THE RUTHLESS CAMERA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 57 (Supplement)

THE RUTHLESS CAMERA

Demands Personality Beauty alone is not sufficient qualification for entry into the movie world. There' must be something else—an indefinable quality that directors term distinction, which may be present even in a plain face. Hundreds of beautiful “girls wait about the studios for the chance that comes only to a few, and that is because most of them have not an ounce of distinction. Acting before the camera must be more subtle and restrained than acting before the footlights. That is why a face that has aristocratic composure, a face in which just a turn of the eyes or a barely perceptible smile expresses a mood, is" full of significance and fascination. Only faces of very intelligent, if not extraordinary people, .can be fascinating in this way. The camera, however, is harder to please than the director, and requires something more than distinction; for the camera alters face, figure and hair. A movie actress must photograph well. She may be rather plain looking, and yet the camera may like her. She may be beautiful, but if the camera hates her. there is no hope for her ambitions. Colouring must be ignored. Photographic shades are dull brown and grey and not at all helpful. Brunettes have a slight advantage before the ruthless camera, for yellow and red hair photograph very dark and only the light . ash-blonde photographs blonde. Billie Burke’s hair is red, so that it looks almost black in pictures. The right kind of hair, eyes and figure, however, is not essential. Pola Negri is said to have the clear cut sharp nose that ordinarily is fatal in the first screen test. Douglas Fairbanks hasn’t the heavy jaw that is supposed to be essential for manly beauty in America. Colleen Moore has one dark brown eye and one light green one. Some alluring stars have heavy ankles, and some are far from lean, while others are elderly, but they have that quality of magnetism that is really the essential thing. Brains and intelligence are at the root of it.

Mrs. Cronan heard her little granddaughter Margaret crying as if _in great pain, and hastened to the child. ‘•Why, dear, what is the matter?” inquired Mrs. Cronan. ‘‘Did you meet with an accident?” “N-no, grandma 1” sobbed Margaret. ‘‘lt w-wasn’t an accident! M-mothcr did it on p-purpose!”