FOX PRODUCTIONS

April 24, 1932
The studios of the Fox Film Corporation are occupied with twelve pictures and are rapidly nearing completion of the forty-eight pictures which will be seen between now and August. Four of the twelve pictures are ready to be placed in production, three are being filmed and five have been completed and are in the cutting room.

Of the twelve pictures, five have been adapted from plays, five from novels and stories and the two remaining are scenarios.

The stories of two of the pictures are already familiar to many.

“The Trial of Vivienne Ware” is in production under the direction of W. K. Howard, with Joan Bennett heading a cast of eighteen players. It is believed to be the first motion-picture adaptation to be made from a radio mystery play.




“Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” which has been put into production with Marian Nixon and Charles Farrell, under the direction of Al Santell, is another film with a familiar story. The character originally appeared in “The New Chronicles of Rebecca,” a series of short stories by Kate Douglas Wiggin, which were later novelized by the author under the title of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

In October, 1910, it opened as a play at the Republic Theater in New York, with Edith Taliaferro in the title role. Some years later Mary Pickford appeared in a silent film based upon the story.




Homer Croy has prepared a screen play for Will Rogers titled “Down to Earth,” Mr. Croy is the author of one of Rogers’s most popular pictures, ”They Had to See Paris,” and wrote his current picture as a sequel to the uproarious adventures of the homespun philosopher in the capital of France.




To obtain the material for another original story, “While Paris Sleeps,” which has been completed with Victor McLaglen in the principal role, the Fox company selected Basil Woon to prepare it because of his experience as a newspaper correspondent in Paris. To authenticate his information, the company sent him to Paris, from which he returned with the story and sketches of characters and places little known to the traveler.




The three remaining plays include “The Woman in Room 13,” by Samuel Shipman and Max Marcin, in which Elissa Landi will be featured; “Society Girl,” which recently ended a New York engagement, in which James Dunn and Peggy Shannon, a newly signed actress, will appear, and “Young America” which Frank Borzage is now directing, with Spencer Tracy and Doris Kenyon in the leading roles.




The novels and stories in and ready for production include “Almost Married,” by Andrew Soutar, made with Violet Heming; “Scotch Valley,” by Mildred Cram, with Warner Baxter and Marian Nixon; “Careless Lady,” adapted from the short story, “Widow’s Might,” by Reita Lambert, for Joan Bennett and John Boles, and an as yet unpublished novel, “Man About Town,” by Denison Clift, a story of Washington intrigue.




Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s new picture, scheduled to enter production later this month, is entitled “Revolt,” and is the work of Mary McCall Jr., it is announced by First National. He will play an officer in the Imperial Army in the film, which has for its background the Russian revolution. The picture will be directed by William Dieterle, producer of “The Last Flight.”




Following the finishing of “The Jewel Robbery,” Kay Francis will act in “S. S. Atlantic,” which is based on a story by James Ashmore Creelman and Robert Lord. Frank McHugh and Warren Hymer will also be seen in “S. S. Atlantic.”