CHARLES LAUGHTON

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 8

CHARLES LAUGHTON

Is He England’s Greatest

Actor?

CATHOLIC IN WORK AND

ACHIEVEMENTS

ißy

H.P.)

“He has always moaned and groaned his way through characterizations till he reaches the truth he has been looking for," says Elsa Lanchester about her husband, Charles Laughton, the famous creator of Henry VIII, in the ifl-lm comedy, “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” and of Captain Bligh in “The Mutiny of the Bounty,” to say nothing of his screen Rembrandt and other roles, in her book Charles Laughton and I.” Who is England’s greatest actor today? Such a question is not to be answered so simply as in- less complicated times. At various periods in the history of the stage there would be no hesitation—Garrick, Edmund Kean, Macready, Sir Henry Irving, and, after him, possibly Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson. These were judged to -be pre-eminent almost solely on their power to enact leading Shakespearean roles, that being the standard or guage by which actors were judged up till thirty years ago. Rut the business of acting has been complicated somewhat by the advent of the sound film, for we are told on ail hands that the business of acting in fierce lights under the eye of a sensitive camera demands a technique almost entirely at variance to that of the stage proper.

If a plebiscite were taken of English playgoers as to the best English actor now before the public, two names would be included, those of John Gielgud, at present associated with the finest English actress, Miss Marie Tempest, and Charles Laughton, who has succeeded on the stage and screen. Gielgud is only known to London, Laughton to the world. Probably no two actors could be more dissimilar in character. Gielgud stands for culture, charm of manner and person, and no little power (with the Terry blood counting for a lot), but Laughton is’ catholic in his work and achievements. Not favoured by nature —he has a preponderance of fat in all departments of his face—fat cheeks, a fat nose, and almost blubber lips—but behind it all there are strangely moving powers, not at all consonant with a fleshy, easy-going man, and yet, as in Henry, a mighty jowl that carries conviction; and his light laughing eyes can be attuned to penetrating, implacable cruelty (as in Bligh). Probably there is no actor on the English stage today who Is so powerful and versatile in his work, so convincing in tensity and subtle strength'. He is not cut out for a Hamlet or a Romeo, but what a Sir Toby Belch! "What a Falstaff I Laughton as Hook. Speaking of that access of spleen which Laughton may summon, Miss Lanchester tells the story of the late Sir James Barrie, who in 1936 told Laughton that he did not want him to play Captain Hook in “Peter Pan” for fear that he would terrify the children. Barrie sensed the dreadful power that Laughton can exert; but Laughton assured the gentle Scotchman that lie could “roar as gently as a sucking dove,” and, in saying so, looked so meek and mild that Barrie consented. That meant that Laughton played Hook (what a Hook!) and his -wife Peter Pan. She wanted to dress the same as the other boys, but Barrie insisted on the typical Peter Pan clothes, and Barrie was right—he was always right. Laughton considers Hook one of the finest comedy parts ever written. Charles Laughton was the son of a Scarborough publican. He divided the days of his youth between learning how to run a hotel and amateur acting. He preferred the latter pastime. So that eventually he got his way and went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Acting in London, “where thinking about acting.ceased to be a crime and became a cardinal virtue.” But even then his pathway was not an easy one. He was a hard worker, a clear thinker and had his own standards. These standards were Gibraltar-like with him. On one occasion he made a success in a part in which he was receiving £3 a week. He was offered £3O a week to play a similar role, but refused it—he would rather wait and study; and so, at the Old Vic., minor triumphs were recorded by this young actor, who absorbed Shakespeare and the old comedies as blotting-paper does ink.

It is recorded that after he made the picture, “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” he was offered a prodigious Kiim to go to Hollywood, but refused it to return to the “Old Vic.” to play new Shakespearean roles for a pittance. K

Miss Lanchester has a good word to say for Hollywood. “However gay the private lives of actors In Hollywood may be, I have always found an almost Masonic understanding among them all, which puts work first and foremost. This is one of the reasons why Charles always liked Hollywood.” Mrs. Laughton began her career as a dancer, a slender, red-haired, browneyed. slip of a thing described as “elfin” till she was sick of the word, but she became an actress long before she met Charles Laughton, and it wits through ilia habit of dropping behind the curtain, to see Gerald du Manrier as Hook, that she first met him. Miss Lanchester dislikes the tinselled fanfare of “personal appearances” for a movie premiere, as practised in the United States of America. “I think film actors should stay at home on sueh . occasions,” he says. “Every time, something of the kind occurs I feel I should be at home peeling potatoes.”