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Show STESCREENJftJfolO By VIRGINIA VALE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) TESTING'S under way at Paramount for "For Whom the Bell Tolls"; Charles Laughton, Akim Tamiroff and Oscar Homolka have been considered for the role of "Pablo," but the burning burn-ing question is who'll play "Maria"? It calls for beauty, but even more for the ability to act. We hear that Paulette Goddard heads the list of the girls to be tested; seems as if it would be a superb piece of miscasting if she got the part. Ingrid Berman's our choice and the author's. Ginger Rogers has signed for three years more with EKO; she's been there for eight years. She did "Flying "Fly-ing Down to Rio" then, and her danc-lng danc-lng with Fred Astaire in that little number made them our leading dance team in pictures. She wisely insisted, at last, on acting as well, and worked up to "Kitty Foyle," Ginger Rogers wmcS stle dIdn 1 want to do, we hear, but which proved to be her greatest success. She's just finishing "Tom, Dick and Harry" now, and they say around the lot that it's a worthy successor to "Kitty Foyle." Orson Welles isn't making any announcements about his second picture for RKO Radio he kept mum about "Citizen Kane" too, remember, re-member, and executives were pretty startled when they found out, too late, what it was all about and it looked as if they might have trouble if they released it. Instead of a trouble-maker, they had one of the best pictures of all time on their hands! Welles has admitted hat he will write, produce and direct this new picture, and will star in it. Joseph Pasternack, who guided Deanna Durbin through her successful success-ful screen career, has signed a contract con-tract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; it looks as if he might do for Kathryn Grayson what he did for Deanna. Hollywood just didn't give a whoop about Victor Mature until he made a highly press-agented press-agented appearance in the New York stage success, "Lady in the Dark." He doesn't act much in the play, just looks tall, dark and handsome. Now it's announced that two motion picture companies com-panies want him; one, Twentieth Cen- tury-Fox, has bought half his contract Victor Mature ! from Hal Roach and will feature him in two pictures a year. The first will be "Bowery ! Nightingale," co-starring with Alice I Faye. ! & Old timers among the movie fans will remember Raymond Hatton; probably they'll also declare that "The Whispering Chorus," in which he starred for De Mille, was one of the best pictures ever made. Well, Hatton is working for his old boss again in "Reap the Wild Wind." W. S. Van Dyke, the ace director, has been on active duty with the marine corps for the past year. Now he's returned to the Metro lot. And what do you suppose his first assignment assign-ment will be? "The Female of the Species" a long cry from the Marines! Did you happen to hear "Man on the Street" on the "Manhattan at Midnight" radio show about a month ago? Within 24 hours after the sketch was presented five motion picture studios were after it. Paramount Para-mount won out; Bing Crosby and Mary Martin will co-slar. They've just completed "Birth of the Blues," with Carolyn Lee and Brian Don-levy. Don-levy. People who've heard Bob Hope rave on the radio about Madeleine Carroll have decided that he must know her well enough to get autographed auto-graphed pictures of the blonde star for them. She's on location in the West Indies, so they've been pestering pes-tering him for the photographs. He doesn't mind; he just got a lot of her pictures, autographed them with his own name, and had them mailed. ODDS AND ENDS Wayne Morris got leave from the Navy Drpartmpnt to finish "The Smiling Ghoxt" for Warner Bros, before he became an ensign . . . NBC is preparing a new series, "Boy Meets Band," for its singer-bandlendrr, Ted Steele, who used to be an NBC page boy . . . Though Btng Crosby can't read a note of music, the boys in John Scott Trotter's band say he's a swell conductor . . . Metro will push Marsha Hunt up the ladder as a result re-sult of her work in "lllnnsomt in the Dust" . . . Sen ire men who umnt to and can see Hollywood stars broadcasting broad-casting should apply to Charles Posner of the t nited Service Organizations. |