The SCREEN and its STARS

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 926, 22 November 1933, Page 3

The SCREEN and its STARS

DIIRIAM HOPKINS, who is a keen tennis player, spends all of her spare time trying to improve hcr genie. 3 2': 2': ONE EVENING last month, two women dined in the White .llouse. One was Mrs Roose\'elt.”America'F First Lady." The othEr—«Marie Dressler. the film star, who became famous “in a night." Marie Dressler is sixty-three. Seven years ago her stage and screen career was closing in obscurity. She was old. She was tired. She was in debt. She was eager to retire; to go to Europe and friends. Then fame caught her unawares. Her first talking picture with Greta Garbo. “Anna Christie." made her a world star overnight. She out-distanced her glamorous rivals with ease, and became a rich and famous woman. She gives away all her money to flame not as fortunate as herself. She works twice as hard as she need—and she is not by any means a fit woman—to help those who have fallen on bad times. But she never dreamed that fate would send her as a guest. to the “'hite House. This is how it happened. Marie Dressler happened to mEet Mrs Roosevelt in New York recently. ‘“ D'you know, madam.” she said, “ I came clean across these United States to see my Presi—dent." A pause. " And I found him away." "Well. you must come and stay with me," said the‘first lady in the land. “Come to dinner to-night and stay until my husband gets back." So two remarkable women sat talking in 'the simple drawing—room of the “’hite House at Washington—Mrs Roosevelt Vwith her knitting, Marie Dressler with her patience.

SALLY EILERS has :‘.-mounted that she was granted a Mexican divorce from Hoot Gibson, the “cow—lmy " film star, at Chihuahua on August 28. 2-3 2': 3 I’IIILLIPS HOLMES, according to an overseas message, looks forward to the time when the public and the actors of the. screen will speak the same language. There should be no difference between the two, he maintains Not that he believes the screen players should ape public usage, but that the public should pattern after the screen ” But first," says Holmes, “ screen players themselves must reach some unanimity in speech. There are as many accents as there are regions from which the players M 118,” Holmes is a student of languages He studied at Princeton, America, at Oxford, in England, and at Grenoble, in France. "Sooner or later,” he says, “ the screen is bound to evolve a style of speech for the country at large—a speech that will be typically American, At present it is an admixture of geographical accents and the accents of the New York and London stage. Out of this will come something definitei Although it is the English tongue we speak, it would be simpler to set a standard in America than in England. Here we do have variations, but they are not so marked as they are throughout Britain. where. within a comparatively small area, they really talk several different languages. Hollywood can give this country a single ‘language'; can discover for the rest of the Country a speech in which it will find charm, just as the poet 'Heine proved to Germany that its thick gutturals could be turned into music."

ALTHOUGH RALPH LYNN and his

A‘ monocle may seem inseparable to millions of people, the famous English comedian does not wear an eyeglass Off the stage and screen. But he said re—cently that, as a direct result of his professional use of a monocle, he may have to take to one privately. “ The stage footlights,” he said. “have made no difference to my eyesight, but the fierce lights in the film studios are having their effect. The glass concentrates the glare on my right eye, which is becoming weaker than the other." 3 3 :-: I‘IICK THE MILLER, Britain's most famous racing greyhound, is to become a film-star. And a real star. too»not just a casual performer. Mick is to play the leading role in one of the most ambitious talking pictures in the 1933-1934 programme, called “ \Vild Bay,” a romance of greyhound racing. It was Albert de Courville who first thought of the possibilities of such a subject. He will direct the picture. Brig.~General Critchley has ofiEred the full resources of the Greyhound Racing Association for the making of the film. Many of the important sequences will be taken at the White City and the Northaw Kennels of the G.R.A. The climax of the piece comes with the running of the greyhound Derby, in which Mick, as he should. turns out to be the winner. (Mick is a former winner of the greyhound Derby.) Mick has retired from active racing, anti he now commands a record fee at stud. His “engagement” for the films will last for five weeks, and he will receive another record fee for that, too.