WHO IS KING OF THE SCREEN ?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 10

WHO IS KING OF THE SCREEN ?

FAIRBANKS MAY TAKE VALENTINO’S THRONE. “ BUT NO ONE EVER FALLS IN LOVE WITH HIM.” (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON', October 5. Will Fairbanks succeed Valentino? And if he does, will he quite fill the gap which the death of the screen-sheik has made for the feminine half of creaAfter the new film, “The Son of the Sheik,” there will be no more “Rudy” pictures to anticipate; there will never be any more stories about his suits, his jewels, his dressing-gowns, or his dogs. There have been many imitators of Rudolph and several rivals, in Thomas Meighan and Ricardo Cortez, Richard Dix and Ramon Novarro. People prophesy already that the comparatively new star. John Gilbert, of “The Merry Widow” and “The Big Parade,” is set for jeune premier honi ours.

But truth may lie in unsuspected quarters. There is a very prominent and very popular figure in films that may yet outshine Valentino in fame and popular fancy. And that is Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks has been known and liked by the public since 1915, when, leaving the stage, he broke into films with “The Lamb" In these he was a cheery young fcller-xnc-lad, who sprang here and there, grinned, and sprang again. Never sentimental, always chivalrous, he was the antithesis of Valentino’s languorous roles and his “treat ‘era rough” methods. MOBBED IN LONDON. With “The Mark of Zorro” and “Robin Hood” Fairbanks came into his own true realms of high-coloured romance, daring, and pageantry. When, he and Mary Pick ford stayed in London just after the war crowds far larger than any that ever mobbed Valentino surged day-long outside their hotel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mighty pair. And the crowd was enthusiastic for Fairbanks as a film actor, not hysterical over him as a man. Fairbanks has never had the personal following of Valentino. It is interesting to recall that both actors received a cold welcome when they first worked in studios. D. W. Griffiths refused to give Valentino a part in “Broken Blossoms” because, the famous- director said, so for-eign-looking a man could never be popular. Griffiths also frowned on Fairbanks, and advised him to give tip work in serious films and try to get into Keystone comedies. Yet it was the acrobatics of Douglas and the foreign look of Rudolph that made their fortunes. Valentino became the dream-lover of millions of women, old and young; in him they saw “that dark man from across.. the water,” of whom palmists prophesy to sighing damsels. A CONTRAST.! Stories of his personal affairs, of his first divorce, second marriage, the charge of bigamy brought against him, the remarriage and second divorce intrigued his admirers further. Stories came of his admiration for Vilma Banky, the Hungarian actress, and of his affaire du coeur with the tempestuous Pola Negri. It was pH most romantic. Husbands and brothers stormed in vain; women persisted in adoring Rudolph.

Probably no on© ever fell in love with Fairbanks after seeing him on the screen. He has far more vitality than had Valentino; but who can recall his love-making on the screen? There are other things for a man to do, he seems to say. A man wants to fight, ride, make money, outwit enemies. Then the romance of Fairbanks* private life, the deep and untroubled love and sympathy that binds him to Mary Pickford, is not of a kind to set other hearts beating. Of the millions that admire Fairbanks, probably net one hides his picture under her pillow. If Fairbanks does not excite love in his admirers, how can he succeed Valentino? The fact is that Valentino rode to triumph on the “star system," which exploited the supposed attributes of a player irrespective of his real ability, and irrespective of the quality of the pictures he appeared in. CRITICAL AUDIENCES. As a matter of fact, the kind of popularity he did earn vexed and distressed Valentino exceedingly. That was why he so bitterly resented the attack levelled on him in a Chicago newspaper, implying that he was a pampered fop, just before his death (says a critic in the London “Weekly Dispatch'’). Nowaday’s cinema audiences are growing more critical. They demand good, well-knit films, as well as sensations, beauty of spirit, as well as sexappeal. Valentino was already waning in popularity when he died. He had played in too many inferior films, and his film personality had been overexploited. But Fairbanks’s pictures, culminating in “The Black Pirate," continue to improve all the while. Each is an advance in the art of making films. And so Fairbanks grows steadily in the esteem, not only of connoisseurs, but of the big public, w’hich in the end always prefers merit to tinsel.