WONDERFUL ACTORS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 April 1932, Page 8

WONDERFUL ACTORS

MARIE DRESSLER, JACKIE COOPER

There are,-two films in the West-end this week that' emphasise the oddities .film fame. One of these films is “Emma.” The .other is' “Sooky”. . (wrotei.Campbell Dixon, in, the London “Daily Telegraph,” on'February 23). The heroine of “Emma” is one of the oldest stars of the screen, Marie Dressier, who is 61. The. hero of: “Sooky” is the youngest, 8-year-old Jackie Copper.' , At. a time when scores of famousmen.and women are .being dropped by the Hollywood studios, and most of ■the.,others are, .submitting quite meekly.. to heayy salary cuts, this old woman .and .this .amazing child would be welcomed with open arms by every producer in the world. Marie Dossier is one of the miracles of the screen.: —one of those in,credible,,.fantastic figures which make washerwomen and tired mothers of families believe in their, hearts that, given the opportunity, they, too, could be screen; stars. For to the uncritical she seems so ordinary, her art so commonplace/ She. is 61 years old, her warmest admirel" could, not call her .handsome/ her clothes are designed to emphasise rather .than--tP disguise the eccentricities of a .figure ,which once served hei’ ’well in slapstick comedy, she has no sex appeal, and .nobody on the screen is more conspicuously lacking in what .the trade calls “glamour.” (A glamorous young woman is one who always wears orchids, never has a’ hack to her gown, and refers to her husband as “Mister” and her admirer r as “the Earl.”)

EARNING A LIVING AT 13 It is not generally known .that Miss Dressier is .by birth a Canadian. She was born in a littje town called Coburg. Her name .was then Leila Koerber.. Hqr. father was a. retired army officer, who .brought .his yopng English wife tp Canada ..at tlie end of the Crimean War. He was also a musician, and Marie Dressier’s earliest memories are pf continual .wanderings. “Things wept from bad to worse financially in our family,” she has recorded. “We continued to move around, but the pupils who came to my father for lessons grew fewer and fewer in each place. Finally mother and I realised that .something must ;be done. I was the only one ..able. to -do anything, so I managed to get a job in a cheap little theatrical touring company. I was only 13 at that time, but I was so large that. I easily passed for 18.” Just before she left, her . mother, grieving over the child’s lack of education, made her promise to read the newspapers every .morning and every evening—a promise she >has kept during the fortyreight years .in which she has been fighting her way upward. Actually she gained success very early. She was a star at 18, and after long* experience on the stage-be-came one of the early stars of the Alms. “Tilly’s Punctured Romance,” ,ip which she was supported by a young man called Chaplin, was a comic classic of 1914.

During the War she gave up film work to entertain soldiers, only to find at the end of the War that nobody wanted her. “The public demanded a new kiqd of entertainment,” she says. “It wanted youth and beauty. I couldn’t find a thing. But I didn’t hang my head -gnd ,give up. I always managed to sm»le. No ,one .dreamed that I was getting desperate. I went to Hollywood, but Hollywood .didn’t seem to want me. any more .than did New York. I had almost decided to give it all mp .and go to Europe, when the tide turned my way.” That .was only some two years ago, jWthqiir-.shO'Was; offered, part .in “Anna Christie,” supporting Greta Garbo. It is no injustice to Miss Garbo to say •that- “Anna Christie” Will be .rememthered chiefly for the .unforgettable acting of Marie Dressier as the drunkqn ■ old waterside d,rab.

T;he woman nobody wanted, suddenly became the most-sought-after actress in Hollywood, and Miss Dressier has gone on from triumph to triumph. Rpr her wpi;k in “Min and Bill’ she .r&qpiyed a-medal for the best performance' of 1931; and after dividing the hqnours .in that film with Wallace she now has “Emma” to her : self. *

Not that “Emma” is a very good film. It is terribly- sentimental, and you cannot believe in parts of the story. But you do believe in Marie .Dressier, and she carries you along by the power of her personality, her gift .of pathos, and the sheer brilliance of lier: acting. The biography of Jackie Coper is rather different. -He was born in 1924 r he acted in “Skippy” and “The Champ” and he gets £5OO a week. That is his life-story.

Just how he manages to act as he does, with a power and a pathos and a restraint which put him among the mature artists of the screen, would make, a most interesting story if I knew it; but I don’t suppose Jackie could tell you himself. He just happens to have been born a genius, and we shall have to let it go at that, JanKie Coogan was good'. (You remember “The Kid”?) Half a dozen other children, such as Mitzi Green, ’show' remarkable precocity and talent.

But there has never been a child like Jackie Cooper, and there may never be again. See “Sooky,” and you will be astonished at the boy’s maturity of voice and expression, the instinctive knowledge of all the suffering in the world revealed on his plain but lovable little face.

What will Jackie Cooper become? The world’s greatest actor? Or just another looking for a job? The speculation is futile but fascinating.