Film-Lovers Annual (1932)

Elissa Landi Wicked, The Yellow Ticket and The Devil's Lottery —all American films and Elissa Landi great in all three. Yet she had played belore in British films in Bolibar. Anthony Asquith’s Underground , Inseparables, Ecstacy, Sin and The Price of Things, without creating a furore. We can he grate! ul to Fox lor making, not so much as discovering Elissa. A typical English girl, Elinor Glyn. of whose film Knowing Alen she was the star, calls her. What ! When she claims descent from the Austrian wife of the Italian Count Zanardi Landi ! Able to speak four languages, surely the only typically English things about Landi, are her accent and her barrister husband, J. C. Lawrence. Nor is it only as an actress that she may be famous. Elissa has already written novels, her first published work being Neilsen. Also she has the quality of reserve. More of her than of any screen favourite, one can say we wonder what she will do next ? Sydney Howard Yorkshiremen are reported to be tenacious and certainly Sydney Howard who was born at Yeadon has exhibited that quality ever since he won a local reputation as a humorist and appeared in the Queensbury Saturday Pops concert party. After that came pierrot and touring revue experience followed by the greatest experience of all — the Great War. He served right through it and had to start at the bottom of the ladder again. His pertinacity gained him recognition and he understudied Harry Tate. Then, one week, he appeared in his stead and was acclaimed as an outstanding comedian. That was in 1919. but it was not until 1927 that he had his first real “ break ” in I lit the Deck. After that he continued to climb with Funny Face, Dear Love, a season with the Co-Optimists and finally It’s a Boy. He is one of the few comedians who have burst into fame on the films in one appearance ; Splinters made him a screen favourite overnight, a position which has been solidified with Up for the Cup. Tilly of Bloomsbury. Almost a Divorce and Splinters in the Navy Sydney Howard Joan Barry Since she played the part of the cripple in The Outsider we shall be eagerly awaiting Joan Barry's next role. Her previous stage career has helped Joan to be versatile. In Ebb-Tide she was appealing and tender, and in A Man of Mayfair she was the life of that cheerful entertainment. Joan appears in The First Mrs. Fraser which Sinclair Hill has produced at Wembley. As a sophisticated woman she wears for this film a suggestion of maturity in her make-up. Actually Joan is most charmingly youthful-looking w»ith a dainty figure and very deep blue eyes. ALFRED LUNT LYNNE FONTANNE Steadfastly have these two refused to appear together on the screen, although since their marriage eight years ago, they have co-starred in ten stage productions, notably the Guardsman, Goat Song and At Mrs. Beams. M-G-M approached this best-known stage couple in America, to appear in a screen version of Molnar's comedy, 7 he Guardsman, and they made an outstanding success. It is unfortunate that one cannot at the moment claim them definitely as film stars, for since the Guardsman they have been regrettably silent. Sally Eilers Hoot Gibson’s beautiful wife owes it to the fact that Alice Day walked out on Mack Sennett and left him hunting for a girl to take her place, that she was given a contract. Comedy is her forte. After the Goodbye Kiss in which she made a sensation, she appeared in numerous comedies and became Buster Keaton’s leading lady in Sailor's Holiday and Romeo in Pyjamas. She has acted with Marie Dressier in Reducing. After her success in Quick Millions, Fox have given her a brand new contract. For them she has appeared in A Holy Terror, Bad Girl and Over the Hill and Dance Team. Now she is in the big money. Sally prefers a touch of romance to a pure comedy role and smart tailored gowns to fussy clothes. Interested in all sports and a lover of dogs, she still finds time to read as a serious hobby. She prefers modern literature. 77