The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. TYPES OF BEAUTY.

Evening Star, Issue 19710, 10 November 1927, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. TYPES OF BEAUTY.

Ain Robert Dexter, film editor and writer, of Sydney, is a bold man. Giving evidence before the seemingly interminable Film Commission which is touring the States as an aid to conclusions on how the moving pictures industry of the Commonwealth can best bo made more British and Australian and less American, ho has declared that Australians are an ugly people. The women have not the looks to make attractive film beauties or "the men to bo handsome villains or heroes. There aro exceptions, of course. On the Sydney streets Mr Dexter has seen one man whom the rest of the world might accept as worth looking at on the screen in a leading role, and in a year he has seen or seen pictured in the whole of Australia eight girls who might become favorites of the “ movies.” But that supply would not go fa? on which to found a national art for Australia—the term “art” is preferred by him to industry—oven if the handsome man could bo persuaded to forsake his present calling of a reporter. Australian films for Australian people is obviously tho most hopeless ambition in Mr Dexter’s view, unless they arc to be limited to films of scenery and of industrial processes, two types which, however they may bo approved by some exceptional people, make evidently in these days quite the least appeal to tho mass of moving picture patrons. It will bo a shock to Australians, who have probably as good a conceit of themselves as any other people, to learn that their men and—what would be much more distressing—their women aro so lacking in beauty. Tho indictment almost certainly will come as a surprise. We arc? not aware that the supposed deficiency lias been remarked before publicly. There aro laws of politeness, not to say gallantry, which frequently restrain comments in such matters, though Mr Dexter lias shown his superiority to them. But some rudo person before him would surely have noticed the dcicct and proclaimed it were it half so conspicuous as it evidently appears to him. There would have been excuses from Australia, if excuses were needed. A different verdict has been given on tho Australian girl by a native poetess, who lias put her in a song:

She has a beauty of her own, A beauty of a paler tone Than English belles; Yet Southern sun and Southern air Have kissed her cheeks until they

wear The dainty tints that oft appear • On rosy shells.

A hot sun and an arid atmosphere, where the latter prevails, will exact some penalties. ‘“The red sun robs their beauty,” Mr George Essex Evans has said of “ the women of the West,” and Sir Gilbert Parker, writing of the hnckbloeks girl, has put it on record: “She has not the color and warm beauty of the English girl.” But neither, it might bo said, have many Americans. And that is a small complaint beside Mr Dexter’s. Mr Arthur H. Adams, in his early days, before he made Sydney his home, drew a contrast between the Sydney girl, “listless,” with “pallid checks,” and her sister of Maoriland, “ whose cheeks with winter’s kisses smart.” but the contrast may have been exaggerated for effect. It wfts not most convincing when ho attributed a Greek heart as well as a Greek brow to his New Zealand belle. But such comparisons, if they were more seriously made, would be only odious. Sir John Foster Fraser, who was a very critical visitor to Australia, had no fault to find with the national looks, unless it was implied m an allusion to “the Australian irown—a puckering of the face, duo to the sun glare.” It is possible that Air Dexter’s arraignment was correct in two small points. Australian girls may bo given to paleness and slimness, though they hold their own in field sports, and their type of beauty may be rarely of the kind that has been, up till now, most approved in film “ stars.” But color can make no difference to the screen, and the absence of it, in other places, is a fault all too easily remedied in tlie.se days. And the beauty of film “ stars ” may be too much of ono kind for some opinions. It can depend much too frequently, and to 100 great an extent, upon smiles and teeth. We recall Charles Lamb. “I am by theory obdurate to the seductiveness of what arc called a fine set of teeth. Every pair of rosy lips (the ladies must pardon me) is a casket presumably holding such jewels, but, methinks, they should take leave to ‘ air ’ them as frugally as possible. The fine lady, or lino gentleman, who show me their teeth show me hones.” Australian beauties might be the most popular of all film “ stars ” for Australians when they got to know them. In personality, which can be as important as looks, they would hardly be lacking. Will Australian ladies pardon Mr DexterP He can scarcely expect to be very popular among them after his arraignment, but we do not know what business reasons lie may have, which they might allow for, causing him to feel a prejudice against Australian films.