NEW MICAWBER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21363, 4 January 1935, Page 5

NEW MICAWBER

W. C. FIELDS IN "DAVID COPPERFIELD" A GREAT COMEDIAN It was recently announced that Mr Charles Laughton had voluntarily resigned the part of Micawber in the Hollywood '"David Copperfleld" that is now in process of being filmed. There has been no ill feeling on either side in this arrangement. Mr Laughton is continuing to work for the same firm. The announcement that the American film comedian W. C. Fields has taken over this key-part in the film is much more recent. Who is Mr W. C. Fields? The answer, states a writer in the "Observer," will be familiar to thousands of film-goers. It may be less familiar to hundreds of thousands of Dickensians who do

not go to the films, to whom Macawber is as well known as a member of their families, and who are interested to know what sort of man will fill in the eternally remembered outlines. This is a description of Mr Field's film personality as revealed in the films that he has made up to now. It is gathered from other actors and film-actors, among them no less an expert than Miss Cicely Courtneidge. It is interesting to see which of his known traits tally with the traits of Micawber. He is an actor who plays "crazy" parts. Query—what precise form does his craziness take? "Oh, he plays parts where he suddenly lands in a ballroom having come through the roof in an aeroplane." Qualifications of Mr Fields He is what is known as a "quickfire" comedian, with his own variations. The variations—very significantly—are a certain pomposity and unctuousness. He does things "in passing." Picks things up quickly, while talking on different subjects, and as quickly puts them down again. In a word, he is inconsequential. He does a celebrated turn with a billiard cue—of which the whole point is that, while pretending to do a very difficult feat with billiard balls, he is telling a funny story all the time, and finally forgets to do the feat, or else does it so quickly that no one sees it. He is a first-rate actor, by film standards or any other standard. Being American-born, he usually plays with a strong American accent; but this may be explained by the fact that he usually plays "hundred-per-cent. American" parts; and it is known that he has travelled so far and so long in Europe that it is thought that he may be capable of shedding the accent at will. I have asked which English comedian he most nearly corresponds to. The answer was that it was difficult to find any English comedian with whom he has affinities. He has a "large, rugged sort of face"; also described as a "kindly, homely sort of face." ("Homely" was here used in the English sense, which is far more complimentary than the accepted American sense.) All agree that he is a comedian of something like genius. What are the Micawber traits, then, that emerge from this description of a man who, in personal life, started bv running away from a Philadelphia home, by selling newspapers, and by doing juggling turns in the smallest sort of music-hall and beer-garden? The American Accent The facts that he descends through roofs from aeroplanes, and does turns with cigars and billiard-cues are irrelevant. They are the stock-in-trade of modern American film methods. The inconsequentialness mentioned by his admirers is far more important. There was a side of Micawber (or the whole of him?) that could be extraordinarily inconsequential. The American accent may be very provocative among a cast which is otherwise predominantly English, and in a Dick'eus story. On the other hand, he may be able to drop it altogether. The "large, kindly" face will certainly not be out

of character. He looks the part even without make-up. And, most important of all, being judged by other actors an actor of extreme talent, he will

at the very least give a performance, that is full of competence and character. The facts of his life are interesting. He was born in Philadelphia in 1879 which is to say that he is 55. His first salary was Ave dollars a week in an Atlantic City beer-garden. His next was 10 dollars. From doing his juggling in small vaudeville halls and 12 turns a day, he became a head-line juggler (still speaking no word when he was on the stage) in New York, and in the capitals of the rest of the world. Later, further ambition seized him, and he began introducing acrobatics and burlesques. A-celebrated pantomime of a game of golf is still spoken about. He went into the Ziegfeld Follies as a comedian, into musical comedies, and into films, the first being with D. W. Griffith in "Sally of the Sawdust." His later films have been the admirable "If I Had a Million," "Six of a Kind." and "You're Telling Me."

LIVINGSTONE OR PEPYS? MR GEORGE ARLISS'S NEXT ROLE There is a likelihood that Mr George Arliss will be seen on the screen shortly in the role of David Livingstone. His next picture, "Richelieu," will be made in Hollywood. He will then return to England to play a modern part—perhaps in the story which J. B. Priestley is writing for him—before tackling another historical character. For this third British picture he is considering both Livingstone and Pepys.

MUSIC AT EXHIBITIONS | DECISION OF CANADIAN JUDGE ON COMPOSERS' RIGHTS In a test case'in the Canadian law courts recently, states a communication from the Australasian Performing Right Association, Ltd, Mr Justice Rose decided that the composers of music played at the Canadian national exhibition at Toronto were entitled to pavment for the performance of their works. The Canadian Performing Right Society had taken action on their behalf because the promoters of the exhibition and the conductor of the band had refused to recognise the rights of the composers. The judge pointed out that somebody was making a profit out of the music which the composers had originated, and if. it was not the promoters of the exhibition it was, at

any rate, the bandsmen. The defendants pleaded that the performance wa9 without their authority, as the members of the band were not their servants or agents, but this point wa* over-ruled by the judge.

The Hollywood product still holds its popularity iu Paris, and out of 34 first-run theatres, 19 are running American films. Eight have French, two English, one American-French, one" Austrian, one Russian, and one German. Stars who provide the best box-office attraction are Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, James Cagney, Ronald Colman, John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Noah Beery, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer.