1931-02-11 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1931.

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MUSIC DRAMA FILMS

44

MONTE CARLO."

JACK BUCHANAN IN A GAY ROLE.

By G. A. Atkinson, The Daily

Telegraph Film Critic.]

London, January 13. "Monte Carlo,"

new the Ernst Lubitsch comedy presented at the Carlton Theatre lust even ing, is the guyest, wittiest, cleverest, entertainment which the developing art of the sound. film has produced.

Its quality, like that of most Lubitsch films, is of that in- describable kind which depends how quickly the individua spectator may detect satire and respond to raillery.

011

to

The brilliant fouling of Mr Lubitsch is not congenial

"Monte Carlo" is es everyone. sentially a satire on Riviera Vanities; the foibles of small Con tinental States, and the general iden of "Monsieur Beaucaire," with apologies from Mr. Lubitsch to Mr. Tarkington.

The heroine goes to the gaming tables because she does not want to marry a ducal nincompoop. The hero falls in love with her because he has nothing better to do, and pretends to be a barbe: in order to be near her. The duke intervenes at a moment when the barber is trying to finance the lady's losses, and a timely per formance of "Monsieur Beau- cuire" causes her to suspect that her barber is a wealthy aristo- crat in mufti, which he is.

Pictorial Epigrams. This airy and saucy trifles with what can only be called pie torial epigrams. Satire breaks out openly in the "Beaucaire" scenes, in which we see and hear a chorus chanting: "The barber is a prince," on the best oratorio lines.

CASTING DIRECTOR. | CINEMA SEATS 6,000.

TELLS HOW HE SELECTS PLAYERS.

Carole Lombard is one woman in 10,000,

WONDER BUILDING FOR LONDON.

London, Dec. 14. Six thousand people will Bit down in luxurious comfort a few. days before Christmas to enjoy the handiwork of 10,000 men.

That is why she was cast in one of the feminine leads in William Powell's current Paramount star ring picture, "Ladies' Man."

One thousand two hundred and To understand the first state fifty tons of steel 2.840 tons of ment, one must fin.sh the sen- cement, 1,880,000 bricks, 15,000 tence for she is one in 10,000 th. of paint, and 850,000 sheets of "players with salaries,

whose names, gold leaf have been assembled qualifications, com and fashioned into the largest plexions, features and wardrobe cinema theatre in Europe the the casting office at the Para Trocadero, at the Elephant and mount studio is familiar." Castle, London.

The job of mentally and phy- sically scanning these 10,000 play.

A staff of 300 will be needed to work the machines, issue tickets, ers whenever a part must be filled and control the building, and Gun. is only one of the many duties ner Mair, the boxer, will be in which lie before the casting direc-charge of the staff. tor, according to Fred Datig, who

The prices of admission will be holds this position at the Para-less than half those customary in mount Hollywood studios.

the West End of London. Among other things, he must

Provision is made for elaborate see every new and important film stage shows to add variety to the hundreds of screen candidates a complete performances. produced in Hollywood, interview programmes, which will run four day, arrange for film tests and recitals on the £16,000 organ will, call in thousands of players, large in addition, be given by Mr. and small, in trying to select Quentin Maclean, and gramophone actors for parts, and reading records of his favourite pieces every script completed for pic will he sold In the vestibule. tures about to go into production

THE CHINA MAIL.

ROUND THE CINEMAS dazzling.array

JOHN MCCORMACK IN SONG

O' MY HEART.”

HIS DEAREST WISH

Directly after the filming and re cording of "Song O My Heart," John McCormack's firat starring completed in Ireland, in so far as picture for Fox movietone, WEI

the scenes abroad were concerned, dinner in Dublin. the great tenor was given a farewell "Song O' My now playing in the

Heart" is

Queen's Theatre.

During the course of the dinner McCormack made public the fact that his dearest wish was to see es tablished in Ireland а national school for the development of the volca.

"Ireland was singing

when the breath of history first parted the mists about her consts, All down through the ages she has

sung,

whether in the battlefield amid the

clangour of arms, when half-savage kings went chanting to the fight, or out among the hills under the star when the shepherd voiced the wonder of Organ

ELGAR RECORDS.

THE FIFTH "POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE" MARCH.

"Some parts are extremely dif- ficult to fill while others are easy," Datig explains. "The case of Powell's leading Ladies' Man,' for instance, was woman in simple. We had to have un actress who appeared somewhat No event in the last Promenade ordinary at first but who later season at Queen's Hall aroused blossoms out into such a gorge- more interest among musicians ous, stunning woman that Powell than the production of Elgar's forgets his other women for this fifth "Pomp and Circumstance" girl who seems heedless of his march. Its advent was long de- charms. Kay Francis was cast layed, the first of the promised without a question

set of six marches having been "The casting of Carole Lombard produced nearly thirty years was somewhat different. The earlier. In the interval the com- It is clear, from start to finish, part-she plays calls for a modern poser had become a world figure that Mr. Lubitsch is out to pull girl, hardened on life, free of and Master of the King's Musick. someone's leg, though it will not morals and capable of dramatic and the first performance of the be clear to everyone that the leg passions. Miss Lombard seemen delayed march took on the char belongs to the spectator. This the girl but had never played acter of a national occasion. German satirist certainly has a such a role. Here was a time renius for making highly improb- when it was necessary to give a evening will be quickened by the Memories of that September able people behave with remark-screen test to one of our own con-issue, among the mid-January re- ble naturalness in extremely tract actresses before casting cords of the H.M.V., of the new improbable situation, and he never her. We made her up for the role march, with Sir Edward himself fails to heave a polished brick or nd let her learn the lines of a in command of the London Sym- two at what he regards as aris dramatic scene with Powell and phony Orchestra. There is plen- tocracy.

Jack Buchanan is a gay

photographed this in sound. The ty of circumstance in de footage in this test will never be immensely vital music, but less of bonair, and virile figure in a role used but it satisfied executives pomp. Its principal subject has a originally intended for Maurice that she was perfect in the part. care-free, impudent galety that is Chevalier. Jeannette MacDonald adds to her fame as the sweetest another company's picture aided and ceremonial than with the case wherein witnessing associated less with pageantry and most winsome singer of the screen. Claude Allister, as the

of untrammelled duke, gives another of his inimit- able studies of amiable inanity.

In the same set of three discs The music is attractive, and youth who was thoroughly mascu-suite, music written to

'Ladies' Man.' We had to have a is included the "Crown of India" there are two wonderful seine to register his disgust af quences in which the singing of Powell being a ladies' man.

a song blends with the pace and rhythm of a Rivieran express, as it is cheered and waved onwards by peasants working in the pat- terned fields.

"A

in casting lies in the assignment high spirits of John Holland for the part of youth. Miss Lombard's fiance in

He

had to be larger than Powell. One of our staff saw Holland in Tell Harbour' and 'Byes of the World and. thought of him for the part.

First Bernard Shaw Talkie. Bernard Shaw's first talkie,ing new faces for the screen. For "Our most difficult task is find- "How He Lied to Her Husband, this purpose, we have daily inter which supports this brilliant viewing hours from cleven -until American film, is a "straightfor one o'clock and see all applicants. ward, pictorial version of the More than 100 are registered stogo play, and few of the re- daily as a result of these inter- sources of screen technique have views. Out of this astonishing been used to diversify the situa-number, only an average of one tions or point the dialogue.

month is given a test for a.part or contract.

The result is an extremely arti ficial and stilted effect, not wholly out of keeping with the period in

"When the casting office gets which the play is set, when for-

an assignment to cast a picture, mality meant more than it does we read the script and make a to-day. There are allusions to the list of required characters with, social standards of South Ken-suggestions of perhaps a dozen sington, and the literary ameni players for each part unfilled. ties of Bedford Park which dato it remorselessly, but Mr. Shaw' searching wit and destructive paradoxes have lost nine of their shrewdness.

Cecil Lewis has directed the film with almost slavish fidelity to the Shavian tradition.

ARTUR SCHNABEL'S ART,

some-

London, Jan. 13. The programme of the Cour tauld-Sargent concert last night at the Queen's Hall consisted of three pianoforte concertos and became in consequence thing of a tour de force, familiar enough in the annals of virtuosi. The one and only interpreter, however, was not a mere techni- cian, but a musician whose excep tional talents as an interpreter equal the exceptional skill of his hands. Herr Artur Schnabel

The director and executives go those over this list and from finally in or tested, we find the player for each part.

"Our troubles do not end with the major parts. In one day we may have calls for fifty Russian men and women, a half hundredi Indians who can ride bareback, a stuttering boy, six skilled. bar- hers, a song and dance, team and a trained bear. These must bei provided on a few hours' notice.] A staff of assistants, relaying the orders to agents, casting bureaud and individual players, enables us to meet all emergencies."

NEW SCHOEDSACK FILM.

"Rango" was selected recently as the title for the jungle drama made by Ernest B. Schoedsack for Paramount in the unexplored wilderness of Sumatra..

Schoedsack, who co-directed "Grass," "Chang" and "The Four chose for the test the con- Feathers," spent more than a certo of Beethoven (Emperor), year Schumann's, and Mozart's in C Javanese jungles filming his latest in the tiger infested And it would be difficult to say adventure picture, that reveals which of these showed most tho intimate life, of, natives. and clearly his insight and his com apes.

mand of the keyboard.

We have never heard the was manifest romantic phrases of Schumanti ryhthm.

his sense

played in a style at once so warm But it is Beethoven who inevit and yet so clean and sober, 80ably brings out the best in Herr. very Intimate yet not familiar; a Schnabel, and the ecstatic medita- style which invited neither cold tion which dividde the first from. analysis for gushing admiration. the third section could not have In Mozart at least one of the been played, more exqufêttely secreta; ole

of Herr Schnabel's art. Er.

'

this

the heavena

or the

of snappy songs and music interspersed with excel- lent dialogue.

songs in the streets, before the Georgle is a Paris waif selling

war, with the assistance of Zizi (Charles Ruggles). In a mad scamper before i Police rald she meets a young American artist, Tony, and picks his pocket.

Returning the next morning to give Tony back his wallet, he per- uades her to stay and model for him in his studio. They fall in Jove. From then on the story is as lively as you can imagine, end- ing with a wild daah and flourish.

"GOOD NEWS."

Clif Edwards just can't seem to and a role that will fit into some portion of his personal experiences Like most acting folk.

THE

HONG KONG

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11

HONG KONG HOTEL: REPULSE BAY HOTEL; PEAK HOTEL

AND

SHANGHAI

ASTOR HOUSE: PALACE HOTEL,

HOTELS,

LIMITED

In association with the Grand Hotel des Wagons Lite, Peking.

THE HARBOUR VIEW PRIVATE HOTEL.

9-13, Chatham Road, Kowloom.

Finest Situation on the Penimals. doughboy

In making his movie debut in "So This Is College," Cliff was a glee club leader. Then he went into "Marianne" пу д and switched to a cowboy part in "Montana Moon." Now he's in "Good News," gone collegiate as a football trainer,

"I've never seen the inside of a college, don't know which end of a gun to shoot out of, and don't know which part of a horse the bridle goes on," he walled. "Can't somebody be satisfied to let me be just another ukulele player?"

Bessie Love has the leading role ia Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's pic. turisation of the famous stage hit which will open on Sunday in the Queen's Theatre.

yearning in his heart.

"And to-day, she is still croon ing-not loudly, not dramatically, but very sweetly. From coast to coast, the island is throbbing with its heritage of melody."

Frank Borzage, who has been twice honoured with an award of merit for superb production, "Humoresque" and "7th Heaven," directed. The supporting cast in cludes Maureen O' Sullivan, John Garrick, J. M. Kerrigan, Farrell Macdonald, Tommy Clifford, Alice ed. Joyce, and Effie Ellster.

"THE BATTLE OF PARIS,"

That delightful musical comedy star of "Oh Kay" and "The Treasure Girt" could not-have been more entertaining if she had bean in the Contrai theatre, last night, person, presenting her initial motion picture venture "The Battle

Included in the supporting cast are Mary Lawlor, Stanley Smith. Dorothy McNulty, Lola Lane, Gue Shy. Frank McGlynn, Billy Taft and Tom Jackson, Edgar Mac Gregor and Nick Grinde co-direct-

ALIENS TO GO.

DEPORTATION TO BE -

ACCELERATED,

Washington, Yesterday. President Hoover has asked Congress to appropriate halt million

dollars to enable the Immigration Bureau to accelerate deportation of aliens.-Reu- other ter's American Service,

of Paris,"

Miss Lawrence sings, dances and the

that no actress has ever done. She bas

infinite variety of expression and acts in a manner

she can change her moods like an April day, and every one of them Georgie, she is truly divine.

becomes her. As

the delicious

The story is presented in true New Show World form, with

Д

perial masque, produced at the tion of their Majesties visit to Coliseum in 1912 in commemora

India. Here also Sir Edward Elgar conducts the L.S.O., and here--with the Durbar in- nind- there is veritable pump and cir an Imcumstance.

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION PEST BROW MOLAR ROSEO DO: ARAB

ACETIC N

SHOE KEY

HALSE TO SMART L│ LINE ED

STELE

OREL DE

FROM NOW ON-

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A

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Cable Add Proprietress-Mrs. Gardiner,

"Harlow."

SAVARIN HOUSE

Telephone

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Tel. Add.

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Dinner $1.30.

ENCLOSED IN ORIENTAL FERNERY AND EASTERN CHARM.

SELECT PRIVATE HOTEL.

Furnished with

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Modern bata- - TOOMS attached

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DAILY

CROSS-WORD PUZZLE.

(This cross-word puzzle has been made by an expert but our readers are toarned to look out for occasional phonetic spellings, such as harbor, plow, and althò.)

19 10

11

H

16

15

121

122

26

3T

36

THE FAVOURITE

40 41 42 43

卧铺

45 146

47

148 149

OF

SI

DISCRIMINATING SMOKERS

55

(65

· Castles"

THREE CASTLES

CIGARETTES

FAMOUS FOR FIFTY YEARS

HORIZONTAL. 1-Pantherlike

mamimal .7-Woodohuck -13-Intelligence

14-Bavaralon of Afghanistan 10-Musical noto' 18-Fog 18 To rave 20-Toward 121-Rabid

23-A drink 124-3mall bird

26-Marb

'26-Egyptian Goddess

28-Mualaal note

29-Amidst.

*80-Highest point

$1-Turnips (Bcot). 33-Prefix-hot!"

'35-Barnyard fowl (P)

36-04's entire

property? 38-An English states.

Drain

39-To wash lightly 40-To abuse 45-Imperfect way of

Indian maize. 51-Any sphere of

estion

82 To fondlă 54-A, préon Vegetable

57 50

6%

HORIZONTAL (Cont.)

65-Persia

66-Thus 87-From 59-Girl's name 60-The sun 61-Nickname for Harry 62-A wooden pln 84-Ever, contracted 66-An ending of nouns 68-Girl's name at 67-German for home | 69-Proñx-apart 70-To ascertain 71-Hebrew persons! ...name 73-Jumped 74-A skin diamo

VERTICAL

2-ke S-Precious stons

·4-0na

-item in one':

account

6-To keep

50

VERTICAL (Cont.) 20-To torment 22-The dally fare 25-Examine by

touching 27-Mineral spring 30-Prefix-through 32-A thoroughfare

(abbr.) 24-Uni of weight 354Proicada 87-Sooner than 38-Human beings 40-Elevated 41-Mistake 42-Calf meat 43-Hotal 44-Musical note 40-Above... 47-Honey-gatherer 4B-Packago of bulky

goode 49-9mix tatando 50-Approxohed

52-A republja in.

Europa

52 Holl

7-A zwallow-Uka bir- 86-Cavalry sword

B-Forolbly:

To hire

10-Encountered

11-Confurialion;

12-A fur-bearing animal 18-Ape

Byen | 17-Rettavan.

¡BB-To Fret (colloq.) 61-To pile up 63-Encompassá

86-A corded fabrio 68-Be tangled 70-Behold 172-Personal pronoun

The solution of the above group-word puzzle will appear in to-morrow's issue along with a new cross-word puzzle.)