r mmm " ""Mjm.i''' ""mmmm - -- " in! 'Vr 'f"f f"""ti f v rffHH "" " " ' 1.;,. u,Jl f II "" lILfl
f ,, vvi.,'vr. r Air t iil V J
You're apt to come upon almost every imaginable luxurious gadget, wandering through the homes of . stars. Turning on concealed lights, Josephine nutchinson (left) changes her lilies to rainbow
colors. Paul Muni (center) takes life easy In a special house he has built in which to rehearse. Anita Louise simply throws a switch, and her bird cage is cleaned . . . just like that!
Looking 'em Over
WITH
GAIL GARDNER
Five Star Motion Picture Editor
& yj
Sit"'' v
Winifred Shaw
SYLVIA SIDNEY, loaned to Walter Wanger for
"Mury Burns, Fugitive," plnys a girl hunted by
the law because of her love for a criminal. Con
victed on circumstantial evidence when she is
found guilty, she finally extricates herself by the
help of a wealthy scientist.
The cast is composed of Melvyn
Douglas, Alan Buxterm, Pert
Kelton and Wallace Ford. An
other crime story with Miss Sid
ney doing her utmost to make it
convincing.
"D ROADWAY HOSTESS" is
D one of those light, strictly
pedestrian pictures which deals
with trials on the Great White
Way. In unreels a theme as old
as the movies, a little country
girl who goes to the big city in
search of a musical career. She
gets a tryout in a cafe, but before
she gets the job she is spotted by a city slicker,
Lyle Talbot, who becomes her manager.
From thereon, most of the audience is able to
go on with the Btory. Winifred Shaw is in the lead
and shows promise of becoming a very good
pctress. She is given capable assistance by Allen
Jenkins, comic, Spring Byington, Talbot and a
newcomer, Marie Wilson, who, in her small role,
indicates she may become the screen's funniest
woman if she doesn't watch out a rare type
indeed.
The picture is an old girl in a new dress.
THE chances are you will not require the services
of a film reviewer to send you streaming to see
"The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot."
It is one of those sprightly comedies of intense
drama always in demand by sophisticated audi
ences. Especially will the wives of philandering
husbands, and the sweethearts of married men en
joy it for, like the erstwhile "Animal Kingdom,"
it deals with the husband who enjoys the liberties
of single blessedness while married.
Ann Harding (Mrs. Talbot) is the modern wife
who sends her husband, Herbert Marshall (Dr. Tal
bot), into the arms of another woman (Margaret
Lindsay), displays a very fine
flaire for sueh smart comedy as
this. Marshall, whose heart is sup
posed to be as transient as moon
light, takes his scenes with con
vincing ardor. Walter Abel, that
splendid actor from Broadway
who recently made his screen de
but, succeeds in making the char
acter of the young engineer,
vainly in love with Ann, so poig
nant that one wishes him better
luck with his amour. The action
of the play is fast. The casting is
Walter Abel . perfect. The story is a refreshing
variation of the love triangle.
You will like it.
"Professional Soldier," strange as it sounds,
isn't a war picture at all, but an operetta with the
opera left out.
It has one of those preposterous plots concerning
the kidnaping of a boy king, Freddie Bartholomew,
who rules over a mythical kingdom. Victor Mcljig
len, the kidnaper, is one of those rough brute-men
with a heart of gold.
Vic is hired by some revolutionists, whose inter
est is the people's welfare, to kidnap the King. He
accomplishes this with the aid of Michael Whalen.
There's a countess, too, Gloria Stuart, who gets
That's No Railroad Station, Madam;
It's the Home of a Big Movie Star!
Inside You'll See Soda Fountains, Trick Beds, Secret Passageways, Glass Rooms, "Port
Hole" Windows with Windows Behind Them Specially Lighted Many Other Oddities
By Donna Risher
"k 10, ma'am, that's not the Santa Fe station,"
IN,
I returned. the tourist's guide to the curious
lady from Iowa, as he pointed to a red, black and
) 'e pile of lumber atop a hill, "that's a movie star's
home."
Duly awed at the sight, the curious lady appro
priately exclaimed, "My land." But had she been
privileged to visit the interior of this home and
other homes of the film celebrities, she, no doubt,
would have received the shock of her life at the
sight of the unusual features contained therein.
For these home hobbies of the stars run from
soda fountains to crystal-glass living rooms. .
Perhaps the most unique collection ever assem
bled is that in the Beverly Hills home of Joe E.
Brown. Joe has a trophy room filled with everything
under the sun. There is a hand-made saddle worn
by a Derby winner. A baseball thrown by Christy
Matthewson. A football kicked by "Dixie" Howell.
Odds and ends from all corners of the earth. And
right next door Joe has a soda fountain where ice
cream sodas can be obtained at all hours.
DOLORES DEL RIO'S proud possession is a
room of glass in her Brentwood mansion. One
entire wall consists of a huge plate of crystal glass
overlooking her garden. The opposite wall is one
great flawless mirror, and the ceiling is a mass of
smaller mirrors'. The effect, upon entering, is start
ling and something a casual visitor never forgets.
At Paul Muni's ranch house near Van Nuys, his
odd rehearsal house arouses special curiosity. It is
a small, substantial structure, which stands half
hidden by walnut trees behind the ranch house
proper.
This rehearsal house was once an elaborate port
able dressing room, presented to Douglas Fair
banks, Jr., by Joan Crawford just before that young
couple went separate ways. When Fairbanks left
mixed up in the action. After several reels of devil
try, the King and the kidnaper escape death from a
bullet, and the picture ends with everything just
dandy.
No matter how bpd the material, McLaglen and
Freddie are always in there acting.
.
In the past, Janet Gaynor has been squandered
somewhat futilely in pictures which were obviously
made for some other player. In
"Small Town Girl,"the little Janet
is shrewdly cast, and this may
I ju or may not oe accounted ior oy
J - i the fact that she is off her home
lot (Fox) and is making her first
picture for M-G-M.
The story is by Ben Ames Wil
liams, the popular magazine
writer. It has much to do with a
New England doctor, tawis
Stone, who is eager for his son,
J Robert Taylor, to follow in his
. lotHtut'iis. lounir lavior is in love
Janet Gaynor ... . 1 . . . L ,
with Janet . . . but ah, me . . . love
will find, a way. There is: Conflict. Poignant mo
ments. Good photography. Happy ending.
"Riff Raff" is decidedly the most fittingly named
photoplay of the month. By the time it nn-wimls
you have seen the "reds" in a waterfront strike,
Jean Harlow parting with her baby born in prison,
a love atTair between a fish cannery worker and a
dock hand, not to mention the bloated capitalist
who buys his woman with fur coats.
Harlow, Spencer Tracy, Una Merkel and Joseph
Calleia do their utmost, but that doesn't seem to
be enough.
for England, Muni acquired it. In this house Muni
studies his lines and tries out new characteriza
tions. The double walls make the place sound proof,
and it contains all the comforts of home.
Warren William's chart room is probably the
only one of its kind in the world. It is a hide-away
under the roof of his new house, which is next door
to Al Jolson's in Encino. The room is reached
through a window-like door above the head of the
actor's bed. The bed head itself forms steps which
lead to this door. A visitor would never know the.
room was there unless invited to enter by Master
William.
The room' is modeled like a ship's chart room.
v t
IT has an imitation mast running through it, port
holes for windows, with landscapes behind them
specially lighted. A compass is inlaid in the floor.
When Mrs. William can't locate Warren, she climbs
to the chart room, salutes, and tells him dinner is
waiting.
Dick Powell helped design the tricky bed he has
built in his home in the Toluca Lake district. With
out lifting his head from the pillow, Dick can turn
on a radio hidden in the bed head. Secret compart
ments hold the telephone, and a complete call but
ton panel makes it possible to summon the servants
from all parts of the house.
WILLIAM' POWELL'S new house in Beverly
Hills has numerous secret passagss and hidden
panels, which the actor uses to confound his guests.
John Barrymore points with pride to his trophy
room, which holds, among other things, a dinosaur
egg sent him by Roy Chapman Andrews from the
Gobi desert. Joserfhine Hutchinson has an electri
fied lily pond. When she touches a b "tton, the
cream-white blossoms turn to mauve, pink, blue and
cornflower.
Anita Louise cites her bird cagj as the trickiest
to be found in Hollywood. Anita merely throws a
switch, and the cage is refilled wit'i water, replen
ished wiih frcG'i bird seed, and the perches are
washed. '
James Cagney's gun room and library have no
counterpart anywhere, while Al Jolsrn's apart
ment hotel in '-is country home is sing.ilar indocd.
n
r -
Gossip
From the Studios and Social Centers
of Hollywood
by Jane
.."MMkt:
Fredric March
With five years of stardom behind her, Jean Harlow
has signed a new long term contract at M-G-M.
THEY were filming a trade-slaving sequence of
"Anthony Adverse" when I was out on the
Warner Bros, lot the other day. I went out to see
Fredric March, who takes the
lead role. Instead I saw a great
many other things.
As I approached there was a
jungle across the river. Dank
and lush it stood in a cup of hills.
In the center of the jungle was
an African compound, surrounded
by a stake fence.
In the compound was a plat
form and on this platform were
nearly a hundred half-naked men,
yoked together. Slaves. Magnifi
cent fellows, their glossy skins
shown like new enamel. Below
them were a motley crew of bearded men garbed
as Arabs, carrying long-mounted rifles; witch
doctors, bright with paint and feathers; blacks
with bull whips and wicked-looking knives.
There was the camera on hand to put on film
the tragedies and horror of slave trading under a
blazing African sun. And there was Director Mer
vyn LcRoy standing behind the camera, telling the
slaves when to cry out in pain and when to show
horror. But the blazing sun didn't blaze and the
wind blew cold.
Nevertheless, I wanted to cry when one poor
devil after another was sold to cruel Arabs with
bull vhips. Bowed with grief they were, stoically
accepthiT their awful fate meekly. I turned my
head a vay when one big fellow got 20 lashes . . .
the blood spurted brightly. . . . My throat hurt. . . .
Couldn't someone do something about this? ... It
seemed no one could . . . and pretty soon the sun
sank lower anu lower and, the
wind blew colder and colder.
Four o'clock came. Blue with
cold. Director LeRoy, shiveringly,
ordered the whole company dis
missed. . . . WHAM! The biggest
slave of all threw off his yoke,
jumped down from the platform,
rushed to a pile of brush, and
so help me dug out a golf club!
He set his big feet apart and be
gan practicing his drive.
Several other blacks disap
peared behind the compound. I
peered at them over a dying bush . . . they had a
blanket on the ground and in the big black hand
of the slave with the 20 lashes . . . there was a
rattling pair of dice. . . . Now I ask you . . . can
you tie that?
t
Led off by Ruby Keeler less than four years
ago, tne young hooters are being
welcomed by the producers. So if
you are trying to make the grade
in pictures, see that you know
your syncopation, because the
shortest cut to fame nowadays is
being made by those who can
sing and dance.
It's come to this, Albert; it's
come to this: The movies now
have glass chairs, glass divans,
glass tables and even glass up
holstery. . . . S'fact. Stop and
think if you have to stop to
thmk-chair.
Mervyn LeRoy
Ruby Keeler
what a fat gal would do sitting on a glass
PAGE FOUR