HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 38, 14 February 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

GOSSIP OF TtfE STUDIOS.

(By MOLLIB MERRICK.)

HOLLYWOOD, January 14,

Dorothy Jordan, the slim little Southern girl whom Ramon Novarro has consistently preferred for his leading lady for some time now, is slated for stardom unless present plana go awry. There has never been a beauty of the screen who has, shown such marked improvement in technique as Miss Jbrdan. Her first talkie revealed a' beautiful, fragile creature with a voice that was nasal, disagreeable and without many variations in expression. Her most recent release proves that she has done some valiant work in this regard; and, in addition, her characterisations are ; becoming outstanding ones in field. She has some of the delica,te cameo-like beauty of Eleanor Boardman, much of, the wistfulness. that made. Mae Marsh a creature of ineluctable charm, superb youth and unquenchable ambition.; She almost • collapsed during, the making of "Mm and Bill," in which she had an ingenue role. Strenuous hours, plus her frail constitution, wrecked havoc with her. < She was so spent -when the day's work was done that she fell across her bed in tears, and her mother had to

undress her iflld tuck iier in. It's all in the making of a movie success, and something to think of "when, moviemindecL' Unless a girl is willing to go through just this she has small chance of getting her name into bright lights in these days of competition. In searching for a figure which is purely of the motion picture industry, and which can be regarded as one of greatest promise, "the choicer naturally narrows down <. to' Douglas Fairbanks, jun., as the one pre-eminent figure of youth calculated to dominate his confreres , in: film endeavour. There • are to-day-; several promising young men in the motion picture . business v ; /ft would be a horrible outlook for producers if there were not; Young Lew Ayres, for instance, and Russell Gleason, of a family' of actors>, and possessed of all the assets which go to make the outstanding theatrical career. But point out any field in which these lads excel, and Fairbanks, jun., will undoubtedly top it. He is, to begin with, a child of the cinema. His father, Douglas Fairbanks, dominated the industry when young Doug w as in that formative stage that they tell us to-day is the only age at which to learn things. Golf, for instance. A good many of us believe that now. Doug, jun., absorbed things about film and camera and directors and angles and the rest, including make-up, that most of the youth of Hollywood had to learn consciously after they were fully grown. Because .of his father's prominence in motion pictures, he feared concerted opposition to his attempts to succeed in them. So he let no opportunity escape to learn other things and to perfect talents which the average youth allows to remain dormant—if he is fortunate enough to possess them at all. When Douglas Fairbanks, jun., appeared recently !in "Outward Bound" he had in the cast such players as Leslie Howard, star of the picture, and Dudley Digges. Against this opposition Douglas Fairbanks, jun., gives/ a creditable performance: —one that holds up with the best in the picture and one which points him as the coming youth of the colony. In "The Dawn Patrol," an, aviation picture in which he appeared with Richard Barthelmess, he again gives a characterisation which qualifies him as one Of the pre-eminent .youths of the cinema industry. _ Fairbanks, jun., works from the inside out. One feeli that he isn't, particularly bothered about being one of the superlatively handsome men of the screen, that he accepts his . meed of good looks in a casual way and makes the most of them; that he is far more interested in giving a sincere performance than a showy one; that htf is insatiable in his ambition, and that, if not carefully guided at the present time, may try to overstep his. inescapable limitations of youth and inexperience by reason of that very ambition and sincerity. Then the screen revealed Ann Harding in "Parn Bound." A beauty, an actress of rare ability and "a girl with personality galore for the audience. She went straight to the top of the heap with "Holiday," she cemented the position with "Girl of the Golden West," and I'm betting on that girl to keep the standard up. That's where the brain comes in. Ann Harding's careful attention to the dialogue of her pictures has set Greta. Garbo fighting like a wildcat to protect herself in this, respect. She has refused to recite the smugly smart lines which have been put into her most recent picture. Another author was called in. More dialogue written. The entire effect wasn't simple and human enough. And Garbo is genius enough to know that her effects are created in her eyes and through her personality and appearance with its intriguing mystery, rather than through the lines she reads.

New York audiences are crying loudly for a reshowing of the cast list at the end of the picture. Because of the ex-cellent-work of many people new to pictures, they leave the theatre wondering just what the name of the new idol is. A reshowing of the cast list would only take a few seconds' time and would be valuable in building up interest in newcomers to the-screen. One hears mutterings about it: and we do learn something: from audiences now and again, if: we keep ourears-to"the ground.