Hollywood Filmograph (Jan-Jul 1930)

20 June 28, 1930 j UNDER THE $P€TLIGHT By MAIDEE CRAWFORD RICARDO CORTEZ One always enjoys the mysterious streets of a strange city. This time it happened to be the narrow, crooked street of the Havana underworld we visited out at Pathe this week to watch Ricardo Cortez in "Her Man," which Tay Garnett is directing. And what an exciting scene Mr. Cortez put over. We drifted in the Thalia, a typical dance hall and bar, where several girls were found drumming up trade for the house. Frankie, played by Helen Twelvetrees, was accused of stealing the bank roll of a roughneck patron. She gets into an altercation, but Johnnie, her "business" partner, arrives on the scene in time to protect her, causing the roughneck to withdraw peacefully. In strolls Red, another unwelcomed habitue of the place. Johnnie having previously warned him to keep out, faces him with another warning. Red fails to heed. Makes Frankie a proposition to be his girl, while Johnnie watches him. Two bruisers start battling on the dance floor and during the excitement Red tries to slip out, but Johnnie dexterously lets a long Portuguese knife fly through the air and lodge in Red's back (a padded piece of wallboard just out of the range of the camera). Johnnie moves over to the affray which has held everyone's attention but Annie's (Marjorie Rambeau). Red's death, we were told, will remain just another murder mystery of the mysterious underworld, so far as the police are concerned, but we are going to watch for "Her Man" and find out. Ricardo Cortez handles the Portuguese knife., only as a finished artist ; one of the sparkling gems contributed by this well-known and greatly admired actor, the fans will always remember as an Argentina lover. ALSO YODELS Rex King, who has just returned to Hollywood from a circus tour still quick on the trigger and ready with the rope, smiled his way right into a "talkie," to do some yodeling for the C^» {£• c5* Samuel Goldwyn has announced the signing of Leon Errol, of Ziegfeld Follies and "Sally" fame, to play the featured comedian role in Evelyn Laye's new starring operetta, "Lilli." Louis Bromfield wrote the story for "Lilli" which has been adapted by Sidney Howard. George Fitzmaurice will direct. fc?W (,£• <i£* "Prejudices once entertained by many stage stars against motion pictures have gradually disappeared," declares Gavin Gordon, one of the most recent screen recruits from the New York stage. "I have been particularly amused since my arrival in Hollywood, to meet actors whose views upon the motion picture I had heard vigorously expressed in New York. Their new attitude is one of admiration and enthusiasm. They are by no means traitors to their first love, the stage, but they are convinced that the films are a genuine and admirable medium for their talents." Gordon recently completed an engagement as Greta Garbo's leading man in her latest picture, "Romance," at the M-G-M Studios, ranch boys. (^* t^W ^* Producer-Director Albert Rogell is to take an entire company to Honolulu, where he will film "Aloha," in which Joseph Schildkraut is to have the featured male role. Tiffany Productions will release this production. KEEPS BUSY Richard Tucker has certainly been a busy man this year, and very popular at Paramount where he has made four pictures this year. Pathe, Warner Bros, and First National follow close second. Mr. Tucker having finished in "Broken Dishes" for First National, was cast for one of the important parts in John Adolfi's new picture starting next week, at First National. i i i Virgina Sale is contributing one of her distinctive characterizations in an Educational two-reeler, as yet untitled, which Stephen Roberts is directing. This will be Virginia's first talkie work under the Educational banner. Miss Sale recently completed an important comedy role in "Broken Dishes," directed by Mervyn LeRoy for First National. G?* (i?* t&* "DECENCY" TITLE UPHELD Superior Judge Hanby upheld the right of Arthur Gregor to continue using "Decency" as the title of his play. Simona Fenner Boniface, plaintiff, claimed she had copyrighted the title in a play produced a year ago, but Mr. Gregor testified that she allowed his play to open without notifying him of her previous use of the name. "Barren Trees," the title of his new drama, even more unusual in theme than "Decency," with its locale in British Guiana, Arthur Gregor will produce in Los Angeles within the next sixty days. Gregor is a wellknown writer and director of the screen, just recently lured by the legitimate stage. Preview "ON YOUR BACK" Westlake Theatre. Fox-Movietone Feature Production. George Middleton, Associate Producer. "On Your Back" is a magnificent production mounting with infinite grace and dignity to a climax resulting in a dramatic bombshell, bringing Iren Rich to the screen in her greatest role. Practically all the action takes place in the modiste shops of Julianne, who gambles, upon the advice of the "lucky seven," with fortune, fate and the souls of vain women, who sell themselves in order to wear the lavish fashions which her genius creates — all for her son, Harvey (Raymond Hackett). Miss Rich is like a precious jewel in a platinum setting. The exquisite gowns, wraps and negligees will not only be a magnet to draw the feminine fans, but the masculine admirers will learn — "it's the man who pays" —for milady's gowns. Irene Rich's portrayal of Rita Weiman's powerful character, Julianne, will now be stamped as a memorable performance which posterity will smile upon. H. B. Warner as Pryer, the designing man of financial importance, client of Julianne's; Harvey's employer; Molly's admirer and friend; has given his admirers another wonderful character. Raymond Hackett, the son, rises to the heights of his ability as the modern young man making his own decisions in business and love — one of the sparkling gems. Marion Shilling, as Molly, Harvey's sweetheart, the girl caught by the ambitious modiste and given unlimited credit — later stealing the modiste's most precious treasure — Harvey's love and protection. Her dramatic moments were handled to the "nth" degree. It was Ilka Chase who played the sophisticated chorus girl, Dixie Mason, lending much to the comedy of this gorgeous pageantry. Others giving finished portrayals: Charlotte Henry, Wheeler Oakman, Rose Dione, Arthur Hoyt. Howard J. Green's vivid lines and adaptation of this searching analysis of an ambitious woman, will win added laurels for this capable scenarist. Von Kirbach, sound expert, gives us the perfect reproduction. Joseph August, cinematographer, brought his art out as usual. Guthrie McClintic's first talking success is one of the best pictures thus far of the year's offering. i i i Victor Varconi, one of the outstanding actors of the silent screen, has been signed for the featured male lead in "Gay Caballero," for Warner Brothers. The cast includes Bert Roach, Fay Wray, Frank Campeau, Don Alvarado, Charles Judels, Robert Elliott. John Sainpolis, and others. Alan Crosland is to direct. J* J* J* Phillips Holmes has been given the title role of, "Barber John's Boy," a Vitaphone production which Alan Dwan will direct for Warner Brothers. Lucille Powers has the leading feminine characterization. Joan Blondell, Grant Mitchell and J. Farrell MacDonald have also been signed for important roles. Stage Review "THE DRUNKARD" (Or "The Fallen Saved") At The Little Theatre Quite novel and clever entertainment for the present-day theatregoer was "The Drunkard," or "The Fallen Saved," presented by The Playcrafters in The Little Theatre of the Hollywood High School by a large cast of players. This moral domestic drama in four acts was presented after the style and manner of the original cast seen at the Boston Museum in 1844 and at the American Museum in New York in 1854. The burlesque treatment of the play, the costumes, settings and acting kept the audience in a gale of laughter from curtain to curtain. The added attraction of the ancient custom of informal visiting back and forth in the audience, eating lunches from shoe boxes and passing on a good recipe added to the merriment. Harold Turney, who has directed the Playcrafters' offerings, handled the role of Lawyer Cribbs, the villain, in a finished manner. Jerry Dodson, the handsome hero, and Edward Middleton, who became the drunkard and caused all the bereavement and poverty, appeared to a splendid advantage. The friendly farmer, William Dowton, played by Wayland Parisia, and the villagers attending the marriage, witnessing the downfall, deploring the drunkard's downward path to sin, and rejoicing in the redemption, gave an unusually delightful interpretation of this old thriller. Margaret Morrison was excellent as the weepy, neglected wife whose faith in the beloved husband never wavered. Irene Lloyd proved herself a promising trouper as the village "Is the Universe, including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?" This question constituted the subject of the Lesson-Sermon Sunday in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, branches of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. One of the Scripture selections in the Lesson-Sermon cited the following verses from the first epistle of John: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." The LessonSermon included also passages from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, and one of these passages presented statements as follows: "The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal."