Clive Brook Protests

Southland Times, Issue 22486, 22 January 1935, Page 10

Clive Brook Protests

NOT A TYPE. Clive Brook refuses to be “typed” and in the following article, written by himself, protests that he is not the strong silent man of the screen that people think. “The strong, silent man is a bore,” he declares, “Give me character parts every time ... If there is a Clive Brook type, then I no longer belong to it. In my recent pictures the characters I have played have been anything but strong, and frequently most loquacious. But the tradition is by now so firmly fixed that nobody seems to take any notice of what happens on the screen. I believe that if I screamed or broke into a song and dance I should still get ‘strong, silent’ notices. “I have been fighting against being included in that category for years. The trouble started during the pretalkie days. Producers discovered that I had the right kind of face for playing reliable men. When photographed it appeared similar in shape and solidity to the Rock of Gibraltar. And for a time I was bound to the wheel of silence and strength. “But I have put an end to all that a long time ago—as you will realize if you think back over the parts I have played. In my latest picture, ‘The Dover Road,’ I appear as a humorous dilettante. In the one before that,

‘The Marriage Symphony,’ I was a weak-willed husband. Before that, in ‘Gallant Lady,’ I was a drunken tramp. Going further back still, neither Sherlock Holmes nor Colin Grant (in ‘Midnight Club’) could be called strong, silent characters. “In fact, I defy anybody to produce a single part that I have played in the last seven years which can justly be placed under the ‘strong and silent’ heading, although they may at times have been one or the other.

“The part of Struensee, for instance, which I am at present playing in “The Dictator,’ offers me a portrayal which is certainly strong—but just as certainly not silent. I have taken great care not to combine the two dangerous virtues. “The strong, silent man is a bore. Give me character parts every time. The more strongly defined a character is, the easier it is to portray. For example, I found the old man in ‘Cavalcade’ much easier to play than the younger man at the beginning of the picture. Similarly, it was my preference for character parts that made me like my role in the stage play of “The Dover Road’ (though the screen version, against my wishes, added an element of romance which helped neither the film nor me).

“Actually, this distinction between character and non-character is all very unimportant, since I rarely if ever play a part in which I do not see the possibilities of definite characterization. I suppose if I should weaken and play a real strong and silent man the critics would be perverse enough to say that I had changed my type!”

After the hit made by Carole Lombard and George Raft as the dancers in “Bolero,” Paramount will team them again in “Rhumba.” Another dancing film is ‘The Gay Divorcee,” starring Ginger Rogers and the nimble Frea Astaire, whose Carioca created such a sensation. The high spot of this performance will be a new dance by .Ginger and Fred known as the “Continental.”

Hugh Walpole was terribly nervous when he faced the camera in his role of the vicar in “David Copperfield,” He knew the sermon all right, for he had written it. He has spoken before thousands of people as a lecturer. Yet there was something about the lens which put him off. Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan and Lewis Stone sympathized with him. Finally at the third take, Mr Walpole went through like a veteran, earning the congratulations of George Zukor, the director, and Howard Estabrook, who wrote the adaptation of ■the classic.