FILM SECRECY

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 10

FILM SECRECY

——- MYSTERY OF A GREAT ACTRESS i “ Keep Out!” “ Positively no admittance!” Signs such as these greet you at every entrance to tho sound stage. Guards stand by to ensure that no unauthorised person passes. _ A Greta Garbo picture is in production! But there seems to be little to warrant all this secrecy and mystery. Over there, by tho side of tho “ set,” Garbo is talking quietly to her coloured maid. There is nothing autocratic about her. Now and then she says something to one of the electricians, or has a word with tho director. She asks for things she wants; she does not demand. She looks rather like a timid girl. But look! The “ set” is being cleared of everyone except the technicians. The truth is simply that Garbo cannot work when there aro strangers about. She does not order them off the set, but visitors aro forbidden because she becomes so self-conscious. Her acting immediately loses tho naturalness that has made her a famous “ star.” “ When the 1 set ’ has been cleared, work begins, and Garbo sinks herself in her role. She lives her part all tho time she is on the ‘ set.’

“I’ve never seen anyone quite so submerged in a part,” George Fitzmaurice said, alter ho had directed her in a picture. “ She knows every line of dialogue before , the film is begun.” The thoroughness of her mastery of a role is made clear by tho extraordinary way in which she seems instinctively to do exactly the right thing at the right moment.

But strangers on the “sot” upset her. I know actors and actresses who have had important parts in Garbo pictures, and they have not seen the “star” on tho “ set.” As a rule, only the most important players ever come in contact with her. One actor told mo how he was in a scene with her, and appeared to bo talking to her in the completed picture, but he did not meet her on the “ sot.” He spoke his lines alone. The scene was “ matched up ” afterwards in the cutting-room. WORK WITHOUT PAY. The eagerness of widely known players and technicians alike to work on a Garbo film is extraordinary. Some oven offer to work without pay. Many hundreds of pounds have been offered as bribes by outsiders who would like to have a glimpse behind the doors of the studios when she is working. Even famous “ stars ” are refused admittance. Once someone evaded the guards. Garbo did not see him, and the “ shot ” began, but it did not go well. Garbo seemed to be unusually nervous. Somehow, she sensed the prying eyes behind one of the settings. Then the visitor coughed. He was turned out immediately, and the scene was begun again. This time it went perfectly.

The workers on tho “ set ” are discreet, and they never give a hint that they are conscious of tho presence of the “ star.” Generally there is the same technical “ crew ” for her pictures. Garbo has made 19 films in Hollywood, and 18 of them have been filmed by William Daniels. Ho knows every angle of her face, That is why you never see her photographed badly. Daniels’s assistants have worked with him on, nearly every Garbo picture. Since “talkies” established themselves, the sound staff has remained unchanged. Garbo’s clothes are always designed by the same man, Adrian, Metro-Goldvvyn-Meyer’s famous dress designer. The star has appeared in the most amazing costumes, and only Adrian would have dared to dress her so. He knows by long experience what she can wear and what she cannot wear. Even the “ sets ” of Garbo’s pictures are always designed by the same man, Alexander Tulobof, Intimate background scenes are arranged with an almost uncanny knowledge of what will suit her.

Garbo’s versatility is chiefly responsible for her film success. She has been a “ vamp,” a peasant, a daughter of a bargee, a spy, and she has played romantic, sympathetic, and harsh parts. She has portrayed women of many nationalities, and has only twice appeared as a woman of her own nationality. No other “ star ” has ever had such extraordinary hair manipulation. She has had her hair curled, waved, bushy, and straight, and she lias even worn a xilatinum-blonde wig. That was for ‘As You Desire Me.’ What other “ star ” could have worn her hair in the queer, mannish manner that Garbo adopted in ‘ Queen Christina ’ ? Garbo has been the most important film “ star ” for nearly nine years. She could never have remained so if she had appeared repeatedly in the same type of part.

One of the chief difficulties of casting a G ax-bo picture is to select tho players of small parts. Whenever one of her films goes into production the studio is visited by hundreds of girls who have made themselves look as much like Garbo as possible. If they were given parts—they never are—the film would look as if Garbo were playing “ extra ” roles as well as the lead. .1’ “ Jim says our engagement must bo a secret.” “ And when do you get the ring?” “ That seems to he a secret, too.”