Evening star., 1932-11-27

r OLLYWOOD, Calf, November
II 26.-The grim struggle for
supremacy begins between mo-
Il L ton pictures and radio with
the 1888 product; lowest box
ONCE returns in cinema history have
driven motion picture officials to radical
action to get the public out of the
house and into the theaters. And so.
there's music in the Hollywood air once
again.
1t isn't the first time. We've had
our musical moments in talking pic
lures and some of them have been
pretty sad. But this time the movie
moguls are approaching the subject
with much caution-with a crafty eye
on box-offlce returns and with the deep
dyed feeling that every pretty movie
girl hasn't voice although she can
usually manage to open her mouth and
sing.
Music, in the correct sense of the
word. has never been away from the
screen. Jeannette Macdonald has had
a career in motion pictures which has
been identified with music throughout;
her success indubitably has been based
on the fact that she has a trained So
prano voice which registers beautifully;
face and figure to match; a fair for
hard work: keen sense Of keeping her
personality fresh by European travel
and application to every new develop
ment in her field. Also, she has had
the rare good fortune to be cast largely
with Maurice Chevalier, to have good
music and bright amusing lyrics that
gave her very genuine art some scope.
Musical comedy such as Sam Gold
wyn gives us with Eddie Cantor in
'Whoopee" and "Palmy Days" and In
THE Kid From Spain" has been 4 sue
cess. 1t has been photographed musi-
cal comedy perhaps--the very thing we
once said could not be done. But this
studio has proved to the world that
beautiful girls register as well in mu-
steals as they do in talkies, and that
such show correctly put over-the
singers singing and dancers dancing,
and not vice versa-can make q hit,
Metro-G Goldwyn- Mayer Is planning a
musical revue, Hollywood Premiere"
with Murray Roth directing. Phyllis
Barry, who played the part of the
Girl in the Case In "Cynara," will be
cast in the lead role. She made
great success in "Hullabaloo" In New
York and should be outstanding In this
Technicolor revue. since her dark hair
and blue eyes are peculiarly fitted to
color film.
This studio has been considering the
possible return of Lawrence Tibbett to
the screen in Naughty Marietta" and
Doris Kenyon has made voice tests for
the lead feminine role. Lily Pons is
another artist Of grand opera tested
twice by M. G. NJ with view to franz
ing musical picture about her Latin
charm.
Nobody who has heard those charm
ing songs Of Ramon Novarro from time
to time in his pictures, but will admit
that they tighten the screen play and
are valuable additions to his art. Ruth
Chatterton's thorough knowledge of
music makes her 1nfrequent songs a
delight.
Lew Brown and Ray Henderson will
produce six musical pictures for Fox
Winfield Sheehan has come to the con-
clusion that this Is the time to branch
forth musically in a big way. The pair
will spend six months at the studio
and six months in New York, during
which time they will produce a show
of their own. Strike Me Pink" is the
Brown show In Manhattan for this
year and Lupe Valez the girl selected
to do the striking, apparently.
Chevalier is returning this week to
Hollywood and there will be another
musical picture all ready and waiting
Those Ernst Lubitsch- Maurice Chevalier
stories, with their lifting obbligato and
facile camera tricks, have become clas-
sizes of the screen.
Fox also has Henri Carat, a gentle
man with great art, rare charm and
voice calculated to make the grade in
musical type pictures. Carat Is con-
sidered the best rllnner-up for Chevalier
honors to be brought to this colony.
Princess at Your Order is the story
in which Carat will make his Holly |
wood debut.
This story once served as starring |
material in French for Lillian Harvey |
and Henri Carat In this production |
Janet Gaynor will be the girl. In Ger
many the same story acted as vehicle |
for Kathe Won Macy and Willie Fritsch. |
It's gay romance and the music Is |