Australian Girl For Hollywood

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 299, 2 December 1936, Page 2

Australian Girl For Hollywood

■ Jocelyn Howarth, a Sydney girl, has signed a year contract with "RKO , Radio .Pictures of Hollywood, with an j option onthe studio’s part for a fur'ither four years. Mr. Ralph Doyle, managing director of RKO in Australia and New Zealand, received the news by cable this week. Miss Howarth is being tested to play’ opposite Robert Donat In his first picture for RKO Radio, “Clementina,” from the period novel by A. E. Mason, which is now in preparation. The salary was not mentioned in the cable, but Dr. Doyle indicated that it would probably aggregate £4OOO for the first year. Joselyn Howart’s name may be changed. She made her screen debu| in Australia three years ago as the sitar of “Tsie Squatter’s Daughter,” for Clnesound, after being well known in Sydney Repertory circles. Then followed the ingenue lead in “The, Silence of Dean Maitland.” She has been in Hollywood since April last.

Masterpieces. Are we too hard on the cinema? Do intelligent people withhold from ' it that encouragetaent which is its due, and which would spur it on to fulfill its potentlaliies? These quesions are raised by Prof. Allardyce Nicoll of Yale University, one of the world’s greatest academic authorities on -the drama. Professor Nicoll, noting many similarities between the Elizabethan theatre and contemporary cinema, recalls that “high-brows” of 1600 despised the popular drama of the period just as some now despise the products of Hollywood. Among things the Elizabethan intelligentsia rejected were z the early plays of Shakespeare. People often

forgot how small are masterpieces in number. The vast majority of Elizabethan works were worthless. A relatively tiny proportion of plays makes that period the most illustrious in British literjiry history. It is therefore easy to ovlmxjstimatje the significance of the • fact thalt most films are pretty poor. The point is not. how many bad pictures are there, but how many' good ones?

International Figure. Joe E. Brown’s latest picture, “Earthw'orm Tractors” is a title which makes one wonder, but there is no need to puzzle after a session at this rollicking show. Widemou.hed Joe and his associated merry-makers have produced one of the funkiest films yet to leave Hollywood and provide an entertainment that is extraordinarily good. In “Earthworm Tractors” Joe is a highpowered salesman. whise colossal blunders and monumental mistakes have a trail of laughs for the audience. The film has been based with every success on 'the adventures of Alexander Botts, told in serial form in the “Saturday Evening Post” with such effect that the fictiious Botts has become an international figure.

Sahara Expedition. In order to make one sequence of 500 feet for the African desert film starring Paul Robeson, an expedition of five men set out recently to penetrate 2,500 miles into the Sahara Desert—a greater distance into that interior than has ever before traversed by white men. The result of their weeks of hard work and hazardous exploring will take only a few minutes 'to unspool in a cinema, though those few minu-

tes will form a very' important part in the film. One of the reasons why it could not be done nearer home is ■that one scene required the presence of some 15.000 camels, and such an assembly is not easy to find nearer the studio! Walter Futter and Thornton Freeland (w x ho is 'to direct the film) recently journeyed to Algiers to make arrangements for agents to comb the desert around Agadiz for ’this number of camels and a recent report gave the number already recruited as in the neighbourhood of 9000. It was expected 'the the full quota would be obtained by the time the photographic crew arrived at Agadiz. Mr. T. A. Glover, F.R.G.S, A.R.P.S., the wellknown African explorer and adventurer, is one of the members of the expedition.

“The Nitwits.” Bert Wheeler and Roebrt Woolsey come to the screen as hilarious counterparts of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in “The Nitwits.” As cigar stand proprietors in a song .publisher’s building, they turn amateur sleuths to solve a murder mystery and unmask the sinister “Black Widow” who has been terrorising the city. Comedy' rides high in the swiftmoving production which revolves about this legitimate mystery plot. Bert and Bob share the comedy with most of the other characters playing “straight,” in situations which engender tense dramatic suspense. With Betty Grable and Evelyn Brent carrying the leading faminine roles, the cast includes such other favourites as

Erik Rhodes, Fred Keating, Hale Hamilton, Arthur Aylesworth, Dorothy Granger, and the coloured comedian, Willie Best. The melody - moments are provided by three popular tunes—“ Music in My Heart,” “You, Opened My Eyes” and “The Black Widow Will Get You if You Don’t Watch Out.’ Wheeler, Miss Grable, Woolsey, Joey Ray and Joan Sanderson, all favourites of the radio and musical comedy, interpret the songs in dance and vocal specialties.