FILM SIDELIGHTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1938, Page 5

FILM SIDELIGHTS

PICTURES AND PLAYERS ON PARADE THE OLD-TIME COWBOY STARS. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Where are the famous horses of the films of yesterday? Where are the oldtime cowboy stars? Tom Mix who starred with his horse Tony has left the films for the circus. So, also, have Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson and the Maynards. Buck Jones is producing his own Western films, but their release is practically confined to the United States. Dick Foran is representative of the new generation of leather Lotharios. These are cowboy stars who actually sing. Foran is one of the best known in Australia and New Zealand but in America he is not placed at the head of the list. The American classification places Gene Autry and Tex Ritter at the top. A Strange Visitor. The most puzzled sound recording expert at the M-G-M studios was the man working on scenes for “Arsene Lupin Returns” which will be shown at the Regent Theatre on Thursday and Friday of next week. In the middle of a “take” a loud barking was heard. A searching party finally located the culprit. It was a trained seal sitting under a water sprinkler a short distance from the set. The animal had escaped from its trainer on another set and was enjoying a shower bath. A Great Drama. The world premiere of Walter Wanger’s war-drama, “Blockade” took place at the London Pavilion recently. Overnight the film became the talk of the town. “The most poignant film of the year, worthy of ranking among the greatest dramas that the screen has produced,” said one critic. “For the first time in the history of the cinema a film producer has used an exciting entertaining film as propaganda in the cause of peace,” said another. “Blockade,” which deals with the civil war in Spain in as impartial a manner as possible has Madeleine Carroll and Henry Fonda in the leading roles. It

was directed by William Dieterle, who won the 1937 Academy award for “The Life of Emile Zola.” “Blockade” As a forthcoming State Theatre attraction. Taylor in England. Robert Taylor enjoyed everything in England except the right-hand drive. “The most difficult thing about driving around London was trying to remember the traffic lanes, which are the reverse of those in the United States,” Taylor said. “I didn’t receive i ticket but only because London bobbies' were very courteous and helpful.” Taylor, who stars in ”A Yank at Oxford,” which comes to the Regent an Saturday of next week, tells a traffic story on himself. “Twice,” he related, “I almost bumped a ‘Bobby’ who stopped me the second time. ‘Mr Taylor,” he said, ‘I suggest that you get a ehaffeur until you become accustomed to our traffic.’ ‘l’ll be careful,’ I replied, ‘I was thinking of the pedestrians,’ answered the ‘Bobby.’ Taylor hired a chauffeur. Title a Handicap. Of the RKO-Radio picture, “Bringing Up Baby,” which comes to the State Theatre on Friday of next week, one critic wrote as follows —“Hollywood’s unhappy knack of handicapping an excellent picture with a hopelessly stupid name has rarely been better exemplified than by the first-class comedy-ro-mance which is screened under the name of ‘Bringing Up Baby.’ It is hard to imagine the happy-go-lucky principals Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, as child-welfare experts, nnd that is exactly what they are not, the baby in the picture being a leopard. Hepburn, Grant, and the leopard with the famous four-footed star Asta thrown in for good measure, combine in one of the fastest and most topsyturvy comedies for months,”

Darryl Zanuck is trying to borrow Spencer Tracy to co-star with Alice Faye in “Dance Hall.”