Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

82 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD June 7, 1930 MCM Directors Established ♦ ♦ ♦ Ni ETRO-GOLDWYN MAYER begins the new season with directors who have proved themselves adept m the new medium of the sound picture as the silent photoplay. Lionel Barrymore, who established himself as a director when he renounced acting to make “Madame X,” turned out the musical romance, “The Rogue Song.” He also directed “The Unholy Night” and is certain to have some of the most important productions of the coming year assigned to him. Harry Beaumont was well known as a director before he turned out the recoi dsmashing “Broadway Melody," and has now become one of the ace directors on the M G M lot. “The Florodora Girl,” Marion Davies’ newest starring film and a picture that has been praised as one of her best productions, was directed by Beaumont, and he is now engaged with “Our Blushing Brides,” a picture on the same order as “Our Modern Maidens,” and “Our Dancing Daughters,” with Joan Crawford in the starring role. Charles Brabm directed “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” selected for special mention by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and also directed “The Ship from Shanghai,” in which a yacht was completely outfitted with sound apparatus and all scenes taken at sea. Brabin’s latest picture is Ramon Novarro’s “The Singer of Seville,” which will be on the 1930-31 release schedule and has been described as Novarro’s most successful film. Clarence Brown, according to M G M, is "known as the director who has never had a commercial failure. Possessing a remarkable ability to combine artistic merit and commercial appeal, Brown has directed such hits as “Flesh and the Devil,” “A Woman •of Affairs” and Greta Garbo’s first talking picture, “Anna Christie.” Brown recently completed Miss Garbo’s second dialog vehicle, “Romance,” and his first 1930-31 directorial assignment has not been announced as yet. Jack Conway turned out such pictures as “Our Modern Maidens,” and Joan Crawford’s “Untamed,” and produced what promises to be another of the landmark dialog pictures in Lon Chaney’s “The Unholy Three,” to be released in July. Con Sam Wood Fred Niblo Mai St. Clair Harry Pollard Charles Ri sner George Hill Sammy Lee Zion Myers Harry Beaumont way has been given one of the prize assignments of the new season in “New Moon,” in which Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore will be co-starred. Cecil B. De Mille’s newest unit production, “Madame Satan,” promises, according to advance indications, to be one of the highwater screen triumphs of the coming season. De Mille has spent six months on this production, which has an interpolated musical score and spectacular scenes laid aboard a Zeppelin. De Mille’s “Dynamite” was one of the successes of the current year. William De Mille is another noted director now under exclusive M G M contract. He directed “This Mad World” for M G M and during the coming year will make as his first production “The Passion Flower,” an adaptation of Kathleen Norris’ story of romance and adventure. Jacques Feyder was ranked by cinema critics as one of the greatest Continental directors when he came to this country under contract to M G M. Abroad Feyder made “Faces of Children” and “Carmen.” He directed Greta Garbo in “The Kiss” as his first Hollywood assignment, and is now concentrating on the production of French dialog versions of American talking films. He directed “Le Spectre Vert” in French and is now engaged upon the French dialog version of Molnar’s play, “Olympia.” Sidney Franklin’s productions include “Wild Orchids” and the Ramon Novarro picture, “Devil May Care.” He has just completed Ruth Chatterton’s “The Lady of Scandal,” an adaptation of Lonsdale’s play, “The High Road,” and as his first new season assignment will direct Grace Moore in her initial camera effort, a musical romance suggested by the career of Jenny Lind. Nick Grinde’s work on “The Bishop Murder Case,” coupled with his supervision of short features made at the Cosmopolitan studio in New York, stamped him as a director of exceptional ability. He has been busy for months on M G M’s lavish adaptation of “Good News,” which he is codirecting with Edgar MacGregor. George Hill’s “The Big House,” a prison story, promises to achieve as great a success as his “Tell It to the Marines.” Hill’s possible 1930-31 films include “The Bugle Sounds,” a colorful story of the Foreign Legion for which the director obtained at William De Mille Charles Brabin