MAURICE CHEVALIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 35 (Supplement)

MAURICE CHEVALIER.

/ RAPID RISE TO FAME, ;, A brief account of the remarkablo rise lo fame experienced by the French actor, Maurice- Chevalier,. is given by ; the film correspondent of the Daily Mail, Mr. Chevalier, he states, is one fcjjL the. phenomena of talking pictures. < r.V" In the dayß when films were silent one heard legends of the fabulous values which attached to the personalities of favoured players. Those values have been reduced to nothingness now that the talking pictures are here. People like Mr. John Gilbert), for example, no longer have that appeal to the sentimental heart -which at ons tiino brought them* such vast profit. The talking pictures havo brought reality to tha personaliti™ of the films. That ia why thu shadows of Hollywood's elect have recently become so dimmed, and why other heroes havo appeared on the screen. Mr. Chevalier is one of those recent recruits. He was once an impoverished singer of naughty and slightly sentimental songs in Parisian cafes. He knew no English then. The Great War had not begun. I surmise that his reactions .to the life of a poilu may some day make a great drama. The facts which, are within my knowledge arc that ho was made a prisoner by the Germans and that, by a fortunate chance, he then mot a fellowptisoner who had been captured from my own regiment— a man whoso job it was to teach. The teacher was Sergeant Kennedy* of tho Durham Light Infantry. It was Sergeant Kennedy who' taught* Mr. Chevalier in a prison camp the elements of tho English which he now sings and talks so deliciously, on the screen. Mr. Chevalier is the debonair hero of tho screen. He has graco and wit and an enticing voice. He was 4, once content to earn twenty (pre-war) francs a night by 6inging in cafes. Nowadays, when promoters of motor-shows in Chicago seek his support for their enterprises they are happy to pay him at the rato of £IOOO a woek. . -v ' •' It is nice to know that Hollywood ihould thus be placed under ransom to Europe for its vivid personalities. Personalities make films —despite the •rudite theories of the. Russians and the ponderous people in England who try to «mulato those Russians.