Universal Weekly (1928-1930, 1933-1936)

— Vol. 29, No. 22 Universal Weekly 27 R SERIES for 1929-30 Popular Stars Who Will Make Universal Series JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT “Mississippi Gambler” “The Bachelor Husband” i n “The Man About Town” REGINALD DENNY i n ‘Embarrassing Moments’ “No, No, Napoleon” JOHN BOLES i n “Moonlight Madness’ ‘The Song of Passion” BARBARA KENT and GEORGE LEWIS j n “Flaming Daughters” “Keep on Dancing” sound fans. “Embarrassing Moments” affords a laughable background for Denny’s mishaps and snappy come-backs. As exotic as the star herself is the material selected by Universal for Mary Nolan’s forthcoming pictures. “Madamoiselle Cayenne” is a red hot tale of which the locale is Devil’s Island, that infamous French Penal Colony. As in “The Foreign Legion,” Mary Nolan plays against a scene of insufferable heat, misery and cruelty. Stephen Alden Reynolds wrote the story, which has been given a skillful adaptation by Harold Shumate. The titles of Mary Nolan’s other vehicles indicate their strength — “The Comeon Girl,” “Lipstick” and “Ladies in Love.” One of the releases in which Glenn Tryon and Merna Kennedy are costarred is already in production at the Universal studios. It is “Barnum Was Right,” from the stage play by Philip Bartholmae, which had such a smashing run at the George Cohan Theatre in New York. Donald Brian, popular juvenile lead, played the stellar role in the Broadway success. The role, as entertainer in a summer hotel, is ideally suited to Tryon’s type, as his performance as the hoofer in “Broadway” proves. The story was rewritten from “It Might Happen to You,” by Hutchinson Boyd, and is an amusing farce built around Barnum ’s famous slogan that “a sucker is born every minute.” Arthur Ripley and Everett Adams wrote the dialogue and adaptation. Del Lord is wielding the megaphone. Besides Glenn Tryon and Merna Kennedy the cast includes Lew Kelly, Basil Radford, Clarence Burton, J. Hunt and Isabelle Keith. Rushes from the coast give every indication of a picture rich in entertainment value and humorous incidents. “Anything Goes” and “The Times Square Kid” provide excellent material for the combined talents of Glenn Tryon and Merna Kennedy. Mema’s appealing innocence and sweetness makes a neat contrast to the likable arrogance of Tryon. The first story selected for the Barbara Kent-George Lewis team is “Flaming Daughters,” a story by Warner Fabian. Fabian is also responsible for one of Mary Nolan’s stories for next season, “Men in Her Life,” which will appear serially in Romance Magazine, starting in the September issue. “Flaming Daughters” gives a vivid picture of modem youth. George Lewis and Barbara Kent have been wisely chosen to portray the young things, because they have the faculty of blending recklessness with an undercurrent freshness and simplicity that gives the laugh to the hue and cry over the depravity of the present generation. Langdon McCormick Tells of “The Storm” ( Continued from page 24) told me, “that young men go to Paris to study art under one particular master. Nothing of the sort really happens. They simply live in the Latin Quarter with a lot of other young men, who are interested in art. They all work and play and talk a great deal. They paint. Very simple and informal. I learned one invaluable thing over there — that you don’t have to be exclusively a painter in oils or watercolors or charcoal. The medium doesn’t make any difference. Ever since I’ve used whatever seemed best suited to the purpose in hand.” Which accounts for the fact that Langdon McCormick’s models for stage effects have a singularly moving quality. A clear summer sky will be done in analine dye, a heavy surf crested with whitecaps will be treated in oils. But that’s another story. . . . The fascinating tale of Langdon McCormick as the wizard who first made moons sail across back-drops and who has been responsible for many of the most ingenious theatre effects on record. It is McCormick who injected “Noah’s Ark” with the powerful sound effects of which it boasts. One of the most amazing things about “The Storm” wheii it first appeared as a stage and screen success was the effectiveness of the accompanying fanfare of sound and mechanical devices. In the forthcoming sound version Universal will avail itself of the unfaltering theatre sense of Langdon McCormick, actor, playwright, and black magician.