Cinema... Snapshots

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20727, 10 February 1939, Page 8

Cinema ... Snapshots

About Picture People FROM FILM WEEKLY ATHARINE HEPBURW’B back iO Hollywood. What doing, but tak* ing tests for Scarlett O’Hara. At last. Ever since I turned the first page, b©-« fore Selznick even bought “Gone With, The Wind,” I could never see Scarlett as anybody but Hepburn. More important still, if she gets tt, she’ll also get a long contract from Selznick. Thatd settle some of our doubts since she cut loose from Radio. In spite of her stage yearning*. Hepburn once admitted she thought her real future was in films. Perhap* (hat was one thing she meant. That's what they call wishful thinkiug on my part. Paulette Goddard and Carole Lombard still have their backers, but Ibid week s bulletin favour* Kate. TJELLe STARR is not a new discovery but an old one. Seems she was a female Robin Hood in pioneer days ifl) old California. Darryl Zanuck first bought her story for Barbara Stanwyck. Now' he’* digging it up for his new prodigy. Nancy Kelly, Sounds like capital star-t dom for an eighteen-year-old’s fourth film. . Nancy’s been so busy, she was killed one morning in "Tail Spin” and had a baby the same afternoon for Je6se James. Studio think she’s t*o good they won’t publicise her tender years but let her grow up. One of those hunches that travel even across the Atlantic suggests to me that Zanuck lias something this time, • • • • T ESLIE HOWARD is bfing urged to postpone his British production plans. Selznick would still like him to stay on in Hollywood to play Ashley Wilkes in “ Gone With the Wind.” Might be a mighty long postponement. Most startling bulletin of weeks, though, is Lana Turner as the latest tester for Scarlett. Lana settled down at M-G-M among the Hardy* and others without standing out very far, which is hardly the stuff Scarlett was made of. Still, so many producers believe she’s got something, we’re hound to he seeing it before long. Having seen "The Young in Heart," my wonder is why Selznick looked further than Paulette Goddard. • • • • TOE YULE is being gathered Into the M-G-M fold. Yule, you see, is Mickey Rooney’s father, mu6ic hall comedian. Hus never traded on his son's success, but a burlesque theatre In Los Angeles lately billed him as “Mickey Rooney’s Father." Burlesque shows aren't quite nice. This one was called "The Sway of the Flesh.” So M-G-M thought Mr Yule would be better employed as Clark Gable’s vaudeville partner in "Idiot's Delight.’* * * • • T tAVID NIVEN sees a long-promised ambition fulfilled when Goldwyn stars him in the remake of “Raffles.** Last made eight years ago, with. , Niven’s great friend, Ronald Colman, * as the hero. Gentleman crockery / should suit Niven nicely. Debonair is an odious word, but it describe! Niven’s charm and Raffles'* too. Nice to see Niven get the break that's been coming to him. Goldwyn'* dangled ’ Raffles" in front of him every time he got restive. Now it’ll be his make-or-break test as a full-blown star. • • • • pTENRY FONDA looks like being Abraham Lincoln before Gary Cooper. Darryl Zanuck Is rushing hi* Lincoln picture, “Lawyer of the West," into production ahead of Goldwyn s. Fonda has been testing and is generally considered fixed for the job. Shouldn't be any difficulty about his nuking up to a good likeness anyway. Fonda deserve* something too after the line work he's been doing in ‘ Spawn of the North." "Jezebel,” and others. If Zanuek's “Lawyer" is any more like Lincoln than his "isuez” wa* like history this may be the thing. Meanwhile Goldwyn and Zanuek are busy out-bidding each other for right* to "Lincoln, the Unknown.” said ominously to contain “the same dat*. HS the play, plus accounts of Lincoln'* love-life."

FLASHES TURN i iARFIKI.d anil James Cagney 9 have changed parts in “ Each Dawn J Die,'* so that Garfield becomes the hero and Cagney the heavy. • • • • yyESLEY RL'CCLES will direct hi* 99 brother Charlie for the first time in “ Invitation to Happiness,” starring Irene Dunne and Fred Mac Murray. TTHE picture Margo and Francis Lederer will make in New York ie called “ The Legend of Trumpet Island.” Each has a play to do first. TTNIVERSAL are planning a starring picture for Erneft Truex called ** Baltimore Bubble.” Truex is at present supporting Gladys Swarthoui and Lloyd Nolan in “ Ambush." TT’ENNY BAKER, the Nanki-Poo of the British-made “ Mikado,” will be the singing love-interest in the Marx Brothers’ next comedy, ** A Day at the Circus." * • • • TYARRYL ZANL’CK has borrowed Spencer Tracy to play Stanley in ” Stanley and Livingstone.” after testing some 50 actors in England and America. * • • • POU'MBI.Vs search for the star of *• Golden Boy ” has narrowed down to a choice between Tyrone power and John Garfield. Garfield played ;i supporting part in the original stage play.