Hollywood Filmograph (Jan-Jul 1930)

10 June 21, 1930 27 Directors To Make Paramount Features Pollard Directs Joan Crawford at M/G'M Stage and Screen Megaphone Wielders Share High Honors Representing a combination of screen and stage directorial talent, twenty-seven directors will guide the production of the 1930-31 screen product of the Paramount Publix Corporation. From the ranks of stage directors and producers have been gathered such men as George Abbott, John Cromwell, George Cukor, Edwin Knopf and the Schwab and Mandel producing combination. Working at the same studio with these directors will be such successful screen megaphonist as Dorothy Arzner, Ludwig Berger, Otto Brower, Edwin Carewe, Lloyd Corrigan, H. D'Abbadie D'Arrast, Sergei Eistenstein, Cyril Gardner, Louis Gasnier, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Rowland V. Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Fred Newmeyer, Edward Sutherland, Norman Taurog, Victor Schertzinger, Edward Sloman, Frank Tuttle, Josef von Sternberg and Richard Wallace. Paramount Pubhx is utilizing the talents of these directors both singly and in combinations for the production of its product. The combination of stage and screen talent has been used successfully during the past year and will continue to be employed in a few instances during the 1930-31 season. The plan was inaugurated when John Cromwell and Edward Sutherland worked jointly on "Close Harmony" and "The Dance of Life." Both are now directing singly, having learned from one another the technique of the talking screen. Three other stage-screen combinations will be used on the direction of several pictures during the coming season. One will combine the talents of Otto Brower and Edwin Knopf. These men, who co-directed "Light of Western Stars" and "The Border Legion" recently, will work on "Fighting Caravans" and "Spanish Acres," the first starring Gary Cooper and the second starring Richard Arlen. Brower became a director last year, after having served as an assistant for a number of years. He directed the westerns, "Avalanche," "Sunset Pass" and "Stairs of Sand." Knopf began his career as a stage actor and after serving as stage manager for David Belasco produced several Broadway successes, including "The Big Pond." He came to Hollywood and served as stage technician on several productions before being made a co-director with Brower. Another combination will include George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, who will direct Cyril Maude in the film version of the stage success, "Grumpy." Cukor directed such New York stage successes as Ethel Barrymore in "The Contant Wife," Lau rette Taylor in "The Furies" and "The Great Gabby," and Jeanne Engels in "The Cardboard Lover." In Hollywood he has worked on numerous talking productions, including the dialogue direction of "All Quiet On the Western Front." Gardner is a former film editor who has directed silent pictures. He worked on many talking pictures, including "Innocents of Paris" and "Street of Chance," before directing the Spanish production of "The Benson Murder Case." A third combination will be that of Laurence Schwab and Lloyd Corrigan on the technicolor film version of the Schwab and Mandel golf musical comedy, "Follow Thru." Schwab produced many musical comedies with Frank Mandel in New York, including "Queen High," "Good News," "The Desert Song" and "New Moon." Corrigan formerly was a screen writer and stage actor. Although the entire product for 1930-31 has not been announced, most of the other directors have been assigned to work for next season's Paramount Publix product. George Abbott, who co-authored and directed such stage plays as "Coquette," "Broadway" and "Love 'Em and Leave 'Em," will follow his screen directorial work on "Why Bring That Up?" and "Half Way to Heaven," by directing Claudette Colbert and Frederic March in "Manslaughter," and the production of "The Sea God," featuring Richard Arlen and Fay Wray. Dorothy Arzner, Paramount's only woman director, will have two major assignments in the direction of Ruth Chatterton and Clive Brook in "The Better Wife," and "The Right to Love," starring Ruth Chatterton, from Susan Glaspell's story, "Brook Evans." Miss Arzner directed Clara Bow in "The Wild Party" and Ruth Chatterton in "Sarah and Son." Ludwig Berger, noted European director and concert master, and director of "The Vagabond King," is to direct Maurice Chevalier in the musical production, "The Little Cafe." Edwin Carewe, famous as a director-producer of such screen successes as "Redemption" and "Ramona," will direct the outdoor film of Rex Beach's "The Spoilers." His cast will include Gary Cooper, Betty Compson, Kay Johnson, William Boyd and Harry Green. Sergei Eisenstein, European director, has been signed by Paramount Publix to direct in Hollywood. Eisenstein produced such pictures as "Potemkin" and "Ten Days That Shock the World." Edmund Goulding, having scored with his stories, "The Devil's Holiday," starring Nancy Carroll, and "The Trespasser," starring Gloria Swanson, is to direct the film version of his own play, "Dancing Mothers." Victor Heerman, director of "Ladies Must Dress" and who recently worked on certain features in "Paramount On Parade," is to direct the Four Marx Brothers in "Animal Crackers." Fred Newmeyer, whose success includes "Warming Up" and "The Rainbow Man," is to guide the production of the Schwab and Mandel musical comedy, "Queen High." H. D'Abbadie D'Arrast, well known for such pictures as "The Magnificent Flirt" and "Dry Martini," will film his own story "Laughtor," with Nancy Carroll and Fredric March. Rowland V. Lee, whose recent work includes "Ladies Love Brutes" and "The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu," will include the direction of "The General," in which Walter Huston will carry the leading role. Ernst Lubitsch, director of "The Love Parade," will have another musical romance, "Monte Carlo," featuring Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonad. Fie will also direct a Maurice Chevalier vehicle. Victor Schertzinger, whose list 01 successes is long, will be in charge of two productions, "Heads Up," a musical comedy starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and "Rose of the Rancho." Edward Sutherland, director of "Fast Company," "Burning Up," "The Social Lion" and others, will pilot Jack Oakie through "Merton of the Talkies." Frank Tuttle, who is now directing Clara Bow in "Love Among the Millionaires," will direct Charles "Buddy" Rogers in "Molinoff." He will also do "The Scarab Murder Case," having been responsible for both "The Greene Murder Case" and "The Benson Murder Case." Josef von Sternberg, director of "Thunderbolt," who recently returned from directing Emil Jannings in Berlin, is to make "Morocco," featuring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich, German star. Richard Wallace, of "Innocents of Paris" reputation, is to handle two pictures, Moran and Mack's "Anybody's War" and "Lost Ecstasy," with Nancy Carroll and Richard Arlen. Other directors who will later be assigned are Edward Sloman, director of "The Kibitzer;" John Cromwell, director of "Street of Chance;" Louis Gasnier, who directed "Slightly Scarlet" and "Shadow of the Law;" and Lothar Mendes, director of "The Marriage Playground." 1 i 1 DIRECTOR OF DIALOGUE Hugh Herbert is the director of dialogue on "The Railroad Man," which George B. Seitz is directing for RKO. He has just returned from Montana and Chicago, where the company has been shooting exteriors. "The Great Day" Was Tremendous Success on N. Y. Stage Harry Pollard is directing Joan Crawford at M-G-M in "The Great Day," by William Carey Duncan and John Wells. With music by Vincent Youmans, adapted for the screen by Wiilis Goldbeck and James Montgomery. The cast as selected so far consists of Joan Crawford, Lucien Littlefield, Johnny Mack Brown, John Miljan and Cliff Edwards. Director Pollard is making his tir^t picture away from the Universal lot in years. i i 1 MAKE-UP ARTISTS Walter Heermann and A r m a n d Triller are the make-up artists working on the set on Tay Garnetts picture, "Her Man." Both are members of the Motion Picture Make-up Artists' Association. f i i THEATREGOERS HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO VIEW DIRECTOR'S FITTING CLIMAX TO HIS BRILLIANT CAREER. With "Swing High" now showing at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, theatregoers have an opportunity to see what Father Time has done for Joseph Santley, who for years was a ruling Broadway stage star, director and producer, and who after proving that he was a fine screen director at the Paramount Studios in Long Island by directing the Marx Brothers in "Cocoanuts" he came to the West Coast for Pathe, and has given amusement -seekers the finest treatment of a circus story that has been given, especially since the advent of the talkies. Director Santley's picture and highlights of his career adorn our front cover this week. He is one of the most conservative of men, and, unlike the broadcasting of his accomplishments pictured, he is the quiet, easy-mannered man who believes in allowing his actions and work to speak for themselves, and those who view the picture this week will have to admit that he has brought to light Helen Twelvetrees, the Pathe star, at her very best. As he has with Fred Scott, Dorothy Burgess, George Fawcett, Bryant Washburn, Little Billy, and many others in the picture. Helen Twelvetrees, when she finishes in "Her Man," under the direction of Tay Garnett, will again be directed by Joseph Santley in "The Price of a Party," which is now in preparation at the Pathe Studios.