The Film Daily (1934)

the nr*ff^t DAILY Thursday, March 15, 1934 Only two other pictures have been accorded this honor in history of | this circuit! Entire RKO Metro | politan Circuit of 40 theatres plays CLARK GABLE and CLAUDETTE J COLBERT in Frank Capra's "It j Happened One Night," day and date, Easter week, the best week j in show business! A powerful story, a grand cast, gorgeous sets and ace entertainment! Soon on its way — ELISSA LANDI in "Sisters Under The Skin," with Frank Morgan and Joseph Schildkraut. Directed by David Burton. ' The star of stars in the hit of hits! ' I JOHN BARRYMORE in "20th i 8 Century," with Carole Lombard, j » Walter Connolly. Roscoe Karns, ; who did such outstanding work in ' " It Happened One Night," has I j been added to the cast. A Howard i | Hawks Production from the play | j by Ben Hecht and Charles / MacArthur. A LITTLE from "LOTS" By RALPH WILK HOLLYWOOD JOHN ROBERTSON, who recently J finished "Crime Doctor," has been assigned by RKO to direct Richard Dix in "Family Man." Lynn Riggs adapted it from the Salisbury Field play, and Myles Connelly is the producer. Educational has completed "No Sleep on the Deep," Mermaid comedy, with Betty Compson, Robert Warwick, Dorothy Sebastian and Don Alvarado. Charles Lamont directed. Busby Berkeley has started ensemble rehearsals on Warner's "Dames." Archie Mayo will be dialogue director. Al Dubin and Harry Warren wrote the musical score. Roger Pryor will be the leading man opposite Mae West in "It Ain't No Sin." He replaces George Raft. T T T "Goes Marching On," an original story by Bartlett Cormack, based on the life of the man who used a broomstick "gun" to walk out of the Crown Point, Ind., jail, is being prepared for production by Paramount. T T T Kurt Kempler has been engaged by Columbia Pictures to do the screen treatment of his own story, "Mud Turtle" which will emerge as a starring vehicle for Jack Holt. T T T Gayne Whitman, famous "Chandu" of the air is recording the narrative for "Born To Die," Educational's next release in its Battle For Life series. T T T Sam Wood will direct Jean Harlow in "Age of Larceny" for M-G-M. T T T Paramount has bought "Prince of Darkness," by Harry Hervey, for Charles Laughton. Company also has acquired "The Notorious Sophie Lang" and other Sophie Lang stories by Frederick Irving Anderson, who is here as adaptor. William Cameron Menzies will direct. T T T Ruth Matteson, California girl who appeared at the Capitol in New York with Clark Gable in person, is now under M-G-M contract. v T T Ethelreda Leopold, Chicago beauty, recently signed by Warners will be seen first in "Dames." ▼ T T Adolphe Menjou and Miriam Hopkins are being sought by Charles R. Rogers for the leads in "I Loved an Actress," which Paramount will release. Humphrey Pearson is doing the screen play. T T ▼ Lee Marcus completed three shorts and started a fourth at the RKO studios this week. Ralph Murphy instead of Harry Joe Brown will direct "Private Scandal" Charles R. Rogers production for Paramount. Lew Cody, Phillips Holmes, Helen Mack, ZaSu Pitts and Ned Sparks head the cast. Irene Dunne's new starring vehicle for RKO Radio Pictures will be released under the title of "This Man Is Mine." Formerly titled "Transient Love," it is based on the stage play, "Love Flies In The Window." by Anne Morrison Chapin. Jess Shaw, strong-man, celebrated college and professonal football player, spent his first three weeks as property man at RKO Radio swatting flies. Makeup worn by the actors seemed to attract the pests to the ranch location of "Of Human Bondage," and it was up to Shaw to keep them from pestering the players during the making of scenes. Vernon Steele will appear in RKO's new Clive Brook pictui*e, not yet titled. Last Spring, Benny Rubin, the comedian, who is a baseball fan, was a favorite with the rookies trying out for the Los Angeles team. This season Benny was sent a "contract" calling for a salary of two ham sandwiches, but evidently is holding out for mustard, a Los Angeles sport writer suggests. Joe E. Brown is another enthusiastic follower of sports. He is the sponor of Mike Frankovich, U. C. L. A. football player, who makes his home with the Browns. When the comedian attended the Pittsburgh-Notre Dame game, he spent the first half on the Notre Dame bench and the second with the Pittsburgh sideliners. "I took test after test," said Richard Dix recently, in commenting on his efforts to break into pictures. "More than one producer informed me, sarcastically, that I was too homely, too mannish. That was in the dim past days when movie idols had to be beautiful — or else." "I really believe that success in the movies a matter of luck, good pictures, fortunate breaks and being umble enough to take advantage of them.," Dix added. T T v Porter Hall, Broadway player, will appear in M-G-M's "The Thin Man," with William Powell and Myrna Loy. SHORT SHOTS from EASTERN STUDIOS By CHAS ALICOATF PRODUCTION on the first of the series of industrial shorts to be produced by Mutual Film Corp., headed by Joe Snitzer and Louis Simon, starts today at the Hayes z Beall Studio located in Oceanside,! Long Island. The shorts will f ea1 ture fashions and it is understood that they will be released to de j partment stores and fashion shops i throughout the country. • "What A Mother-in-Law," allJeivish talking picture featuring Ludwig Satz and completed at the Reeves Sound Recording studio under the direction of H. S. Brown, is being distributed through the Quality Film Corp. • Production on the short featuring Ben Pollack and his orchestra supported by Doris Robbing and Minor and Root will get under way Friday at the Vitaphone studio. Joe Henabery will direct. • Shooting on the new EducationalCoronet comedy featuring the Ritz Brothers and being directed by Al Christie at the Eastern Service studio in Astoria was completed yesterday. Doris Hill, Eddie Acuff, Harry Short and Edie Roberts support the Ritz Brothers in the short. • Phil Brown will start production next week on the third of his series ">f tVvee-reel travel films. The scene will be Morocco. Tabloid Reviews of FOREIGN FILMS "LA FUSEE" ("The Rocket"), in French; produced by Via Films, directed by Jacques Natanson, starring Firmin Gemier with Marcel Geniat, Pasquali, Edith Mera, Lucien Galas, Jeanine Crispin, William Haguet, Simone Lencret, Louis Gauthier, Micheline Bernard, Regine Dancourt. Distributed by John S. Tapernoux. Splendidly acted in the principal roles and benefited by good photography and a handsome production, this film's principal appeal is to French and art theater audiences who should eat it up. Plot concerns the head of a small town French cannery who becomes a captain of industry and in his engrossment loses wife, son and daughter and is finally reduced by financial manipulations to his old status. • "LE SERMENT" ("The Pledge"), in French; produced by ARCI; directed by Abel Gance; with Line Noro, Jean Galland, Samson Fainsiber, Gaston Dubosc, Antonin Vtaud, Gaby Triquet. Distributed by Protex. At the Little Carnegie Playhouse. Rather slow melodrama dealing with a woman's tragic love complications will appeal only to arty audiences that care for pictorial psychological studies.