Screenland (Nov 1934-Apr 1935)

6 l SCRHliNLAND sensation of stage and studio for the moment. Robert Donat. He has recently returned from Hollywood after establishing himself as a star of real importance for his work in the character part of "The Count of Monte Cristo." He has stepped directly into the hero role in London's most popular stage play of the moment, "Mary Read." It was not so great a job to make Monte Cristo picturesque, but Mr. Donat has made it credible with a distinguished presence, a line masculine voice, and a most convincing sincerity. And that is just the sort of person he is off-stage where I met him to discuss his future plans. "There are contracts," he said, "but I haven't yet signed them. I've had a year of continuous work," he added. "I know of a lonely house on the Sussex coast where I can wear old clothes and forget the tinsel of stage and screen. I'll make my plans there — not in Elstree or Piccadilly." Now I hear that Robert Donat after due deliberation has signed with W arners — and ho for Hollywood ! I suppose that George Arliss is the most popular of these BritishAmerican exchange stars. In a popular voting contest, the British public put him above Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, or Ronald Colman — which I don't think the American feminine film fan would have permitted, liven Royalty favors Arliss. While it seems to have been a premature rumor that he will be knighted, certainly it was a fact the other evening when I was held up more than an hour in a taxi in the Strand because the Prince of Wales was making his third visit to see the Gaumont production of "The Iron Duke" with Arliss in the role of the Duke of Wellington. We asked Arliss, just before he returned to Hollywood, if he was coming back again to his native England. "Coming back?" he asked with that sly smile. "Why, I shall always be coming back — back to the stage, back to Hollywood, and back to Elstree ! That's what makes life interesting." Reverting for a moment to that British voting contest for your favorite film star, the first six male stars were : Arliss, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery, Ronald Colman. The first six woman were: Norma Shearer, Marie Dressier, Greta Garbo, Kay Francis, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn. The most unpopular stars were : James Cagney and Mae West! There's been no end of rejoicing in Elstree as well as all over England, over the return of Britain's prodigal son, Leslie Howard. A test of Mr. Howard's personality was evident throughout the filming of that gigantic spectacle, "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Whether in the picture or in looking on, the popular actor was always the cynosure of all eyes. To me, there is always something appealing about Leslie Howard. Seeing him in his grotesque make-up at first made me laugh, but the next minute I could have cried as readily. He records and elicits the most sensitive impressions and emotions of any artist we have today before the camera. I asked him, "Have you come to any actual conclusion as to the relative merits of screen and stage art in putting over a truly fine idea?" "Yes," he told me. "I think that the film today can say all that is to be said on the boards. But it can go farther, deeper, and show so many more facets to the thought beyond what the stage offers. It can carry the audience to the top of the highest mountain and to the deepest sea and bring ten thousand persons to reinforce it — like they have brought hundreds into the mobs of the French Revolution in this picture. Listen to them sing the Marseillaise!— the stage could never give certain tonal values to the story like that." I caught just the faintest glimpse of Jack Barrymdre when he dropped in at Flstree to get the feel of his future studio home for some months to come, when he returns from his holiday in India. There was an evident struggle going on as to what should be the subject of Mr. Barrymore's first British-made picture. Shakepeare seems to be a possibility. It is about time that the screen grew up to the stature of the stage in this respect. Elstree is still echoing with two feminine names who promise to make film history for both England and American studio. Mirk Oberon is already in Hollywood where she went to play the lead in "Folies Begere," opposite Maurice Chevalier. But it is her part opposite Leslie Howard in "The Scarlet Pimpernel," as Lady Blakeney, that won their hearts. The other young woman is Flora Robson, wTho has made a series of terrific personal successes. She was the dynamic Elizabeth in Bergner's film, "Catherine the great." Now she is carrying London in the title role of the stage play "Mary Read." In a month she will be back at. Elstree in the part of Queen Elizabeth, in a straightforward historical film. While it is true that Gaumont-British studios at Shepherd's Bush seemed a bit lonely on my visit, without the dominating personality of Arliss, yet there was excitement in the air. Gaumont was negotiating for more property, determined to hold its lead as the biggest studio in England. When I was there, they had six feature films in production. Three of the big pictures to follow will include titles that will make the picture-goers sit up in expectation : "Anna Karenina," "Bella Donna," (starring Conrad Veidt), and "Mary Queen of Scots." They will join the Dickens procession, (following "Great Expectations," "David Copperfield" and "Old Curiosity Shop"), with an early production of "Mr. Pickwick." The Beverly Hills of Hollywood find a substitute in a range of chalk hills south of London, called the North Downs. In Fay Wray, above, is one of the Hollywood stars now on loan to the English studios. that section called Ashdown Forest we find the secluded retreat of the lovely Madeleine Carroll, remembered in the U. S. for " The World Moves On." She lives in an oak-timbered house built from the stones of the ancient home of the Sheriff of the Forest. Behind the old house is a model farm — orchards, chickens, Jersey cows and strawberries! Something new in hobbies for movie stars ! No sooner had Charles Laughton sailed away to Hollywood to fulfill his part-time contract, than London Films sets to work preparing his next British picture scheduled to be made here in Elstree. His infinite variety and superb characterization brought to the screen in "Henry VIII" has brought to light no less than an original story published in Punch! They are calling it "Sir Tristram Rides West." Laughton will take the part of a ghost that haunts a medieval castle bought by an American. Noel Coward has a rival ! Hollywood too will be rivalled in the production of a second "Cavalcade" — this time on British soil by an all-British cast. The statesman, Winston Churchill, has written the script. It is planned to be released as a Birthday Gift to the King. Three hundred copies of the negative will be sent simultaneously to every corner of the British Empire to be shown March 1st. And the title will be "The Reign of George V." I talked for an hour with Diana Wynyard in her dressing-room in His Majesty's Theatre, where she is playing superbly in a play called "Sweet Aloes." The public in England feel that they owe her a debt of gratitude for the service she did England in her part as a mother of sons in the American made film of "Cavalcade." I asked her when she intended to return to the films. "I think if one has a talent one should use it," she replied. "It is nearly four years since I had appeared on the London stage, and I had a secret desire to see how things were going with my talent." There was certainly nothing wrong with her talent the night I saw her. Miss Wynyard "in person" astonished me in being so very young! "I am just paying a little visit to my English home for the moment. Plans are all set for Hollywood and I shall carry them out — perhaps before the year is half out." At the British International Pictures I found them all still talking about our American Helen Chandler, who had just sailed back to Hollywood. She is the star of the forthcoming "Radio Parade," and was working in the last scene of "It's A Bet," the night before she caught the boat. Arthur Woods, the young English director, told me : "We've been watching Miss Chandler ever since we saw her fine work in 'Outward Bound,' 'The Last Flight,' and 'Christopher Strong.' We consider her a great acquisition to British pictures. When she finishes her New York stage engagements we hope to have her again." Another star who has scored in British films is Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of England's finest actors. He plays Charles II in "Nell Gwyn," which United Artists is now releasing in the United States. Opposite Sir Cedric in this picture is the exquisite Anna Naegel, whose charm and beauty will probably be snatched by Hollywood— which has already imported Sir Cedric himself. The movies are no longer centered solely on the California coast in a beautiful town in the blossoming desert. Today, there are hands across the sea in a splendid gesture that will make for a more rounded and fuller art ; that will put the cinema in the first place in the medium of dramatic expression. Elstree — and her sister studios — are the English cousins of America's Hollywood !