French Farce Has A Negative Effect Upon Our Suburban Housewives

Radio Record, Volume X, Issue 3, 24 July 1936, Page 25

French Farce Has A Negative Effect Upon Our Suburban Housewives

[HE other day I sneaked into a matinee to have a look at "One Rainy Afternoon," the Francis Lederer-Ida Lupino film, and found myself heavily surrounded by good suburban matrons and their shopping baskets. The plot is gossamer-fine and deliciously farci-cal-one good puff, I felt, and Mr. Lederer and his merry men could have been lifted right over the moon --but the matrons remained, for two-thirds of the film. in complete silence, while I chortled insanely and continuously. The story’s

about a young actor who kissed the wrong girl in a Paris cinema. She screams, the lights go up, and the hero finds himself charged in the courts with assaulting a young lady. The newspaper headlines scream "Monster!’, women fight

and push for seats at the young man’s theatre, photographers dog his every step-and the culprit himself cooks chicken salmis and goes skating with the girl he kissed in the dark. , Reality All the Time. UT the audience didn’t seem to like the film at all. I’ve been wondering why, and I’ve come to the conclusion that women-especi-ally the ones with familiés and husbands and homes in the suburbsare less imaginative than men. There’s nothing imaginative about

ihe pile of breakfast dishes in . the sink every morning, the four-pounds-fifteen that comes home every Friday, or the holes in the heels of Jimmy’s school stockings. Husbands and sons may

spend the day in the city, joking, meeting people, having a mug of beel--~ but wives and mothers are bang wp) against reality all the time, And that ig probably why the antics of Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino left them feeling unamused and uninterested. It was farce--impudent, French farce; the

sort of thing that had never come wilhin coo-ee of their normal, everyday lives. Liked the Torture. UT, you say, they flocked to and loved every moment of "The _ Mutiny on the Bounty," of "One Night of Love," of "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer’-and what could be further divorced from the daily routine of a New Zealand suburban housewife than the plots of these films? Well, for one thing, women didn’t particularly Jike the Bounty film, although the men in it were real and alive: fighting,

swearing, loving. "One Night of Love," thanks to Grace Moore’s singing, lifted audiences, no matter who they were, into realms of romance and beauty. And there was no subtlety to puzzle cinema fans either. "Bengal Lancer" was made to tickle the ears of the groundlings-and it did it with

a vengeance. "Not that it wasn’t a good film, but it gave. the public a handful of goodlooking stars, some humour, settings with a claim to the exotic, and a spot of sadism. (You’d be surprised at .the number of women who liked the torture scene in this pic-

ture.) "One Rainy Afternoon" Aas several of the above qualities, but they are allied to farce, subtlety and improbabilities. And a savoury, even with the caviar spread. thick, never looks as filling as a cream cake with pink sugar sprinkled over it. Joe Stern Again. | HE trouble with writing ‘about films is that one week you put your foot down firmly and with lots of noise, and next week you lift it up and tiptoe away, hoping no one has seen or heard you. When I reviewed the Marlene Dietrich picture, "Desire," T said

‘But Grace Moore’s New Picture, with Music by Kreisler, Will Get "Km

some very cutting things about Josef Von Sternberg, her. previous director. Now, Mr, Von Sternberg has transferred his person from Paramount to Columbia, and his directorial attentions from Dietrich to Grace Moore.’ The film is "The King Steps Out," privately screened -in. Wellington last week, with the lovely Grace in: better voice than I have ever heard her before. And she doesn’t merely pose against a number of baroque Von Sternberg backgrounds, but romps and sings in. a manner that Tust have been highly disturbing to Joe Stern’s stylised soul. (That is his right name, by the way.) Apart from the settings -Joe always seems to crowd everything but the kitchen stove on to the set-Von Sternberg has made a spanking good job of this picture, Music by Kreisler. HERE are two surprises in this new . Grace Moore film..- Firstly, she has Franchot Tone as male lead, and, secondly, Fritz Kreisler composed the very interesting music. "The King Steps Out" was written, I imagine, in celebration of the thousandth time the same plot has been used, but with Grace Moore’ singing, Kreisler’s lovely — music, and Franchot Tone (looking ridiculously ' like a grown-up edition of Freddie Bartholomew) making graceful love to the heroine, we are perfectly willing to. forgive and forget. Tone is an emperor who is being. forced into, marriage with a princess he doesn’t like; "Grace Moore is this girl’s ‘sister posing as a ‘dressmaker. A meets B-complications-royal ahger-tantrums and show of pride from: the dréssmiaker-reconcilia-tion-love songs-wedding bells, very touching. rea

Booked Right Out! HEN the advertisement for Wellington’s Regent in last Saturday’s "Hivening Post" said "House Completely Booked Out for. To-night," the smiles on the faces of Fred McCallum,

LN rrr TT amas, manager of the Regent, and Cliff. Bskell, manager for Universal, spread into broad grins. The film that is causing this happy state of affairs is

"Show Boat," ‘the Universal special Starring Irene Dunne and Paul -Robe‘son. "Show Boat" has been backed by one of the biggest publicity campaigns that any picture has had for years-and the shekels that are pouring into the Regent are testimony of the wisdom of "spending a little mouey to get a lot of money." Take Your Blankets. "THERE'S a story in another part of the paper this week about people ‘seeing the continuous theatres’ programmes "round and round," but if you want to see "The Great Ziegfeld" a couple of times at the same sitting you’ll not only have to take your lunch but your blankets, and some shaving tackle at the same time. The fashion for lengthy films is definitely back-"The Great Ziegfeld" takes three hours to screen, and it is colossaler than the colossalest. (Sorry, I thought I was writing a movie advertisement.) Funny thing about this Ziegfeld picture is that the film was actually completed before the big hit of the show, "A Pretty Girl is Just Like a Melody" was put in-at a cost of 225,000 dollars, let it be whispered. At the St. George. PARAMOUNT’S record price for the film rights of "Anything Goes" (and most people who saw the film .Wwondered why the big money) has been knocked to the boundary by Samuel Goldwyn’s purchase of "Dead Ind," a successful New York play, for 165,000 dollars. Other film companies are buying up plays for their 1936387 pictures. Cole Porter’s Broadway success, "Jubilee," has been bought by M.G.M. for early filming. (Inciden-

tally, I saw the script of this big musical show lying scattered over a chesterfield in a private suite at the Hotel St. George, Wellington. .Cole Porter was writing it when he visited New Zealand last year-one of the. song

... And the Last Shall Be First Changes in Film World Wit H its roster of stars-Garbo, Gable, Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Jeanette MacDonald -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has, with United Artists, been sitting at the top of the film ladder for a few years. But it looks as if M.G.M.’s supremacy is being stoutly challenged-and by ' companies that didn’t figure in the scheme of things at all a few years back. After its success with "It Happened One Night" and "One Night of Love’’ Columbia climbed right into the spotlight. Universal, a firm that used to turn out about one good picture and a bunch of "‘westerns’’ every year, is making a big come-back with such pictures as. "The Magnificent Obsession" and ‘‘Show Boat." Some say that, with reorganisation complete, Universal may be at the top before the end of 1937. Paramount, badly smacked to leg in ‘the depression, has. made an outstanding return with such films as "Lonesome. Pine,"’ Marlene Dietrich’s "Desire’’ and "Rose of the Rancho." ae a al lO

hits was actually written at the St. George!) Other big plays that will come to the screen in the next year are "Call It a Day," the much-discuss-ed and partly-banned "Parnell," "Winterset," "Sweet Aloes" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice." When You Yawn: T seems that nothing can oust the "star system," a system that has persisted since it wag evolved by Lasky and Zukor back in 1912. The public goes to see Fred Astaire or Shirley ‘Temple, Joan Orawford or Gary

Cooper; the name of Garbo spells magie to millions who have never heard of "Anna Karenina," and who probably wouldn’t be much impressed if they had. The fact is that men and women are interested in other men and women, and not in abstract ideas. While Raymond Massey and Pearl Argyle and Cedric Hardwicke held the floor in "Things to Come," ‘the ‘audience was vitally interested; when it ‘was given a display of cello phane and glass and futuristic elevators it began to yawn, There is no ayoiding the personality on the screen. If you feel badly about Jean Harlow, for instance, you are hardly likely to enjoy the film that she may be in, Sheer Snobbery. [Iz is sheer snobbery to pretend that -. you don’t take an interest in the personal element in films. Frankly, Y’d much rather look at Marlene Dietrich than a tricky camera angle; I get a much ‘bigger . kick out of Franchot Tone and Grace Moore making jove than ido out of a photographic study of the habits of a tuna fish. The man who persists in saying that his choice of films is not influenced by the people who are in them may not be exactly a liar-but he’s so dashed near to it that it doesn’t matter. The Amteriean film world hag dozens of big box office "names," the Bnglish film considerably fewer. But thete’s a little girl in London who’s going to make a

big splash in. talkies, mark my word. Her name’s Nova Pilbeam. Film Aspirants. FROM time to time the Fox Film Corporation (A’sia) Ltd., has received letters from aspirants to the screen, inquiring as to the best methods -in which to approach the various studios to secure-a test. The following inforination which has just been received from Fox Movietone City, Hollywood, may be of interest to ail aspirants to the screen, "A plan to enlarge the Fox stock school and to make its scope more comprehensive was completed when Darryl I’. Zanuck, vice-president int charge of production, engaged Miss Florence Enright as coach. Miss Enright has behind her 25 years of stage experience. She was director of dramatics at Barnard College, director of the Washington Square Players from which came Katherine Cornell and Engene O'Neil] and more recently, coach

at the Universal . Studios, Under Zanuck’s direction, the Fox school has been highly successful. Such promising young actresses as June Lang, Shirley Deane, Dixie Dunbar, Virginia and I’rances Daxton, Maxine Reiner, June Storey and Helen Wood have received their screen training therein." | Culture-With a C. HAT a wonderful thing is culture! The other evening I went to a party where a nine-year-old silent film was screened from.a projector in the drawing room. We sat round on the floor and on the furniture, drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and made loud remarks about the picture, which was "We're in the Navy Now," with Wallace Beery and the late Raymond Hatton, And yet I couldn’t help thinking how little things had changed since 1927. The films have been given sound -and yet we hardly noticed the lack of speech in this picture; feminine headgear has risen from the eyebrows to the top of the head; skirts have dropped a trifie-but, taken all in all, we still seem to be doing the same silly things in the same funny way. "Yes, one thing’s changed-Wallace ‘Beery’s figure. He’s put.on some weight since those pre-depression days. Then Fur Flies. SYLVIA SIDNEY is off to England to play the lead in a GaumontBritish film, "Secret Agent." Sylvia | is hailed in America as a sort of female Cagney-in other words, she can take it on the chin, and she can give it, too. Her last Hollywood appearance was as the Blue Ridge Mountain gal in "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," the colour film that is playing to big houses in New Zealand just now. "T never fight with hairdressers, makeup men, technicians or other ‘people

. who ‘have to take it," says Miss Sidney, "but show me a large stuffed shirt sitting in terrible majesty behind a Louis Quinze desk if’ you want, to ‘see the fur fly." It isn’t ‘because this little" actréss ° is clags-conscious; she just loves a good fight ‘and is sporting enough to pick out-someone worthy of her steel. She invariably wins, of course, Lovely. Anna. ° ANNA STEN, back from England, ‘where she made "A Woman Alone," is at work in Hollywood on "The Witch," which is being produced by her husband, Eugene Frenke. Miss Sten has acquired some very definite ideas on the making of films. ‘"Nothing is good without enthusiasm," she said, "and I will never make a movie

unless I can feel happy about it. TI feel happy about my ‘English picture, and I feel happy about the future, for ‘I have a nainber of beautiful stories in front of me.’ Leap to Stardom. [NDELIBLY identified with his title _Yole in, "The Country Doctor," Jean Hersholt, starring for Twentieth Century in- another .picture entitled "Sins, of Man," has become the recipient of one of the heaviest volumes. of fan .mail in Hollywood. "More ‘than. three times as many per sons write to me, than ever did before T played .that role," he said. "They are most. unusual letters too for an actor-to receive. > Hundreds of women have written to me asking advice ‘of diet and care of children. They seem to forget that I merely played the role of the doctor, and that Dr, Allan Roy Dafoe, is the one who knows all about such things,"