'Mayerling' Previewed In Auckland

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 15

'Mayerling' Previewed In Auckland

THE first preview of a Continental film in Auckland took place the other evening when the brilliant French production "Mayerling" was shown to an audience of 500 at the Embassy Theatre. The reception was most enthusiastic, high praise being given to the work of Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer, the stars, and every other aspect of this picture, which has been brought to New Zealand by Meiropolitan Films, ,

Iwo Pictures-£40,000 FXRNST LUBITSCH’S two-picture deal with Metro will net him more than £40,000. First job is directing Garbo in "Madame Curie." and second is "Shop Around the Corner," which he had originally intended to produce on his own. Huxley Writes Script ALDOUS HUXLEY, by the way, has been doing the script for Garbo’s "Madame Curie" picture. He says he thinks he was chosen for the job because his brother is @ scientist! Huxley is, for an author, unusually philosophic about films and is not a bit worried about what the studio may do with his work, because "the executives. know more about making films than I do." Nevertheless, he has decided views about pictures-and Garbo. The main aim of his

treatment has heen to show pictorially the processes by which radium was discovered, without too many words. He has minimised dialogue, believing that Garbo’s peculiar quality and personality are better without excessive talk. £5000 Flick WOULD you let Akim Tamiroff flick a cigar out.of your mouth with a 25ft. bull whip for £5000?

Talkie "Tough Guy" Charles Bickford turned the offer down flat. Perhaps he was right. As he points out, he once spent six months in the hospital after a lion bit him in a Universal picture, and on another occasion he lost a chunk of his leg to a movie alligator. The prospect of losing un eye, a nose or an ear if Tamiroff’s marks. manship were not accurate wasn’t worth the £5000 offered for the role, in his estimation. Brian Donlevy, however, is pre pared to take a chance. The charaeterisation is required for "Union Pacific."