World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

DON'T LOOK NOW— BUT THERE'S A KNIFE IN YOUR BACK! Ritzi Nevel, Mexican dancer, fell in love with a knife-thrower in an El Paso night club. They married. At their first joint performance she carried on with her dancing, posing from time to time while sharp-edged knives whistled past her limbs. The first three knives took the audience's breath away. The fourth shaved RitzVs toe. The fifth took it away altogether. Ritzi is suing for divorce. — News Item Don't fall in love with a knife-thrower, girls, Let that kind of romance go by. Better far Romeo-less Than finger or toe-less, Better loveless than limbless, says I. So don't fall in love with a knife-thrower, girls. Give cutlery-chuckers the gate. When the party's too quiet He may be a riot, But the place for a knife is the plate, That's straight, The place for a knife is the plate. Don't fall in love with a knife-thrower, girls, Let his glamour not go to your head, Although he's so charming He might be disarming And then begin cutting you dead. So don't fall in love with a knife-thrower, girls, It can only mean trouble and strife ; However adoring A husband gets boring Who starts cutting chunks off his wife, Oh, yes, Even very small chunks off his wife. Sayings "Anyone can dress as well as I do for about £2,600 a year." — Kay Francis "Keep your chin up and your hair waved." — My ma Loy "Ugh! What a fog!" — Sonja Henie "I've got the sort of hair that squashes, so I gave up wearing hats." — Karen Morley "Now the buttons are off the Foyles," as the novelist said after the Literary Luncheon. "I never miss an opportunity of sitting around or romping with Shirley Temple." — Trevor Wignall Ilfaut soujfrir etre box-office, Shirley. "A triumph of miscasting." — Comment on Gable-Loy opus Pamell by biographer Joan Haslip. 30 A little bit out of the Commons A film was shown for the first time in the House of Commons recently. Although the film was a documentary, this strikes us as the thin end of the wench, as the producer said when he tripped over Mae West's feet. In future the only questions asked in the House will be in the first house, when one of the back-benchers asks the member in front of him to remove his hat ; and conversations such as the following will be everyday occurrences in the lobbies : Is/ Member: What's on this afternoon, Aubrey? 2nd Member: Ooh, the loveliest film, called Hell Bent for Election. 1st Member: Do let's go! It's bound to be funnier than Mr. Chamberlain. 2nd Member: But it's Adults Only, Eric. 1st Member: Pooh! If Mr. Maxton can get in, we can. (As they enter the darkened auditorium, Mr. Anthony Eden comes out of the ninepennies, sucking a toffee.) 2nd Member: Don't look now, old boy, but did you see how Tony is doing his hair these days? 1st Member: You know where he got that from. That's the way Ginger Rogers did her hair in that picture last week. The copycat! 2nd Member: And I looked in his brief-case yesterday and it was full of World Film Newses. 1st Member: There's a White Paper for you! (Advt.) It looks, too, as if the old-fashioned Ugly Scene in the House will die out, to be replaced by a mild murmur of disapproval when Sir Stafford Cripps asks for his own, and everybody else's, money back. HAIR TO-DAY AND GONE TO-MORROW According to an American hairdressing expert, some of the most attractive coiffures in the U.S.A. are those of Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins, Ina Claire, Genevieve Tobin and Mary Boland. Confident that the British head of hair can hold its own against allcomers, World Film News has gotten together a team which will knock any other collection of coiffures you like to mention, for a loop. The team includes : Hannan Swaffer, Godfrey Winn, Elizabeth Bergner, Alfred Drayton, Arthur Dent and a Mrs. Entwistle, the local charlady, known to her friends as the Bermondsey Medusa. We saw her let her back hair down last New Year's Eve, and, believe us, that baby's got what it takes. Wish them luck, folks! COCKA FASHION NOTES | Our favourite hysterical daily paper sent a Fashion Expert to take a gander at Sonja Henie as she stepped ashore in this neck of the woods last month. This is how the trained furbelow-fancier summed-up the Henie ensemble : — ■ Cape: Square-shouldered, in saffron yellow fine wool, lined crepe-de-chine. Hat: Felt Flemish bonnet to match, swathed with ginger brown chiffon. Dress: Saffron crepe, with ginger brown crepe-de-chine trimmings. Shoes: Crepe-de-chine toeless sandals. On her shoulder were £5 worth of purple orchids. After reading this through once or twice to make sure we could believe our eyes, we dusted off our own Fashion Expert, who was lying quietly under the table hemming an old sock, and asked him why the heck he couldn't weigh in with something with a real newsslant like the above. The best he could do, however, was to get an interview with a big film executive in Wardour Street. Here is the W.F.N. Fashion Hawk's brilliant analysis of our average movie magnate's outfit : — Coat: An old hacking-jacket from the Property Department, smothered in gravystains. Hat: A rather fetching brimless bowler, worn off the forehead and swathed in mystery. Shirt: Away at the races. Trousers: Away at the seat. Shoes: A pair of soleless sandals, cleverly made out of old scripts. In his pocket were £5 worth of dud cheques. I think I'm going to faint Girl usherettes at 220 cinemas throughout Britain are to don gas-masks and learn how to control audiences and prevent panic during air-raids. They will be taught how to dress wounds and protect their patrons from gas. — News Item Looks as if the girls will get plenty of practice without waiting for the first gasattacks, due any moment now. Any quota quickie is sufficient to induce the symptoms of gas-poisoning in an audience — choking, coughing, running at the eyes, rushing at the exits, and sharp bursts of hollow, mirthless laughter. And as for wounds, the usherettes can always keep their hand in by tending patrons suffering from dislocated jaws brought on by yawning at British bedroom farces; injured pride resulting from Hollywood portrayals of the typical Englishman ; and outbreaks of itching fingers brought on by Shirley Temple. To say nothing of violent attacks of reaching for the hat brought on by the Organ Interlude.