THE ENGLISH MASK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20162, 24 January 1929, Page 7

THE ENGLISH MASK.

"Perhaps the English people do not realise it, but their country is an unexplored gold mine of playing talent, • writes Pola Negri, the film actress, who recently visited England.

"I think one of England's greatest glories is that she breeds magnificisntlooking men and women, who make superb actors and actresses. They have serious faults—for instance, the masks they wear to conceal their emotions, but when they become themselves, when they drop their reserve, they are perfectly wonderful. "As an example of what I mean, take Clive Brook, the Englishman, who played with me in 'Barbed Wire.'

"The first day we started work on this picture what an impossible person he was! He simply would not drop his mask. He played like a wooden man. I did not become discouraged, as I knew ho had the right stuff in him. "The next day he thawed under the white-heat enthusiasm and inspiration of the rest of the company, and the third day, well, in all my experience I have never seen finer acting. "I think most Englishmen and Englishwomen are like that. They are intensely human and almost invariably possess a. divine spark c? genius, but they do not let themselves go, or, to put it another way, they arc big, powerful, silent motors which rarely get heated well enough to show their real possibilities of speed, endurance, and brilliancy."