PROJECTION JOTTINGS

April 3, 1932

Among the surprises in “Horse Feathers,” the Four Marx Brothers' next comedy to be released by Paramount, is “Dance of the College Professors.” Harold Hecht, local maitre de ballet, has trained twenty elderly, bearded actors for the burlesque. The dance takes place upon Groucho Marx's cinematic installation as president of a college.




Constance Bennett will take the major role in “The Truth About Hollywood,” an RKO-Radio picture, it is announced. This assignment has postponed the making of “Unmated,” which had been scheduled for immediate production. The Hollywood picture was written by Adele Rogers Hyland and photographic work on it will be started withing a week under the direction of George Cukor.




Maxwell Anderson has been engaged by Columbia Pictures to convert “The Washington Merry Go Round” into a film-play. He has already left for the Coast to start the work. Mr. Anderson collaborated with Laurence Stallings on “What Price Glory?”Among his other screen works are the story of “The Cock-eyed World,” the adaptation and dialogue of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and the dialogue of “Trader Horn.”




First National Pictures announced that Vivienne Osborne, who has played leading parts in “The Famous Ferguson Case” and “Two Seconds,” has started acting in “The Dark Horse.”




Lionel Barrymore has signed a new contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, according to an announcement from Culver City. Mr. Barrymore has directed a number of M-G-M features, among them being “Madame X,” “The Rogue Song” and “The Unholy Night.”




“Heroe's of the West,” by Peter B. Kyne, has gone into production at Universal City, The main parts are taken by Onslow Stephens and Jacqueline Wells. Others in the cast are Ed Cobb, Jules Cowles, Martha Mattox, Harry Tenbrook and Frank Lackteen.




Jackie Cooper, accompanied by his mother, is due to arrive in New York for a brief stay.




Richard Barthelmess, First National star, now on his way from the Orient to Europe, spent Easter Sunday in Bombay. He is due to arrive in Naples on April 4. He will go from there to Paris and soon thereafter he will embark for New York. Mr. Barthelmess is accompanied by his wife. They will leave for Hollywood after a brief stay there. His next picture will be “The Cabin in the Cotton.”




Warner Brothers announce that the following will be in the cast of “New York Town,” which is based on a play by Ward Morehouse: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Inez Courtney, Lysle Talbot, Gloria Shea, Humphrey Bogart and Jobyna Howland.




Among plays to be adapted for motion pictures is “Harlem,” the Negro play by William Jordan Rapp and Wallace Thurman. It will be screened by Universal Pictures Corporation.




Thirty-three children have been selected by Paramount for roles in “The Strange Case of Clara Deane.” The children, ranging in age from two to eleven years, will appear in orphanage scenes with Wynne Gibson and 4-year-old Cora Sue Collins, who plays one of the important parts in the picture.

A GERMAN VIEW

Upon returning to Europe after an engagement of several months in Hollywood, Lil Dagover, the well-known German screen actress, hastened to add her contribution to the tales about “hardships” being endured by the greater and lesser lights of the film metropolis since the motion pictures learned to talk. In an interview printed in the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna, Frau Daugover is quoted as saying:

“Things have changed a great deal in Hollywood in the five years since my previous visit there. Most of the stars of the silent films have faded out and those who have been able to hold their places have modified their demands and views materially. The snobbishness of the old days has vanished. Today it is just a question of work; not, 'I must have an expensive car because I am the irreplaceable diva.' Competition by the actors from the theatre, many of whom are brought from the North, is the main reason for the altered conditions.

“Hollywood has ceased to be a paradise, for today even the work itself if no longer a pleasure. Extreme concentration of will-power is needed in order to be able to endure the activities, which always begin at 9 o'clock in the morning and often continue until 3 o'clock the next morning. Of course this is bad for the social life. Only once did I have occasion to meet all the big figures of the film metropolis – at the Mayfair Ball, which I attended in company with the family of Oscar Straus, the composer,”

Frau Dagover told her interviewer that she had just signed a contract for a talking part in the operetta “Teufelsreiter.”




Anna Sten, the Russian actress who supported Emil Jannings in “Tempest” and who appeared in the German version of “The Brothers Karamazov,” has been engaged by Samuel Goldwyn for United Artists. Miss Sten was born at Kiev of a Russian father and a Swedish mother. At the age of 15 she was admitted to the Russian Film Academy and later played in one of the Stanislavsky Art companies, appearing in Pirandello plays and works by Ibsen and Maeterlinck. She became interested in motion picture work, however, and she returned to the screen in a number of Russian films, including “The Yellow Pass.” She expects to leave Paris for Hollywood about the middle of next month.

Who's Who This Week In Pictures

Elissa Landi, who acts the principal role in "Devil's Lottery" at the Roxy Theater, is a Venetian, but was brought up in England. Her mother is the Countess Zenardi-Landi. Before taking to the stage and screen seriously, she wrote two novels, "Neilson" and "The Helmers." She joined an English stock company at Oxford in order to secure material for the writing of plays. After minor parts, she scored in the leading feminine role in “Storm,” and later played in “Lavender Ladies,” “The Constant Nymph” and “The Stag.” She left the stage for motion pictures and appeared in eight film productions made in England, France and Sweden. In January, 1930, she appeared with Adolphe Menjou in a French picture, “My Kind of a Father.” Miss Landi went to Hollywood in the Fall of 1930, and has appeared in the films “Body and Soul,” “Always Good-bye,” “Wicked” and “The Yellow Ticket.”




Alexander Kirkland, also in “Devil's Lottery,” was born in Mexico City. He was educated at Taft School, Waterbury, Conn., and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The stage attracted him, and he made his debut in “R. U. R.,” a New York Theater Guild production. Remaining with the Theater Guild for two years, he appeared in several plays, including “Yellow Jacket,” “Month in the
Country,” “l'Aignon,” “Marseillaise” and “Wings Over Europe.”

On a vacation trip to the West he got as far as Hollywood, where he drifted into the motion picture field. He has appeared in such screen works as “Surrender,” "Charlie Chan's Chance” and “Almost Married.” Mr. Kirkland's father is an attorney in Mexico City. His grandfather was Rear Admiral Kirkland of the United States Navy.




Barbara Stanwyck, the stellar performer in “Shopworn,” the feature at the Paramount, was christened Ruby Stevens. She developed into a graceful dancer as time went by, and being forced to earn her own living, through being left an orphan, she worked as a telephone operator for two years, after which she was employed in the pattern room of the Conde Nast Publications. She latter applied for a position as typist for a music publishing concern. While waiting to see the manager she heard some people talking about the revue then being rehearsed on the Strand Roof, and this she joined. Next, she was in the chorus of “Keep Cool,” known for the first time as Barbara Stanwyck. After stage experience in “The Noose” and “Burlesque,” she took up screen acting. Her first part was in “Behind Locked Doors,” but it was her role in “Ladies of Leisure” that brought her a contract with Columbia. Since then she has acted in “Ten Cents a Dance,” “The Miracle Woman” and “Forbidden.”




Lucien Littlefield, who takes an important part in “Shopworn,” was born at San Antonio, Texas. After appearing in stock shows he went to Hollywood, where he played first in “Rose of the Rancho.” He has been seen in “Tom Sawyer,” “Scandal Sheet,” “Reducing,” “Queen of Main Street,” “No, No, Nanette” and 'Young as You Feel.”




Zasu Pitts, the comedienne, who also appears in “Shopworn,” was born at Parsons, Texas, and reached the screen via amateur theatricals. She first appeared in “The Little Princess” and other parts without any marked attention. But when von Stroheim cast her in the feminine lead in “Greed” she was hailed as a clever actress. Since then she has contributed to the success of “The Big House,” “The Squall,” “Seed,” “War Nurse,” “The Secret Witness” and other productions.




In “Ladies of the Jury,” at the Mayfair, Edna May Oliver takes one of the leading parts. Miss Oliver was born at Boston and educated there. She began her stage career as an opera singer, but turned to the stage and appeared in her first Broadway role with Arnold Daly. Her successes include the plays, “Cradle Snatchers” and “Show Boat.” In the motion pictures she has won favor in “Cimarron” and “Laugh and Get Rich.”




Marian Marsh, a featured player in “Beauty and the Boss,” now at the Strand, was born in Trinidad, her real name being Violet Krauth. She says that she is a mixture of English, Irish, French and German. When she was a child her parents came to America and lived in Springfield, Mass., Boston, New York and latterly Hollywood. Her sister is Jean Morgan, also a film player, She took Marian to a studio to have a test made. Marian then appeared in minor parts in several films, and, for a brief period, she was on the stage, playing in “Young Sinners,” Miss Marsh's favorite role is that of Trilby in “Svengali.” To keep physically fit, Miss Marsh plays tennis, skates, rides horseback, swims and dances. Miss Marsh is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 102 pounds. Her most recent pictures include “Five Star Final,” “The Road to Singapore,” “The Mad Genius,” “Under Eighteen” and “Alias the Doctor.”




Charles Butterworth, who is also to be seen in “Beauty and the Boss,” was born at South Bend, Ind., the son of a physician. His career had been mapped out for the law, but the college theatricals took his mind to the stage. He made an immediate hit as a comedian , but kept to the amateur stage. After having over come an early childhood ambition to become a piano tuner, Mr. Butterworth drifted into journalism for a brief spell and worked for a while on The South Bend Times. Then he went to New York and worked for a while on The New York Times. He became acquainted with J. P. McEvoy, who, after hearing Mr. Butterworth reciting “A Day at the Rotary Club,” engaged him for his revue, “Americana.” This was Mr. Butterworth's first professional theatrical test and he soon followed up his early success in such Broadway plays as “Allez Oop,” “Good Boy” and “Sweet Adeline.” After this last hit he was engaged by Warner Brothers and went to Hollywood.

Of his likes and dislikes Mr. Butterworth has said that his favorite picture is “Custer's Last Fight,” which he saw in the good old days in the saloons, and that his present ambition is to guess his weight on a penny slot machine. But he is more serious when he speaks of music, for which he has a genuine passion.

Mr. Butterworth wrote recently: “My hobbies are bobbing for apples, reading pamphlets, watching water go over a dam, and watching men hoist safes into high office windows. I feel terrible most of the time. I have spots before my eyes, but perhaps no one has noticed them. My heart pounds rather badly after running up twelve flights of stairs. I have an aunt in Flint, Mich., who wears birds on her hats.” Mr. Butterworth's latest pictures include “Life of the Party,” “Illicit,” “Fame,” “The Mad Genius” and “Side Show.”




Warren William went into picture work comparatively recently. He was born at Aitkin, Minn., his father being a newspaper man. The reputed lure of journalism, however, had no fascination for the younger William, and he expressed a desire to become a marine engineer. When the war broke out he joined up. And when he returned he drifted to the stage, having taken a part in army theatricals in France. He has acted in Ibsen and Strindberg plays.

FILMS UNDER WAY

April 3, 1932

Production executives at the M-G-M studios approach the final quarter of the 1931-32 season with several pictures currently in work and others in various stages of preparation for the screen.

“Strange Interlude” is expected to vie with “Grand Hotel” in matter of popularity. Eugene O'Neill's characters will live again on the screen in the persons of Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Henry Walthall, May Robson and Ralph Morgan.




Current events of the news pages will find their reflection in “China Seas.” Tod Browning will direct Clark Gable in this photoplay immediately on his completion of work in “Strange Interlude.”




Ramon Novarro is at work under Sam Wood's direction in “Huddle,” a story of campus and football romance. This novel will find Madge Evans , Una Merkel and Martha Sleeper as its principle protagonists.




Jackie Cooper's next picture will be “Limpy,” an adaptation from the William Johnston novel of the same name. Chic Sale, Dorothy Peterson, Ralph Graves, Helen Parrish, Gus Leonard and Oscar Apfel are seen in support of the juvenile star.




Marie Dressler began work last week with Polly Moran in “Prosperity,” under the direction of Leo McCarey.

Marcel de Sano will shortly get under way with one of the most-discussed stories of the year. Katherine Brush's “The Red-Headed Woman.” No cast has as yet been assigned for this bit of theatrical property.




Walter Huston heads the cast of “Night Court,” a new melodrama dealing with corrupt courts and judges in a great city, with Phillips Holmes and Anita Page in leading roles. Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan and Tully Marshall all have parts in “Night Court.”




Charles Riesner, director of M-G-M's three quite popular comedies, “Caught Short,” “Reducing” and “Politics,” is preparing to make in audible from that great favorite, “Turn to the Right.”

Edgar Selwyn will direct Faith Baldwin's “Skyscraper.”




Monta Bell has been added to M-G-M's directorial staff to make “Downstairs,” John Gilbert's next, from a story suggested by the actor.




Charles Brabin is working on “After All.” This is a picturization of the John Van Druten stage play of the same name, which was seen on Broadway last season. Margaret Perry repeats the role which she had in the stage production, and Robert Young, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, Donald Cook, Laura Hope Crews, Myrna Loy and others play prominent parts.

HOLLYWOOD TURNS TO MUSIC IN FILMS

Melody Is to Be Employed in a Rational Fashion in Some Forthcoming Attractions

Hollywood, Cal., April 3
The cinema rarely does things half way. From the squeaky days of the audibles when music was forced into each production with or without reason, pictures overnight would not permit even the lilting warble of birds because “the public was off the song stuff.” Again the tide has turned, with music playing a discreet but important part in many of the current productions.

But harmony is used differently than it was at first. It now takes two forms – either it appears as a symphonic mood score on the sound track, separately or behind the dialogue, or in songs which form a definite part of the story and advance the plot and are spotted at reasonably correct points in the picture.

A dozen or so pictures now being made depend on music in one form or another. Other films with music are awaiting shipment to New York. Other productions are having songs or scores prepared for them.

“Instead of slowing down the story, as songs did in the early days, we are now writing tunes the words of which advance the plot or contribute in some way to the story,” Nacio Herb Brown, composer and an outstanding pioneer in screen music, declares. “At first all action stopped while somebody sang. Now, in an assignment for a song just given me, the requirement is that the words of the melody be the first indication to the audience that the girl is in love with the man. The two are dancing and the girl starts to talk, and while the audience believes she is merely repeating lines it soon finds she is singing.”

Studios like song hits in pictures. The revenue from a good popular song can equal the profit made on the picture. This was one of the impelling reasons for injecting songs in the first talkers. Today, instead of merely pausing to sing, the story is built to take in the song.

“The best method,” Mr. Brown says, “is to use a short melody that people can remember. This appears early in the picture. Then later it show up sung by a character. If possible, the tune is used again, even though in an obscure way before the final fade-out.”



This was the method he employed in Pola Negri’s picture, “A Woman Commands.” To Mr. Brown are credited the songs of “Broadway Melody,” the first singing film, “Pagan Love Song,” “Wedding of the Painted Dolls” and a half dozen other successful numbers.



The symphonic method is for a different purpose. “The Wet Parade” uses martial music and stirring tunes to arouse the emotions fo the audience during a number of sequences. “Grand Hotel” uses music from legitimate sources, but it never conflicts with the mood desired of the audience. Other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictures are taking advantage of tunes.



Fox used considerable music in “Delicious.” It is using songs in “Careless Lady,” current Joan Bennett-John Boles production. A song advances the plot in “The Trial of Vivienne Ware” and Warner Baxter sings in “Amateur Daddy” with relation to the story. Paramount has made a real musical picture in “One Hour With You,” but incidental and trick music is used for laughs. “The Miracle Man” depends on music for several important moods and Universal, in its Western with Tom Mix, “Destry Rides Again,” uses music to carry the story over a long time lapse.



RKO-Radio’s “Symphony of Six Million” employs melody to great advantage during some of the most dramatic scenes. A score was prepared by Max Steiner which, at first, was to have run behind all scenes. This was found impractical, but it does background all the dramatic moments of the film. Mr. Steiner has prepared another but different type score for ‘Bird of Paradise.” This is Hawaiian music in a more modern and rapid tempo than is usually found in melodies of this type.



“YOUNG AMERICA,” A NEW FOX FEATURE

Occasionally a film sneaks in on the public and is a sensation. Little was said by the Fox people about “Young America,” which hasn’t what is known as a box office title. It was previewed the other evening in and Hollywood became quite enthused about it. It is Frank Borzage’s latest from the play by Fred Ballard with the screen story by William Conselman.

It is a very simple tale of two small-town boys of 13 and their inability to stay out of trouble, and it is probably as human a story as the screen will see this season.




FILMS UNDER WAY

Fox has announced a re-making of “What Price Glory?” with Spencer Tracy and Ralph Bellamy as Flagg and Quirt. They, by the way, contribute liberally to “Young America.”



The feminine lead has not yet been decided, but there is talk that Renee Adoree may play Charmaine. There is little likelihood of this, however, for while the sentimental value would be great, Hollywood is not noted for clinging too closely to sentiment.




The merry battle between Howard Hughes and the censors goes along but in a rather one-sided manner. Mr. Hughes will release “Scarface” this month. He has received the approval of the National Board of Review and with this he hopes to influence the censors in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other places that view gangster pictures with cold eyes. That the public will still accept gangster pictures is indicated by the sales report. Mr. Hughes says that bookings exceed those of “Hell’s Angels,” which also received a great deal of advance publicity.
Advance publicity does not always mean that a picture is good. In fact, more often than not the pictures fail to live up to the notices.




On the day Ann Harding and her husband, Harry Bannister, announced their intention of getting a divorce, the title of Miss Harding’s next picture was announced. It is “Just a Woman.” Her latest RKO production, “Westward Passage” was finished this week and work is now proceeding on a new story.




A survey of the production schedule for 1932-33 shows a cut in number by the major studios. Where 300 pictures were scheduled for the production year last April, but 280 are listed for the coming season. Pronounced activity which has been noted among independents may raise this number materially.

Present plans call for 60 from Paramount, 52 each from Warners and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 50 from RKO, 26 each from Columbia and Universal and 12 from United Artists. Often several productions are cut from the year’s schedules and if this happens this year it will result in considerable activity by the independents.

Screen Life In Hollywood

By Hubbard Keavy

Hollywood, April 3
When and if I write that play, the valet – if any – in it will be named Jenner. Because the only valet I know is named Jenner and he is my perfect idea of a valet.

And, apparently, George Arliss is of the same opinion. Jenner has been in the Arliss service for more than a quarter of a century. He has grown stout and grey since he joined the actor when he was playing opposite Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske.

Jenner, George Jenner, has been a marked figure in Hollywood since that day three years ago when he walked out into the middle of the first Arliss talking picture set, in front of the cameras and under the microphone, and announced to an astonished cast and crew that it was 4:30 – time for Mr. Arliss to go home.

Arliss smiled and went home – and he has continued to do so whenever Jenner, watch in hand, has said it was time to do so.

FIXTURE ON THE SET

Jenner has become a fixture by now and no one worries about him. It is understood that he has only the interest of the actor at heart and that, in a round-about way he has the interest of the picture at heart too.

Jenner studies each new Arliss script with all the attention of a director, actor and technician rolled into one. He pays slight attention to the dramatic thrills, the plot, the climax, the dialog or the settings.

He goes through the script with a fine toothed comb, hunting out the costume requirements, the number of changes and the wardrobe needs.

Among Jenner’s many duties is that of providing the justly famous tea and toast which Arliss has each afternoon of his well ordered life, either at home or at the studio. Jenner has brewed literally thousands of cups of tea and he is a master of the art.

Jenner was no newcomer to Hollywood when he upset the crew that day, for he was with Arliss when the latter made four or five silent pictures several years ago.
He was a stranger to that particular crew, however, and the dramatic effect of his first performance has never been forgotten.




REEL AND UNREEL

Added credence to the reports that Greta Nissen and Weldon Heyburn soon will file notice of intention to wed is seen in the visit here of Weldon’s father, Col. Wyatt G. Franks of the United States army.




Bert Wheeler, Bob Woolsey and Dorothy Lee are getting ready to take a musical show on the road, for one night stands. They may travel by airplane.




SUCCESION

Now that Gene Markey is married, Joel McCrea has become Hollywood’s official eligible bachelor.
Rumors of his engagement to any one (or more) of the cinema’s single ladies will not be unexpected.




NEW BENNETT STORY

On the screen, Bette Davis appears to have an oval-shaped face like Constance Bennett’s.

I was pleasantly surprised, meeting her for the first time, to discover her chin is pointed and the contour of her face quite regular.

Her eyes are unusually large and blue. And, she is a natural blond. Also, Bette is slender and not very tall. But so much for her looks.

In a 15-minute conversation between camera set-ups, we discussed a variety of things and sundry people, ranging from Richard Bennett to what actresses are supposed to look like.

Bette (who, incidentally, was christened Ruth Elizabeth) was in a play for three weeks with the Bennett girls’ papa, learning plenty the exciting while.

Her favorite Bennett story is about the night the audience seemed very cold. Bennett, just before his exit, turned to his listeners and inquired: “Must I tell you a dirty story to make you laugh?”

Bette and another girl were left on the stage to carry on in the face of this handicap.

INAUSPICIOUS ENTRY

Bette still thinks her arrival in Hollywood is the least conspicuous any girl ever made.

“I thought someone would meet me. But no one did, I was here three days before the studio phoned me. Then the committee, of one, that had been sent from the studio said he didn’t recognize me because I didn’t look like an actress.

“I didn’t – and still don’t – have an ermine coat and red shoes. But I did have a dog in my arms. He should have known no one but an actress carries a dog when she travels.”



Bette, who was the love interest in Arliss’ “The Man Who Played God,” is busy doing the same thing now in “The Dark Horse,” with Warren William. In between these she was in “So Big” and “The Rich Are Always With Us.”

“And my next engagement, “ she said, “will be with the ocean. I want just one day off to go swimming.”




PUGILISTIC SERIOUSNESS

A certain former flyweight fighter, who will have to be just Joe to you, had a great idea.

He was hired to be one of James Cagney’s opponents in a fight picture and he trained as thoroughly for the cinematic scrap as he used to for real ones.

Joe is hoping to make a comeback and he believed that if he actually knocked Cagney out, he’d be able to trade on the publicity. (You know, of course, movie fighters are never forcibly floored, they just fall down.)

Joe’s plot somehow became known to Cagney. And Jimmie, instead of sparring, peppered Joe with real blows – blows that made Joe change his mind about a knockout.




SURPRISING

This revelation may surprise you. It did me.

The man who adapted “Tom Sawyer” for the movies says the picture actually contained but a small percentage of Mark Twain’s story and that only nine speeches Twain wrote were used. Five of these were “yeses,” three were “noes,” and one was “Well, perhaps.”

Yet almost all who saw “Tom Sawyer” were impressed by what seemed to them a literal translation.

William Stevens McNutt, who with Grover Jones wrote “Tom Sawyer” for the screen, says their first problem was to discover the story Twain had to tell. It was simply the story of a boy and his aunt, a boy who was a boy and an aunt who was an aunt.



Then they took Twain’s characters, several of the best remembered incidents of the book – such as the whitewashing of the fence, the disappearance of the boys, and the discovery of pirate gold – and built a story around them.

WHY THEY DIFFER

In making this “confession” McNutt explained why few novels can be brought to the screen as they are. And in doing so he gave answer to somewhat frequent complaints that the movies often change stories beyond recognition.

“The story writer can and does devote page after page to character description,” said McNutt, “which is useless to a scenario.”

“A few seconds, usually, is all the time we can devote in a picture to letting you know what the character is like.

“The greater percentage of the dialogue in a novel cannot be said aloud from the screen. It is either too grandiloquent or too verbose, or both.”

The novel and the movie are two widely different mediums of expression, concluded McNutt. And there is this difference:
The novel is written to be run off on a printing press and read in three to four hours, the movie to be run off on a screen and seen and heard in an hour and 15 minutes.