"Rothschild" Easily Heads Poll

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 29, 25 January 1935, Page 17

"Rothschild" Easily Heads Poll

"Radio-Record" Film Contest Brings in Thousands of Entries-"House of Rothschild," "Henry the Eighth" and "Cavalcade" Three Popular ¥ilms-Norma Shearer and George Arliss Win.

"THE film public (and nowadays _ that means everyone) has "gone fl historical," Approximately 8435 votes were cost in the "Radio Record’s" film ballot, and of that number — 7463 were in favour -of films with 2historical background "The House of -Rothschild" was head and shoulders above all other films in the "hest film of 1934" category. It scored 4941 of the total. votes cast, "Queen Christina" coming second on the list with 1054, and "The Private Life of

Ilenry the Eighth" -:hird with 604 votes, . Six hundred and one persous voted for "Cavalcade" as the best film of 1934, forgetful of the fact that this gveat Fox film was generally release:] in New Zealand in 19838. "Catherin# the Great" was fifth on thelist with 263 votes. Followizg in this order were "I Was a Spy," "Little Women." "Only Yesterday," "Evergreen." "Man of Aran" and "The . Dover Road." It.is a significant fact that, in the majority of the ‘films that polled well the leading stars were British, and, of the 11 p’ctures mentioned above, five came frou. English studios. Several readers voted for films that are: actually 1985 releases, and which have not yet been generally screened in the Dominion. Into this category fall such films as "Blossom Time," "The Count of Monte Cristo," and "The Gay Divorcee." all of which polled a fair number of votes. Other readers picked on films which were released .two or three years ago"Wmma,"’ "Frankenstein," ‘Smilin’ Through" and "Rookery Nook" being included among this number. Norma Shearer is New Zealand’s choice: for the favourite female screen

star and emerged from the competition with. 2109 votes to her credit. Strangely enough only three persons picked "Riptide" as the best film of 1934, and yet Norma Shearer, who has made onl this one picture in the past two years. easily topped the poll, Miss Shearer "has lately appeared in "The Barretts of Wimpole’ Street." but it has not yet been released in New Zealand. Janet Gaynor came second with 1406 votes. more than half of wich were from Christchurch... The southern city is « Gaynor stronghold-it was at the Crvstal Palace there that "Sunny Side Up" established. a world record with a season of 11 weeks. Greta Garh» was not far behind with 1348 votes, "Queen Christina" huving done much tu restore the Swedish star’s © poplarity. Diana Wynyard scored 613 votes, Joan Crawford 602, Jessie Matthews 851, with Katherine Hepburn, ‘Loretta Young. Mae West. Marlene Dietrich and Gracie Fields in that order following behind. Anna Sten ‘the Goldwyn "find"’} and Jean Harlow were not far fr»m the bottom of the list. . Of the men George Arliss was easily in front with two-fifths of the total votes-3374. Ronald Colman = was second with 848 votes, Clark Gabie third with 785, Frederic March fourth with 422. Robert Montgomery fifth with 851, Clove Brook sixth with 336. Conrad Veidt, Wallace Beery, Jona Roles, the Barrymores Leslie Howard, Jan Kiepura and Warner Baxter foilowed in that order. Of the 84385 votes cast. 3624 picked Arliss’s performance in "The House of Rothschild" as the best. acting pevformance of the year. Charles Laughton’s performance in "The Private Lif? of Henry the HNighth"’ was second with 940 votes, Garbo in "Queen Christina" was third with: 843. Katherine Hephurn’s acting in "Little Women" filled fourth place with 765. Madeleine Carroll in "I Was a Spy" was next, Conrad Veidt in "The Wandering Jew" and Elizabeth Bergner in "Catherine the Great." "Cavaleade" came through with honours in the section devoted to the "pest film’I have ever seen." scoring 2110 of the votes. "Disraeli" was second with 1406 votes. "The House of Rothschild" third with 763 votes. "The Private Life of Henry the Fighth" fourth with f27 votes. The following were included in this order: "Queen Christina," Smilin’ Through." "Little Women," "Whoopee," "Blossom Time" and "Tell Me To-night." The prize of one guinea goes to Mr. ¥. M. Earle, of 77 Yule Street, Wellington, whose entry was the only one which exactly accorded with the popular vote. More than a dozen had four of the five sections right, and nearly a hundred had three correct.

‘The ballot has disclosed many inceresting facts, but it also shows how fickle is the film public. In several New Zealand film batots last year the iate Marie Dressler topped the popniavity poll, In the ‘Radio Record’s" film ballot this year she was not mentioned on more than-20 coupons ‘THERE have been many experiments in colour for motion pictures, notubly Samuel Goldwyn’s production of "Whoopee" with Eddie Cantor, but there has never been any real response by audiences to the colour films, which have, in the main, been garishly artificial. A notable example is the colour in the last scene of "The House of tothschild," a scene which might have ruined the picture had it not been for the superlative acting of George Arliss and the rest of the principals. The new system which has been perfected. however, and which has been used in "La Cucaracha," which was shown at the Plaza Theatre in Wellington last

week, does away, to a very great extent, with the artificiality of colour, and makes it a real adjunct to the film. "La Cucaracha" is quite short-it takes about 20 minutes to run-but they are 20 minutes of sheer delight. ‘here is still a slight sense of unreality about the whole thing-we have been uscd for so long to black-and-white for our two-dimensional entertainmeut that. it is somewhat startling to see such reality of colour, and our senses need adjusting. In all previous colour. films the predominating effect on the senses -no matter what was the colour predominating in the film-itself-has been of a garish yellow, but in "a Cucaracha" that sensation is gone,