Paramount International News (1935)

(fammountJntemaimud^yiews LONDON JOTTINGS By F. L. C. Thomas Henry Wilcoxon, star of “The Crusades,” was on his own stamping ground when he visited Birmingham for the premiere of the Cecil B. DeMille epic at the Futurist Theatre. He received a regal welcome, befitting his kingly rank in the film. The station was decorated in his honour, and an enormous “Welcome” banner was strung across the entrance. Crowds surged round the station and as his train drew in dozens of autograph books were thrust forward by excited fans. Among those who met him at the station were Mr. Leonard P. O’Connor, General Manager of the Futurist Theatre, Mr. J. C. Corper, Paramount’s Birmingham Manager, and Mr. H. B. Lane, a former chairman of the Birmingham branch of the Cinematograph Exhibitors Assn. Appearing at the Futurist Theatre prior to the showing of “The Crusades,” Mr. Wilcoxon explained to a crowded and enthusiastic audience that all the clothes left him by a taxicab accident in London, in which he lost his luggage, were those he stood up in and one collar stud, which he produced amidst laughter. He paid tribute to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he started on his acting career, and to “The Crusades.” He also spoke highly of the work of Mr. DeMille and of the organization which made such epic productions possible. British Paramount News concentrated all their available forces on the wedding of the Duke of Gloucester and Lady Alice Scott, and scored a notable achievement of organization by showing a fulllength special in actual sound in the West-end of London by two o’clock on the afternoon of the ceremony. The Paramount cameramen secured wonderful pictures of the Royal couple’s drive through the streets. A subsequent edition released later in the afternoon showed the newly-married pair with the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace with the scene when they left for the station. One of the competition reels had a few silent shots of the bride driving to the Chapel showing twenty minutes earlier, but the outstanding feature of Paramount’s films was that the whole of the story v/as made with actual sound. Theatres generally showed the pictures early the same evening. Paramount British productions this week resumed activities after a lull in production at the Imperial Studios on Monday (November 4th), when “Ticket of Leave,” from an original story by Michael Hankinson and Vera Allinson went on to the floor. Dealing with the adventures of a slick lady crook and her associates in a scheme to obtain possession of a famous pearl necklace, the story will have a variegated background of the resorts of society high and low and society sharpers. Dorothy Boyd, whose last Paramount British production was “Get Your Man” has the leading feminine role. British Paramount News got a big press break over their exclusive pic(Continued in last column) THE PRODUCT IS COMING! FINE NEW PICTURES KNOCKING HOME OFFICE FOR LOOPS The projection rooms of Home Office are all atingle with thrills these days. The pictures are coming through! All of the accumulated power, punch, persistence, patience and practicability of the Studio are being revealed on celluloid—and with interest. The parade started with "Hands Across the Table," that gem of a picture which so obviously bore the masterhand imprint of Lubitsch, and which has already provoked so many fine reactions in several parts of the world. Right on its heels came a magnificent melodrama from the production unit of Walter Wanger. The film was “Mai'y Burns, Fugitive,” and in it Wanger took that favorite of the Foreign Legion, Sylvia Sidney, and gave her a part so ideally suited to her that she has turned in a performance which will ex cite plaudits from the fans in every part of the world. Watch also in this picture the performance of Alan Baxter, a newcomer from New York’s stage. He surely shows the promise of greater things to come. Next in the parade came “So Red the Rose,” an emotional hurricane of war, but not the war of the men in the trenches, or on the open battlefield. Thi' is the war that engulfs womer behind the lines, women whose love of the homes in which they were born is so great that no danger can compel them to flee. Framed in the dramatic setting HERE THEY ARE! Bang! THE BRIDE COMES HOME Bang! SO RED THE ROSE Bang ! CORONADO Bang! MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE of this picture you will find matchless performances by Margaret Sullavan, Janet Beecher, Walter Connolly, and a glovcing piece of dramatic work by Paramount’s own graduate, Randolph Scott. Then “Coronado,” a rollicking musical, introducing to the screen a couple of fresh youngsters named Johnny Downs and Betty Burgess. We are sure that you’ll like both them and the picture, for the film itself is one of those gay, heart-free creations which fiing you out of yourself and into a spirit of gaiety which no human being can reject. And then, by golly, we come to “The Bride Comes Home.” Here’s where the superlatives and adjectives have gone on strike. Here, for once, we don’t dare let ourselves turn our typewriter keyboard loose, for so merrily would the keys rattle, and the ribbon race, that there’d be smoke, and wherever there’s smoke — the Bride Would Probably Not Come Home. But, seriously speaking, here’s a Paramount comedy-drama to rave about — and you’ll do your raving not only because of the swellness of the picture itself, but because this production definitely tells us that in Fred MacMurray we have one of the topline male stars in the business, and in director Wesley Ruggles (Continued on Page 8) LONDON NOTES (Continued) A VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF BUSINESS We at this moment could think of nothing’ more important than a camera study showing’ Ei’nst Ijubitsch actually engaged in the physical business of directing a Paiainount picture. Here’s our proof, the gentleman at the left being Mr. Lubitsch in person. The scene is a verandah set of “Desire,” the two stars of the picture, Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, being in the centre of the group. The complacent gentleman with the pipe is Frank Borzage, the quietest and one of the most efficient directors in all of Hollywood. But our earnest consideration for the moment is the fact that we are able to show you Mr. Lubitsch actually directing a picture. tures of the attack on Aduwa. Reaching London in the middle of a week end when news on the war situation had dried up mysteriously, the pictures were received by the public with tremendous interest. Being the first and only war pictures to reach England, clippings from them received front page publicity in practically all of the national press, liberal acknowledgments being made to Paramount News in every case.