March 15, 1932

FAMED BROTHERS IN L.A. COURT BATTLE

Los Angeles, March 14 (UP)
Two brothers, both world famous, clashed in superior court today as the $90,000 damage suit brought by Captain Leopold McLaglen against Victor McLaglen, film star, went to trial.

Captain McLaglen, British soldier, wrestler, author and actor, is suing his brother for allegedly stating in Hollywood that he is “unreliable and no good.”
He asserted that his income during the past two years had been reduced from an average of $17,500 annually to $1000, and he blamed his actor-brother for allegedly ruining his reputation and good standing.

COLUMBIA FILM STUDIOS REOPEN

Hollywood, March 15 (AP)
Columbia film studios have re-opened after an eight week shutdown, giving employment to about 2000 persons, including, besides the higher salaried players, technicians, extras and laborers.


From Luella O. Parsons:



Los Angeles, March 15
Constance Bennett’s pictures seem, some way or another, to bring good luck to her leading men. Joel McCrea was given a raise and a contract. Ben Lyon received several glowing reviews and several interesting offers on the strength of his performance in Lady With a Past and now comes Phillips Holmes.

Phillips has been borrowed from Paramount to emote opposite Miss Bennett in Free Lady. I am told three of our promising leading men, acting on the hunch that Connie’s leading me are lucky, applied for the job.

Free Lady starts next week with Edward H. Griffith directing. On Wednesday Constance acts as matron of honor for her sister, Joan, and this week she hasn’t even had time to discuss her costumes for her next picture.




Heard and overheard: In the opinion of Mrs. Astor, Randolph Scott is the best looking leading man she met on a tour of the Hollywood studios. Scott will be starred in a series of westerns and he is the lad who was originally chosen as Gary Cooper’s successor. If Marlene Dietrich is really searching for a leading man, Mrs. Astor wants to suggest Randolph Scott. Perhaps Paramount never thought of that combination.




It has been many a day since we have seen William Boyd. I mean the stage William Boyd. He has been in New York playing in movies there but he is back now on the Radio lot with a good job in the offing.
He plays Irving Pichel’s role in “State’s Attorney.” Pichel was taken out of the picture to direct.




Another Radio newcomer will be Fay Wray. Miss Wray has two film engagements, I might add. One of them is at First National in “Dr. X” and the other in the Merian Cooper-Ernest Schoedsack picture, “The Most Dangerous Game,” You will often find this is the case when one studio wants an actress and another studio suddenly feels the need of her. Miss Wray will play the feminine interest in “Dr. X” before she takes the makeup box to Radio.




Raquel Torres, whose screen career has hardly come up to the expectations of “White Shadows In the South Seas” is having a tryout in vaudeville. She has been signed for 40 weeks.

Neil Hamilton and Elissa Landi played all one day. It’s not a romance, but part of the picture, “Woman in Room 13.” Neil says that Miss Landi is to have a swank, new night club with all of the New York trimmings.




With all of our leading columnists mentioning “Good Earth” as the best book of the year I think we can go even stronger and say it’s the best book in the past five years.

Pearl Buck’s services are much in demand. I know two companies have cabled here to ask her to do an adaptation for two Chinese stories. I am told the bidding on the screen rights to “Sons,” the sequel to “Good Earth” has started. It is being published in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owns the rights to “Good Earth” which I think must be produced with a Chinese cast to make it really right. We will await with interest the “Good Earth” sequel and be very glad to read it when it appears in the Cosmopolitan.


EXITS AND ENTRANCES



May Robson, who has finished a role in “Strange Interlude” with Norma Shearer, goes into the mother role in “Letty Lynton” in support of Joan Crawford. Later, she is to return to the stage under the Duffy banners. So, too, is Charlotte Greenwood.




Lyle Talbot is down in Hollywood to try his luck at the movies, and one Hollywood writer said he looks like Clark Gable. If there is a resemblance, it escapes me.




FOX GRAND TO CHANGE FILMS THRICE WEEKLY

RUTH CHATTERTON STARS IN “TOMORROW AND TOMORROW”; “UNION DEPOT” IS NEXT

Another entertainment bargain for amusement seekers is being offered at the Fox Grand Theater.
There are many outstanding feature productions available at the present time, so the management has decided to run three complete changes of program each week.

The first attraction which began a three-days’ engagement yesterday was Ruth Chatterton in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” with Paul Lukas. It is a story of a husband’s lack of interest in his wife while she yearns for love and seeks it elsewhere.



Thursday, “Union Depot” begins a three-days’ engagement. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Blondell are co-starred. “Union Depot” has a metropolitan train terminal for most of its setting. All the romance of the crowds is gathered in flashes on the camera as it briefly traces the lives of a few of the mad swirl of humanity. Guy Kibbee, George Rosener, Alan Hale, and David Landau head the supporting cast.

James Cagney in “Taxi,” Will Rogers in “Ambassador Bill,” “Hell Divers” with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable and many more productions are booked for an early showing at the Fox Grand.




NO ONE MAN IS NEXT TO PLAY THE PARAMOUNT

CAROLE LOMBARD HAS LEADING ROLE IN SCREEN VERSION OF RUPERT HUGHES’ STORY

What the modern girl considers as love, what she demands of a man, and her opinion of the adage “variety is the spice of life,” are said to be displayed in the screen version of Rupert Hughes’ story “No One Man,” which starts a week’s showing at the Paramount theater tomorrow.

Carole Lombard, in the leading role of a ravishing young widow, is seen as the girl who can “do with or without” a man. As a result every man she meets is intent upon convincing her that she can not do without him. Ricardo Cortez and Paul Lukas have starring roles as two of the many victims of this flirtatious girl’s allure. Juliette Compton has another of her siren roles which have made her a distinct personality on the screen.

With this picture the Paramount stage will offer tomorrow Fanchon and Marco’s presentation of beauty, “Art Gallery Idea,” with a galaxy of vaudeville artists, stars and beauties.
In keeping with the season, Lou Kosloff and the Paramount orchestra will present an overture of favorite Irish melodies. Cyril Brown sings for his solo “Old Irish Mother of Mine.”




THE EXPERT NOW ON SCREEN AT STRAND

Edna Ferber, who contributed Cimarron, the screen success of last year, is responsible for the story of “The Expert,” to be presented at the Strand Theater for two days starting Wednesday.

The original book title was “Old Man Minnick.” Miss Ferber makes her leading role that of an old man who has outlived his usefulness, yet still encumbers his daughter’s household.

Chic Sale is cast as the lovable old man who persists in meddling in other people’s affairs. No trifle is too small for his attention, no job of work is too big for him; he can do anything and is always willing to draw on his past experience for advice.

In fact, he knows everything and is not loath to pass along his knowledge. He constantly bores his daughter (Lois Wilson) and even the fact he is her father, and she must respect him, cannot keep her from occasionally airing her disgust at his actions.

The other members of the family are equally outspoken in their distaste for the old man’s interference, all but one, the little grandson, Dickie Moore, who idolizes his grandpa, and likewise grandpa believes Dickie the only other perfect human in the world.

A Paramount News and short comedy subjects, including Marjorie Beebe as the Cigar and Cigarette Girl, are also on the screen.




MURDER MYSTERY ON NATIONAL SCREEN

“Murder By the Clock,” Paramount’s mystery-thriller, is showing as the main feature at the National Theater.
This story, based on the mystery novel of the same name by Rufus King, a big selling book of the past season, tells the story of the unhappy marriage of a young man who is murdered twice in a single evening.

Several hours after he is found dead in his home he is alive again, due to the reviving affects of adrenalin treatments given by the family doctor. Some minutes after he has regained life – and just as he is about to tell who killed him, he is slain for the second and final time.
The featured players are William Boyd, Lilyan Tashman, Regis Toomey and Sally O’Neil.




HIGH STAKES NOW SHOWING AT LYRIC

“High Stakes,” featuring Lowell Sherman and Mae Murray, current feature at the Lyric Theater, shows that a girl can drag a straying, prodigal bachelor back to the hearthstone of married respectability.
The role portrayed by Sherman is the same he played some years ago on the stage.