HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 102, 2 May 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

GOSSIP, FROM FILMLAND. (By MOLLIS MERRICK.) HOLLYWOOD, April 1. When the list of 1931 films is finally tabulated, if any company manages to top the film "Cimarron," which has brought Richard Dix back to his own in the type role which he does in perfection, they will be achieving the apparently impossible. It eeems strange, so early in the year, to forecast the great picture of that year. But this epic of the great West promises to be to this year what "All Quiet on the Western Front" was to last year, and, because of the universality of its theme, the pioneer motif understandable to all, it has a more widespread claim on our interest and sympahty. The more one sees of pictures the more is the realisation established that the director is the genius of the picture in the final analysis. Wesley Ruggles, a director about whom we have heard from time to time as having unusual quality, has stepped from a modest position in the motion picture world, into the front ranks of those who write tales in film. Richard Dix's career has been one of ups and downs; of good pictures and great pictures and then of long intervals with just pictures—nothing more. He proves in "Cimarron" that he must have a story with certain quality. That, given this type of thing, he is eminently fitted to mould it into an unforgettable characterisation. He has more vitality and breadth in his voice than most of the actors on the screen to-day. This is the voice Jack Gilbert. needed to put stuff into his pictures. It is the adventurer's voice—and Yancey Cravat is the most lovable adventurer, the most inconsistent lover, the most maddening man a woman ever had to deal with. He is presented to his audience without extenuation. Neither apologies for what he does nor attempted justification. Herein lies the secret of some of the film "Cimarron's" strength. It is the custom of movie producers to justify themselves in presenting a character that is not perfect when that character is the hero. You take Yancey Cravat as Edna Ferber created him, and beyond the casual hint that there was Indian blood in his veins, which explained his irresistible yearning to roam, there is no other explanation of it given..

Irene Dunne, Eadio's hew find, is one of the most beautiful girls on the screen to-day, and that 'is the least of her qualificatons. She possesses beyond beauty, that sympathy and direct appeal to the emotions of her audience which has always been true of Norma Talmadge. She has a scope of acting ability which carries her, in .this picture, from a young girl to a white-haired woman, with each changing phase exquisitely delineated. Wesley Ruggles has taken artists of standing a'nd so handled them that he has made you forget that they are actors and actresses at all. He has taken Edna Ferber's story—and adhered faithfully to it— yet made you forget you are seeing the picturisation of a great novel. He has made 13 reels of the opening and building of Oklahoma, which seems like 13 minutes. He has made you forget film strip, and acting technique, and the cutter's art, and all the other things which are generally foremost in the talking picture. This, when all is said and done, is the ideal for which every director struggles—-to blot out the art in actuality—to so perfect the illusion that it merges into reality. As I said in the beginning of this article, the other directors of Hollywood are handicapped early in the year; 1931 has already put out the greatest picture of its type I have ever seen.

When the comebacks are all sorted out and pigeonholed, Lew Cody's will remain the most sensational. He came back out of silence —out of sickness —out of the sort of jinx which seemed to have fallen on his vintage of players. He came back to play opposite Gloria Swanson when that artist reached the dizziest height she had yet attained, and his performance stands out as the best one in that picture. I refer to "What a Widow." Since then Lew Cody has made four or five talkies. He is constantly in demand, and for the best pictures that are being turned out of Hollywood. Few of them have been released as yet. It takes a long time for the mills to release their grist. But talking to Lew Cody about pictures then and now—about stories and players and all the detail that goes to the making of a good picture—you understand how it is that he came back and how it is that he will remain in the place he has resumed as long as he is willing to continue in professional life.

Lew Cody deplores the sharp differentiation between the stage,and the screen. He points out that from Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford down to the most; recent players, with the exception of the Talmadge girls and a few others, the people of the screen are originally of the stage. The two are so inter-related, in his opinion, that there is no need for this comparison. Movies always, used lines. But those lines were hot recorded —hence the players had no reason to consider their tones —mrroly their facial expressions. Lew Cody believes that it is almost impossible to make a talkie which will please your banker and your cook. Yet that is exactly what producers are trying to do to-day. He thinks that in trying

to please one you possibly create an offence for the other. He looks toward a time when there will be varying types of picture made, exactly as there are differing types of plays, with each catering to its own particular group audiences. When this comes theatres for talking pictures will be smaller, and actors and actresses, directors, authors and supervisors will be free of the horrible strain of trying to achieve the impossible. "You can't fool all of the people all of the time," as an astute American once said. And there will be better pictures when we stop trying'to do just that and proceed on the basis of the story—not with the theory of intriguing every sex and type and class that may wander into a theatre holding three or four thousand souls or more. Racketeer stuff which we deemed had run its gamut, is back in the saddle again with Clara Bow and Gary Cooper co-stars in a 1 picture of the underworld. It's the first time the two have faced the camera| together for a couple of years. Then it was romanace. Now it's probably rivalry. Clara Bow's contribution to fashion is the donning of white flannel trousers of the Oxford bag type modified, scarlet and white striped jersey, white flannel coat, very brief and • double-breasted, with white pearl buttons, white buck sneakers and white beret. She wears it with much elan.

Newspaper stories are just beginning, so far as the present crop of talkies are concerned. ; Richard Barthelmess is making a newspaper tale. "Millie," the most recent vehicle of Helen Twelvetrees, has newspaper lads figuring prominently in the march of the story. Several studios have been milling over newspaper plots, and casting an anxious eye the while on Walter Huston —who made one of the first successful talkie characterisations- of this type long ago, back in the infancy of talk. With the coming of "FiVe Star Final," the most recent newspaper legitimate stage success, the fever for faithfully recounting the adventures of these modern musketeers will begin all over again. Several years ago the newspaper plot was out with editors. If and when they did attempt a, story of the sort, it was a wishy-washy affair with very little semblance of the actual thing. Nowadays the idea is to present this line of work, which still has tremendous thrills and opportunities for venturing behind it, in perfection.

One of the most persistent rumours credits the Fox Corporation with a cessation of production scheduled during the next few months to make time and opportunity for complete reorganisation. The story cm-rent is to the effect that several of those bankers who know of pictures only the long, dry sheet which lists profits and looses are not finding enough on the profit side to keep them interested. One must keep an audience interested in the emotional side of movies. But when it comes to the Wall Streeters their interest lies all in the cold black-and-white which records the picture's box office record. If the ambitious plans of Howard Hughes go through as he has scheduled them, there will be plenty of theatres for the United Artist group without; worrying any regarding leasing such from competitors. The current stories prophesy a complete change of high executive staff. This will be the second big shake-up Fox has had,within the last twelve months or so.