Hollywood Topics (Oct 1926-Feb 1927)

6 HOLLY W OOD TOPICS Warner’s Plan Film Spectacle Michael Curtiz, Famous European Director, Assigned to “ Noah’s Ark” Under the personal supervision of Jack Warner, plans are in full swing to make “Noah’s Ark,” one of the greatest film spectacles in the history of motion pictures. With Bess Meredyth aiding him, Michael Curtiz, director of Dolores Costello’s latest starring vehicle, “The Third Degree,” which has just gone over with big success, has started preparations for the making of “Noah’s Ark” on the greatest and most spectacular scale. When one considers the money and time and effort that went into such big Warner productions as “Sea Beast,” “Don Juan,” “Better ’Ole” and “Manon,” then it is easy to surmise the amount of money that Warner Brothers will spend on this production, which they plan as the greatest and costliest picture that has ever come out of their studio. That Curtiz, a newcomer to this country, has been entrusted with this gigantic undertaking speaks well for him as a director, when there are any number of great directors in Hollywood that Warners might have engaged for this big job. The production will be partly Biblical and partly modern, but the two will be so well connected that they will be both highly effective and logical. The Biblical sequence, taking place in the days before the great deluge, will boast some of the largest and most beautiful sets ever constructed in a Hollywood studio. It goes without saying that more animals will be used in this sequence than have ever been used in any other picture. Curtiz is well qualified to handle a production of this nature and scope, for his twelve years of success as a director of European productions has been built up by his having produced just such big spectacular productions. A few years ago he made “Sodom and Gomorrah” for one of the Ufa units in Germany. It cost almost a million dollars. Later he made a great film of the life of “Napoleon” in France, and more recently, “The Moon of Israel,” which Paramount has bought and will release as a big special in the near future. When Curtiz says that he will make the “greatest motion picture spectacle” of “Noah’s Ark,” he does not mean the greatest in sets, wild orgies, masses of people. Most spectacles deal in quantity. He will deal in quality. “Quality of the soul,” he calls it. And by that he means that though “Noah’s Ark” will be a massive production, its massiveness will be merely detail of the pattern, for against his large background of history he will play his important characters who will predominate throughout the story, with their tragedies and their joys and their sorrows. They will give it the soul quality that most spectacles fail to have because the characters are lost in the huge settings and endless details. In “Noah’s Ark,” for the first time on the screen, will be depicted the first great flood of history. Every Biblical student, every man, woman and child is acquainted with it. Millions of people have visualized this terrible flood in their own minds, and for that reason it is a great undertaking, for Curtiz will have the task of making their conception a screen reality. Every year or so has brought some great flood picture to the screen, but Curtiz promises that this one will be the greatest of them all, not only in its bigness and in its destructive power, but in the mighty warning that it carries. Curtiz is already widely known for his wonderful camera effects. Critic after critic praised him for the wonderfully different shots shown in “The Third Degree.” Cur tiz looks upon the camera as two gigantic eyes that see everything from any place and every place. In “The Third Degree” his camera followed his heroine in high dives, through a whirling motordrome and through Coney Island’s night life ,as if it were a human eye looking down upon the world from heights, and up from depths. Curtiz has planned effects for “Noah’s Ark” that will revolutionize socalled “trick photography.” The cast for “Noah’s Ark” has not been decided upon, although it is known that Curtiz desires to have Rudolph Schildkraut as “Noah” and Dolores Costello in the leading feminine role. However, this last named role may even go to an unknown if Curtiz repeats himself as in the past. When making pictures abroad he gave many well known players their first opportunities. Victor Varconi once worked for him for fifty cents a day. Arlette Marchal has him to thank for her first great opportunity, a leading role in “The Moon of Israel,” and there are other well known European stars who owe their first chance to him. Curtiz has given many Bible salesmen prospects for a happy New Year. His office is filled with them. Bibles, I mean, not salesmen. Extra players will have plenty to be happy about, too, for actual production starts right after the first of the year — and history will repeat itself once more. The vision that made the Vitaphone a great achievement and a reality will give “Noah’s Ark,” through Michael Curtiz, as their next great contribution to the motion picture. Applause for the Warner Brothers! Plenty of Life In Milton Sills’ New Picture Strong men, hula-hula dancers, snake charmers, jugglers, acrobats, barkers, speilers, dwarfs, giants, tatooed men, living skeletons! Sawdust and confetti; hot dogs and tamales. Everything in fact that goes to make a carnival — in this instance a ‘fiesta’ — has been included in an amazing setting for Milton Sills’ new starring picture, directed by John Francis Dillon, and based on the Liberty Magazine story by Mary Heaton Vorse, “A Runaway Enchantress.” Sills as a rather solid fisherman in the Canary Island settlement, nevertheless dominates the scene. Larry Kent, as his younger and wastrel brother; Mary Astor, in the leading feminine role as a red-haired Spanish girl; Alice White as a sprightly little actress, Kate Price as a duenna-like character — all take part in these episodes together with hundreds of gaily attired extras, holidaybent. All is light, music, hilarity. Carey Wilson is producing the picture for First National and also wrote the scenario. It will be one of the most colorful stories in which Milton Sills has appeared. EDDIE CLINE TO FIRST NATIONAL Charles R. Rogers announces the engagement of Eddie Cline, famous comedy director, to handle the megaphone on “The Road to Romance” which picture Rogers will produce for First National. “The Road to Romance” is the story by A1 Boasberg, adapted by Rex Taylor, which will be the epic of the commercial traveler, glorifying the honorable calling of the traveling salesman. In connection with chosing a suitable title, the present one being merely tentative, Rogers plans a competitive prize contest on the part of traveing men. The various organizations of commercial travelers will be asked to announce the contest to their memberes that all may compete. NO CONTROL FOR SCOTT SIDNEY Harrison Ford now knows the full meaning of the expression — “suffering for one’s art!” In “No Control,” the Metropolitan production in which he is being featured with Phyllis Haver, Ford was called upon to prove his ability as a trapeze performer. And prove it he did — for the camera. But the days that followed were filled with woe, for the little-used muscles which the actor called into play cried their disapproval in "no uncertain terms. Scott Sidney is directing “No Control” from Frank Condon’s Saturday Evening Post story, “By Remote Control.” '‘Good Time Charlie” Comes to Life Warner Brothers announce that Warner Oland has been signed to play the role of “Good Time Charlie” in “A Million Bid,” Dolores Costello’s next starring vehicle. “Good Time Charlie” is not a fictitious character, but was one of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s most picturesque figures on the West Coast. He was noted in San Francisco for his mysterious parties, at which he dined and wined sumptuously. There was never any leason for his celebrations, he merely enjoyed watching his guests have a good time. It was noticed that he always wore a kid glove on his left hand. When he died, the glove was removed and the hand was found to be yellow. This proved his Chinese heritage. This character has been interpolated in “A Million Bid” by Darryl Francis Zanuck, who is writing the screen story. MOVIE EDITION OF “RESURRECTION” TO BE PUBLISHED Arrangements have been made by Inspiration Pictures, Inc., Edwin Carewe, and United Artists Corporation, whereby Grosset and Dunlap, New York book publishers, will immediately publish a motion picture edition of Count Leo Tolstoy’s “Resurrection.” Still photographs from the screen version of the famous story will be incorporated in the volume and a specially written foreword by Ilya Tolstoy, eldest son of the Russian novelist, who is in Hollywood aiding in the filming of his father’s story, will have a page in the beginning of the movie edition. John McCormick announces that Jack Mulhall has been made a featured player. Congratulations, Jack. You deserve it.