Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 7680x10240 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

0oll$ywood Presentis
Soviet -Russia
1T'S not so long since
Hollywood was pretty
caustic, not to say abusive,
about the Soviet. But now
it's,going in for so many
pictures about Russia that
the natives are said to be
talking about setting up a
Red Square on Hollywood
Boulevardski.
The most important pictureI
about Russia will probably be
"Mission to Moscow," from the
best-selling book written recently
by Joseph E. Davies. former U.S.
Ambassador to Russia.
If everything comes off as plan
ned, Warner's will make this the
story of a typical family of capi
talist Americans come face to face,
for the first time, with the Com
munist system.
The studio says it's going in for
facts, not fiction, and will follow
the book pretty literally. To this
end it will have actors portraying
34 living characters, including not
only Mr. Davies and his wife and
daughter, but Litvinov and Molo
tov: and the German Foreign
Minister, von Ribbentrop.
Who will play Mr. Davies has
not yet been decided, but the
choice apparently is between
Walter Huston and Fredric
March, with the odds on Huston.
MIrs. Davies may be played by
Claudette Colbert or Irene
Dunne.
Just so the screen writers can
get the background properly, Mr.
Davies has sent to Hollywood four
cabinets of his personal papers.
"Scorched Earth"
Besides "Mission to Moscow,"
Hollywood is going to make pic
tures about the musicians of a
Ukraine village, who became guer
illas, and "Russian Marines." which
wvill use music by Rimsky-Korsa
kov.
The film about the musician
guerillas will be called "Scorched
IEarth." Its producer, Joe Paster
/nak, says, "This is the story of all
freedom-loving people. It shows
that while there's great courage in
living in your bombed-out home,
there's even greater courage in
burning your home down.
"This is a picture about freedom
loving peonle like ourselves, a
story of the good earth being
scorched to preserve the good
earth."
A Soviet war film, "The Girl
From Leningrad" is going to be re
made in Hollywood. Claudette Col
bert and Merle Oberon have both
been suggested as girl of the title.
Even Greta Garbo may star in a
picture boosting the Russians,
which is pretty remarkable after
her role in "Ninotchka."
In. that satire on the Soviet she
played a Russian Communist, who
became convinced that the one
place not to live in was Russia.
The new movie suggested for
Garbo is "Caviare for the Gene
ral," the story of a Nazi general
outwitted by a patriotic Russian
woman.
The picture, it's said, will try to
give an honest view of Russian
life. "If we're going to show that
the Russian people are fighting to
preserve their way of life," says
the studio that's going to make it,
"we must show what kind of life
they consider worth preserving."
Final example of Hollywood's
change of heart about Russia,
"Comrade X," which originally
had a caustic foreword ridiculing
Russia. now has another foreword
-written by the man who wrote
the first one-saying that "Com
rade" was all in a spirit of fun .
Exit 'elles
Orson Welles, the bad b6y of
Hollywood, who upset most movie
traditions with his "Citizen Kane,"
has been ejected from R.K.O.
studio. along with his Mercury
players.
Welles was always rowing with
the studio and getting into trouble
one way or another. He was in
South America when the studio
decided to get rid of his company.
The studio head is Charles
Koerner, and when one of Welles'
staff told him over the long-dis
tance telephone about what had
happened Welles replied, "Don't
worry, boys. We're just passing
a bad Koerner."
To which the studio replied,
"All's well that ends Welles."
Welles got his own back on the
studio, in a way. He used to hold
all his conferences in a steam
room, from which al Lstudio exec.
tives were barred.
When at last he had got rid of
Welles, the studio manager went
to the empty steam room to enjoy,
at last, a good steam bath-only
to find that the Mercury players
had aken away all the fittings . . .
$