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'FOUR SHOWS TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.15, 7.15 & 9.20 P.M.
IN A HIT
TEEMS
TEAMED
THAT WITH
THRILLS
ERROL FLYNN
and. BARBARA
STANWYCK
WARNER BROS. present
GRY WOLF"
THE MOVIL IN THE AIGHT IS THE VOICE OF DANGER!
with that claing poung Lise
GERALDINE BROOKS
by Poler Godfrey Henry Blanke
Screen Fley by Catherine Tormey from the Hart by Male Cansing Most by fross Weinga
ADDED: LATEST CAUMONT-BRITISH NEWS!-
SHOWING
TO-DAY
LIBERTY
JORDAN ROAD KOWLOON
Z Minutes From The Vehicular Ferry Tol: 50333
AF
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1949.
SEAT INSTHE
The Universal Appeal QUEEN'S &ALHAMBRA
Of The Thriller
[OR a long time now detec tive stories, crime fiction, and thrillers have been increasingly popular all over the .world.
But it was in Britain that Conan Doyle, A. E, W. Mason, John Buchan and other eminent writers lifled the species well up Into (or anyway near) the realm of literature.
And English crime fiction inspired a good many of the major forele crime films made in the early days, such as Fritz Lang's early thrillers and a good many Hollywood pro- ductions,
With the coming of "talkies" crime fiction on the screen really sot into lis stride, and it was an English man, Hitchcock, who raised it to # high level.
!
By H. H. WOLLENBERG
The more
II well and bids fair to keep and The drama of un esenped convict is the basic theme of " Always enhance its International renown.
by on Sunday," directed recent crop of United Ralas Kingdom "thrillers" is as remark- Robert Hammer, with John McCal- able as ever for its combination of lum in the eonvict's part. But what entertaintment with artistic and this film is really remarkable for is some have the realistic background of the East technical achievements;
thoir
test abroad, End of London. On a similar story already passed
Cavalcanti based his "They Made others will soon do so.
Mo A Fugitive" with Trevor Howard In the title part
To mention some recent thrillers which avoid the paychiatric as well
as the social angle, there "Dual Albi,” a circus thriller direct- ed by Alfred Travers, with gilled Herbert Lom in a dual role: or Templation Harbour," Lance Com- Georite production of Simenon's "Newhaven-Dieppe" with Robert Newton in a brilliant charac- ter part от William Hartnels similar effort in "Appointment with Celme," directed by John Harlow.
The recent trend seems to be the thriller with A psychological, or rather psychopathic, Hlavour. Eric Fertman I, no doubt, the most brli- liant interpreter in Britain of that type of character, such as in "Want- ed. For Murder" (directed by of Cain" (Brian Desmond Hurst) or Lawrence Huntington). "The Mark "Dear. Murderer" (Arthur Crab- troo).
remember Hitch- James Mason
heroine.
JAME
JAMES MASON, one of Britain's most famous stors, internationally, has tried his hand in the paycho- pathie feld too (The Upturned Glass," directed by Huntington) and his greatest success "Odd Man Out," though not of this particular type,
be called a thriller. can certainly.
Who does not cock's "Blackmail" and that remark- able sequence where the
man in self- having slabbed a defence, reaches for the bread knife next morning-its touch making her jump with terror, and the distortion of the sound indicating her state of mind? Hero surely was plencer work in the new medium. It was followed up by a long series of In- Other "paychological enses" were ternational successes, such as "The John Mills' "The October Man," Eric Lodger" (1932), "The 39 Steps" and Ambler's story splendidly directed "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Roy Baker; "Take My
Life" -(1999/34),~"Seerel-Agent" 41925), with Marlus Gering under Ronald "Young and Innocent" (1537), Neame's direction; and last but not "Jamaica Inn" (1939) and a good least Anthony Kimmins* superb many others.
adaptation of Nigel Balchin's "Ming Own Executioner" with Burgess Meredith and Kieron Moore in the
2.30, 5.15,
Some Others
7.20 &
9.20 p.m.
A SYMPHONY OF LOVE...LOVE...LOVE!..
UNFORGETTABLE! BRILLIANTI.
FRANK BORZAGES
PRODUCTION OF.
I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU
IN TECHNICOLOR
PHILIP DORN-CATHERINE MCLEOD - WILLIAM CARTER MME MARIA OUSPENSKAYA - TELIX BRESSART - FRITZ FELD Directed by FRANK BORZAGE A REPUBLIC PICTURE
+
"As we are playing to capacity houses, you will be helping the management if you book early"
SUNDAY MORNING SHOW AT 12.00 NOON
THE MARK OF ZORRO”
Tyrone POWER Linda DARNELL
A 20TH CENTURY-FOX PICTURE AT REDUCED PRICES:
Circles $1.50; Back Stall $1.00; Front Stall $0.70
FIVE
SHOWS
TO-DAY
MAJESTIC
At 12.30, 2.30, 5.20, 7.20
G 9.20 P.M.
SUNDAY: EXTRA PERFORMANCE AT 12.30 P.M.
The brass-knuckled:
SATURDAY EVENING POST story!
CORONER CREEK
starring
RANDOLPH SCOIT
CINECOLOR MARGUERITE CHAPMAN
* Secsya MACRLANY • B939 EILLAS › Efgar BUCHANAN -..
Next Change: "BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS"
SHOWING
TO-DAY
AHEMALE, AT 2.30, 5.10,
Cathay
7.20 &.9.30 P.M:
THE MOST ACCLAIMED MOTION PICTURE IN
"SCREEN HISTORY!
WINNER OF 49 AWARDS INCLUDING THE NEW YORK' CRITICS CIRCLES AWARDS AS THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR!
!
Gentleman's Orsement
Starring: Gregory 'PECK * Dorothy McCUIRE *:John CARFIELD
BUNDAY Ingrid BERGMAN "The GASLIGHT"
EXTRA SUOIY. Charles BOYER in
MONDAY-EXTRA SHOW
"ALONG THE WILD TRAIL"
"AU.S.S.R.* PRODUCTION
fort's
of
1st
Some recent thrillers are obvious- ly based on World War II There is. Frank Launder's "I See a Dark Stranger" with Deborah Kerr, an irish background, and a hustling Nazl agent. Charles Crichton's
Against the Wind" is a story allied underground work in Nazi occupied Belgium; and In- "Counter- blast." Mervyn Joling presents fine character study of a particularly mischievous Nazi agent doing some underground work in postwar Britain.
The Future?
BUT even apart from Hitchcock's respectivelychiatrist and paranoluc certainly no lack of stories or
rather specialised works in this Another noteworthy trend in re- particular field there were some cent production in Britain is a cer- notable prewar thrillers from United thin emphasis on social problems, Kingdom studios, such as Anthony such as juvenile delinquency, "Good Asquith's "Coltage on Dartmoor" Time Ctrl" (with Jean Kent) is a
Walter Forde's dim (1930), or
of case in point; her male counterpart Edgar Wallace's famous "Four Just in recent United Kingdom thriller Men," his "Ghost Train" and his production was Richard Atten- "Rome Express."
borough's juvenile razor-gang leader This tradition of the studios in in Boulting's "Brighton Rock, based
World Britain has survived
War on Graham Greene's novel.
David Lewin's
SPOTLIGHT
ON ROBERT
DONAT
DOBERT DONAT has started pens-no star name
filmdom's
Intest contro- fade-out
versy. He has decided to make "The Cure for Love," and he will not it, direct it, and produce
it.
or a
con beat the
FILMING AGAIN
TRYING THE cinema again *
after 11 three-year break: Celta Johnson. "Brief Encounter" was her last picture.
Good ilm parts were hard to find she said then. Now she has two offers.
Some Alm men I have talked to belleve that Donat is making a mis- lake: Their argument: Donat has the figure of a statesinon, a doctor,
lending politician. Now ho No. 1: To star with French actor who won the wants to play an ex-Army sergeant. Pierre Fresnay. He could be an officer or a man with £1,000 award of the Daily Express a-secret mission-in-the-Army-But-Film-Tribunal for the best per- a sergeant-never,
formance of 1948 in "Monsieur Vin- cent."
Robert Donat has one of the finest Producer Anatole de Grunewald, voices on the screen. Its accents maker of "The Winslow Boy," starts ore full and true. His voice makes talks soon to bring Fresagy to Lon- its best effect as a K.C. or a school dion to film in "Another World." master or a minister. But in "The Cure for Love" he will speak with a Lancashire dialect.
What a
waste, say his critics. (They forget that Donat came from Lancashire).
And third they challenge Dannt's decision to direct his own film for the first time. Acting is a sufficient- 15 great strain,
with- they say, work behind out having to
the camera as well.
Is Donat
No. 2: To film a Noel Coward story "The Astonished Heart," with Michael Redgrave.
Will she accept the offers? My bet-she will.
COFFEE, SIR?
#
WHAT about the future? There Is
talent for thriller production in Bri- tain to draw on, and the recent pre- infere of "My Brother's Keeper" is part particularly gratifying, because diree- tor, author and most of the cast had their Arst big chance to make good and they certainly did. The only old established star in the cast was Jack Wamer in the Tole of an escaped convict, a likeable, and often pathetic, fellow.
And now. that Hitchcock himself, that master of thriller production is In London again the wheel has turned full circle. After many years in Hollywood Hitchcock is fr Britain directing "Under Capricorn" with no less a cast than Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Colten from Hollywood, and Britain's own Michael Wilding.
"Hitch's" return seems certainly a good omen for the future, and with other big thrillers such as "Sleeping Car to Venice" to follow, the there seems little worry for future of United Kingdom produc- tion of Alm thrillers,
Cut The Cost Drive
-
May Hit British_Stars
£1,000 A Film-Plus
A Share Of Profits
BIG-NAME British stars who have been getting £12,000 a film are now faced with the risk of a salary drop of £11,000.
A new economy drive in the Rank picture-making organisation may mean that stars will work for £1,000 down and a share of the film's pro- fits.
THE MAD-HATTER'S tea *
If the film were to flop at the box- party had nothing on the office they would get no more than coffee parties of Orson Welles,
That was the basis on which a making a mistake? I Joseph Cotten, and Trevor Howard the original thousand.
in the sewers 40 feet beneath the nim called "Contraband" was made. think not. The same critics ap streets of Vienna. plauded
The star of that was Valerie Hobson, Olivier's direction of
They were filming there for "The wife of producer Anthony Envelock- "Hamlet"-after the film was made; Third Man"....and they spent all Allan. And afterwards she said: and Ralph Richardson was right to day underground. The first morn
the Arst ing they broke for coffee at 11, and
play "Falstaff"-nfier
night.
As for directing: Everyone wants pattering down the steps from
street came correct white-coated
to be a director nowadays, fun former fish-mimle Richard Haydn
to David Niven,
JEAN SIMMONS
JUST WHAT Is it about * Jenn Simmons that at 14
has made her a star-even to stars?
and sometimes they even mean
Robert Donat "Hello."
came by to
the
"That is the way it should be done the K we are to stay on in the business. "In fact, I have worked that way waiters with black bow ties carrying when all of us worked on a share twice already once on Contraband,' trays with coffee pots and cups.
basis, and again for husband's They laid the table (white clothes alm The Small Valce."
In the sewer freshly laundered)
In private talks with other stars. and the cost sat round to have a Miss Hobson has found a growing drink. In the afternoon they went support for her ideas. through it all again. -
DENHAM
They ☆
out in a
Mr J.
Arthur
Itank, in the toughest talk he has yet had with PRAIRIE flm
Denham workers ut.
and Pinewood. his two biggest studios, They listen to what she has to
DAVID FARRAR, timing made these things clear: say when they talk to her;
himself to see how quick
He wants his films made at a top watch fuscinated as she sits on the he is on 'the draw (3 seconds)...* floor with her shoes of t partics Diana Dors practising the
can-can cost of £100,000 each (the present average is £160,000): and ("it's more comfortable that way" ...a couple of hundred diamond
He can get no further money to prospectors fighting it when they say: "Darling. I thought saloon. That was Denham recently, inke more than the 40 planned for you were just wonderful in your last when they were trying Britain's first this year. In fact, they may be cut
back to 37. Western.. type rough-and-tumble picture.
Alan Ladd wanted to meet her film, "Diamond City," ・
CUT IN. STAFF when he came to London. Ralph British producers are moving in on Richardson asked to be introduced. the Hollywood prairie with their That is why Mr Rank is dis-
themo say own variations on a
which missing 250 workers at his studios; the Americans have monopolised why he is limiting production to two pictures. at a time instead of Laurence Olivier, says: "She has since pictures were first made.
three or four ai Pinewood studios: and why the Islington studio has SHOW PEOPLE are talk-been closed down.
STAR-NOTE: Sir Laurence Olivier, ing about: the film of Belly her, and you have a feeling of com Grablo's home life made by her Robert Douat, Margaret Lockwood, plefe happiness talking to her."
husband, trumpeter Harry James, Stewart Granger, and Erie Portman Carol Reed: "There is something leDownbent
ong the stars in the £12,000 are among for Two."
walks into a theatre for a first ing and
tea dancing again after night. As an actress she knows years for "Bandwagon.".....
pleture makers: instinctively what to do."
Lady Yale's studios at Elstree ....... MAUREEN O'HARA'S slim-
to be jule finished British National-are Jean has Onished work on her ming course now she has latest
"Adam and Evelyne," and her British picture
"Britannia oggi,
the: David Niven film film
Pimpernel" Is com- balloting to see who gets her not eating so much slarch.
British will take its place,
talent plus intelligence. That is.her
secret,
Ralph Richardson: "You say "What a nice girl when you meet
TAILPIECE
fresh about her even when she SHIRLEY TEMPLE taking up ning-and up bracket.
Among ዓ. news for Britain's
already Mr Rank's producers are Mews, She said she put on pounds there
bring to eight can i
for her next picture, that is already...THE RUSH by settled-but for, the one after that. .producers to get Edward, Dmytryk London Films had planned to Anished In the scrambla. for the prestige now he has
"Obsession" film there for three years, bat Sir which Jean Simmons
days, wider schedule arul Alexander Korda saya: "We cannot a flm I see a danger. It is just £10,000 under cost...The remark come to an agreemont, so Robert that the Simmons name may be that things are so bad in Hollywood Donat's "The Curo for Love,' which expected to carry poor stories and now, most stars are drinking to for-wus to have been made there, will bad directors. And when that hap get their future.
naw go to another studio,"
SHOWING TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.15, 7.15 & 9.15 P.M. Jano 'Outlaw' Russell's First Technicolor Picture!
Paleface
Color by
Technicolor
starring
HOPE
Jane
RUSSELL
QUEEN'S
TO-MORROW 5 SHOWS
Extra Performanco at 11.30 A.M.
℗ COMING SOON
The most famous Temptress.... The most violent Romance. The greatest Love Story....
in 100 years!
COLOR BY
TECHNICOLOR
THANDAL PIERRED perkets
Rita HAYWORTH · Glonn FORD To Loves of Cormen
NOT THE OPERA
4 Beckworth Corporation Production
KONTAKT on tapetrand name calque
*...
PRIENTAL
AIR-CONDITIONED
TAKE ANY EASTERN TRAM CAR OR HAPPY VALLEY BUS
SHOWING TO-DAY: 2.30 5.15-7.20 & 9.20. P.M. SPECIALLY BROUGHT BACK TO THRILL YOU AGAIN! ! ACTION FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE FINISH!
GARY GRANT. VICTOR MCLAGLEN
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, Ing.
JOAN FONTAINER.. Sam Patta v Kdsianto Cianoulli ? FAKTOR 1. Atoman.", +2abunda) Stones HERRE NERVEN,
OH! S
Jaghiray
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