The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

352 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 4, 1926 Five M-G-M Pictures Now Are Ready for Production Half-Way Mark Passed On Current Fox Program WITH six pictures in production at the Metro-Gold\vyn-Ma}er studio, five more are scheduled to get under way in the near future. Several will be specials and are starting only after the completion of most elaborate preparations. Clever Comedy Star One of the first to go into production will be Marion Davies' production, "Tillie the Toiler." Hobart Henley will direct. Clarence Brown is preparing to direct Lillian Gish's next starring production, "The Wind." "Slide, Kelly, Slide," baseball epic, with William Haines in the featured male role, goes into production next week with Edward Sedgwick as director. Robert Z. Leonard is preparing to start camera work on "His Last Affair" an original French farce by F. Hugh Herbert and Florence Ryerson, with Norma Shearer starred and Lew Cody played opposite her. W. S. Van Dyke, who directed the first Tim McCoy picture, "War Paint." for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is also to direct McCoy's second vehicle. Director Harry Millarde is getting well into the production of He Puzzles Them Charley Bowers haa the trade giie»^»ing about liis trick photography for F. U. O., which has sig^netl hini for five years. Bowers does things with a camera which puzzle the experts and which certainly have never been done before. His contract ■with F. B. O. in regarded as a conp for the company and himself. "The Taxi Dancer." Joan Crawford has the title role with Owen Moore in the male lead. John M. Stahl has practically finished a new Spanish romantic tragedy, starring Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry. John 5. Robertson is finishing "Annie Laurie," starring Lillian Gish. Dimitri Buchowetzki is finishing the direction of Mae Murray's "Valencia." Tod Browning is well into the production of "The Day of Souls," starring John Gilbert, with Renee Adoree and Dorothy Sebastian in the cast, J. E. Williamson, directing the underwater scenes of "The Mysterious Island," has rebuilt the location camp in the Bahamas, blown away in the recent hurricane, and is again busy on the production. Piquant Kathryn Perry, in Helen and Warren Comedies for Fox Film Corporation. Comedy Girl" Chosen to Play "Tragic" Child Role GERTRUDE SHORT, well known stage and screen actress, has been added to the cast of "The Day of Souls," the Metro Goldwyn Mayer production, to play a role entirely foreign to her experience either before the footlights or the camera. Famous for her comedy roles, her new part is that of a tragic child, orphaned by the murder of her father in a strange city. Tod Browning, the director, chose her for the role after watching her comedy work on the screen. "I saw in her comedy an ability to act that would be equally at home in tragedy," he said, "and as a matter of fact some of our best comedians are equally at home in tragedy." Miss Short is the daughter of Lou and Stella Short, famous on the stage, and was on the stage since a baby. She played in Shubcrt attractions, with Mary Mannering in "A Man's Will," with Thomas Jefferson in "Rip Van Wingle," and for seven years played child parts in stock and vaudeville. She started in pictures in the old Edison studios, and among her outstanding parts are those in "The Beggar on Horseback," "The Talker," "Masked Women," "A Poor Girl's Romance," "The Telephone Girl" comedy series and others. She is especially noted for her child roles on stage and screen. "The Day of Souls" is a vivid drama of the Budapest underworld starring John Gilbert, with Renee Adoree in a featured role. Miss Ralston to Wed Jobyna Ralston, for three years Harold Lloyd's leading woman, and Richard Arlen, juvenile lead under contract to Paramount, will be married in January, according to reports. It is expected that the ceremony will occur in Hollywood. "Afraid to Love" Florence Vidor will have the support of Warner Baxter and Philip Strange in her next Paramount starring vehicle, "Afraid to Love," The picture will be directed by Frank Tuttle from Townsend Martin's adaptation of the play, "Face to Face," by Vincent Lawrence. nnWENTY FOUR pictures have been finished at the Fox West Coast Studios, and cameras are grinding on eight others. In the latter group .->re several of the biggest dramatic subjects on the 1925-27 schedule. Those finished embrace seventeen feature pictures. Thus, the company has progressed considerably beyond the lialf-v/ay mark in production. Vehicles recently fashioned mclude: "Mother Machree," a John Ford production; "Wings of the Storm," under the direction of J. G. Blystone; "The Canyon of Light," a Tom Mix picture, for which Ben Stoloff handled the megaphone, and "Desert Valley," a Buck Jones offering directed by Scott Dunlap. 'S'unriie". in Work Photodramas in work now on the Fox Hills lots and on the studio stages embrace : "Sunrise," the first American production of the noted German director, F. W. Murnau; "The Monkey Talks," a Raoul Wal^h production; "One Increasing Purpose," directed by Harry Beaumont; "The Auctioneer," Al Green's first production for Fox; "Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl," being made by Irving Cummings, and "The Last Trail," starring Tom Mix. Lew Seller is behind tliC megaphone. All is ready to begin "Seventh Heaven." Frank Borzage has been in Paris for several weeks, as that city is the locale of the play. Buck Jones is also preparing to begin his next picture, "The War Horse," be an adaptation of his original story, paying tribute to equine heroes of the World War. "Gertie's Garter" Ready for Camera They're getting Gertie'* garter all fixed up to use in the filming of Marie Prevost'i next starring picture for Metropolitan, "Getting Gertie's Garter. " Miss Prevost will don her working togs next week and start work on the production. E. Mason Hopper, who directed the comedy star in "Up in Mabel's Room" and "Almost a Lady," will handle the megaphone on her current vehicle. Charles Ray has the male lead.