“The General Died At Dawn”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 353, 6 February 1937, Page 2

“The General Died At Dawn”

A fast-moving story of adventure, intrigue and romance in modern wartorn China, “The General Died at Dawn,” a Paramount picture which shows at the Plaza to-night and Monday, brings to the screen a thrilling drama which well might have been taken directly from the newspaper headlines.

“The General Died at Dawn” presents Gary Cooper again in a soldier-of-fortune role, one which has added greatly to his stature as one of filmdom’s outstanding stars. Playing opposite him —as a woman who uses her beauty as a lure in the high game of international intrigue—is beautiful blonde Madeleine Carroll, young English actress, who is headed for a major position among the great stars. The film is based on the struggle between modern China and the predatory war-lords who are laying the country waste. On the one side is General' Yang, ambitious war-lord intent upon crushing China under his iron heel. On the other is a growing people’s movement. Cooper is in the ranks of this movement. Miss Carroll is the siren in the story and the fastmoving drama carries on to a thrilling* climax.

MAID OF SALEM. One of the most smartly dressed feminine stars at the elaborate fur fashion showing recently held in Holly wooi was Claudette Colbert, vh? Is- now making “Maid of Salem” for Paramount. She wore a black and white printed afternoon dress with a softly draped neckline and a turban-like hat of black velvet with two wired hoops of the velvet forming a bow effect at one side of the crown. A scarf of silver fox, short white gloves and patent leather tandals completed the outfit. COSTUME INFLUENCE. There doesn’t seem to be anv chance of the costume influence subsiding in Hollywood. Not when stars like Jean Arthur, who is to play the leading feminine role in Paramount'? “The Plaintman,” get busy and buy part of their picture wardrobe even before the production is prevfCwed Jean, as Calamity Jane, wears charm ing leather jackets, breeches and high leather boots, and in spite of the fact that these garments belong to an age long since passed, Jean Arthur has purchased one jacket of beige leather with fringes across the shoulders, pieces of leather which tie down the front where buttons nowadays belong and a wide, bold kind of belt with cartridge peckers. SMART EVENING GOWN. Dinner and the theatre call for a gown such as Gail Patrick will wear in Paramount’s attraction, “John Meade’s Woman,” with Edward Arnold and Francine Darrimore. De signed by Edith Head, the gown typifies the smart attire of the woman who dines at a restaurant before the theatre. The high neckline, widened sleeves and modified train are important details. The fabric is sumptuous gold and black lame. For a wrap, Miss Patrick wears a cape of sable-dyed fox. “JOAN OF ARC.” Promised to motion picture audi.ences ever since the introduction of sound the long-awaited “Joan of Arc,” is to be screened by Warner Bros., Claudette Colbert will play the title role, according to present plans. Coincident with the arrival in New York recently of Anatole Litvak, famous Russ’an-Frfnch director who will direct what is expected to be one of the screen’s most dramatic productions, the announcement from the main offices of Warner Bros., in New York stated that the story of the Maid of Orleans would he taken from an original script prepared in France by M. Litvak. The noted • director, who screened “Joan of Arc” ? for a Frehch company only a few i months ago, reached America with a 300-page English translation of the treatment he prepared in Paris after several years of research into the life of the mystic peasant girl who drove the English from Orleans and ; re-kindled French patriotism in an i apparently lost cause, ’