The Film Daily (1933)

DAILY Tuesday, Jan. 3, IV33 A LITTLE from "LOTS // By RALPH WILK M] HOLLYWOOD ERVYN LEROY is all smiles these days. He was the only director to have two productions placed on the National Board of Review's "ten best pictures of 1932." His winning pictures were "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" and "Two Seconds." Edward Arnold, who has been a stage actor for the past 28 years, is now one of the busiest actors on the coast. Since coming to Hollywood he has appeared in "Okay, America," "Afraid to Talk." "Rasputin," and is now working in "Whistling in the Dark." Buddy Fisher, who worked in "A Farewell to Arms" and "Animal Kingdom. " is en route to New erson v ho made his screen tive from a atured which Ralph Mnrphj is uu,.«.i.ing. Je was brought to Hollywood at the suggestion of Paul Muni for the role he portrayed in "I Am a Fugitive." Myrna Loy takes her solitude seriously. She has a comfortable hideaway apartment built above her garage and gets "away from it all" there. Our Passing Show: Tom Mix, Edmund Breese, Jack Gardner, Frank Vincent, Walter Byron, George K. Arthur, Frank Darien at "A Plain Man and His Wife." Elissa Landi has been signed by Jesse L. Lasky for the feminine lead in "Warrior's Husband," for Fox release. Ernest Truex has the main lead and Walter Lang will direct. Barthelmess Plans South American Trip Having finished his work in First National's "Central Airport," Richard Barthelmess is laying the groundwork for a South American trip, following his usual custom of traveling between pictures. Barthelmess has never been south of the Panama Canal. Show ^vA<%s^ man s X^nr D a i Iv . JHg REMINDER Build Saturday morning matinee business! Serials for juveniles and shorts are always effective. Frank Craven's contract has been extended by Fox. M. H. Hoffman, Jr., vice-president of Allied Pictures, has not exercised his option on Hoot Gibson. Gibson has five more pictures to make for Allied before his contract expires July 1, 1933. WThat may stand as a world record was established at the RKO Radio lot in Hollywood this week when eight film players made their first appearance for the screen, six of them in one production. The six were Sunny Campbell, Shirley Tibser, May Campbell, Donna Davis, Bonnie Lampman and Carol Mercer, who appeared with Lionel Barrymore in "Sweepings," a screen version of Lester Cohen's epic novel. Jackie Bjorkland, 11 months old, took the part of Richard Dix's "son" in "The Great Jasper," and the youngest of them all, Billy Gratton, born exactly ten days ago, appeared as Bill Boyd's "son" in a final sequence for "Lucky Devils." "Peking Picnic," the $10,000 "Atlantic Monthly" prize novel by Ann Bridge, which Jesse L. Lasky will produce for Fox, will have its continuity and screen treatment written by Marion Dix and E. E. Paramore, both Hollywood writers of some reputation. Lasky announced previously that Irene Kuhn and Harry Chandler were scheduled to adapt the story to the screen. Staging a successful comeback after a year's absence from the screen, Betty Compson has been signed for her second consecutive M. H. Hoffman production for Monogram release in the starring role of "West of Singapore." Others in the cast are Weldon Heyburn, Noel Madison, Clyde Cook, Tom Douglas, Harvey Clark and Ernest Adams. Al Ray is directing from the story by Houston Branch. J. Carol Naish and Wheeler Oakman were signed this week by Columbia for featured roles in Tim McCoy's "The Brand Inspector." Florence Britton was engaged a few days ago for the leading feminine part. Dr. Ross Lederman has been assigned as director. Novel Inventions Aid Technicians In New Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Films Inventions made "on the cuff," as it were, are responsible for new thrills and illusions in talking pictures. Amid the complete machinery of camera and sound apparatus, almost every picture develops some sudden emergency in which technicians have to forget all rules and invent something entirely new for an effect. In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Pigboats," for example, the script called for the camera filming what was seen through the periscope of a submerged submarine. Camera experts considered the plan. Nothing like it had ever been attempted. But, by rigging up a series of lenses and prisms, they succeeded in having the camera actually look through the instruments and sight a destroyer for a torpedo target. In "The Lady," with Irene Dunne and Phillips Holmes heading an elaborate cast, the heroine is seen from youth to middle-age, and the transitions blend into one another. A method by which changing the colors of the lights on the set changes the makeup, somewhat on the principle of "changeable" electrical displays, was worked out, and the illusion was perfect. Usually radio sequences in pictures have sputtering sparks for effect. But these are obsolete in real radio stations. In the radio sequence of "Clear All Wires" studio technicians at M-G-M worked out an electric "brush discharge" that created merely a glow about a transmitting tube. In "The Son-Daughter," co-starring Helen Hayes and Ramon Novarro, "day sets" and "night sets" were designed, so that Chinatown, gaudy by day, would look drab even under its electric lights at night. Herbert Mundin will next be seen in Fox's "Pleasure Cruise" in company with Norman Foster, Genevieve Tobin and Roland Young. Frank Atkinson will also be seen in this production which is to go before the cameras early in January. * * * Barbara Weeks and Mathew Betz, who recently completed important roles in Columbia's "Child of Manhattan," under the direction of Eddie Buzzell, are together again in the company's "State Trooper." i Cecilia Parker has been engaged by Columbia for the leading role opposite Buck Jones in "Lost Valley." Lya Lys, Lawrence Grant and Alan Edwards have been added to the cast of "Clear All Wires," which George Hill is now directing for MG-M. Lee Tracy, Benita Hune and James Gleason have outsianding roles in this adaptation of th» Bella and Samuel Spewack stage ilay of the same name. To the meteoric rise of Lee Tracy to starring honors has been added further lustre by the announcement that he has signed a long tern contract with M-G-M. The former New York stage thespian who came to Hollywood unheralded approximately one year ago and with his first screen appearance blazed his name into the top spot of the exhibitors' marquees, elected to make pictures for the Thalberg organization in preference to the four other companies which avidly besought his exclusive services. Tracy's first Goldwyn production will be "Clear All Wires," a Gotham stage success. C. Aubrey Smith will appear in "Princess At Your Order" in support of Janet Gaynor and Henry Garat, the young European who is due in Hollywood shortly. Approximately 500 firms are engaged in the production and distribution of non-theatrical films in the United States. '*.