Ronald Colman

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 18

Ronald Colman

Wellingtonian Meets Star On Set “fpHEY told me plenty of stories about Ronald Colman before I had an opportunity to meet him. They told me not to ask about this ami about that —in fact the least asked the better,” said Mr. J. L. Warren, of Paramount’s New Zealand office, who has just returned to the Dominion after two months in Hollywood. “Somehow I didn't feel as if they were talking about the Colman I had seen on the screen time and again. He had always seemed so gracious, so obliging—so much the gentleman. Yet they would have me believe he was not that type in real life. When the time came to meet him. I was a little afraid. Not afraid, mind you, for what he might say or do —but afraid of being disillusioned !

“My first glimpse of Colman was on the set of ‘lf I Were King.’ Frank Lloyd, the director, had caused Colman and Ralph Forbes to go through a long banter of talk about Colman’s duties (he plays Francois Villon) as Grand Constable of France. They had to do a good deal of walking about in addition to speaking lines. After several tries at the scene in rehearsal. Lloyd decided to make a ’take.’ The first was perfect, the second was spoiled by Forbes, the third by a bad lamp, and in the fourth Colman muffed his lines. “To myself I said, ‘Here it comes.’ But it didn’t. Colman said nothing but 'Sorry, Frank’; smiled and added. “Let's try again.’ I felt someone had been i wrong. After another take, Colman' sat down in a chair while the cameras were being rearranged.

“I moved over to where he was sitting. After introducing myself, I ventured, ‘You certainly have a marvellous role in this picture, Mr. Colman.’ “ ‘The best I could hope for,’ he replied without hesitation, ‘and a grand cast, too.’ “I ventured further, ‘How do you like Frank Lloyd as your director?’ “ ‘Frank and I have been bosom pals for years. The last time I worked for him was in ‘Under Two Flags.’ I like this story ten times more, and, with Frank directing, I am sure we have a hit.’

“At this point I offered a cigarette, and he accepted. I knew I had struck home. Colman stroked his face unconsciously and remarked. ’I feel funny today. You see I had a beard for the first' eight weeks of this picture, and this is my second day without it. I feel rather naked.’ We both laughed. “ ‘Are you still the tenuis enthusiast?” was my next question. “‘Just as much as ever. Though I don’t play much while I am working in a picture. I take it easy—but once my picture is through, I go at it agaiu as hard as ever. It keeps me fit.’ “ ‘Have you decided on your next picture?’

“ ’No. there are several I would like to do—‘but I want to keep down to two a year. That’s plenty for me. particularly if I do the stories I like.’ “ 'The stage .’

“As if he knew what I was going to ask, he answered without my finishing. ‘I have no desire to tramp the boards again. It has been so many years now, and I am out of touch with everything. I feel pictures are sufficient for me.’

“He seemed content with everything and everybody. His smile is still as pleasing and infectious as ever.

“Frances D?e came into the set at this point and to watch Colman graciously receive her would put gentlemanly instincts into the hearts of every man that watched the scene. “I bowed out and felt, and still feel, that Ronald Colman is not acting the gentleman on the screen—he is just being his natural self! “It was through Mr. Colman that I met Basil Rathbone and most other notables’ of the cast of ‘lf I Were King,’ and I cannot but predict a most enthusiastic reception for this picture when it enters release in New Zealand.”

TTELEN VINSON, the screen star wife of Fred Perry, the tennis player, was recently hurt in a New York motor accident.