Projection Jottings

New York, April 11, 1932

John Barrymore and Dolores Del Rio will appear in the main parts in a RKO-Radio picture, so far unnamed, according to an announcement by David O. Selznick. Mr. Barrymore is at present busy with “State’s Attorney,” while Miss Del Rio is working in “The Bird of Paradise.” The story selected for the two players is described as “a modern romance.”




Willie Fung, Tom Weng, Victor Wong and Wong Chung, West Coast Chinese actors, have been signed to support Richard Dix in “The Roar of the Dragon,” now in preparation by RKO-Radio Pictures. Hundreds of Chinese are to be used in extra and atmosphere bits for the film play. The picture, which deals with adventures in Manchuria, goes into early production, with Wesley Ruggles directing.




Paul Lukas, who took an important part in “Strictly Dishonorable,” has been turned over by Paramount for a new contract with Universal, it is announced. His first picture will be “Zeppelin.” Carl Laemmle, Jr. says that he expects to make at least four films with Mr. Lukas in leading parts.




“Memory Lane,” an original film story by Myron C. Fagan, will be the first of six color feature pictures produced by the Photocolor Corporation, according to an announcement from the company’s studios at Irvington-on-the-Hudson.




After a three-month vacation Ronald Colman is back in Hollywood to begin work in United Artists’ new film, “The Brothers Karamazov,” in which he will take the part of Dmitri. Mr. Colman spent the last part of his holiday in Shanghai and saw some of the fighting.




Kay Francis’s first picture for Warner Brothers, “Man Wanted,” will play a pre-release engagement at a Broadway theater beginning sometime within the next two weeks. The national release date for the new picture is April 23. It is based on an anonymous story which has been adapted for the screen by Robert Lord and is directed by William Dieterle. Others in the cast include David Manners, Andy Devine, Guy Kibbee and Una Merkel.




James Cruze has been engaged by Columbia Pictures to direct “Washington Merry-Go-Round.” Maxwell Anderson, assisted by Eugene Thackeray, is writing the screen story of the book. Mr. Cruze directed such silent pictures as “The Old Homestead,” “The Covered Wagon,” “Old Ironsides,” and “The Pony Express.” His talking pictures include “The Great Gabbo,” “Once a Gentleman,” “Salvation Nell,” “She Got What She Wanted” and “Racetrack.”




First National announces the release of four pictures during May, as follows: “The Famous Ferguson Case,” with Joan Blondell, Tom Brown and Vivienne Osborne; “The Rich Are Always With Us,” with Ruth Chatterton; “The Strange Love of Molly Louvain,” with Ann Dvorak, Richard Cromwell and Lee Tracy, and “Two Seconds,” with Edward G. Robinson.




Directorial assignments for four pictures are announced by Paramount. Richard Wallace will direct “The Crooners,” a story of radio favorites. David Burton will guide the destinies of “Come On Marines.” Marion Gering is to direct a so far unnamed film play in which Tallulah Bankhead and Gary Cooper will act the principal roles. Stuart Walker and Dudley Murphy will be co-directors of “Merton of the Talkies.”




Another S. S. Van Dine story, “The Campus Mystery,” is in production at the Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn. This is the tenth of the series of short Van Dine detective-mystery stories for the screen.




A gold loving cup was presented last week to George Arliss at Warner Brothers’ studios in Hollywood by the cast of his recently completed picture “A Successful Calamity.” The donors included Mary Astor, Evelyn Knapp, Grant Mitchell, David Torrence, William Janney, Hardie Albright, Hale Hamilton, Richard Tucker and others.




Two “Mickey Mouse” cartoons and two “Silly Symphonies” are in production at the Walt Disney studios in Hollywood. The former are to be called respectively “Mickey’s Olympics,” travesties on the forthcoming international games, and “Mickey’s Revue.” The symphonies are called “Flowers and Trees” and “Love Bugs.” A new song is out called “I’d Rather Stay Home With Mickey Mouse Than Go Out With You, You Rat.”