Hollywood Takes SHAKESPEARE Very Seriously

Radio Record, 7 August 1936, Page 29

Hollywood Takes SHAKESPEARE Very Seriously

HOLLYWOOD is taking its _. Shakespeare so seriously that it doesn’t even laugh at the funny bits, Nevertheless I’m logking forward to "Romeo and Juliet" in which Norma Shearer ("Oh! she is rich in beauty, Juliet is the sun"). and Leslie Howard ("His name is Romeo, a Montague, the only son of your eneiny") play the leading roles. This film, which is said to have cost half a million pounds, will not be released for some time yet. In the meantime England is pushing ahead with its first screen Shakespeare effort-‘‘As You Like It,’ with Elisabeth Bergner in the part.of Rosalind and. Laurence Olivier as Orlando. Oliver Messel, the well-known Englishman, was engaged to superintend the. production of "Romeo and Juliet." He was

sent on a tour of Italy to gather material, and later a model of the greater part of the town of Verona at the period of the play was built, so that even the mover mients should be geographically correct. Backing the Bard. "THERE are things the *. cinema can do which the theatre cannot," said Mr. Oliver Messel, when discussing the Hollywood: version of "Romea and: Juliet." "I think the film has | been able to build up the tension between the two families, the oppressive heat of the weather and the excitement of the resultant fight in a way the stage could not have achieved." John Barrymore plays the part of Mercutio, and Basil Rathbone is Ty-

balt. Shakespeare is still something of a gamble on the screen-although "A -Night’s. Dream". made money in America it played to pdor houses in most parts of the British Hmpire where the American accents. grated on a people brought up in the Old Vie traditions, An early film version of "The Taming of the Shrew" may be dismissed without much serious consideration, : J olly Good. FNHAD other evening I dropped into the State Theatre, Wellington, for an. hour and ran up against one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen in weeks. Its name-"Private Number" ' -was almost unknown to me; its east included Loretta Young, the much sought-after Robert Taylor, Basil Rathbone and Patsy Kelly. The story does

not matter very much-the charming gir] who is taken into,a wealthy household as a servant, falls in love with and marries the only son, is discharged, fights an annulment case in court, and comes out trumps in the end. But the way the story is handled lifts it right out of the usual run of nice-young-girl-defending-her-honour type of picture. The settings are splendid, Loretta | Young and Robert Taylor: make ag delightful a "team" as I have seen, Basil Rathbone is splendidly unpleusant, and Patsy Kelly makes the welkin ring every time she appears. ~Be sure to have a look at this film. Splendid Film. IAMONDS and gold made a tidy fortune for Cecil Rhodes in Africa toward the end of last ceniury-the sort of fortune one dreams about. But instead of sitting back and just spending it or speculating in oil and steel on the stock exchange or cornering the pird-seed market like so many millionaires have done since, te used a lot of it to develop his own Jreams of

great territorial possession in South Africa. He was a remarkabie man. Doomed, according to his doccor, to die within a short time, he outwitted that fate for much longer and went eyes out on making his dreams come true, with a personality and energy which defied all barriers. That is the theme of "Rhodes of Africa," new GaumontBritish film, to be released ar the Wellington Plaza this week. It’s a splendid historical picture With a romance about it that laughs at sentimentality. In the "mob" scenes the negroes thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Oscar Homolka made a great job of his Kruger charac-terisation-Paul Muni standard, Rhodes’s death scene was unnecessarily long-drawn out, but otherwise Walter Huston’s acting was powerfu) and even. The film has a nice balance of action, excitement and drama, "Gigli is Coming." NONGRATULATIONS to the Enmbassy Theatre, Auckland, and to United Artists for the preliminary. publicity that has worked up such interest in the first film of Gigli, the famous Italian tenor, to be released in Auckland this week. A_ poster,

"Gigli is coming to Auckland,’ has been prominently displayed, together ‘with another containing just the one word, "Gigli." So great has been the’ interest that Lewis Hady’s booking ' office has had numerous inquiries from people wanting to book seats at His Majesty’s Theatre for what they believed. was a personal appevrance in Auckland of the singer. .Gigli’s film is called "Forget Me Not"-an interesting . story quite away from the traditional film featuring famous singers, Toward the Macabre. JK ARL GRUNBE is a director with a _ leaning toward the macabre, After ©

an outstanding career in Germany he was taken to England by ©. M. Woolf, the king-pin of Associated Distributors, and already he is earning for himself a reputation for unusua!? productions. His latest film, private'y screened in Wellington last week, is "The Marriage of Corbal," a story of the French Revolution adapted from Sabatini’s book. The picture opers a little slowly, but it builds up well, andrare in films of the revolution-it shows touches of delightful humour. Nils Asther, Hazel Terry (a granddaughter, I think, of Hllen Terry), Hugh ‘Sinclair and Noah Beery have the leading parts. Unusual shot: the guillotine knife, polished mirror-bright, reflecting the revolutionary banner with the words, "Liberty, Hquality and Fraternity." They Clapped! LIK®E enthusiastic audiences. The Regent Theatre, in Wellington, which has been packed to the doors for the past fortnight by crowds flocking to see "Show Boat," has been experiencing a most unusual thing in these days of blase cinema fans-ap-plause every night. The programme opens With the Queen Mary arriving in New York and setting out again on her homeward voyage. The house

broke into applause, And then the screen showed King Edward at the Trooping of the Colour. Again: applause. In the big picture Paul Robeson sings "Ol? Man River" as it has never been sung before, For the third time handclaps swept the house..