MERLE OBERON’S SECRET DESIRE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 183, 1 May 1936, Page 16

MERLE OBERON’S SECRET DESIRE

QINCE Merle Oberon caused a sensation by her two-minute appearance as Anne Boleyn in “Henry VIII" a few years ago, there has been more written about her than any other film actress excluding Greta Garbo. Yet there is still a side to Merle that few people know writes an overseas film correspondent. She’s little and sweet, dignified and provocative; so very good to look at, always perfectly dressed . . . but with a will of iron that has, so far, been her beacon light in the stormy passage that leads to stardom. It was this determination that made her defy all authority and get aboard the ship that brought her to England in the first place; and that same characteristic has kept her firmly to the path she has chosen. She was brought up by an uncle in India, and when her schooling Was finished he intended that she should remain a young lady of leisure, a pleasant decoration to his household. Merle had other plans. During her very youthful years when she was at school in Britain and France, she saw no reason why she should not become a film actress. Uncle said “No,” both early and often. Then he prepared to pay - a visit to England himself, without his niece. So the niece promptly (and secretly) arranged to board the same ship. There she surprised uncle by appearing demurely at breakfast the first day out. When her small triumph had been digested by her irate relative, fate overtook her. She lost her passport. She was told she could not land without it. At'Naples, however, she managed to find the British Consul, who arranged matters for her and, once safely landed in England, she set out to get herself a job. She trailed around the film studios, getting a day’s work here and another there. I cannot reveal a heartbreak story of her days of starvation, for she never actually did starve. She was not rich, exactly, but she had a certain income of her own. One day she met a fortune-teller, who read ier cards, and told her a lot of things she already knew ' about herself. She also mentioned that green—usually .considered an unlucky colour —was just the opposite for her. In this, the old gipsy was correct. Merle had a green frock in her wardrobe, and it was this green'frock which she wore the very night that Alexander Korda, the film director, first noticed her. Actually Korda did not “spot” her, for she was sitting in a restaurant with her back to him, several tables removed. It was a woman in Korda’s party who suddenly exclaimed: “There’s an unusual type, Alex! . . . Better have a look at her.” Alex, “had a look,” and proposed a film test. He also watched her at work at B.l.P.—where she was playing a “bit” the following day. Korda was, then making “Service for Ladies,” for Paramount, and meditating upon a company of his own. Merle became one of his first "young ladies,” and played a leading- part in “Wedding Rehearsal” and “Men of To-morrow.” “Henry Vlll”—her smallest part —was her biggest success, and after this she went straight to Paris for “The Battle,” returning for “The Broken Melody.”

“Don Juan” followed, and Lady Blakeney in “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” and we have seen her in other pictures since then, groomed by Hollywood. Soon you will seen her in the “Dark Angel.” Merle Oberon at home is even more attractive than the girl you meet in the studios, or see on the screen. She is so ambitious, too. Wants to be three people. . . . ‘ Yes . . . three, not merely two, which is the ambition of- most screen stars I know. She wants to be Merle Oberon, the film actress. She loves her job, the glitter and the excitement of the studio, the thrill and the atmosphere of “something’s always happening,” the meeting of other personalities, the glamour and the aura of mystery that surround a film star. Then she wants to be Merle Oberon, the wife, to have her own lovely home and a husband who adores her; to have the understanding and companionship that a happy, marriage means. Th'e film star Merle has nothing to'do with this character at all. She wants a nursery wing, and the thrill of baby’s first tooth, and the glory of watching him grow from a tiny, helpless scrap to a laughing, romping schoolboy.

Merle’s third personality is even more interesting. Quite apart from the actress and the wife, she wants a third self. One that runs away and hides behind a locked door, in a secret room where no one can enter, a little world where she can be alone and think, read, write even; where she can escape from life and try to solve the deeper problems that sometimes "get too much for me. . . .”

Mae West, “curvaceous” star of Paramount’s "Klondike Annie,” hates to be alone? She likes to have people about her, and her dressing room and apartment are always tilled with her intimate friends. I

TN Columbia’s "The Music Goes X Round,” co-starring Harry Richman and Rochelle Hudson, Michael Bartlett, who came to pictures from Grand Opera, will surprise audiences by rendering, in conventional operatic fashion, the familiar number, “The Music Goes Round and Around.” Although Bartlett was not cast for a role in the picture, Director Victor Schertzinger conceived the novel idea. Harry’ Richman introduces Bartlett as a night club guest. A symphony orchestra accompanies him.