Inside facts of stage and screen (August 30, 1930)

ESTABLISHED 1924 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS Vol. XII Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at Post- office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of March 3, 1879. Saturday, August 30, 1930 Published Every Saturday at 800-801 Warner Bros. Down- town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. No. 9 SPANISH TALKIES BOOED’ CARLA TORNEY Whose Girls will be at LOEW’S STATE, Los Angeles NEXT WEEK ARMY IN TALKIES RETARDS OPENING WORK OUTLOOK IMPROVES FOR ALL BUT GIRLS Immediate prospects for work in the major studios is very promising. A survey of the situation brings fort.h the heartening information that jobs will be plentiful in all lines with the possible excep- tion of chorus work. All manner of pictures are scheduled to start into pro- duction forthwith and casting is going on right merrily, par- ticularly in the dramatic field. While there is not much ac- tivity promised for musicals, yet most of the studios assure they plan one or two pictures with songs. At UNIVERSAL 11 of their sched- uled 20 are yet to be made this year. Most of them will be dra- matic, with four comedies and two with John Boles to have songs, namely the “Merry-Go-Round” and “Resurrection.” Along with their regular sched, they plan 18 for- eign versions. Throughout the industry, it ap- pears to be a promising season for players who can speak one or more languages other than Eng- lish. Antipathy against a foreign ac- cent seems to have lifted, and such players as Bela Lugosi and Paul Lucas have been coming promi- nently to the fore. First to have scored with a European accent was- Maurice Chevalier. Olga Baclanova and Greta Garbo have smoothed the way for the feminines, which also accounts for the growing popular- ity of Renee Adoree, Lily Damita and Jetta Goudal. PAR. TO MAKE SIX PARAMOUNT has announced six pictures to be made in Sep- tember and three in October. “Right to Love” starts Sept. 1 and “New Morals” on Sept. 15. This studio also will devote most of its efforts to the serious drama, al- though it will do the usual num- ber of musicals. PATHE has no definite sched- ule, but will place its material in production as rapidly as acquired. They have not decided upon a set budget, nor have thev placed any limit upon the amount of money to be used in production. Pathe will start on “The Great- er Love” and “Sin Takes a Holi- day” next week. “Rebound,” just acquired, will go into production as soon as the adaptation is com- plete. Execs state that while they may make fewer pictures this year, they will spend more money upon what they do make. (Continued on Page 2) DARRIEN IN FILMS Frank Darrien will play Mr. Bixby, the masculine busybody in Edna Ferber’s “Cimarron,” for RKO. Although an old Duffy stage favorite here, this is Dar- rien’s first screen assignment. RKO SIGNS SPENCE Ralph Spence is the latest writer to be signed by RKO. Uncle Sam is going into the talking picture business. The U. S. Army has sent Lt.-Col. W. E. Prosser, of the picture division of the Signal Corps, to Hollywood to arrange for officers to study the technique of the talkies with mem- bers of the Academy executive and technical department. The talking pictures made by the army are to be used for army instruc- tion. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 28.— Paramount this week set back its opening day from Thursday to Friday because of stage show’s opening at the Los Angeles Para- mount. JUNE CLYDE TO WED June Clyde, screen actress, and Thornton Freeland, director, have announced their engagement. RIDDLE SCREEN WITH BULLETS TO VENT RAGE Because motion picture pro- ducers insist on using a stilted version of the Spanish lan- guage, a version particularly hateful to Latin Americans, critics and audiences of Latin America, from Sonora to, the nethermost tip of Chili, have emphatically rejected the Spanish talking films made by American producers in Holly- wood. This condition has been growing for some time, but only recently an audience in one town “shot-up” the screen, while a picture was being run off, and “boos” are the general rule, whenever films are shown outside of the cultural metro- politan areas. Reason is because the lan- guage used is so-called Cas- tillian Spanish and represents to the Latin Americans in a form, all the arrogance and superciliousness with which Spain has always treated her former colonies. The Latin American press is al- most unanimous in its condemna- tion of the Hollywood attitude. Se- lected at random, here are a few of the more influential organs, which have cast vitriol at the first American-produced Spanish talkie shown throughout Latin America, “El Cuerpo de Delito,” a version of “The Benson Murder Case.” Ilustrado, a picture weekly of Mexico City; El Universal, daily of the same city; Democracia, af- ternoon daily of Rosario, Argen- tina; Escenarios, an illustrated weekly of Valencia, Spain; Excel- sior, daily of Havana, Cuba. These can be chosen as leaders in the journalistic fight against the standards of language, which well-meaning but woefully ignor- ant producers in Hollywood have attempted to foist upon Latin- American audiences. Matter of Diplomacy The question, it must be re- membered, is not one of the com- parative artistic merits of El Cuerpo del Delito and Sombras de Gloria. It is a matter of diplo- matic and cultural balances. Latin America is offended because Hollywood producers have belittled the cultural standing of Latin America by asserting that Spanish is not spoken in the New World “only a dialect.” Inside Facts, in an exclusive in- terview with Jose Rodriguez re- cently, pointed out that the best (Continued on Page 2)