Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 29 May 1937, page 12


Merle Oberon In Ni jinsky Film

Romola Nijinsky's sensational lifestory of her sensational dancer husband will again be on the market for a \ film purchaser. For three years she

bad held it under JE. 10.000 option contract-^— to find that the company holding the option wanted it for Merle Oberon ! Merle was not to play Ni jinsky himself, of course, but the whole of the classic biography was to be turned into an account of the loves of a little ballerina, in the bewitching person of Miss Oberon. Three years ago Romola Nijinsky's biography of her genius husband took the literati of two continents by storm, and film offers came from everywhere. But the redoubtable Alexander Korda, countryman of Mme. Nijinsky, carried off the trophy on an option contract of £10,000. Schedule difficulties crowded it off Korda's programme (which has been noted for its instability almost as much j as for its genius), and in the mean-! time, of course, the interest of other film producers had waned, once the news was announced that Korda had the option. With a mentally incapacitated husband to support, Romola Nijinsky was overjoyed when at last the long period of waiting resulted in a cable demanding her immediate return to London 'or script conferences. She was invited to change the £10,000 contract into a collaborating fee for turning the literary best-seller based on the life of one of the greatest dancers of all time into a vehicle for a ballerina to be played by Miss Oberon. Efforts have since been made by lawyers to bring the 'Life of Nijinsky to the screen market once more.