Screenland (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

for January 1937 tion. All her new shoes are in deep brown, navy blue, or pale grey; and she is also having a pair of ankle bootees in scarlet calfskin with scalloped heels four inches high! These are to wear with her winter walking costume of scarlet broadcloth and silver fox. The Dietrich's new gowns are appropriately exotic and include a peacock-green tunic model with an orange scarf. (Odd she chose that color because she screamed at the sight of the studio peacock promenading the Denham lawns and declared the bird was unlucky to her!) Then she has a pale green lame dress striped with darker green and gold with short sleeves fashioned to that square-shouldered line you'll notice she always affects. And one night she'll be the sensation of some Hollywood party in a tight-fitting gown of shiny black satin patterned with vivid scarlet flowers and slit in the front to flash the scarlet lining as she walks. Incidentally when Marlene was being fitted for this, her lunch-tray arrived, and the star is always regular to meals. So down she sat, attired in slippers, frilly pink step-ins, the top part of her gown all marked with pins and an enormous hat she'd forgotten to take off ! For ten minutes she ate rapidly; then she rose and commanded the meekly-waiting dressmakers to continue their work. Meditating upon the efficiency with which Marlene manages this business of her glamor, I left her and went on to hear the rest of the studio news. Charles Laughton has gone to Italy for a fortnight, wandering round the ancient classic ruins, studying in the museums and generally absorbing atmosphere for his coming portrayal of the Roman Emperor in "I, Claudius." That's typical of Charles, who always has to be a character rather than merely act him. Ann Harding drives herself to work in a modest two-seater and has adopted a new English perfume called "New-Mown Hay." Throat trouble kept her off the set for Steffi Duna keeps busy with a bit of sewing 'tween scenes on the set at the English studios. several days recently, but now she's found a gargle that effectually counteracts our wintry fogs. Charles Farrell is daily to be seen in the studio gymnasium playing tennis without a ball, going through the movements and running about as though on a court. It's his individual way of getting in his daily quota of physical exercise when working. Presently I tore myself away from Denham and drove for a few miles along the country lanes, past a sleepy little old village and up to grassy Iver Heath beyond which now stand our latest and largest studios, palatial Pinewood. They have been built in beautiful gardens round an eighteenth-century mansion, once the home of the Rothschilds, now the residential club of the stars. First tenant to house a production in one of the stages is Herbert Wilcox, who's making "London Melody" which paints both sides of our metropolitan scene in dramatic contrasts. Golden-haired Anna Xeagle is the heroine, a Soho waif called Jacqueline who becomes a successful dancer after training for which an eccentric millionaire Marius has paid as the result of a sudden whim. He is Tullio Carminati, once more sophisticated and debonair, but spending his leisure evenings at home with his books nowadays. He seems to prefer serious reading to all the social delights London would only be to pleased to offer him. Ricardo Cortez is playing at Pinewood too in "A Man with Your Voice." which tells how an actor's gift for impersonations is used without his knowledge for criminal purposes. Ricardo is a keen joy to our Mayfair hostesses for he can always be relied upon to appear at the right place wearing the right clothes and to say precisely the right things ! He dances tirelessly both at restaurants and private parties, takes an interest in ice-hockey and greyhound-racing, and can generally be seen enjoying a dish of pilaff at suppertime. (That's really a Turkish meal, with its rice and raisins and diced onions and veal and lots of spices all fried together into an appetizing curry. Very fattening, but Ricardo doesn't seem to be affected). His leading lady is Sally Eilers, returning to British pictures once again : while another star just arrived at Pinewood from California is H. B. Warner. He is to act in "The Navy Eternal" as a consul in a South American seaport who finds himself with his daughter in the storm center of a revolt and is rescued by the timely intervention of British warships. He doesn't seem to have changed one iota since he was here four years ago playing in "Sorrell and Son," earliest of our talkies. Richard Cromwell and Noah Beery are in the navy film, too. I met an interesting fellow-visitor at Pinewood, none other than Edward H. Griffith, over from Hollywood for a brief holiday after directing Mcsdames Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Loretta Young and Simone Simon in "Ladies in Love." He grinned when we asked him just what it felt like. "Rather like being a ringmaster in a circus," he said. "Impossible to relax your attention for a second." He must have felt quite at home when he later looked in at the Gaumont-British lot, for there they are producing "King Solomon's Mines" which also has four stars, but masculine ones. It's a romantic story of exploration in unknown Africa with Sir Cedric Hardwicke in a bushy beard as Captain Quartermaine and Roland Young as his assistant and Paul Robeson as a Zulu king wearing astonishing jungle garments like a leopardskin costume with a huge flowing cape made from thousands of emu feathers. Then there's John Loder as a scientist in love with Quartermaine's daughter, blonde Anna Lee. She has just one outfit, ancient flannel trousers and the most tattered cotton shirt the studio wardrobe could devise.