Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1927 - Feb 1928)

Hollywood High Lights 49 has been splendid, and she seems ever to grow more attractive. She has taken excellent care of herself since the serious setbacks in health that she suffered some years ago. All a Mistake. Just a slight misunderstanding over a story. That's all there was to a recent squabble between Richard Dix and Paramount. We had never before known Dix to give an exhibition of temperament, but he walked off the set on this occasion. He was working on a picture built round the life and adventures of Joaquin Murietta, the California bandit. It seems that the fuss arose from the circumstance that Dix was presented with the wrong sort of script, and got a false notion that he was being cast as a conventional sheikish Latin type, when actually he was to play a rip-roaring swashbuckler of early California. A New Beach Colony. The stars' determination to colonize goes merrily on. Especially on the beach. There is a brand new cluster of homes arising on the sands near Santa Monica, but owing to the fact that some of the land can be retained for only ten years, some of the stars have been thinking of building their homes on wheels. This new locale is called the Malibu. It is nicely isolated and very pretty. Gloria Swanson has built a twenty-five-thousand-dollar home there, despite the restrictions of ownership, while other colonizers include Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Dick Barthelmess, and Marie Prevost. Just the Thing for Dolores. In "Glorious Betsy," Dolores Costello is given just the kind of chance she should have. Since we first saw her in "The Sea Beast," she has always seemed to us to be suited to costume roles. She is a lovely Old World type. "Glorious Betsy" is laid in the Napoleonic court, and is an adaptation of a romantic play by Rida Johnson Young. It should be ideal for Dolores. Much Ado About Dorothy. Paramount had almost as much trouble deciding who should play Dorothy in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as who should be Lorelei. Louise Brooks was cast for this role, and then the studio people changed their minds and concluded that she wasn't the t)^pe. After some debate they reinstated her. Now they have changed their minds again, and have given the role to Alice White. We hope that settles it for good and all. Trixi Friganza has been cast for the role of Henry Spofford's mother, and Ford Sterling will be Gus Eisman. The Screen Reunion of a Popular Pair. The professional reunion of Milton Sills and Doris Kenyon has taken place. They are to be seen together in "The Valley of the Giants," which is the refilming of a pi-oduction that Wallace Reid made some time before his death. The giants in question are the huge primeval forests of the West which tower proudly into the skits. The picture is a melodrama, as might be expected, because lately Sills' pictures have all veered that way. One wonders why, because in mind and talent he seems fitted for something more psychological than roughand-tumble fights and other such muscle-exercising situations. As' Doris Kenyon has been off the screen for more than a year, her return will be a pleasing note in the new production. Yes, We Have No Armadillos. The snakes spoiled the party, but they very nearly gave Lon Chaney a chance to do a new sort of impersonation. We don't know how true the story maybe, but it's worth repeating. It seems that two armadillos were to be used in "The Hypnotist," in which Chaney is starred — an armadillo being something distantly related to a hedgehog on the one hand and an armored tank on the other. But by mistake, so it is told, the armadillos were packed in the same compartment with some rattlesnakes, so that, when they arrived in Hollywood, they had long since gone to the armadillo heaven. Tod Browning, the director of the film, took occasion to inquire of the versatile Chaney whether he didn't think he could appropriately disguise himself and play the roles of the two defunct little animals. Chaney, however, demurred. A Social Disaster. Are Dolores del Rio and Molly O'Day going to be lifelong enemies? And, incidentally, what is to be done when a petite but very new charmer of the screen inflicts a social snub on Guess whoUf sour a more widely known acold friend Warner tress ? Baxter as the In These perplexing quesdian in"Ramona," tions have arisen as a Dolores del Rio's . result of a row that renext picture. cently took place between two picture companies on a Utah location. The companies in question were those making "The Shepherd of the Hills" and "Ramona." Miss O'Day appears in the former film. Miss del Rio in the latter. It seems that both companies laid claim to a particularly scenic spot amid the West's natural wonders, and the argument led to fisticuffs between the rival directors. Then Miss O'Day tried to calm the turbulent tide of disagreement by inviting everybody to a peace dinner. But — she excluded Miss del Rio, asserting that Dolores had done much to foment the trouble by urging her director not to give up his rights. Miss del Rio, who has an exceptional amount of savoir-faire, is said merely to have laughed very airily when told that she . was not among those invited. Which was very graceful, considering that her company was the one that eventually had to give way in the battle.