Tuesday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
April 16, 1940.
1.1"
MAGAZINE PAGE
ENTERTAINMENTS
'CHIPS' SWEETHEARTS TO TEAM AGAIN
THE film folk are going And nuts on classical music. what they think is classical music. If it isn't Chopin, it's Schumann. If it isn't Beetho ven, it's Brahms, I wouldn't be surprised if they got around to dear old Schubert again, the rate they're going.
Latest story to hand is that Louis B. Mayer in Hollywood plans to team gain the famous stars of "Mr. Chips"-Robert Donat and Greer Garson,
The Alm they are to do is to be called "Song of Love." It is the love story of Clara and Robert Schumann. Theirs was a great love story, coloured at the end by tragedy, for Schumann went mnd.
THEY plan that Robert Taylor shall be in the picture, too. He is to play Brahms. Now, Brahms was crotchety, bibulous, ugly, port- ly and small. He was rude unless he wanted to be charming, witch was rarely. I thinle, apart from that, Robert Taylor in pretty good casting.
NOTHING recently seems to have been heard of Mr. Mayer's previous brain-wave, which was to make ilm of the acht "The Rosary," with Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and William Powell.
I'm wondering when somebody will decide to do Handel's Largo, with Dorothy Lamour,
* +
BIGGEST laughs that have been heard in cinemus since war broke out have been caused by a little American programme pleture—a sort of Junior Hardy family ple- ture, with William Frawley as the exasperated pop. Film enlled, "Stop, Look and Love."
And are the following faces red -Crazy Gang, George Fornby, Will Hay, Lucan McShane, Askey, Mur- doch, Moore Marriott.
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☆
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"SCATTENBRAIN" Is Britain's top song just now.
Richard Greene---Virginia Fields, who announced that they would marry In Hollywood this month, now Bay they have decided to walt a year,
"White Horse Inn" will be re- vived at the London Coliseum.
the Another revival will be famous wartime thriller serini But "The Exploits of Elaine." only. it hey can find just the gal to be another Pearl White,
WHAT'S ON
KİNG'S: "It Could Happen to You."
ORIENTAL: “Juárez.” MAJESTIC: “Daughters. Courageous,"
QUEEN'S AND ALHAM- "BRA: "Tarzan Finds a Son.”
It is a tale of how Jesus brought prace when the Jews revolted against the Romans in A.D. 30.
Which commandment? Not onc of the Sermon on the Mount: "Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbour ns Thyself."
An excellent Iden. Producer Darryl Zunuck senses that the world Is coger, just now, to hear again the old story of brotherly Jove.
But Power? Frankly, he is a mystery man to me.
He has built the Suez Canal, been Maric Antoinette's lover, Jasze James, the lad who saved Lloyd's of London.
But he had another part. He was Sonja Henie's Press agent in "Second Fiddle.". The film was poor, but he was grand,
I
Frankly, Mr. Power is a light comedian first, and other things a long way afterwards. wish they'd let him Addle olher actors take care of Rome burning.
while the
SAME thing with MADELEINE CARROLL. She has been snored by Ccell B. de Mille. And that guy certainly throws a mean lasso.
He has Birmingham's second- best citizen (first in Mr. Chamber- lain, of course) ridin' the Rockies with Frederle March in "North West Mounted."
And Just as soon as he can pry her out of that high-backed saddle she, too, is to go into a religious picture.
of
De Mille calis it "Quéen Queens." Miss Carroll is to be the the first Mary and Mis. Dietrich other one. I hope it works out well,
So it will be six months before Mins Carroll can come home to be the society dame in "The Admir- able Crichton," which Paramount plan to do here. Society dames
Looks like Charles Laughton Lore-her-long-sult settled in California for good. His next film will be "Half a Rogue," whimsical story of London bar- tender who is mistaken for the father of a Hollywood star.
REMEMBER Paulette God- dard was announced as Scar- lett in "Gone With the Wind," withdrew by agreement, and was replaced by Vivien Leigh?
A blow for any girl. But Paulette, once famous as n Charlie Chaplin leading lady, is now busy making herself into a star.
No Scarlett," she said. "Al right. But I'm going to be Lou- pelle." She is. What's more, she put in for the part unasked.
Loupette the fiery French" Canadian girl in Cecil B. de Mille's Technicolour production "North- West Mounted Police" is one of the most sought-after feminine paris since "G.W.T.W."
So Paulette shares starry hon- ours with Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Preston and Akim Tamiroff.
*
SHE had a hard struggle. De Mille wasn't interested.
"You don't quite look the part," he told her.
So Paulette had herself made up as Loupette, complete with bullwhip.
De Mille shook his head: "This part calls for acting. for accent, for fre," he said. "It needs a Lenore Uriel."
Paulette
11] called
Samuel Kayser, noted acting coach. She learnt the part, mastering the French-Canadian dialect
She caught the exasperated Mr. do Mille again.
"Here" she said, thrusting the seript into his hand, "you read Robert Preston's part and we'll do the scene together."
An hour later she had got it, TYRONE Power, America's No. 2 star of 1939, gets his marching orders for 1940. He is to play lead in a film called "The Great Com-
mandment.!
The delay as this one advan- Mr. Leslle Howard may by lage. then be through with his cut- price "Hamlet," so that he can be butler Miss Carroll.
Paramount announce four Bri- fish pictures. "Crichton," then Table" "Knights of the Rounil (with young DOUG FAIRBANKS as Sir Lancelot), the life of Barney Barnato, diamond king,
and
comedy to be called "What Hol"
Spotting the Rank
LIEUTENANT, (E) SUB-LIEUTENANT (E) MIDSHIPMAN (E)
起
Each of these ranks is dis- tinguished from the corres- ponding grade in the Execu- tive branch by strips of purplo cloth between, or alongside, the gold lace on the cuffs or great-coat shoulders, of Licu- tenants and Sub-Lieutenants.
When the war broke out there were 358 Lieutenants (E), 94 Sub-Lioutonants (E), including 33 acting in that rank, and 121 Midshipmon (E).
On the retired list thoro wore 156 Lioutenants (E), 105 Engincor-Lieutenants (a rank now superseded by the former), and 14 Sub-Liou- tonants (E) or corrasponding ranks.
Until the rank of Sub-Liou- tenant (E) is reached, theso officers spand their time prin- cipally at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Koyham, Devonport.
At sea, Lioutonants and Sub-Lieutenants (E) may ba aither junior ongino-room officers in
craft-carriors or cruisors, or in chargo of the machinery of small vossols.
Which reminds me to say that I don't think there is any form of entertainment I read more than a comedy called, "What Ho!" Unless it is a comedy called "Splash Me."
Film ilties are a great trouble to me. Mr. Howard's aim with Ingrid Mergman used to be called "Intermezzo," but it is now "Escape to Happiness."
It could be called "Hek Sleg You Again," and I still wouldn't know what it is all about, I like titles Dame" like "Hunchback of Notre
or "The Great Train Robbery," They let you know what's going
TAKE ANN HARDING for in- stance. She is coming down from the Hollywood hill top she Inhabits to stage Ecreen come-back after two
Basil years. She partners Rathbone.
In our last instalment, you will remember, we left her screaming at Mr. Rathbone in "Love from a Stranger." The new chapter is to be called "Destiny." All I know about a film with Harding and Rathbone called "Destiny" is that it depresses me.
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
15%
"Don't look now, Gaylord, but that, woman over there has a terrible figura!"
How Holland
THE MOMENT the Ger- mans set foot on Dutch terri- tory, short, stout Mr. J. W. Alborda will bo at the tolo-.. phono to give the word **Flood!"!
As Holland's Minister of Waterworks, Mr. Alberda-a civil engineer before he enter- ed the Cabinet-controls the country's vast network of canals and waterways.
Hundreds of uniformed lock-and- sluice attendants are standing by. | night and day, waiting for his word.
It will be the signal. for them to pull an electrio switch. Im- mense sluice gates will be raised by machinery. The water will gush through to inundate large tracts of land,
a
Holland's waterworks are marvel of mechanical emciency. Wilhin twenty-four hours a sheet of water will lie in the path of the invader,
While some of the sluices on rivers and canals are hand-operat- ed, the principal sluices are worked by electricity.
Time will be an important factor In the flood strategy and no me will be lost by the Dutchmen.
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HOLLAND'S first line of defence is the River Yssel, near the German-Dutch fron- tier.
If resistance falls at this point. the Dutch
Army, about 700.000 strong, will fall back to their main water-line-which is to Holland what the Maginot Line is to France
This stretches for more tlan eighty miles from Amsterdam, part Utrecht, south-west to the River Lek and the River Waal, then to Biesbosch on the River Mans.
Above and beyond the flooded lands, the important industrial centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, and Hearlem will remain intact.
In many parts of this low-lying region, the canals, enclosed in their banks, are ten feet above the level of the land. Flooding is thus an easy procedure..
All the sluice attendants have to do is to open the sluices, and nise the level of the canal water so that it overflows the banks
021 to the surrounding country.
Main artery of the water-line is the River Vecht, which flows into the Zulder Zce, west of Amsterdam. It is fed by a network of canals,
IS
Oly
Jan
Vora
Elven
But the Dutch
ате
rendy to undo the work of centuries, and welcome an in- vasion by their ancient enemy if it serves keep n worse enemy out.
Much of the work of reclaiming the vast basin of the Zuider Zee would Ho by the board. Millions of pounds have been spent in the last twenty years on this great reclamation scheme which was to have been completed in 1952.
A dam twenty-six miles long has been built as a barrier against the North -Sea, and behind it thou- sands of acres have been drained and made useful. Thousands of neres more remain to be drained.
Flooded:
Both the sluices on the Vecht and the canals will be opened immed!- ately the danger signal is given.
-SIMULTANEOUSLY-hun-- dreds of bridges, already mined in readiness, will be blown up. There are more bridges to the square mile in Holland than any other coun- try.
The water-line would be three miles on an average in width, and the depth would vary from 18 Inches to 20 fect. Invaders will And it impossible to tell when they would pass from the shallows into the deep canals and ditches.
of
Already targo stretches of the country have been flooded as an
and hundreds emergency, homes are under water, Doro than 18,000 of the people who lived there have been evacuated.
And what has been done there in the last few weeks has been suf- cient to show what a barrier the an Invading water would be to army.
The Dutch military authorities have experimented with tanks In the drowned fields. The tanks have been hopelessly bogg d in the soggy, peaty ground under the
water,
"BETTER a drowned land than a lost land," cried Wil- liam the Silent in the sixteenth century, when the Spaniards menaced Holland.
Dykes were breached, the water great Inke was come in and a spread between the Dutch and their enemy.
Water is a greater barrier to an army than it was in William the Silent'a time. For mechanised forces the water-Une would be im- passable Even where the ground looked solid, it might be a death- trap mire for tanks and guns. For tho water геера treacherously underneath.
To see the flooding of their land would be heartbreaking to the Dutch. For centuries they have been fighting water, na each pol- den or strip of reclaimed land was won from the seS.
TO reclaim flooded reclaim- ed land and make it fit for cultivation again will tako years of hard labour.
That is the sacrifice Holland must make to save the more important part of her territory from the in- vader.
In the strip of territory south of the River Mñas and the Belginn frontier the Dutchmen would have a harder task in stemming the.
entmy.
But, here again they would have formidable barriers in the Wilhel- mino and Willemstanst Canals, which are linked, in their continua- tion over the Belgian frontler, with the powerfully-fortified Albert Canal, running from Liege to Antwerp.
I Holland and Belgium co- operated to resist invasion, a stand could be made along the canals In this sector and the Germans held up long enough for help to arrive,
Many military experts believe that the region between the Maas River and the Alberi Canal may be the great battlefield of the war.
Germany's twin objectives, to reach the south coast of Holland for the establishment of acroplane'and submarine bases, and to swing from Holland through Belgium for on attack, on France, would be fought out here.
The large provinces of Fricoland and Groningen at the north-west of Holland may prove indefensible. Here the land is comparatively high and cannot be flooded.
Plans have been worked out for evacuating the population of these provinces by rushing them befoss the modern rondway on the Zuider Zeo dam.
Holland, free of invasion for more than a century, is ready for any emergency.
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