FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 23

FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

tempei: i.ue.vt What is temperament? Is it an essential part of the artistic makeup, or simply a form of bad temper? Dennis King, a recent film recruit from the musical comedy stage, says it is a little of each. Good actors, says the young star of “The Vagabond King.” must necessarily have more finely strung nerves than the ordinary person, because they are constantly called on to simulate emotion. * * * yEW BAP HIE PICTURE! "Medals,” talking film version of the Barrie play, “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals,” has been produced at the Paramount studio with Gary Cooper as star. The supporting cast includes Beryl Mercer, character actress, who played the role of the aged scrubwoman in the New York stage production: Nora Cecil, Daisy Belmore, Tempe Piggott, Arthur Hoyte and Arthur Metcalf. The picture is being directed by Richard Wallace, who made “The Shop-Worn Angel,” "Innocents of Paris,” and “River of Romance.” » » » MABEL POULTOM SPEAKS Mabel Poultou, who was the brilliant. Tessa of the silent film version of “The Constant Nymph,” has arrived

in talking pictures as a potenI tial gold mine, says a London I writer. In "A Taxi for I Two,’* in the charI acter of a London shop girl, she is so perfect that, one looks forward ■J „to seeing, in talking pictures, a

ivianei rounon . - ’ series corresponding to the delightful silent films in which Betty Balfour created the character of Squibs. Although Mabel Poulton “steals” the picture, excellent work is done by Gordon Harker and by John Stuart ♦ * *

fSLAPSTICK SHAKESPEARE While It is a very happy entertainment. “The Taming of the Shrew,” the talking film presented at the London Pavilion, is a disappointing picture, pays an English critic. Douglas Fairbanks is infinitely more vital as Petruchio than Mary Pickford as Katharine, but neither will satisfy those who have taken their acted Shakespeare from the classic actors or the English stage. The film is like a Lamb's tales from Shakespeare read by Mack Sennett with knockabout asides. As a whole, this production is pict.orially beautiful and dramatically sincere, but one feels that the reading chosen has been selected, with an eye less diligently fixed on literature than on levity.