Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1935)

December 7, 1935 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 27 HOLLYWOOD SCENE Six Pictures Start, Five are Completed in Holiday Week — Max Factor Celebrates 26th Year in Hollywood by Opening New Studio — Balcon Sees MGM's Entrance Into British Production As Route to Quota Solution Slow-Up Due to the Thanksgiving holiday breaking in on the week, production naturally slowed up a bit. As six pictures were started, five finished. All the product is credited to major studios. Of the new work, MGM and Radio each started two pictures, with Paramount and Selznick International each contributing one to complete total. Radio finished two, and MGM, Paramount and Hal Roach are credited with one each. Probably the most interesting picture to start was "Little Lord Fauntleroy." First for the new Selznick unit, it features Freddie Bartholomew and returns Dolores Costello Barrymore to the screen. Other players currently listed are Guy Kibbee, Aubrey Smith, E. E. Clive, Henry Stephenson, Mickey Rooney, Ivan Simpson and Eric Alden. John Cromwell is directing. Starting MGM started "The Voice of Bugle Ann" and "Three Godfathers." The first will present Lionel Barrymore, Spring Byington, Charles Grapewin, Henry Wadsworth, Dudley Digges, Claude Gillingwater, Maureen O'Sullivan, Eric Linden and Billy Newell. Richard Thorpe is directing. Leading players in "Three Godfathers" are Chester Morris, Walter Brennan, Lewis Stone and Irene Hervey. Richard Boleslawski is directing. At Radio work began on "Don't Bet on Love." With Leigh Jason directing, it will feature Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Helen Broderick and Erik Rhodes. In the second picture, "The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot," Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall and Margaret Lindsay are featured, supported by Walter Abel, Ilka Chase, Edward Ellis and Hobart Cavanaugh. Stephen Roberts is directing. Paramount put "Timothy Quest" before the cameras. Being directed by Charles Barton, it will present Eleanore Whitney, Virginia Weilder, Dickie Moore, Elizabeth Patterson, Samuel Hinds and Sally Martin. RKO Finishes Two The two pictures finished at Radio are "Chatterbox" and "Two in the Dark." In the first will be seen Ann Shirley, Phillips Holmes, Edward Ellis, Erik Rhodes, Margaret Hamilton, Granville Bates, Allen Vinvent, Lucille Ball and George Offerman, Jr. Dudley Nichols directed. The second picture, formerly titled "Two O'Clock Courage," will present Walter Abel, Margot Grahame, Erick Blore, Addison Randall, Alan Hale, Phyllis Brooks, Ward Bond, Ray Mayer, Erik Rhodes, Wallace Ford and Arthur. Hoyt. Ben Stoloff directed. At MGM "The Getaway" (tentative title) was finished. The cast lists Joseph Calleia, Jackie Cooper, Lewis Stone, Robert Warwick, Robert Craig, Edward Pawley, Mischa Auer, Willy Mayer, Dwight Frye, William Tannen, Willard Robertson, Robert Livingstone, Sidney Bracey and the dog Flash. Chester Franklin directed. "The Bohemian Girl," Hal Roach production for MGM release, also was completed. It features Laurel and Hardy with Antonio Moreno, Thelma Todd, Jacqueline Wells, Mae Busch, James Finlayson, Darla Hood, William P. Carleton and Edgar Norton. James Horne directed. Paramount completed "Woman Trap." The cast includes Gertrude Michael, Akim Tamiroff, Samuel Hinds, Dean Jagger, George Murphy, Roscoe Karns, Russell Hicks, David Haines, Julian Rivero, Sidney Blackmer, Edward Brophy, Bradley Page, Arthur Aylesworth and Henrietta Burnside. Harold Young directed. Anniversary As more notables than were ever before gathered attended, Max Factor celebrated his twenty-sixth anniversary as Hollywood's foremost makeup artist and opened his new studio. The building, designed by S. Charles Lee, noted theatre architect, is the last word in modernism. In it are complete facilities for the manufacture of the more than 250 cosmetic products which Factor markets in more than 70 countries. Outstanding is the battery of scientific laboratories in which are analyzed and tested all the ingredients. Among other interesting features are the powder making plant, capacity of which is 20,000 pounds of powder daily. The mechanical and scientific efficiency of this department, in which everything is done by machinery from preliminary mixing to final packing in ornate cartons, contrasts with the wig making section. Here, with only natural human hair being used, about a dozen girls, all experts, work with incredible speed in making the hundreds of different wigs required by studios and for special commercial orders. Each hair, separated individually from a hank, is sewed into the fabric base. Under the personal guidance of Max Factor more than 600 employees are housed on the four floors, which occupy an area of nearly four acres. Mr. Factor, who first came to Los Angeles in 1908, when the industry of moving pictures was in its infancy, has seen his business grow from a one-man proposition to international proportions. Beneficial Michael Balcon, president of Gaumont British, welcomes the entrance of MGM into the field of British and Continental production. He predicts that the efforts of the unit to be headed by Ben Goetz will become a potent influence in elevating the character and worth of English and European pictures. He sees it as a sound, practical means which will work to the ending of the bothersome quota picture question. "Obviously," said Mr. Balcon, "the coming of such an outstanding organization as MGM to London will have a beneficial effect upon European production. The benefits will be felt on both sides of the Atlantic. No one can doubt for a moment but that Mr. Goetz will make first-class pictures. I am sure they will find a ready market with our public in English theatres. "As these contemplated pictures are certain to provide a grade of competition never before experienced in our efforts to preserve our domestic market as well as maintain the position we have so happily attained in the world's cinema field, I am sure that the pictures which Mr. Goetz will make will be a source of inspiration to British production. Certainly with MGM making pictures in England, probably using many of its finest stars and using typical British and Continental stories and giving prominence in them to British players, writers, directors and technicians, it is but logical to assume that other American companies will follow suit. As the MGM plan is more generally adopted, with its worth in assuring more good pictures not only directly for the British market, but also this country and the world, it will automatically solve the quota picture problem, which, fortunately for us, has been quite trying to the American producer. If it succeeds only in doing this, it will be a distinct advance in elevating the character of productions which are available to the British public. Naturally the artistic improvement should have a favorable commercial reflection." Vaulted Fortune There is a fortune gathering dust in film vaults. And there is a ready-made audience sitting at home by the fireside reading a good book. A few clever exhibitors recently have been cashing in, and handsomely, on these facts. All indications point toward increased interest in carefully chosen reissues during the coming year. Dave Biedermann of Selected Pictures, which is the coast affiliate of Atlantic Pictures, drew a loud and long laugh from managers of subsequent-run houses when he refused to sell reissues of the five Howard Hughes films "until a first-run is signed." That was last March, when he had one print of each picture. Today he has six prints of each film working. Leading circuits have been sold, including the Golden State with its 80 theatres and the Balaban and Katz string, and independent exhibitors are finding hearty audience interest in the reissues. By September, the reissue fever was mounting. RKO-Radio cleared 69 old features in that one month. Paramount had 62. Fox had 40. United Artists was offering (.Continued on page 30)