Evening Star Newspaper, April 23, 1933, Page 41

Stage—Screen Music—Radio Part 4—8 Pages MARIE PREVOST SPAROLE GIRL” KEITH'S JOE VELM SHEHE SU%EHW E. BROWN ER THE GREATY EARLE “Theater’s Bright Torch” Remains in ‘Lean” Season Washington Has Done Very Well in Its Attrac- tions for the Past Few Months—Many Hits on Brcadway—Local Stock Company Opens. By E. de S. Melcher. as some would have it. With the advent of tomor- row's National Theater Players it is perhaps fitting to see what has been what during the “legitimate” HE past season in the the-| ater has not been as lean theater months and ponder on | that frightening phrase which a lugubrious so}:l has written in to us, namely, ‘that “the theater’s bright torch is extinct.” The theater’s bright torch is definitely not extinct. You have only to read George Jean Nathan’s current statistical list in the theless, it has_given ‘them some very worthwhile sober moments (such as the Irish players pro- vided) ; it has shown them some of the world’s best acting (Mr. Muni should take a bow for this) ; | it has made them laugh (rise Mr. | Wynn and laugh with them), and | it has made them a little sadder |and a little wiser in such a tre- | mendously stirring work as “The Green Pastures.” | * x % % }TOMORROW the National Play- | ers’ duplicates of Frank | Craven and Grant Mitchell will American Spectator to realize that | revive the past season’s success- while other businesses-have drop- ped into nothing, there is still something left of the mother theater. If you look over at Broadway you will see that there is still much pretty coin lingering | around “Design for Living,” “Twentieth Century,” “Strike Me Pink,” “Music in the Air,” “For- saking All Others” (although this is said to be not so prosperous as some would have it) and “Alien Corn,” which, however, Cornell will remove from Broad. way so as to be able to show it to cities which are still short on their subscription seasons. And‘ that other attractions such as “Autumn Crocus” and “The Gay Divorce” (which has risen to heights on account of its tune, | “Night and Day”) have not fared | at all badly. { With such a list of theatric mat- ter the torch can certainly not | be said to be dead. It may be| flickering a bit, but it is still held high by fighting brother artists | who will not let the depression get them down. | Can one say that Washington, for instance, has sufféred unduly | during the past season? It has, | of course, had the disadvantage | of having a lone theater play host | to theater attractions. And the| American Theater Society has had | to fight the good fight to get its| quota of plays. Nevertheless, | there have been some very good | plays on the market, and local theater patrons have had occa- | sion for loud and raucous rejoic- | ings. | Alone in this season has been the disappointment of having to | sandwich in “road showings” of | films at the National—when you knew that a few weeks later you would be able to see these same attractions for a quarter the price. A season is not, however, all| crepe when it has offered its pa- | trons the Abbey Theater Players, | by far the most important event of the year; the inspiring “Green | Pastures,” the Lunt family and Mr. Coward in the unusually &ovocative “Design for Living”; orge M. Cohan in “Pigeons and People” (which we didn’t happen to enjoy, but which most every one else did); last week’s “Best Sellers,” which had some particu- larly clever moments; “There’s Always Juliet,” a nice little com- edy, badly cast, but well enough acted; “The Cat and the Fiddle,” one of the best musical offerings of the past few years; “Show Boat” in a pleasant revival (there should be a law about reviving it annually); Tallulah Bankhead, even in such a bdd play as “For- saking All Others”; “Counselor at Law,” with the brilliant Paul Muni; “The Good Earth,” which we will never forgive the public for not liking; Ed Wynn in his amusing nonsense musical, “The Laugh Parade”; “When Ladies Meet,” one of Rachel Crothers better comedies with a smooth and likable cast, and even “The | Picolli” which was cordially| evaded by ~ theatergoers, and which, nevertheless, was one of | the most entertaining attractions of the year. With such a list to look back upon it is not fair to say that the | theater is \‘stuff and nonsense” | and that it has left its patrons in | the lurch. It may have made | them suffer a little at not pro- viding them with a big and hand-1{ some musical comedy (“Forward March” was prew awful), never- Miss | | ful mystery comedy, “Riddle Me This.” Donald Woods and For- | rest Orr will play the roles origi- | | nally entrusted to these hardy ‘and popular Broadway stars. This is the inauguration of our | yearly stock feast, which has | made Washington a highly desir- | able oasis for actors who, with the dying Broadway season, find | that they still would like to ex- | press themselves. It is to be hoped that the local itizens will respond heartily to | this troupe and extend the en- | gagement, beyond just a few weeks, to more and more and | more. | s e Busiest Player. OEL McCREA has been assigned the | < lead opposite Constance Bennett in | her new R-K-O Radio vehicle, “Bed of Roses,” and thereby scores another point in his record as the busiest player on this lot and probably in all Hnlly-i wood. The tall, athletic player steps into his fourth lead with Miss Bennett, having been her vis-a-vis in “Born to Love,” “The Common Law” and “Rockabye.” McCrea wes recently cast as the teammate of Dorothy Jordan in a series of romantic dramas planned by Merian | C. Cooper, R-K-O Radio executive pro- ducer. This duo scored together “The Lost Squadron.” “Three Came Unarmed,” scheduled as the first McCrea-Jordan vehicle, should get under way immediately upon the completion of Joel’s role with Miss Ben- nett. This week he completed a lead in Cord.” Geis Rihard Dl Leead! ELIZABETH ALLEN, the English ac- tress brought to America by M-G-M following her success with Leslie How- ard in “Reserved for Ladies” and other British films, has been borrowed by R-K-O Radio for the feminine lead op- posite Richard Dix in his new vehicle, “Ad Man,” which goes into production upon the immediate completion of “Emergency Call.” Illness caused Karen Morley to forfeit this role with Dix. Miss Allen’s first American picture appearance was with Lionel Barrymore in “Looking Forward.” Band Leader FRED WARING, g Who leads his Pennsylvanians as the headline attraction on Earle stage this week. opposite Irene Dunne in “The Silver | AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sundmy Star, WASHINGTON, D. C, LEONA POWER > VRIDDLE ME THIS” NATIONAL. - Revival Next Week FOR the second week of the National Theater Players’ current season, | beginning next Monday night, May 1, the Messrs. Cochran and Brooke will offer a revival of Ina Claire’s famous stage success, “Grounds for Divorce.” This play was adapted for the Ameri- | can stage by Guy Bolton from the Hungarian version by Ernest Vajda, the noted author of “Fata Morgana” and | many other successes. | “Grounds for Divorce” was originally presented at the Empire Theater, New York, by Charles Frohman, Inc., and enjoyed a long and prosperous season at_that exclusive playhouse. ‘The author’s central character is a Parisian woman whose husband is a famous divorce lawyer. Needless to say, Leona Powers will play the role cre- ated by Miss Claire. Garbo as..a Queen. ME'I'RO - GOLDWYN - MAYER: defi- nitely announces that Greta Garbo has signed a new long-term contract with this company and will resume pic- ture work early in May, on her return to Hollywood. Her first film will be “Queen Christina,” an original story with a Swedish background. Miss Garbo’s plans have been a topic of constant speculation among picture followers ever since her return to Swe- den last Summer. When she from. New York last August, the Swed- ish actress refused to commit herself on the question of her return to pic- tures. She said at this time that she was returning to her native land for a complete rest, and refused to amplify this statement in any way. In conse- quence various conflicting rumors had been circulated. “Queen Christina” is based on a story by Berthold Viertel. It has adapted to the screen by Robert E. Sherwood. Continuity and dialogue will be supplied jointly by Ernest Vajda, Clsudine West and H. M. Harwood. Miss Garbo’s most recent pictures in- clude “Grand Hotel,” “As You Desire Me,” “Mata Hari” and “Susan Lenox.” “Queen Christina” will be the eighteenth American picture in which the Swedish actress has been starred. Cfl!t .Announcements . AURENCE STALLINGS, author of “What Price Glory,” has been added to the writing staff at Paramount studios. He will adapt a story which Bayard Veiller will produce. Cary Grant’s next picture will be “Gambling p.” He will play oppo- site Carole bard in this story by Peter Ruric and will be under the direc- tion of Max Marcin and Louis Gasnier. Grant and Miss Lombard have just fin- ished “The Eagle and the Hawk.” Walter Walker, Theodore von Eltz, Dorothy Libaire, Jane Darwell, Gene Morgan and Lillian Harmer have been added to the cast 6f “Jennie Gerhardt,” which B. P. Schulberg is producing from ‘Theodore Dreiser’s novel. Others in the cast are Sylvia Sidney, Donald Cook, H. B. Warner, Mary Astor and Edward Arnold. Noah Beery has been added to- the cast of Z%‘lelkfil’:z;i “Sun.:et Mned, 'Stuart Walker direct “Disgraced,” featuring Claudette Colbert. Kenneth Howell, Andre Cheron, Olaf Hytten, Major I. Martin and Florence joined the cast of “The Eagle the Hawk.” Charles R. Rogers has placed Ralph Murphy under long-term contract as a result of the latter's direction of “The Song of the Eagle.” VE———. L 0y “Ex-Lady" to Be Staged. A STAGE production of “Ex-Lady” is cne of the probabilities of the near future on Broadway, with Bette playing the same role in which she ap- pears in the new Warner Bros. picture. One of the leading New York technical producers is now negotiating for stage rights, but has stipulated Miss Davis must be lent to him for = H HELEN HAYES SWHITE SISTERY PALACE JOHN WAYNE ~\THE BIG- STAMPEDE — COLUMBIA OLLYWOOD studios are among the best markets for art dealers. Paradoxical as the statement may seem, it takes a great many pictures to make pictures. A studio’s picture gallery is &mvllunble asset to the production of s. Because pictures on the wall of a set- ting have such an important part in setting the desired atmosphere, —the studios own thousands of pictures. A rough estimate of the numl of pic- tures in Hollywood is 25000. One studio alone, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, has 5,000. They eog;fi the w;}ls of an %en; roperty building. Hundreds gecorlte a subsidiary warehouse With walls 30 feet high. then returned to whatever vacant space the walls allow. The M-G-M gallery, for example, has a picture of Lenin, a_ decoration for g ey b Buge poralh of a huge George Washington on horseback. This latter was used in the President’s study of “Gabriel Over the White House.” Napoleon, hi htly aske: a !Laan.y pmperty‘::n.‘“n'xbb"gd&rfn:l b:m: t, ‘The Corbett picture dozéns of fistic snapshots and huge largements which made a at- mosphere for the of “The %pmp" and “Flesh,” in both of which allace Beery aj TImposing, indeggj is a collection of 30 full-size coples of genuine old masters which once hung in the palace -of the Czars at St. Petersburg, Russia, now Leningrad. These were copied by fine TOW evening at 8:20. GAYETY—"] and tonight at 8:15. LOEW’S FOX—"Pleasure evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—“Mt Used on sets day after day, they are| P! o _exposed muscles of the late “Gentleman Jim” |" Corbett Oruise, Vaudeville at 3:27, 6:08 and EARLE—“Elmer the Great.” This afternoon and evening. PALACE—"“The White Sister.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“A Bed-Time Story.” Pictures Make Pictures artists in order to lend full authenticity to scenes of this palace in “Rasputin and the Empress.” In the moving of things about, however, not all of them have been able to stay together. Some- how or other a majestic full-length ortrait of the late Czar Alexander ?osues a portrait of a chorus girl of the nineties. It was from “The Wet Pa- rade” set that this gem was carried back to its place in storage. For many years a fine collection of multi-colored calendars issued by “An= heuser - Busch,” “Schlitz” “Leap,” “Pabst,” etc., have held their own place in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s art lery. ‘They have been invaluable for settings representative of those days when beer flowed at every street corner. Now they r:t.um from history to the living resent. Every conceivable type of picture known is to be found in Metro-Gold- wyn-Mayer’s collection. Oil paintings, water colors, many of them ind very lve works of art, calendars, por- traits, news photographs, lithographs, crayon sketches and charcoal sketches are all there. Cromwell Signed. a new long-term ' contract. His screen llrlégmmt will _probably be the starring in Travis kngram’s famous novel “Biddy,” a tender mother-love story. Cromwell will 'gmv the young col- lege freshman becomes the object of the devotion, care and protection of “Biddy”—an unobtrusive little scrub- woman in the college dormitory, who is really his mother. Where and When in the Local Theaters NATIONAL—The National Players in “Riddle Me This.” Tomor- rity Girls,” burlesque. This afternoon at 2:15 RIALTO—“Be Mine Tonight,” at 2, 3:47, 5:44, 7:42 and 9:40 p.m. ” at 2, 4:46, 7:27-and 10:13 p.m. :54 p.m. This afternoon and COLUMBIA—“Humanity.” ‘This afternoon and evening. ” at 3:05, 5:40 and 8:15 p.m. ussolini “Parole @irl,” at 2, 4:35,.7:10 and 9:45 pm. SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1933. A BEDTIME'STORY” “BE MINE TONIGHT/ RIALTO CL!:N ECHO PARK will open for the season on Saturday, May 6, with everything in tip-top shape, and every- thing going full blast except the crystal pool with enlarged sand beach, which will open on Saturday, May 27. General director of the park, Mr. L. B. Schloss, embarking upon his twenty- third season, has a host of pleasant sur- prises to offer the thousands of visitors this year, chief of which is the new Spanish mission ball room. This struc- ture contains 7,500 square feet of dance area, and provides for every comfort for patrons. The entire building is 90 by 145 feet and will permit of comfortable dancing for 1,800 persons. Music_ for this ball room will consist of an orches- tra composed of 15 instrumentalists and entertainers under the personal direc- tion of David McWilliams. This orches- tra will be the largest dance band ever offered at Glen Echo, and will have an unusual feature in that two pianos will be used, presided over by a well known team. Jan Kiepura. FILM sudiences have discovered Jan Kiepura and are asking “Where'd he come from and who is he?” It might have been expected after his amusing and operatic appearance in “Be Mine Tonight” _The fact he has been discovered comes as no great surprise. ‘The wonder is: Why wasn't he dis- covered before? His career has been short. A career that has been quite breathless, so sud- den has it blessed Kiepura with personal sticcess. He comes from Warsaw, Poland. In 1927, he was given a musical prize in a contest among singers and he landed thereafter—almost immediately —in the Vienna Opera. He started singing star roles at the outset. That’s how good the Vienna officials rated him. He succeeded. Success came in great waves. He sang in Italy, England, Spain, South America and even with Civic Opera Co. in Chicago. But he returned to Vienna and set- tled down to the job of securing his fame. Soon, however, came radio of- fers. He took a couple and became famous all ovef agajn. And he isn’t 30 | While years old_vet. Now, he has turned t0 pictures. “Be Mine Tonight” is his second, his best. He thinks he will continue films. He likes the'camera. He likes to sing into microphones. Foreign Director Coming. EOLIAN' _PICTURES ' CORPORA- on Earth” tnu\uhmmhmz an' wu“{nmm the director of r ,gtl.umfllm, Victor Trivas, to the United According to reports received here, Trivas was recently banned from re- his film, Fitelson that it is at present is in “Dans Le Rue” and scenario for %Kfl first French filmy “Mirage de dividuals. Trivas film, Wieck, Ames in Hollywood. star of “Maed- the | begs for money to pay his debts, Eng- Automobile an i MAURICE CHEVALIER METROPOLITAN O X viation News GENEVIEVE TOBIN ‘nsgukzcnusc' Maugham’s Drama Shows British Home After War “For Services Rendered,” a Recent New York Open;ng. Is a Depreasind Play, Dwelling Upon'Unhappiness and Human Failures. By Percy Hammond. HAT we were not more depressed by Mr. Maugham's lugubrious musings in “For Services Ren- dered” is perhaps because makes us conscious all the while that we are in a theater. At no time are his players able to persuade us that their trials are real, not merely a cluster of woeful puppets and circum- stances smoothly and mechanically manipulated. It is obviously absurd, as | Mr. Brown has pointed out, to object to | the theater because it is theatrical | Emphasis and exaggeration are tradi- tional, legitimate and essential. But in | a playfwhose motive is as honest as| that of “For Services Rendered” it| seems better that it should be as free as possible from imputations of artful- ness. Mr. Maugham, of course, is not to be_accused of duplicity. He would | not, I am sure, intentionally try to an audience, no matter how justifiable the provocation. Long con- tact with the stage and its expedients, the astigma- and 3 cepting the sustere and aloof Mr. Gals- worthy, have escaped the baneful ef- fects of continued association with the theater’s Emtpewus artificialties. Most of them and write in terms of the platform, forgetting the supposed fra- ternity of the drama and life. I my- self am sympathetic to their situation because I know that all my own per- sonal and professional affectations, pos- tures, shams and trickeries are due to my having spent most of my life in an orchestra chair. After all, it is the business of so good a playwright as Mr. Maugham to be a mirror into which we can look and see ourselves and nature reflected with comparative accuracy. It is his duty to tempt us to exclaim, as we witness his tragedles, “There, save for the grace of God, am I!” The real art of the drama, if I may be permit- ted to guess so, is to tell the truth without dissembling, in the process, any more than is necessary. To “keep prob- ability in view” and to make the in- credible seem credible. This, in the dismal enthusiasms of “For Services Rendered,” Mr. Maugham neglects to do. The result is that the play is a conscientious frame-up, skillfully ar- ranged and explicitly presented, sincere in its intentions, but fraudulent in its habits. In “For Services Rendered” Mr. Maugham casts a dyspeptic though an eagle eye on a suburban British house- hold after the war. Miss Fay Bainter, as a thwarted spinster whose lover has died for King and country, is to be seen catering. desperately to her blinded brother (Leo Carroll), who has lost his sight in Flanders’ fields. Harry Daniell, who once commanded a torpedo boat and won medals for valor, has been dis- charged from the navy and is operating an unprofitable village garage and petrol station. Miss Jane Wyatt is there as a cold, warm, handsome and irresolute post-war ingenue, eloping reluctantly with Walter Kingsford, as 8 lecherous old profiteer. Richie Ling is present as her genial, shallow and self-satisfied John Bull father, as is Miss Jean Adair as her patiently un- derstanding mother. When Mr. Daniell, bankrupt and with his back to the wall, land forgets his rendered services, with appropriate excuses. So, being in a hopeless jam, he blows his brams out, and Miss Bainter, who has, meantime, fallen in love with him, goes mad. all of this is proce Percy Warran, as a bestial member of the family, cuts drunken and animal capers GEORGE GIVOT, “America’s One gathers from “For Services Ren- dered” that life is a failure and that unhappiness is its ultimate goal. I en- he | joyed most of its devious machinations the other night, being at heart a minor pessimist, but when, as the curtain fell, Miss Bainter was to be heard theatrical- ly and idiotically intoning, “God Save the King!” I felt that Mr. Maugham might be going, as the saying is, too far. * % x ¥ ANY of New York's first-nighters went last Wednesday evening to the Empire Theater afraid that they would be shocked, if not horrified, by the ancient wickednesses of “The Beg~ gar's Opera.” It was generally hinted that old John Jay's classic had been translated into German and back intc English again by such sophisticated Times Square diplomats as John Krim- sky and Gifford Cochrane, its dilletante entrepreneurs; and that it was even more candid and free-spoken than it was in 1728, . . . It is said of it that the entertainment used to worry Bos. well, Dr. Johnson, Haglitt, Gibbon and other oldtime drama lovers, who werq fearful that its exposures, though amus- ing, were unwholesome. . . . Now at the Empire in its Krimsky-Cochrane version, “The Beggar's Opera,” christened “The Three-Penny Oper: its naive actors are from Little Theater stocks. Its new music, by Kurt Weil, is of a fashionable mediocrity and its prima donna, the recently imported Miss Stefi Duna, is pert and personable un- der_onerous handicaps. It is possible, as I am told by solemn scholars of the theater, that once upon & time “The Beggar's Opera” was a good show. It may have been. But I'll give odds in a bet that it is not now Comedians Good Writers. MANY famous comedians also are writing for the stage and screen with notable success, a survey of the scenarists under contract to various Hollywood studios discloses. Paramount has three comedy stars on its writing and production staff: Neal Burns, writing on “Gambling Ship”; Bobby Vernon, on “College Hu- more,” and Douglas MacLean, prepar= ing to produce “Mama Love Papa.” Raymond Griffith, long a comedy favo- rite, is a writer-producer at another studio. Richie Craig, jr. is still an- other comedian now writing for the seveen. Douglas MacLean, now an associate producer at Paramount, believes that playing comedy roles is almost perfect training for the screen writer. “The essential of comedy is sponta- neity,” he says. “Call it either ad lib- bing, quick-wittedness, wise-cracking, or being ‘snappy,’ it all distills down to being able to think fast when impro- visation will do the most good. The formula for drama remains about the same. But comedy has no rules. There's nothing older than an old gag and that's why training as a player of comedy roles, which means a ccnstant scramble for new rcaterial, is almost perfect schooling for w riter.” MacLean points out tidt this traine ing in comedy also makes for success in other flelds of screen work. Ernst Lubitsch, Edward Sutherland, Norman Taurog, Malcolm St. Clair and other noted film directors got their early training as comedians on the stage or screen. Noel Coward, accepted by many as the foremost playwright of this gene- ration, also portrays light comedy roles behind the footlights, while George M. Cohan and S. J. Kaufman long have been adepts in both fields. Search for Beau!y. AN international search for 30 perfect specimens of young manhood and ‘womanhood upon whom to bestow the opportunity for screen stardom has been launched by Paramount. This search for beauty embraces the United States ::d seven other English-speaking coun- les. ‘The 15 youngsters of each sex finally selected will be guaranteed transporta- tion to and from Hollywood, a contract to appear in the Paramount produc- tion, “The Search for Beauty,” with a minimum salary of $50 per week for five ° weeks, hotel accommodations for: the duration of their stay and a bonus of $1,000 each to the young man and wom- an who give the finest performances. If their talents warrant many of the win~ ners will have the opportunity to con- tinue their motion picture careers, German Film Today. ‘*RRAND IN DER OPER” (“Fire in the Opera”) (Barcarolle), a Ger- man sound picture, will be shown for the first time in Washington today at 3:15 pm. and 7:30 pm., in Plerce Hall, at Pifteenth and Harvard streets, under the auspices of All Souls’ Church (Unitarian). It is a romantic comedy- drama Gustav Froehlich and Alexa Engstroem-against a background of scenes from ‘“Tannhauser” and “Tales of Hoffman,” as performed by soloists, orchestra and chorus of the Berlin State Opera, and introduces to Am¢ udiences Europe’s e Qo Jnretia Nowsioa, g