The Devil Dancer (United Artists) (1927)

General Advance Stories CHARACTER ACTORS IN “DEVIL DANCER” Some of the greatest character actors and actresses in motion pic¬ tures today support Gilda Gray in the Samuel Goldwyn production, “The Devil Dancer,” coming to the . Theatre. Curiously enough, without exception, they come to pictures from a long stage experience, showing that the flick¬ ering screen is still dependent in some measure on legitimate drama. Clarissa Selwyn, who has made the character of a repressed older TMMnan memorable, came to the sWeen some ten years ago after an initial stage experience. Her most recent successes in character roles are “Resurrection,” “Ramona” and “Old San Francisco.” Michael Va- vitch had a long stage experience in his native Russia. Kamiyama So- jin was the founder of the little the¬ atre movement in Japan where he played Shakespeare, Wilde, Haupt¬ mann and Japanese playwrights for many years. Mr. Sojin, who has her first character role in motion pic¬ tures in “The Devil Dancer,” was the leading lady of the Imperial Theatre in Tokio before the Sojins came to this country. Clive Brook plays the role of leading man op¬ posite the supple Gilda. The direc¬ tion is by Fred Niblo. WHO SAID CAMERA COULD NOT TELL LIE? How the camera sees things quite differently from the naked eye was explained by George Barnes, camera man for Samuel Goldwyn, in the course of taking a lavish nautch house scene in Samuel Goldwyn’s production, “The Devil Dancer,” starring Gilda Gray, at the. Theatre. Towering over three stories high was the interior court of the nautch house, where strange orgiastic dan¬ ces are performed in remote Tibet, ^»en by few white men. The walls l^re lined with serried balconies and cut by arches. “As the eye sees the scene,” said Barnes, “the background should be flooded with light to cre¬ ate an atmosphere of distance. But as the camera will record the scene, it is better to have the background dark, so that the interesting sil¬ houette of the arches and balconies and soaring stairway will be brought into prominence.” Hollywood is wondering if Serge Temoff, a Russian refugee who had never acted before Samuel Goldwyn cast him as Beppo in Gilda Gray’s “The Devil Dancer,” at the. Theatre, is another Goldwyn “find.” It will be recalled that Vilma Banky, Lois Moran, Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett and many other present- day stars were “discovered” by Mr. Goldwyn. Clive Brook, who was the third .party in “Underworld,” with George Bancroft and Evelyn Brent, will next be seen as Gilda Gray’s leading man in “The Devil Dancer,” when that Samuel Goldwyn Production comes to the . theatre . Brook plays the part of an English explorer named Stephen Athelstan. GG-1—One Col. Gilda Gray Portrait (Mat 5c) WILLIE FUNG IN GILDA’S NEW FILM Willie Fung did not have thespian aspirations when he embarked from China to America twenty years ago. But as he grew older the ambition flared up in him. So he joined the Morning Bell Club of San Francisco, abandoned the name of Fung sic Woon and became William Fung, the actor. Because of his rotundity and sense of comedy, Fung drew female char¬ acter comedy roles. The club’s ac¬ tivity was of a benefit nature and naturally didn’t offer Fung adequate work for his ambition, so in 1920 he joined the picture colony in Hol¬ lywood. His ability to enact a wide variety of character parts, particu¬ larly Chinese, has kept him active throughout. He is striving to gain recognition as the foremost por¬ trayer of Chinese character parts and to that end he is a devout stu¬ dent of the art of makeup. Fung’s latest role is that of a Chinese caravan driver in “The Devil Dancer,” Samuel Goldwyn produc¬ tion, starring Gilda Gray at the . Theatre. It was in Hawaii that Gilda Gray danced the hula in “Aloma,” her first picture; in New York night clubs that she did the Black Bottom in “Cabaret”; and it is in far-away Tibet that she does the Devil Dance, the Black Hat, the Nautch and other dances in “The Devil Dancer,” her first Samuel Goldwyn Production, at the.Theatre. Gilda Gray, star of “The Devil Dancer” at the . theatre, and her manager-husband, Gaillard T. Boag, are both “Gil” to their friends. One of the New York wits calls them the “half pint fam¬ ily”—four gills making a pint- POGANY COPIED TEMPLE FOR GILDA GRAY A replica of the temple where monks .of the Lama cult north of India worshipped the devil gods has been reproduced for scenes of “The Devil Dancer,” Samuel Goldwyn’s production, starring Gilda Gray at the . Theatre. The structure, designed by Willy Pogany, internationally known painter, is the last word in unique architecture, and represents one of the most unusual settings ever con¬ structed for movie purposes, accord¬ ing to Goldwyn studio officials. In bringing an exact Tibetan at¬ mosphere into his new production Mr. Goldwyn has spared nothing to gain perfect effect in both locale and characters. More than 500 Chinese were used in the opening day’s shooting in the temple scenes, all garbed in odd cos¬ tumes symbolic of monks of the iso¬ lated monasteries. The scenes are pretentious, and the action within the temple is being 1 staged with colorful ceremony. Principals supporting Miss Gray include Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Sojin, Michael Vavitch, Al¬ bert Conti, Clarissa Selwyn and James Leong. “STELLA DALLAS” MAKER OFFERS “DEVIL DANCER” Samuel Goldwyn is one producer who really holds to the old truism that “Variety is the spice of life.” Unlike others, Goldwyn is never found slavishly following a previous success. In fact his shifts of stories are so marked that the entire change he makes in each succeeding pro¬ duction can only be laid to definite, careful planning. From the tears and pathos of “Stella Dallas,” the dust and strife of “The Winning of Barbara Worth” and the high romance of “The Magic Flame,” we now come to “The Devil Dancer,” a colorful, exo¬ tic melodrama of Tibet, which opened last night at the . Theatre for.days. “The Devil Dancer” is a starring vehicle for Gilda Gray and the al¬ ways adept Fred Nbilo has woven the story of Harry Hervey and Alice D. G. Miller so deftly as to retain the last atom of plot values—while at the same time permitting full sway to the dancing art of the ever popular Gilda. Her “devil dance” is a new Gray creation which in itself should prove a magnet to her admirers. This alone, however, will not be the sole charm of the picture for her char¬ acterization of “Takla,” the white dancer of Lhassa, Tibet, is beauti¬ fully done. Clive Brook, the always capable, is the other side of a daring escape, a charming romance and a melodramatic rescue simply brist¬ ling with thrills. Other players who participate to splendid advantage in this latest Samuel Goldwyn production include Anna May Wong, Michael Vavitch, Sojin, Albert Conti, Kalla Pasha, Serge Temoff, Anna Schaeffer, Bar¬ bara Tennant, Clarissa Selwynne 5>ud Kalla Pasha. “BLACK HAT” A DANCE, N0---N0T A DERBY While Gilda Gray evolved a strange and weird new dance in the course of production of the Samuel Goldwyn, picture, “The Devil Dan¬ cer,” which comes to the . Theatre .. other dances besides the Devil Dance are being caught by the camera’s eye. Chief among these is one whose name sug¬ gests borrowing from the Black Bottom. It is called the Black Hat Dance, and is performed by the fa¬ natical black Lamas, whose exotic and orgiastic customs make up a large part of the film’s background. This Black Hat Dance is one of the oldest dances known. Since 700 B.C., back in the dawn of civiliza¬ tion, this dance has been executed in the remote interior of Tibet, for¬ bidden to white men. The dance was probably a ritual to devil deities at this time. It has survived in its original form through twenty-six centuries. An endless chain has been formed by Tibetan scribes, who described the dance minutely and even the costumes used, during suc¬ ceeding generations, until today, the dance that will be seen by audiences at “The Devil Dancer” is exactly the same that was danced long before the Roman Empire was born. Kalla Pasha, whose lowering brow and tree-trunk neck have added “weight” to many a picture, is the Toy in Samuel Goldwyn’s produc¬ tion, “The Devil Dancer,” starring Miss Gilda Gray at the . Theatre. Kalla, as a servant of all sorts to Clive Brook, adds his quota of comedy to this story of Tibet and India by Harry Hervey, adapted by Alice Duer Miller. In “The Devil Dancer,” current at the . theatre, Gilda Gray offers the “Black Hat.” It’s a dance,—not a derby. Other dances introduced in Miss Gray’s first Sam¬ uel Goldwyn Production at the. .theatre are the Nautch and the Devil Dance itself. Anna May Wong, the Chinese girl who supports Gilda Gray in “The Devil Dancer,” at the ... theatre, is not a native of China, but of the United States. She was born in Los Angeles in 1906. Samuel Goldwyn, who offers Gilda Gray in “The Devil Dancer,” at the . theatre, is the pro¬ ducer of “Stella Dallas,” “The Dark Angel,” “The Night of Love” and “The Magic Flame.” Gilda Gray, the dancing star, has only made three motion pictures in her life,—“Aloma,” “Cabaret,” and now “The Devil Dancer,” her first Samuel Goldwyn Production for United Artists release. This picture represents the first time in the his¬ tory of motion pictures that a star has ascended to United Artists after only two pictures. Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson. Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and John Barrymore are among the United Artists stars and producers. Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, Mr. Goldwyn’s other stars, will be starred separately, after “Flower of Spain,” United Artists releasing thpir Samuel Goldwyn Productions.