Opening at the Brer For on Friday is Neena, talented Hindu danseuse, capable in a large repertoire, Laughton in Comedy Charles Laughton is an actor with an invariable and unmistakable personality. Even when he is almost smothered in make-up as the Hunchback of Notre Dame he is unquestionably Charles Laughton. But he has a wide range of moods. When he wants to be unpleasantly horrible he can make all the other horrific actors look like entertainments for infants. His Mr. Barrett of Wimpole Street was almost as unpleasant as his Captain Bligh of the "Bounty." But as Ruggles of Red Gap he was a delightful and attractive companion for anyone.
After the monstrous Hunchback, Laughton will return to comedy, and Erich Pommer will be his producer. It will be remembered that with Pommier he started the Mayflower Company in England, and the two made "St. Martin's Lane" and "Vessel of Wrath." Now, in Hollywood, they have joined up with RKO. The comedy will be entitled "Half a Rogue" and Laughton will be a bartender who is mistaken for the father a famous film star and wildly feted. This will give him a chance to display his alert and sly sense of humour.
In this picture, Elsa Lanchester (Mrs. Laughton) will be one of the cast. They have not acted together since "Vessel of Wrath," after scoring joint successes in "The Private Life of Henry VII' and "Rembrandt." After his bartender impersonation, Laughton will appear as Benjamin Franklin, again with Pommer as producer. Franklin was a "character" of the first water, and should afford the actor a ripe and grateful opportunity.
Sophie Redji Gala Friends of Sophie Redji, Russian concert hall singer and comedienne of Czarist day, will be honoured with a gala performance in the Lyceum Theatre on Wednesday and, herself, will sing a number of popular airs. Supporting artistes are Shushlin, Speransky, Bershadskaya and. Glehova, and Adler (violin), the Largo trio and Seroff and Manjelei, Musical director Leo Schonbach. Vocalists are chosing their selections, among others, from Tschaikowsky, Puccini, Leoncavallo, Verdi and Thomas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.