Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 15 June 1935, page 13


L PICTURES AND PERSONALITIES j

( 1 ) Lionel Atwill in "The Fire Bird." (2) Merle Oberon and Leslie How-ard in a scene from "The Scarlet Pimpernel." (3) Bing Crosby and Kitty Carlisle in "Here is My Heart." (4) Tala Biréll, a Columbia star.

FILMING SHAKESPEARE Max Reinhardt Converted

A few years ago Max Reinhardt, the maestro of the stage, was. entirely, dis-interested In the motion picture, and lie described it as "a dangerous parasite of the theatre, of literature, and of other arts." Ho has quite a different opinion sinco ho was persuaded to un-dertake the supervision of Shake-speare's "Midsummer Night's Bream." No doubt most persons recoiled instinc-tively when it was known that James Cagney and Joe 13. Brown wero to in-terpret Shakespearo according to Holly-wood ideas, but it appears that after all "Midsummer Night's Dream" will be something worth while. At the moment Reinhardt is supervising the cutting of the film from 453,000ft./ to 13,000ft. Regarding Reinhardt ''as a man with a love of his art-the theatreand a man who would not lightly risk his reputation, it is eloquent.of the worth of the Ulm that Reinhardt com-ments'. ."I . am overwhelmed .by the miracles tho technicians have wrought for me in the way of producing, not onlythe things Shakespeare described, but the things he must have dreamed about.

What we-have here is the 'Dream' asI have long visioned it-something that all thc world can see and appreciate."

Looking Forward

British Dominion Films have .set an ambitious programme of production for this year, and ono or two interesting Alms will bo begun at- tho company's Twickenham studiös shortly. Among films which will be seen In Hobart with-in the next few months aro "Nell Gwyn" (Anna Neagle), "Lilies of the Field" (Winifred Shotter), and "Tho Queen's Affair" (Anna Neagle). For "Bella Donna" the company will star Conrad Veldt, Mary Ellis, tho ópera star, and Slr Cedric. Hardwicke; Florence Des-mond will appear in "Gay Love," a musical comedy; and Merlo Oberon will be starred in "The Broken Melody." Other productions include "Ten Minute Alibi," a mystery play, -"Tho Green Pack," by . Edgar Wallace, "There Goes Susie," a comedy .with Geno Gerrard and Wendy Barrie, "Al at Lloyd's," "Thc Morals of Marcus," starring Lupe Velez arid "Oliver Cromwell," for which th? star has not yet been selected. "Escape Mc Never," in which Elisabeth Bcrgnei appears, will bo seen fairly soon ir Hobart. Elisabeth Bergncr enjoyci immense success on the London stage in thia play, and caught the boat foi New York tho day af ter she finished th« last sceno for the film version. She ii still playing in "Escape Me Never" oi the stage in New York, and although sh( has been inundated with offers iron Hollywood, intends to return to Brltaii when her season concludes. On returi to Britain she will begin work on Ber nard Shaw's "St. Joan," and after tha

will appear In a film written specially for lier by Sir James Barrie.

Reorganisation

Interesting developments have oc-curred in tho reorganisation ot some of the producing companies in the Uni-ted States. Tlio company most affect-ed is the United Artists' Corporation, which has been denuded of an import-ant brandi, Twentieth Century, which has merged with Fox Films. Darryl Zanuck, tho creator of Twentieth Cen-tury, a company which has produced some outstanding Hims, may tako charge of all Fox Film studios follow-ing tho merger. There is, incidentally, a possibility that' Fox Films may ucquire or merge willi two other fairly large companies. Tho llrst six films which Twentieth Century will produce under the Fox banner will be Slr Walter

I Scott's "Ivanhoe," "The lian Who Broke ! the Bank at Monto Carlo," starring Ronald.Colman, "Sing, Governor, Sing," starring Paul, Whiteman ; "Diamond Horseshoe,", featuring Lawrence Tibbett; "Shark Island," with Fredric March- and. "Professional Soldier," in which Wallace Beery.will be the star.

Tho American films of .United Artists will come now 'from''.Samuel Goldwyn, with an occaslonal offerlng from Charles Chaplln,;and a few. fom Reliance. Prob-ably tlie majority of United Artists pic-tures in the corning year will be from British studios-, as Alexander Korda and London Films arc to simply 13 fea-tures. - -They Include "Whither Man-kind," by H. G. Wells; "Sanders ot the River" (Paul ? Robeson);. "Sir Tristam; Goes . West" .-(Charles' Laughton): "Elizabeth of England," "Lawrence- of Arabia,"'with Leslie Howard; "Young Mr." Disraeli," "Frank Liszt," and "Ele-phant Boy." The last-mentioned 1 is being made now in India by the man wno made tho prize film,, "Man of Aran.". Tho net result seems to bo that British films have taken another step forward.

Not Enough Beauties

. A fact which is.nt first difficult to beliove, when ono sees the bevies in any musical film, is that there ls a shortage of 'beauty in Hollywood. The experi-ence of directors is that, if they need! say, 100 beautiful' girls for a Ulm, they havo. to reject 1,000 betoro they make up their collection, and they have been astute enough to make ' annual con-tracts to avoid 'tho bothor of selecting again from a host of aspirants. All the time. Hollywood has its scouts on the lookout for beauties. Usually they nfc easy enough to find, but tho trouble is that tho producers demand talent as well as beauty. Too many have talent, and no beau ly.

An Era Passes

Manchester boasts the only theatre in the British Isles which still clings faithfully to silent pictures. The sec-ond last house was in Newcastle, and

that closed Us .doors ' recently. . Tho I

"old faithful" at Newcastle was owned j

by an exhibitor who was steadfast tn

his refusal to install talking apparatus,

and believed that sufficient silent films

had survived to enable him to.carry on for another lb years. Not long ago, however, the owner of.the theatre died, and the new management decided that within 12 months tho declining supply of silent Alms would be exhausted, and tho hall, is to bo demolished.. Tho old theatre, which was named tho Sun, was in the poorest district of tho city, and it was well patronised by deaf persons and by others who still found magic in such productions as "Tho Birth of a Nation," and early films In which Mary Pickford took part. '

The Hollywood Move

In spite of the declarations by motion picture magnates recently, it appears that there will.be no migration of the film colony from California to any other State. The legislature of California had threatened.tho film producing busi-ness with heavy taxation, and that was tile cause of , the ' producers' counter threats. The! result is that California has reduced its taxation to a reasonable basis, but Florida, which had prepared to make ready.for a new lilm colony, has become piqued, and suspects that the' talk of producers moving to its eonfines was merely a pistol to frighten California. Toi get. even, Florida , has Imposed an. amusement tax . of 1.0 per

cent, o'n ali theatre admissions. ' ;

Short-Subjects ''??.'

! Lilian Harvey Intends rio' return to

Germany, where she made her film re-',

'putation. She'will'make only ono plc- . ture,'however, and then will go back to iElstree. . ? :

jBasil1 Rathbone is to play opposite,

IGreat Garbo in "Anna Karenina." In ;the silent version, 3ohn Gilbert arid

Greta Garbo were starred. i

Hollywood is preparing a musical adaptation of "Daddy Long Legs." It will be called ; "Curly'Top," and Shir-ley Temple will bc featured. .

"Freckles," with Anne Shirley, and "Laddie," with Gloria Stuart,, two of Gene Stratton Porter's stories, . aro ?nearing completion by the R.IC.O.

Radio studios. , . . ., j

Anna Neugle has joined -thc group of Ulm stars receiving £ 1,000 a week.' A few years a'go she was earning '.'£ i a week in a chorus. ; ;

Np Fishing

I'roduccr: I have boen reading this script, and I don't quite understand this

scene.

Director: Oh, that is merely a red herring to put the detective off tho track. ,

Producer: All right, then, but tho. script doesn't say anything about Ash-ing. ? . ?'...'.!.?