“The Perfect Butler”: Eric Blore’s Twenty-Two Roles In Pictures

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

“The Perfect Butler”: Eric Blore’s Twenty-Two Roles In Pictures

Betty Wilson, writing from London to the “Sydney Sun,” under date October 4 ,says: “Meet Eric Blore—“Gentleman’s Gentleman No. 1” and “Screen’s Perfect Butler,” who is in England to make “A Gentleman’s Gentleman” for Warner Brothers First National at Teddington. He remembers you .because he Was in Australia just about thirty years ago; knows Sydney (especially Manly and Coogee) well; remembers Melbourne because he “got the bird” there, the night “The Merrymakers” opened at the Princess Theatre . “Fancy travelling all that way to get the bird. I could have stayed here and got it in Wigan!” says Eric Blore. And meet Marie Lohr, who waS born in Sydney, but had not been back since she was a small girl .because she has been too busy making theatrical history over here. To-morrow week she is, supposed to open in the West End in “Quiet Wedding,” but she has been making films af Teddington, and

has not even mot the rest of the company yet. ' Settling; Into New Fiats And Patricia Hilliard. She has neve; teen to Australia ,but you’ve seen “Farewell Again,” her last film, and you remember her very delightful mother (Miss Ann Codrington), who was with the Fay Compton company, and is back in London again, just settling into a new flat. Miss Hilliard is settling into a new flat, too. She and her actor husband < William Fox) have j|jst returned Horn a six-weeks’ honeymoon at Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast, and are busy furnishing a flat right on top of the tallest block of flats on the Victoria Embankment. Their living-room is walled with glass on three sides, and Miss Hilliard swears that their view stretches from Surrey hills to Hampstead heights . All three —Marie Lohr .Patricia Hilliard and Eric Blore—are making the same picture. “A Gentleman’s Gentleman,” although it was not written for

Eric Blore .plays right into his hands. Warner Brothers brought him over from America to make it at the instigation of his brother-in-law, Austin Melford. and since Austin Melford and Eric Blcre had not seen each other since the film star left for the States some four years ago, the publicity department spent an anxious few hours wondering whether they would stop talking in time to get Eric Blore to ;he Dorchester for an important party. “Perclval, Be Merciful" He was there, a second or two before the first guest what’s more; still laughing ever memories of his first appearance as a solo music hall act, when bis song, “Percival, Be Merciful, Take Me For a Walk Round the Bandstand” (which he had written himself) was interrupted by a galleryite, who leant over and roared, “Are you.going off? Or must I come down and see about you myself?” Mr Blore had the curtain rung down. Since then he has written innumerable sketches and lyrics. He and Aus-

tin Melford collaborated in sketches and lyrics for Chariot and made London laugh in the immediate post-war years as two of the “Co-optimists.” He still writes; is working at present on children’s verse, and occasionally slips an inimitable “Bloreish” touch into his lines. Remember his “If I weren’t a gentleman’s gentleman—what a cad’s cad I could be” in one of his recent films? That was Eric Elore’s own line. Eric Blore modelled his perfect screen butler on his own balman during the war. “Deferential to Himself” “He had been butler to the Duke of Tec!:,” Mr Blore said. “Pie was the model for my first butler sketch, and he came to see me when I was in London playing with Fred Astaire at the Palace Theatre, and gave me his professional approval on the performance. I think I've played about 22 butler roles. I don’t mind a bit, but, perhaps I’m afraid that one morning

T might wake up to find myself getting deferential with myself.” It was Fred Astaire .incidentally, who lured Eric Blore into making films at Hollywood. Some of his most famous ones were “The Ex Mrs Bradford,” “The Gay Divorcee,” “Top Hat,” “Shall We Dance,” and “Breakfast for Two.” Witty and charming, Eric Blore is worth watching on the sot. In “A Gentleman’s Gentleman” he plays the part of a perfect butler once more, but the perfect butler’s perfect manner is only a veneer to disguise a resourceful rogue. Blackmail, engineered in unbutlerish moments, switches the scene from the Chelsea Arts Ball to Switzerland. Marie Lohr is a rich and charming widow; Patricia Hilliai'd a charming, romantic girl, and there’s a body, which is removed from the Chelsea Arts Ball by two men disguised as the front and back legs of a horse. I don’t think any detective fiction writer has thought of more ingenious way out than that.