Wednesday, April 7, 2010

April 20, 1932



CHAPLIN RUSHED TO SINGAPORE HOSPITAL

Singapore, April 20 (AP)
Charlie Chaplin, American movie comedian, was rushed to a hospital today when he arrived here to-day from Java, suffering from a slight attack of fever.

He was expected to recover fairly quickly, however, if no complications arise.




THAT’S ENOUGH, ANNA

New York, April 20 (AP)
Anna Sten, who has come from Germany to act in the movies, says she knows only five American words. But they are important words – “darling, sweetheart, I lof you.”




MARION DAVIES WINS JUDGMENT

New York, April 20 (AP)
Marion Davies has won a $10,309 judgment against Charles R. Dillingham, theatrical producer. The screen actress sued to collect a note.




EXITS AND ENTRANCES:

Bela Lugosi did a laugh-clown-laugh stunt at the Carthay Circle theater the other night. He tripped back stage, fell and broke three ribs, but went on with his performance of “Murdered Alive.” He probably felt just that way.




Joel McCrea who is gradually getting to be as much in demand at Radio as Clark Gable is at Metro as leading man for women stars will make love to Constance Bennett next week in “The Truth About Hollywood.”


Walter Catlett and Lyle Talbot, both known in stock, are in “New York Town” the Ward Morehouse story being prepared at Warner Brothers as a starring vehicle for Joan Blondell. Mervyn LeRoy will direct. Talbot has also been assigned to one of the important roles in “Competition” supporting “Chic” Sale.


James Cruze has been assigned the megaphone on “Washington Merry-Go-Round” which is to be done by Columbia. Cruze is best known for “The Covered Wagon.”




Word comes by wire from the temporary Fox studio at Santa Cruz that work is progressing on “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” under the direction of Alfred Santell and despite the palm trees and eucalyptus surrounding the “New England” houses. Incidentally, Ralph Bellamy has replaced Charles Farrell, and since Marion Nixon already replaced Janet Gaynor that makes a new deal all ‘round.




6 ACTORS IN MOVIES’ BEST EDITOR RACE

Ablest Delineators of Newspaper Reporters Total Three

By Chester B. Bahn
Who is the sound-screen’s ablest managing editor?
Adolphe Menjou in “The Front Page?”
George Bancroft in “Scandal Sheet?”
Edward G. Robinson in “Five Star Final?”
Lew Cody in “X Marks the Spot?”
Or Charles Bickford in “Scandal for Sale?”

In this instance I am not telling you; instead, YOU tell me.

I’m curious, frankly, to know what the effect these various characterizations has been on the cinema-going public.

As for the ablest delineators of reporters on the screen, it seems to me that Pat O’Brien, Norman Foster and Charles Ruggles are in the vanguard. O’Brien, of course, has the edge. Coincidentally, he had visited a city newsroom just once prior to his appearance as Hildy Johnson in the exciting “The Front Page.”




Last minute Rialto News –

Irene Dunne, shortly to be seen in “Symphony of Six Million,” will star in “Nurse Smith,” Carey Wilson’s original screen romance of young motherhood.


Irving Pichel will be Ernest B. Schoedsack’s co-director for “The Most Dangerous Game.”




Sylvia Sidney will star for Paramount in “Madame Butterfly.”

Clara Bow’s screen return will be via Fox.

Conrad Nagel hasn’t signed a new film contract yet, although the old one expires this week.

Jean Harlow will be “The Red-Headed Woman; that’s final.

Lillian Harvey, who has been noticed plenty in UFA pictures, may come over for Fox

M-G-M making new tests of Colleen Moore.

Four of Hollywood’s talented child players are to be seen in Warner Baxter’s “Amateur Daddy. They are Joe Hachey, last seen in “Over the Hill,” Joan Breslaw, who played with Baxter in “Daddy Long Legs,” Frankie Darro of “Circus Kid” fame and Gail Kornfeld, who was so adorable in “Skippy” and “Monkey Business.” Opposite Baxter, in the leading feminine role is Marian Nixon, with Rita LaRoy and William Pawley also featured. John Blystone directed from Mildred Cram’s novel, “Scotch Valley.”




Following her work in “The Misleading Lady,” Claudette Colbert, without any ballyhoo, overworked flashlight cameramen, or studio poses, quietly went to a New York hospital for a serious throat operation. Not only did she waive all the publicity ballyhoo that frequently accompanies the least scratch acquired by a celebrity, but she succeeded in keeping her whereabouts hid from everybody but her mother, until well on the way to recovery.




Nils Asther, Swedish screen idol of the silent films, plays the Russian prince in “But the Flesh Is Weak.” Asther was born in Copenhagen, raised at Malmo, Sweden, was graduated from Lunel Swedish stage and European film productions. He came to this country and became a sensation in silent films in “The Single Standard,” “Wild Orchids,” “Dream of Love,” “Sorrel and Son,” “Her Cardboard Lover,” etc. He quit pictures to master English when the talking pictures came in, and now he returns.


A pair of green Russian boots worn by Gypsy Norman, former musical comedy and stage player visiting the Warner Brothers studios, caught the eyes of James Flood and Eliiott Nugent, co-directors of “The Mouthpiece,” the vehicle featuring Warren William. The directors sought and obtained an introduction. During the conversation the topic of bit parts came up and as a result Miss Norman was assigned the role of the telephone operator in the picture.

“The Mouthpiece” cast includes several such distinguished players as Sidney Fox, Guy Kibbee, Aline MacMahon, John Wray, Noel Francis and J. Carroll Naish.




From Luella O. Parsons

Los Angeles, April 20
The American friends of Gloria Swanson may have to wait until Fall to personally greet her new daughter, Michele Bridget. Gloria has been approached by one of the British companies to make a feature talkie, story, director and cast to be selected by La Belle Swanson herself.

The lady, we are told, is in a responsive mood and eager to make the foreign picture – providing she can get the right American release. The stars of Swanson magnitude are beginning to realize it’s necessary to make a picture abroad if they want to keep their names before the public on the Continent.

The advent of the talkies has wrought a cruel change in foreign popularity. There are few personalities that have been able to weather the storm of the talkie invasion – especially in Germany, Spain and France.




Scratch out the title Brothers Karamazov and forget it for the next few months. Ronald Colman has another story in the offing and one voted more timely by his advisors. Way of the Lancer, by Richard Boleslavsky and Helen Woodward has been purchased for Ronnie and it’s headed straight for production. King Vidor, who was signed to direct The Brothers Karamazov, changes his contract to Way of the Lancer, while Sidney Howard will write the adaptation. When Way of the Lancer first appeared all Hollywood rushed to buy it because it was co-authored by Richard Boleslavsky, Russian director, living in our town, and later because literary critics recommended it. Boleslavsky is supposed to tell his own experiences in the Polish unit serving with the Russian forces in the World War.


Have you read “Only Yesterday,” by Cedric Lewis Allen? If you haven’t you are in the minority. I venture to say more people are reading and talking about this book than any published since “The Washington Merry-Go-Round.” It’s now in its 200,000th edition and it’s still going strong. To make a long story short, and you probably hate long stories, Carl Laemmle, Jr. has purchased it as a screen play for Universal. Today when I talked with junior he told me it would probably take three months to adapt it properly. It’s a panorama of all the most thrilling events, including murder, etc., that has taken place in the lasts 10 years.




Snapshots of Hollywood:

Marlene Dietrich, flanked on one side by her husband, Rudolph Seiber, on the other by Josef von Sternberg, attending a performance of “So Big!” at Warner Brothers Theater. Little Maria in the foreground, all excited over seeing an American movie.




POE’S TALE OF RUE MORGUE OPENS FRIDAY

Strange Thriller of Murders In Paris Will Be Shown At RKO Orpheum Theater

“Murders in the Rue Morgue,” cinema version of Edgar Allen Poe’s Parisian drama, comes to the RKO Orpheum theater Friday.

Bela Lugosi, the Dracula of both stage and screen, enacts the male role in this new thriller. He is seen as Dr. Mirakle, a medico with a warped brain, who is intent on introducing the blood of a giant ape into the veins of a beautiful girl.

Sydney Fox is cast as the gentle French girl who is pursued by the crazy doctor and his gorilla. Other important roles are played by Leon Waycoff, Bert Roach, Brandon Hurst and Betty Ross Clarke.

The RKO stage program is headed by that famous numerologist and philosophical pianist, Don Zelaya. Others on the bill are: Liiving Jewelry, a novelty flash act; Master and Grayce in “Guess Who ‘Tis,” and the Oronto, in “Heads Up.” The acts are assisted by Owen Sweeten and his RKO-lians. Screen “shorts” and a timely Pathe newsreel are on the program.

4 comments:

A said...

What a trooper Bela Lugosi is! I don't think I could get out of bed, let alone perform with 3 broken ribs.

GAH1965 said...

The idea of being able to see Bela Lugosi perform live on stage is amazing enough to me, with or without the broken ribs. I wonder what the show was?

The Carthay Circle theater was my dad's local movie theater when he was a kid in the '30s, and I know he used to see movie stars there regularly

KC said...

"darling, sweetheart, I lof you.”--that's hilarious! The perfect line for the press.

GAH1965 said...

So true. I'll bet some publicity agent got a nice bonus for coming up with that bit.