs a contract. And when, a month or two later, the British film companies find the white hope following Mr. Lasky to the States, they wave their Union Jacks feebly and decide to make the best of it. THE LATEST CAPTURE Take the case of John Loder, who in the opinion of those who know, is one of the best juveniles Britain has ever found. Mr. Lasky met him at a London hotel one night. Within 12 hours he had signed him up for five years, and in August Loder leaves for Hollywood to make a picture with Florence Vidor. During his first year he will get £IOO a week. Before the contract ends, I am told, America will be paying this Englishman £25,000 a year. A month ago, I believe, Mr. Loder would have signed a contract with any British company sufficiently farsighted to take an interest in him. PERCY MARMONT’S MODESTY Percy Marmont, another British film star whom Hollywood has made, is home on a visit. “It never occurred to me,” he said, “that I should be wanted on the British screen.” Now he cannot stay in England, for there is a certain contract under which Mr. Marmont makes three pictures every year for a company in Hollywood. Where is the man who will grab all the likely British actors and tie them down before America or some other country steals them? “Here in England,” I was told by Harry Lachmann, an American who is directing a film at Elstree, “you have potential stars in every office and behind every counter.” It takes an American to tell us that. Yes, I learned a great deal at Elstree, one day the other week. I learned, for instance, of yet another British star who is likely to slip through our fingers very soon. She is Madeleine Carroll, a lovely girl of 21, and she possesses the two great things which make really big film stars —acting ability and courage.