The Tivoli

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6629, 17 August 1931, Page 3

The Tivoli

WARNER BAXTER AT TIVOLI. Popular acclaim is ono thing, and artistic endorsement another.' Sometimes they agree, and sometimes not. But in the case of Warner Baxter, Pox Movietone featured player, they coincide perfectly. Baxter’s fine work on the screen has recently won recognition by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts 'and Sciences, which has vothd him the first award for the best screen performance during 1929—a tribute to his famous role in “In Old Arizona.” It is a signal honour for this expert actor, who created a new type of film hero in “In Old Arizona.” The public and the exports are in agreement—and that makes it unanimous. George Ade once said that when ho found a sprig of laurel resting on his brow, he believed in “letting it lay there.” But Warner Baxter, who promises to make his fame doubly secure by his work in the new outdoor picture, “The Arizona Kid,” doesn’t intend to rest on his laurels. 1 am naturally proud of this recognition of my efforts, he said in an interview, but I do not want to specialise in one type of role to the exclusion of all others. Too much specialisation is not stimulating to the actor, and becomes monotonous to his public. I like Western Toles immensely; in fact, I believe the most popular role I ever had was that of the bandit in ( ‘ln Old Arizona,” but I don’t want to become knowm only as a player of Western role's. Such a reputation automatically means that the actor is doomed to play nothing else, and I prefer a variety of parts, both because it’s more interesting, and also because I think the thea-tre-going public likes variety. Personally I’d like to make.one, or perhaps two pictures a year with a Western locale—something of the romantic type of part I had in “In Old Arizona,” and in “The Arizona Kid,” together with the gorgeous settings that abound throughout the Western Stated. But I also want to do modern stories—adventures roles, “different” roles, such as the one I had in “Such Men are Dangerous. Such parts cannot be assigned if an actor specialises in one certain typo of portrayal.