Cinema... Snapshots

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20922, 29 September 1939, Page 8

Cinema ... Snapshots

“The Stars Look Down 9 Shooting on “The Stars Look Down,” the version of Dr Cronin's novel, is now almost completed. Michael Redgrave gets the best part of his screen career as David, the miner’s son who tries to educate himself for the benefit of his people, and w£o is the principal figure in this story of mining folk and the harsh conditions under which they work and live. Emlyn Williams has another important part as the sly Joe Gowlan, the evil influence in David’s life, and Margaret Lockwood appears as the girl who ruins his career by persuading him to marry her while he is still a student. The large cast includes such welitried British players as Edward Rigby, Nancy Price, Allan Jeayes. Desmond Tester and Olga Lindo. Most of the outdoor scenes and some of the colliery sequences were made at Workington, where miners and their families co-operated witii the film-makers and added authentic, touches to many scenes. James Stephenson s Progress Since James Stephenson went to Hollywood in 1937, we have seen comparatively little of him. You will remember that he was one of Irving Asher’s “discoveries” in the days when Asher was head of the Warner-First National studios at Teddington. Stephenson, who got into films via shipping and amateur theatricals, scored considerable successes as a “heavy” in his Teddington pictures. There was great hope that he would be equally successful when Warners took him out to Hollywood. For the most part, however, he has played nondescript roles in no-bet-ter-than-average films. Now, after completing a fairly important part in “Elizabeth and Essex,” he seems to have impressed his employers sufficiently for them to start planning for him. As a start, he gets the leading role in “Philo Vance Returns.” Nobody would mistake the Vance films for high art, but they are at least popular and will help to get Stephenson better known. After all, William Powell made his name as Vance—and Stephenson will not be disappointed if his career shapes as successfully as Powell’s. James Stewart in a Mr Deeds Film Frank Capra’s latest film for Columbia “Mr Smith Goes to Washington,” is now completed. The Mr Smith of the title is being played by James Stewart. He’s a simple, earnest young man who gets caught up in politics as a tool for corrupt senators. A Mr Deeds, in fact. The story deals with the efforts of a group of cunning politicians who try to use Stewart as a puppet in Congress in order to get a bill passed that will benefit them financially, although it will involve the State in unnecessary expense. Jean Arthur, another of Capra’s reliable squad, appears as the secretary who won’t stand for seeing the callow young man taken for a political ride. Claude Rains is chief of the selfseeking senators, and Thomas Mitchell appears as a reporter who is friendly with Miss Arthur and not unsympathetic towards Stewart. The story has a typical Capra climax, with the idealistic hero turning the tables on the influential crooks by determination and homespun wisdom. Romance develops, of course, between James Stewart and Miss Arthur. Not Shelved In spite of the delays and rumours, the filming of “Northwest Passage” has not been abandoned. Spencer Tracy is playing Major Rogers, but it now seems that Robert Taylor will definitely not appear as Langdon Towne. Instead, Robert Young has already left with Spencer Tracy and a complete unit for location work. The spot chosen for the making of the greater number of exterior scenes for the picture is McCall, Idaho, on the shores of Lake Payette. Here a large proportion of the cast and a crew of one hundred have settled down for a month’s work at least. Eventually quite two thousand workers will be gathered at this location. Already six hundred extras have been engaged on the spot and more than three hundred Indians have been hired from the nearby reservation. First to arrive on the scene were director King Vidor and his associate Norman Foster, whom you will remember as Claudette Colbert’s exhusband and an actor of note. Recently joined by Tracy and Bob Young, Walter Brennan, Donald Me Bride, Lumsden Hare, Regis Toomey and Laraine Day, as well as many other players and a Technicolour crew of eleven. JJIRECTOR Howard Hawks and author Ernest Hemingway are planning a film together. It has no title, but will be set in Africa. * * * * J-jESIDES making tests for a screen come-back in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” Lilian Gish is also considering an offer to play the mother in “Swiss Family Robinson,” with Herbert Marshall as the father.