Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Wednesday 20 April 1938, page 4


A FILM CRITICS DIARY

By EDWARD AXFORD)

The Australian film industry seems incapable of keeping Its home screen talent for any length of time in recent years

it has last Errol Flynn and Mary Maguire

to mention only two film players who made their first break in Australian

films before reaping higher rewards abroad. Incidentally Miss Maguire's first

starring film for Warner Brothers Ser-geant Murphy will be seen at the Lyceum on Friday.

Fresh evidence of this unfortunate state of affairs comes from the Melbourne producing company New Era Films which is searching high and low for two young women to play the feminine leads in its second production Show Business based on a story which the company purchased in the United States They want a Myrna Loy type and a Janet Gaynor type but failed to get them after the director (Mr A R Harwood) had inter-

viewed 730 Melbourne applicants. Mr Harwood has engaged more than 100 people as extras but of his two leading ladies there is not a sign

Meanwhile the company's first picture The Avenger is awaiting release in

Melbourne.

Laughton Turns Lowbrow

Charles Laughton, whose first film for

his own producing company, "Vessel of Wrath, is attracting the attention of the English critics, has changed his opinions

about the cinema stage he gave his first starring film role in "Payment Deferred" five years ago He says -

"When I first went into pictures I intended to make some money and then return to the stage I had no intention of allowing Hollywood to rob me of my 'correct' opinions But after I had been in the films for a year I was invited to attend a play produced by the Oxford University Dramatic Society After the show the students sat me down in a corner of a room with a glass of wine and began to air their 'correct' opinions about Ibsen Moliere, and the rest. It was just so much hot air,' so many words To them I was a 'ham' actor who had sold his soul for gold

' I began to see that the emotional sincerity

of the masses was infinitely more important than the 'correct' ideas of a

few sophisticates After my perform-

ance in The Private Life of Henry VIII ' one critic accused me of playing to the

gallery.

"Quite right," I told him the people

in the boiled shirts don't interest me My public Is in the shillings.

' Fundamentally, both cinema and theatre are places for emotional relaxation, and most of the theories aired by high-brows are nothing more than snobbery "

Well, well Another loss to the higher

cinema '

Capra is Busy

What Frank Capra is doing or intends to do is news of firstrate importance in the film wrld. One never knows when he is about to produce another academy winner like "It Happened One Night" of Mr.

Deeds Goes to Town, or make another film of the stature of "Lost Horizon "

Rumours that he was returning to his native Italy to take control of the entire Italian film industry at the request of Signor Mussolini, and another story that he had been offered control of one of the largest producing organisations in Great Britain, may be discounted. Columbia

studios announce with an air of finality i

that Mr Capra has signed a new contract

to remain with them for an indefinite period. His first picture to be an adaptation of the play . You Can't Take It With You," for the screen rights of which they paid £100,000 The cast will include Jean

Arthur, whose squabbles with the studios have now been settled, Lionel Barrymore,

Una Merkel, Zasu Pitts, and Alice Faye

Under the Sea

Word has been received that an Australian film, Typhoon Treasure." which has been in the making for the best part of a year, is in the final stages of cutting and editing under the supervision of the author and director (Mr Noel Monkman). For nine months camera and sound men, divers, and technicians formed a colony on the Great Barrier Reef, with Green Island as their headquarters, where authentic under-water pictures were taken of the coral reefs and their fauna. Mr. Monkman has had considerable experience of this branch of cinema photography The cast includes Campbell Copelin, Joe Valli, and Gwen Munro, a young Melbourne actress.

Lady Kennet Objects

Plans made by the Gainsborough studios in England to remake the old silent film of Captain Scott's last journey to the South Pole have fallen through because of the opposition of his widow, Lady Kennet. The proposal was to impose dialogue upon the official film of the expedition made by Mr. H. G. Ponting. Admiral Sir Edward Evans, who was second in command of the ill-fated expedition urged upon Lady Kennet that the film could do no harm but she felt that the tragedy of Scott's death might be over dramatised, and persisted with her decision that no new film should be made in her lifetime.

Screen Calendar

The Lady Fights Back" (State Friday) -New supporting film for 100 Men and a Girl " the highly successful musical film which is drawing record houses to this theatre The Lady Fights Back' is a romantic comedy, with Kent Taylor and Irene Harvey In addition all the other

supporting features will be changed in-cluding the stage presentation Bert Howell's band will play new music and the variety act will be provided by Charles Cook, American coloured negro dancer

"Big Town Girl" (Lyceum, Friday) -Film drama, with music for Claire Trevor, Donald Woods, Alan Dinehart and Alan Baxter. Support Sergeant Murphy "

melodrama with the Australian actress Mary Maguire in the leading role.