FLASHES FROM STUDIOS

April 17, 1932

Two pictures with out-of-the-way locations, one Greenland and the other the Malay Peninsula, will be made this year by Universal. The first of these, to be called tentatively “Iceberg,” calls for a special expedition, to be headed by Dr. Arnold Franck, explorer and motion picture director. Carl Laemmle is arranging for the fitting out of an Arctic vessel in a Copenhagen shipyard, and he has announced that the expedition has secured the approval and scientific backing of the Danish government. Dr. Franck is at present in Hollywood, where he consulted with Mr. Laemmle and with Paul Kohner, who will act as associate producer. It is anticipated that the expedition will be fully equipped by May 20. The personnel will consist of Universal players, technicians and photographers, mountain climbers, aviators and guides. The expedition will land at Godthaab and work inland.

The other picture, “Pagan River,” will be adapted from a novel by Wong Wellesley.




Four Ducks, “actors” in Harold Lloyd’s new comedy, “Movie Crazy,” have been insured for the duration of the production for a total of $10,000. Other ducks, which had been trained for their “roles” were stolen, and protective measures were deemed necessary.




Among those in the cast of “The Old Dark House,” to be produced by Universal, is John Dudgeon, 102 year old English actor.




Fox Films announces a new leading part for Adolphe Menjou in “Fancy Free,” a screen adaptation from a play by James Forbes. Joan Marsh will have a featured part.




“Tiger Shark” is a production which Howard Hawks is to direct for First National. Shortly after completing “The Crowd Roars” for Warner Brothers, Mr. Hawks sailed for Honolulu, where he prepared the script for the picture. It will deal with fishermen along the Californian and Mexican coasts.




Three English stage and screen players will appear with Ann Harding in RKO-Pathe’s “Westward Passage.” They are Juliette Compton, Lucy Dorane and Laurence Olivier.




Miriam Hopkins, who has been hard at work since her first film success a year ago with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert in “The Smiling Lieutenant,” is on a two months’ leave of absence. She is going to England. Miss Hopkins acts the leading feminine part in “The World and the Flesh.”




Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse animated cartoons, will move his bizarre animals from Columbia lots to those of United Artists some time in the middle of July.




Among the cast in “Love Me Tonight,” Maurice Chevalier’s next picture, will be Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles E. Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Blanche Friderici, Elizabeth Patterson and Ethel Griffies.




Wallace Ford, Myrna Loy and Kane Richmond have been signed to new contracts, and Willard Keefe and Milton Raison have been added to the roster of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City.




Zasu Pitts, Robert McQuade and Gloria Stuart have been assigned roles in Fannie Hurst’s “Back Street.” The featured parts in this Universal picture are taken by Irene Dunne and John Boles.


Ten thousand prints of feature-length motion pictures are produced annually at Paramount’s Hollywood Studio laboratory, according to a report by H. N. Ensign, head of the laboratory. An average of two hundred prints is made on the first order for all of the productions of the Paramount studios, making a total of approximately 10,400 release prints.