1940-04-16 — Page 23

Tuesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH - April 16, 1940. ❤

| MAGAZINE PAGE

ENTERTAINMENTS

'CHIPS' SWEETHEARTS

ΤΟ TEAM AGAIN

THE film folk are going nuts on classical music. "And what they think is classical musle. If it lan't Chopin, it's Schumann. If it isn't Beetho- ven, it's Brahms. I wouldn't bo surprised if they gol 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 gath the famous state of "Mr. Chips"-Hobert Donat and Greer Garson.

The Bm they are to do is to be called "Son of Love." IL is the love story of Clara and Robert Schumann. Theirs was a great love story, coloured at the end by tragedy, for Schumann went inad.

He

THEY plan that Robert Taylor shall be in the picture, too. is to play Brahms, Now, Brahms was crotchely, bibulous, ugly, port- ly and small. He was rude unless he wanted to be charming, which was rarely. I think, apart from that, Robert Taylor is pretty good casting.

*

NOTHING recently seems to have been heard of Mr. Mayer's previous brain-wave, which was to inalte a film of the song "The Rosary," with Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and WIam Powell.

I'm wondering when somebody will decide to do Handel's Largo, with Dorothy Lamour.

☆

BIGGEST laughs that have been heurd in cinemas since war broke out have been caused by a little American programme picture sort of junior Hardy family ple- fure, with William Frawley as the exasperated pop. Film is called, "Stop, Look and Love."

And are the following faces red -Crazy Gang, George Formby, Will Huy, Lucah McShane, Askey, Mur- doch, Moore Marriott,

☆ *

"SCATTERBRAIN" # Britain's top song just now,

Richard Greene-Virginia Fields, who announced that they would marry in Hollywood this month, now say they have decided to walt

a year.

"White Horse Inn" will be re- vived at the London Coliseum.

Another revival wil be the

thriller famous wartimo

serial But "The Exploits of Elnine." only if they can find just the gal to be another Pearl White,

Looks like Charles Laughton is settled in California for good. His next film will be "Half a Rogue," whimsical story of a 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 Lelgh?

A blow for any girl But Paulette, once famous as a Charlie Chaplin leading lady, Is now busy making herself into a star,

"No Scarlett," she said. "All right. But I'm going to be Lou- pette." She is. What's more, she. put in for the part unasked.

Loupette, the Лету French- Canndian girl in Cecil B. de Mille's Technicolour production "North- West Mounted Police" is one of the most sought-after feluine paris since "G.W.T.W."

So Paulette shares stnery hon- ours with Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Preston and Allm Tamiroff.

SHE had a hard struggle. Do Mille wasn't interested.

"You don't quite look the part," he told her,

So Paulette had hersell made up as Loupelle, complete with bulwhp.

De Mille shook his head: "This part coils for acting, for accent, for fire." he said. "It needs a Lenore Ulrich."

up

Paulette

salted

Samuel Kayser, noted acting coach. Slic learnt the part, mastering the French-Canadian dialect

She caught the exasperated Mr. de Mille again.

"Here," she said, thrusting the script into his hand, "you rend 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 1930, gets his marching orders for 1940, Ho la to play lead in a film called "The Great Com-

mandment,' '.

་

WHAT'S ON

KING'S: "It Could Happen to You."

ORIENTAL: "Juarez." MAJESTIC: "Daughters Courageous**

QUEEN'S AND ALHAM- BRA: ""Tarzan Finds"a Son."

It is a tale of how Jesus brought pence when the Jewa revolted against the Romans in A.D. 30.

Which commandment? Not onc of the Sermon on the Mount: "Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbour us Thyself,"

An excellent Idea. Producer Darryl Zanuck senses that the world is eager, 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, Jesse James, the lad who

saved Lloyd's of London,

He

But he had another part. was Sonja Henle's Press agent in "Second Fiddle." The film poor, but he was grand,

was

Frankly, Mr. Power is a light comedian. first and other things long way afterwards. I wish they'd let him fiddle while the other actors take care of Rome burning.

SAME thing with MADELEINE CAKROLL. She has been shared by Cecil B. de Mille. And that guy certainly throws a mean lasso.

He has Birmingham's second- best citizen (first is Mr. Chumber- Jain, course) ridin' the Rocides with Frederie March in "North- West Mounted."

And just as zoon as he can pry her out of that high-backed saddle she, too, is to go into a religious pleture.

4

of

De Mille calls it "Queen Quechs." Miss Carroll is to be the Arst Mary and Mis. Dietrich the outer one, I hope it works out

well.

So it will be six months before Miss Carroll can come home to be the society dame in "The Admir- able Crichton," which Paramount plan to do here. Society dames are her long ult.

The delay has this une advan- tage. Mr. Leslle Howard may by then be through with his cut- price "Hamlet," so that he can be buller to Miss Corroll.

Paramount announce four Bri- "Crichton," then tish pictures. "Knights of the Round Table" (with young DOUG FAIRBANKS

П

Sir Lancelot), the life of Barney. Barnato, diamond king, and comedy to be called "What Ho!"

Spotting the Rank

LIEUTENANT (E) SUB-LIEUTENANT (E) MIDSHIPMAN (E)

Each of these ranks is dis- tinguished from the corres- panding grado in the Execu- tive branch by strips of purple cloth between, or alongsido, the gold lace on the cuffs or great-coat shouldors of Liou- tonants and Sub-Licutonants.

When the war broke out thero wero 358 Lieutenants (E), 94 Sub-Lieutenants (E), including 33 acting in that rank, and 121 Midshipmen

(E).

On the retired list thoro word 156 Lieutenants (E), 105 Engincor-Lieutenants (a rank now superseded by tho former), and 14 Sub-Liou- tenants (E) or corresponding ranks.

Until the rank of Sub-Licu- tonant (E) is roachod, those officers spend their time prin- cipally at the Royal Naval Engineering Collogo, Koyham, Davonport.

At soa, Lieutenants and Sub-Lioutonants (E) may bo either junior ongino-room officers in battleships, air- craft-carriers or cruisers, or in charge of the machinery of small vostels.

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 titles are a great trouble to me. Mr. Howard's film with Ingrid Meraman used to be called "Intermezzo," but is now "Escape to Happiness."

It could be called "Hell Sleg You Again," and I still wouldn't know what it is all about. I le' titles like "Hunchback of Notre Dame" or "The Grent Train Robbery." They let you know what's going Ort,

*

*

TAKE ANN HARDING for in- stance. She is coming down from the Hollywood hill top she inhabits to stage a screen 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 know about alm with IIarding and Rathbone called "Destiny" is that it depresses me.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

dichth

"Don't look now, Gaylord, but that woman over there has a

torrible figura!"

How Holland

THE MOMENT the Ger- mans sot foot on Dutch terri- tory, short, stout Mr. J. W. Alborda will be at the tele- phone to givo the word "Flood!"

As Holland's Minister of Waterworks, Mr. Alberda civil engineer before he enter- ed the Cabinet-controls the country's vast network of canals and waterways.

Hundreds of uniformed lock und slufce attendants are standing by, night and day, waiting for his word.

It will be the signal for them to pull an electric switch. Im- mense sluice gates will be raised by machinery. The water will gush through to Inundate large tracts of land.

Holland's waterworks fre a marvel of mechanical efficiency. Within twenty-four hours a sheet of water will He 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 time will be lost by the Dutchmen.

HOLLAND'S first line of defence is the River Ysgol, 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-Une-which is to Holland what the Maginot Live is to France This stretches for more than ulghty miles from Amsterdam, past Utrecht, south-west to the River Lek and the River Waal, then to Biesboschi on the River Maas,

Above and beyond the flooded lands, the important industrial centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, and Haarlemi 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 raise the level of the canal water so that it overflows the banks on to the surrounding country.

Main artery of the walèr-line is the River Vecht, which flows into the Zulder Zee, west of Amsterdam. It is fed by a network of canals.

Flooded

Both the sluices on the Vecht and the canals will be opened immedi- 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 avertige in width, and the depth would vary from 18 inches to 20 feet. Invaders will And it impossible to tell when they would pass from the shallows into the deep canals and diches,

Already largo stretches of the country have been Hooded as an emergency. and hundreds of homes are under water. More than 16,000 of the people who Ilved there have been evacuated

And what has been done there in the last few weeks has been sum-. cient to show what a barrier the water would be to an invading

army.

The

Dutch military authorities have experimented with tanks in the drowned fields. The tanks have been hopelessly bogg d in the BOGEY, penty ground under the water.

"BETTER a drowned land than a lost land," crled Wil- liam the Silent in the sixteenth century, when the Spaniarda menaced Holland,

Dykes were breached, the water came in and a great lake, was sprend between the Dutch and their enemy,

Water is a greater barrier to an army than It was in William the Silent's time. For mechanised forces the water-Ilne would be im- passable. Even where the ground looked solid, it might be a death. trap mire for tanks and guns. For tho water neeps treacherously underneath.

To see the flooding of their land would be heartbreaking to the Dutch. For centuries they have been fighting water, na each poł. den or strip of reclaimed, land was won from the sea.

HB

Jar

Van Elven

But the Dulch are rendy to undo the work of centuries and welcome an in- vasion by their ancient enemy if it serves to keep a worse enemy out,

Much of the work of reclaiming the vast basin of the Zuider Zee would to 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.

dam iwenty-six miles long has been built as barrier against the North Sen, and behind it thou- sands of acres have been drained and made useful. Thousands of acres more renwin to be drained.

TO reclaim flooded reclaim-· ed land and make it at for cultivation again will take 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 Maus and the Belgian frontier the Dutchmen would have a harder task in stemming the enemy.

But, here again they would have formidable barriers in the Wilhel- mina and Willemstaart Canals, which are linked, in their continun- tion over the Belgian frontier, with the powerfully-fortified Albert Canal, running from Liege to Antwerp.

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 bellevo that the region between the Maas River and the Albert Canal may be the great · battlefield of the war.

Germany's twin objectives, to reach the south count of Holland for the establishment of neroplane and submarine bases, and to awing from Holland through Belgium for on attack on France, would be fought out here.

The large provinces of Friesland- 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 nerosa the muder roadway on the Zulder Zee damn.

Holland, free of Invasion for more than a century, is ready for any emergency.

Count the "TELEGRAPHS" everywhere

12

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THE WORLD's most glorIOUS, TENOR

R020474-Santa Lucia'

La Danza.

R020473 Dreaming. (Traumeric)

Two Grenadiers (Schumann) R020427-Gipsy moon. (Zigeunerweisen)

Vienna, city of my dreams

R020395-When you're away

When the sun goes down

·R020408—AIGther Mfuchred"

Rose of Trale

R020340-Will you remember, "Maytime"

Song of songs

R020323-Kashmiri song.

"Indian love lyrica" Till I wake R020329-Prologue from "Pagliacci" R020310-Roses of Picardy

Serenade from "Student Prince"

R020284-You

You are my heart's delight When moonbeams softly fall R#20260-Serenade. (Schubert)

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Brown bird singing

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