A Human Dynamo

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19623, 5 May 1938, Page 8

A Human Dynamo

MOW take Katharine Hepburn. She is a human dynamo. Withotit meaning to be, and simply because of the vigour of her own mind and the intensity of her attitude io her work, she can'be (if given the chance) what Mr. Cukor calls an artistic bully. "When I directed 'Little Women' I had to develop a new technique to ensure the best results from the collaboration of Miss Hepburn and myself," he writes. "I do n.ot say that if I had decided to 'lie down' to her from the start, a less good picture would have resulted. But a director with a conscience will fight tooth and nail to get the picture as he wants it. I confess freely that I used many weapons in dealing with her—simulated rage, ridicule, and good-humoured cajolery. She has a great sense of humour, and is quite capable of directing it against herself."

In every star there is something strictly individual which he or she has to give to the public, and the director must be careful—whatever else he does —not to stand in the way of that direct, personal, and subtle communication. When he was directing the late, beloved Marie Dressier in "Dinner at Eight," Mr. Cukor found himself mak-

ing alterations in her treatment of a scene, and, though she did all she could to please him, he was dissatisfied with the result. "Suddenly," he says, "it dawned on me that all I was doing was subtracting from the very essence of Marie Dressier and tampering with the -bond which she had fixed so firmly between herself and the public. At once I went back on my tracks and let her do everything she had to do exactly as she felt it. The result was magnificent."