SYNTHETIC MURDER TALES

Strange Films – Children and the Cinema – Need for More Intelligent Subjects

By Mordaunt Hall
May 8, 1932

Several peculiar stories reached the screens last week and one of them, “Letty Lynton,” is being held over at the Capitol.

In this film a stunning but tarnished girl is responsible for her objectionable former lover drinking poison.

“The Trial of Vivienne Ware,” is principally concerned with an attractive girl being tried for a murder committed by a gangster.

“Roadhouse Murder,” tells of a cub reporter who, for the sake of contributing a series of sensational articles to his newspaper, poses as a man hunted for two killings.

And “Behind the Mask,” is a vain attempt to spread horror by showing a fiendish individual disposing of his enemies on an operating table.



The sole wholesome production, aisde from the foreign works, was the new version of Edna Ferber's novel, “So Big.”

Unfit for Youngsters

As one examines the plots of these effusions one appreciates the attitude of many parents toward motion pictures, for, with the exception of “So Big,” none of these attractions is fit for children to see.

In the suburbs and even in New York City one hears on all sides fathers and mothers deploring the fact that there are no pictures suitable for their youngsters to attend, and the result is that not only the children are kept from the cinemas but the parents also stay away.

These were the days when such worthy diversions as “Tom Sawyer,” “Skippy,” “A Connecticut Yankeee” and “Ambassador Bill” not only offered excellent entertainment for the young but also for adults.

One father, whose home is in a New Jersey town, said the other day that it was harmful for his children to attend local cinemas and had therefore decided to give them screen entertainment at home. It is quite likely that other parents are doing the same thing, or will do so, but it is an idea that is costly.




Mary Pickford is one of the few producers who have urged making films that will bring the children into the film theaters, she being wise enough to realize that if the picture is suitable for the youngsters it is highly probable that they will be accompanied by their parents.

Adults as well as youngsters have enjoyed “Peter Pan” and “A Kiss for Cinderella” on the stage and the screen, and in the old days a film of Stevenson's “Treasure Island” proved to be quite popular.

Who knows but that there may be a fortune in store for the producer who concentrates on making pictures for the young, not silly sentimental tales, but really good ones like those enumerated. For while there naturally must be a preponderance of mature subjects turned out in Hollywood, there is no reason why there should not be a certain percentage of productions that would find favor with parents for their offspring.

Sorry Studio Ideas

A mother complained the other day that producers appeared to delight in emphasizing distasteful ideas, so as to appeal to a certain element.

These film tales, this woman thought, might have been acceptable for both adults and children if they had been pictured in a more rational and restrained fashion. This is true, for many a good story comes to the screen with the earmarks of a dime novel.

If the same thing were set forth in a book as it is on the screen, it would in many instances be considered silly by the very persons who are moderately interested in such film ventures. To appeal to children in a wholesome fashion, motion pictures actually need to be less childish than many of them are at the present.



B. O. Shelton, manager of the RKO Pickwick Theater in Greenwich, Conn., shows a picture every Saturday morning for children, the subjects being sponsored by a joint committee on motion pictures, made up of members of women’s clubs of the town.

Mr. Shelton exhibits pictures such as “The Big Trail,” “Cimarron,” “City Lights,” “Forward Pass,” “Skippy,” “Sooky,” “Tom Sawyer,” & c. Would there were more films like them.




A Tarnished Heroine

Letty Lynton is a picture with many implausible – in fact, impossible – ideas. The spectator’s credulity is strained by the first scenes, for Letty Lynton, in the person of Joan Crawford, is a wealthy girl who has apparently fallen from grace because of the glib talk and good dancing of a man named Emile Renaud.

Letty has been more or less hypnotized by Emile, but finally she leaves him, going by steamship from Montevideo to New York.

The first glimpse that Hale Darrow, a rich young man, gets of Letty aboard the ship, he evinces a marked interest in her. He requests that the steward put her at his table. This is the first sight Letty has of Hale and results in a similar reaction, and in a short time they are in love with each other.

One suspects that the path of this true love is not going to be smooth, and soon the notion is confirmed, for Emile has traveled by airplane to New York and is there to meet Letty when she disembarks. She is naturally averse to having Emile and Hale meet, and therefore she asks Emile to attend to her customs declaration while she hurries to her home.

The more one learns of Emile’s nature, the more one is astonished at Letty's having been infatuated with him. She hopes to go to meet Hale's family, but Emile, threatening to publish some of Letty's affectionate epistles to him in the newspapers, causes the girl to postpone her departure for the Adirondack home of the Darrows.

This blackguard insists that Letty must come to his apartment at 8 o'clock one night and she, hopeing that Emile will give her the letters, decides to go. She turns up in a charming gown of metallic cloth, looking more attractive than in any previous scene. In her handbag she has a vial of poison, which, it is presumed, she intends to take if she fails to gain possession of the missives. While Emile's back is turned, Letty pours the poison into a glass containing some champagne.

After a heated discussion during which he embraces Letty against her will, Emile drinks the poison, finds his sight going, and eventually dies. The circumstantial evidence before a jury would not leave Letty with much chance of going free, but the picture producers have a good-natured District Attorney, who after giving Hale Darrow credit for quick thinking, in saything that he (Hale) was with Letty that night, permits the girl to go on her way.

Imagine a District Attorney in real life saying to a young man in such circumstances:

“Darrow, I've got a girl about half that age, but she has not brought anyone around yet who thinks as fast as you do, young fellow.”

It should be stated, however, that Joan Crawford delivers an admirable portrayal and Robert Montgomery is quite clever as Hale. Nils Asther does as well as possible with the part of Emile and Louise Closser Hale furnishes a certain amount of amusement in the role of an elderly maid to Letty.




Shades of Old Serials

“The Trial of Vivienne Ware,” which hails from a radio entertainment, is another shamelessly implausible affair.

A man throws a knife at a witness testifying in a murder case and has little difficulty in escaping. Later, after he is apprehended by the police, he is himself fatally shot while on the witness stand.

It is a picture in which the prosecutor thunders at the witnesses and in which the lawyer for Vivienne War, impersonated by Joan Bennett, actually believes she killed Damon Fenwick in self-defense.

Of course, in the end, Vivienne is found guiltless, and the real murderer is pursued and dies by plunging from a skyscraper.

In the opening sequences one finds that Vivienne is in love with Fenwick, who looks the villain from the moment he appears. John Sutherland is in love with Vivienne, Dolores Divine, a cabaret dancer, is infatuated with Fenwick and the sinister Scarface Parone looks upon Dolores as his property.

It is a tedious bag of tricks, but the flashbacks of the testimony during the murder trial are set forth interestingly.

Miss Bennett is attractive and as capable as the demands of her role permit.

Richard Skeets Gallagher appears as a radio announcer who is broadcasting the trial, there being a glass partition to facilitate such work. Zasu Pitts is a feminine radio expert who concentrates on the appearance of the fair Vivienne. Donald Cook gives an ingratiating performance as John Sutherland.




A Dangerous Idea

So far as “Roadhouse Murder” is concerned, it has a good basic idea which with more experienced principals and better written dialogue might have been excellent diversion, As it is, it emerges as mild entertainment.

Here the young reporter, after having been upbraided by his city editor, goes for an automobile ride with his sweetheart. During a storm thy seek refuge in a lonely looking road house.

Two murders occur while they are there and the newspaperman, Chick Brian, decides that it will make an excellent series of articles under his own name if he assumes the role of the man hunted for the crime and narrates his experiences. He has proof of his innocence, but when that is snatched from him by interested parties, it looks rather black for Brian; in fact the jury finds him guilty of the crime.

But Brian is not executed, for the real criminals finally are discovered. It proves that pretending to be a muderer is a risky matter, even though it may result in some sensational newspaper articles.




“So Big”

Many of the scenes in the audible picturization of Edna Ferber's novel, “So Big,” are nicely filmed and efficiently played by Barbara Stanwyck.

It is a work with a good deal of wholesome sentiment and restrained scenes, but a lifetime in an hour or so on the screen is too much.

The cheery Miss Stanwyck starts life as a girl and ends up an elderly woman. Selina Peake (Miss Stanwyck) lives for her son, So Big as she calls him, and he does not come up to expectations until the end.

Humdrum though this tale is here it is at least free from murders, women falling in
love with lounge lizards, and mysterious doctors deriving pleasure from using the knife to kill.




In the Secret Service

Secret Service agents are pitted against members of a drug ring in “Behind the Mask,” a story based on one by Jo Swerling.

The man who causes all the trouble is known to friends and enemies as Mr. X. His underlings communicate with him by telephone and their reports are recorded on wax cylinder.

Nobody is supposed to know who Mr. X is and yet he succeed in running things very much as he wishes. Sometimes you want to know how he pays off his henchmen or how he gets the money from them, but this film is not concerned with simple events; it dilates upon picking up packages of drugs from a vessel 200 miles at sea and landing them in New York by seaplane.

Parts of this offering recall old-time serials that were written in the studio a few moments before they were photographed.

Mr. X likes nothing more than to have his victims on an operating table. He delights in killing these enemies slowly. Where he buries them is not revealed, for in the one coffin that is brought on the screen it was disclosed that instead of containing a body it was filled with drugs.

There are all sorts of queer ideas in this film, and in one of the closing sequences Jack Holt, who plays Hart, a secret service agent wizard, is trapped by Mr. X and is about to have all kinds of forceps, scissors and little knives used on him when the heroine, Julie Arnold, creeps in the room and kills Mr. X with a well-aimed bullet.

Jack Holt and Constance Cummings serve their parts, such as they are, well.

PICTURES AND PLAYERS

May 8, 1932
The motion picture rights to “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” have gone to Joseph M. Schenck and his Art Cinema Corporation after what was characterized as spirited bidding.

Katharine Cornell, who has appeared in Rudolf Besier’s play nearly 500 times on and off Broadway, will be headed with her company next week for engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Lest Miss Cornell’s proximity to the Hollywood scene give rise to the not unnatural suspicion that she plans to enact her Elizabeth Barrett Browning for the cameras, her representative wants it known that she has no such thoughts.

There have been the usual importunities, but Miss Cornell is quite firm about her decision to remain in the theater.

As for the play, it will be converted to the uses of the cinema by Lewis Milestone, as producer for Mr. Schenck, and will be included in next season’s United Artists program. The release date is scheduled for February, 1933.




Anna May Wong, the lovely Chinese girl who returned to the American screen last year, has been engaged by Columbia for one of the leads in the appropriately Oriental “Bitter Tea of General Yen.”

Herbert Brenon will direct the film from Grace Zaring Stone’s novel.

Miss Wong was in the recent “Shanghai Express” and before that in “Daughter of the Dragon,” both for Paramount.




Ben Hecht, who has his moods when it comes to writing for the films, has turned around after his recent disagreements with Samuel Goldwyn and prepared a story for Joseph M. Schenck.

Garnished with music and dialogue by Irving Caesar, the narrative will serve as a film for Al Jolson, who is now in Hollywood and ready to start work.

The title to begin with was “Happy-Go-Lucky,” but a wire from the Coast last week announced that this had been changed to “Heart of New York,” There will be still another change when United Artists recalls that the Warners used that title two or three months ago on the last Smith and Dale feature.

As for the peripatetic Mr. Jolson, that illustrious mammy-singer plans to make two pictures for Mr. Schenck and then embark on a European concert tour.

Mr. Jolson announced upon his arrival in Hollywood that he had “quit the stage for good.”




Tala Birell, Universal’s new leading lady from the other side of the water, is to be presented next in a Hobart Henly production entitled “Broken Dreams of Hollywood.”

Nearly all of the major companies seem to have a behind-the-scenes romance tucked away on their schedules someplace. Miss Birell's first picture, “The Doomed Battalion,” is playing an extended run in Washington.




Mary Pickford, who has been in New York since Douglas Fairbanks went away on his South Seas adventure, returned to Hollywood last night to meet the homecoming warrior of the cameras.

Her cinematic plans have had to be postponed because of Frances Marion's illness. Miss Marion was to have come on to New York and work out the star's new story with her.




Universal has arranged for the manufacture of a series of twenty-six short subjects which will present some of the popular radio features of the day under the blanket title of “Down Memory Lane.”

Louis Sobol and Nick Kenny will share the master-of-ceremonies burden between them.

The list of participants includes Kate Smith, the Street Singer, the Rise of the Goldbergs, Major Stoopnagle and Bud, Texas Guinan, the Boswell Sisters, Morton Downey, Art Jarrett and Sisters of the Skillet.

The series will be made in New York.

TEAPOT TEMPESTS IN HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood, Cal., May 8

The year 1932 may go down in cinematic history as the Year of the Rebellion. Revolt after revolt has been staged, with more failures checked against the insurgents than victories. Most of the insurrections have been of a personal nature, some of a mass.

Of the latter, that of the screen writers is regarded as the most important.

After some months of arguing and conferring, the writers this week succeeded in securing from the producers a “code of practice” regulating the terms of employment of free lance writers and screen credits for the authors.

The scenarists believe that they won; the producers say the studios were beaten, observers feel that the concessions made by the companies were so slight as to be worth little.

Under the agreement, writers who have worked for ten weeks at less than $500 a week must receive a week's notice of termination of employment; where more than two writers have worked on a story, they may decide among themselves who is to get the credit and that credit must appear in dignified and important fashion on the screen.

These two concessions were worked out by a committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The inside story seems to be that when the negotiations were first started the studios which had always refused to deal with the writers were reluctant to do so at this time, but under implied threats that the authors would withdraw from the academy, virtually the companies' union, and affiliate with the Screen Writers' Guild, a branch of the Authors' League, the producers agreed to discuss the matter.

The producers were represented by B. P. Schulberg and Irving Thalberg, and at this week's meeting the picture they painted of the future was none too bright. They declared the industry was in a critical condition, that better stories must be found, that talent's benefit from the industry is many times greater than capital's.

But through it all, the authors seemed to feel that, as the agreement meant nothing financially to the studios, much ado was being made about comparatively nothing.

However, the evening was brightened by Mr. Schulberg's remark that the writers were very thoughtless in making their demands at a time when all the ability of the industry was being centered on “making the world safe for von Sternberg.”

The producers were defeated in another case, however, when the member branches of the academy rejected a “code of practice” governing the studios' relations with technical help. The technical men, having somewhat of a union attitude, were more rebellious than the writers and they have thrown their controversy back into discussion with a chance of getting what they want.




A personal rebellion and victory is that of Clarence Brown, MGM director. For years, Mr. Brown has been regarded as the “safe and sane” director of the lot. He has been more consistent with successes and has taken a number of pictures which were shelved and made them screenable. “This Modern Age” is the most noticeable example. The picture and story gathered dust around the studio for two years when he resurrected it, reshot some scenes, recut and turned out a money-maker.

When “Grand Hotel” went to another director, Mr. Brown was secretly annoyed. It was the plum of the year, and he felt he should have had it.

When the director’s contract came up this week he declined to sign until certain concessions were made. And at a time when nearly all renewed contracts are being written at a substantially reduced figure, Mr. Brown demanded and got a most satisfactory increase.




At the same studio Clark Gable has staged two insurrections in the past year and has been successful in both.

Ruth Chatterton left Paramount in a spirit of rebellion and got all she asked for at Warner Brothers, including the absolute choice of her stories.

Barbara Stanwyck lost to Columbia. Edmund Lowe lost to Fox in a salary controversy. Janet Gaynor won her war for sophisticated parts on the same lot. Gary Cooper beat Paramount on more money and fewer pictures, as did Dick Arlen.




Three of the current losers are James Cagney, Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich.

Mr. Cagney gets $1000 a week and is admittedly the biggest attraction on the Warner lot. He told the studio that, as he was making the most money for the company, he thought his salary an injustice when two other stars whose drawing power is less were each getting $7000.

The studio declined to see the logic of his position and he has been suspended. Under the producers’ agreement, he cannot work elsewhere.

Most of the arguments between artists and producers are of a deadly nature.

It remained for Arthur Caesar to laugh his way off the Warner lot, however. When his contract came up for renewal, they asked him to take a cut. When he refused the executives told him that he did not show the proper spirit , that he should cooperate.

“Cooperate?” yelled Arthur, “Can you cooperate with an electric chair?” The next day he was under contract to Paramount.




Warners have announced they are to star Warren William, following his performance in “The Mouthpiece.” His first picture is to be a story based on the life of Ivar Kreuger, as yet untitled.

Studios are following the news these days. This is but one example. Within a week after the Kreuger suicide and financial crash, RKO received one hundred stories based on press dispatches.

The Lindbergh kidnapping brought a deluge to every studio. They are still fighting off stories on the Olympic Games, and Boulder Dam has brought dozens.




With much flitting and conferring, Clara Bow has been signed by Fox, and after her first story, “Call Her Savage,” was announced, A. C. Blumenthal wired from New York in an attempt to get her for “Child of Manhattan,” claiming it would be a better vehicle for a come-back.

Fox is reported to have declined to loan her.




The cast of “Red Headed Woman,” the Catherine Bush story, has been chosen at last by MGM.

Jean Harlow, as predicted, is in the title role, while Chester Morris is Bill Jr. and Lewis Stone is the father. Leila Hyams is Irene, Una Merkel is Sally, May Robson and Charles Boyer complete the principals.




On the same lot “Good Time Girl” is announced as the next Marion Davies picture, an original by Frances Marion, with dialogue by Anita Loos and direction by Edmund Goulding, his first since “Grand Hotel.”

PROJECTION JOTTINGS

May 8, 1932

Universal’s Iceland Production – Jack Holt in “The Thirteenth Man”

Dr. Arnold Franck and the Universal expedition which is to make “Iceberg” in Greenland this Summer are on the high seas bound for Germany.

In Hamburg the company will be joined by Leni Riefenstahl of the German screen, who will be the heroine of “Iceberg.” The party then shoves off for Compenhagen, and so, about the end of May, to Greenland.

European actors who are also expert mountain climbers and the ice enthusiasts will also join the company before it leaves for Germany.

Filming “Iceberg” will require six months of the Arctic's long days and two months of long nights.

“Iceberg” will relate the story of white men and women stranded in the barren wastes of the frozen area. Dr. Franck is an old hand at making Alpine films, “Storms Over Mont Blanc” being his most familiar picture on this side of the water.




A schooner nosing mysteriously about in tropical waters will provide the setting for Jack Holt's next venture into two-fisted melodrama in the great outdoors. Columbia is preparing to make the film, which has the title of “The Thirteenth Man.”




Henry B. Walthall, whose Little Colonel in “The Birth of a Nation,” may still be recalled, has been engaged by First National. The veteran actor will appear with Richard Barthelmess in “The Cabin in the Cotton,” Henry Harrison Kroll's novel of the deep South, which Paul Green adapted for the screen.

Mr. Walthall was a star back in the old Griffith days when a lad named Barthelmess broke into pictures. Their joint appearance will mark the first time the two have played together since those days.




Bing Crosby's first feature-length film in the series he is to make for Paramount will be, not inappropriately, about the radio – an adaptation of “Wild Waves,” William Ford Manley's satiric picture of the goings-on in a broadcasting studio.

Burns and Allen, the popular vaudeville and radio team, will be in the film.

Production on “Wild Waves” has been postponed until the beginning of June, which will give Mr. Crosby an opportunity to finish his round of theatrical appearances in New England and Chicago.




The production of “Horse Feathers,” the new Marx Brothers frolic, is temporarily stalled while Chico, the loudest of the brothers, recovers from a fractured knee-cap. Chico was hurt in an automobile accident three weeks ago, and has now left the hospital.

It will be several weeks yet before the production can resume and the three other members of the clan are enjoying vacations in the meantime.




William Wyler and a number of the company making “Tom Brown of Culver” left Universal City for Culver, Ind., where they are now engaged in making scenes of that military prep school.

The picture, both in its studio and location phases, is enjoying the cooperation of the school authorities, and Colonel Robert Rossow, commandent of cadets is acting as technical advisor.

Included in the company of actors who made the trip are Tom Brown, who has the title role; Slim Summerville, H. B. Warner, Eugene Pallette, Ben Alexander and Richard Cromwell.

The most interesting feature of the cross-country expedition was Universal’s famous camera crane, built originally to obtain unusual angle shots for the production of “Broadway,” which was loaded on a flat car and taken along. The massive instrument, mounted on its own auto truck chassis, is capable of elevating camera, camera men and director to a height of fifty feet.




Ben Turpin is coming back to the screen. The celebrated strabismic comedian has joined up with Paramount to appear in a comedy, which is soon to be produced with Jack Oakie and W. C. Fields in leading roles.

Except for a brief appearance as the cross-eyed lackey in “The Love Parade” a couple of years ago and another in “Cracked Nuts,” Mr. Turpin has been missing – and missed – from the scene.




Constance Bennett will begin work in a few days on “The Higher Ups” in which she will appear as a gallant daughter of wealth who gets mixed up in a scandal in high society. Neil Hamilton will have the lead opposite her.




James Gleason, who has not found much time for the stage since Hollywood took him and his colorful slang under her capacious wing, is now located with Paramount for a role in George Bancroft's “The Challenger.”

The Gleason family seems to get along well with the films. Lucille Webster Gleason recently appeared in “Girls About Town,” and Russell Gleason, their son, has a part in “The Strange Case of Clara Deane.”

Appearing opposite Mr. Bancroft in “The Challenger” is Wynne Gibson.




Metro has acquired the motion picture rights to “The Devil Passes,” the play by Benn W. Levy.




William Faulkner, the widely discussed author of “Sanctuary” and “As I Lay Dying,” has been engaged for motion-picture work by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Under the terms of the agreement the novelist will write originals for the screen as well as adaptations and dialogue. Whether he will adapt any of his own novels for the company is a matter of doubt.




“They Call It Sin,” adapted from a novel by Alberta Steadman Egan, will be produced by First National with Loretta Young and George Brent in the leading roles when Miss Young finishes work on “Life Begins.”

The two have already made a picture together, “Week-end Marriage,” which is scheduled for a June release.




The Warners have assembled a cast to support Barbara Stanwyck in “The Mud Lark,” and the film version of Arthur Stringer's novel will soon be entering production.

Snub Pollard, the mustachioed comedian of dozens and dozens of the old silent funny pictures, will have a part. There are, in addition, David Landau, Leila Bennett, George Brent and Hardie Albright.




Henry Armetta, whose face is probably more familiar to cinema audiences than his name, has been rushed into the cast of Edward G. Robinson's “Tiger Shark.”

Mr. Armetta is the apoplectic man who gave the M. G. M. pictures some of their most hilarious moments last year. Being a free agent, he has let himself out to Warners for this film.

Two of the principal roles in “Tiger Shark” are being interpreted by Richard Arlen and Zita Johann.

Miss Johann, whose interests hitherto have been mainly theatrical, was in D. W. Griffith's “The Struggle” last Fall.

HOLLYWOOD'S FEMININE STARS BATTLE OVER MALE IDOLS OF THE SOUND SCREEN

Clark Gable, Bob Montgomery and George Brent Are Most Popular

McCrea Is Another

Constance Bennett Insists Upon Joel as Her Hero in Talkies

By Dan Thomas
Hollywood, May 7, 1932

Once more the cry is going out from Hollywood - “give us more leading men.”

To be sure, we have plenty of actors who are classified as leading men, but, with the exception of a scant handful, they don't measure up to the standards set by our very choosy feminine stars. And you have no idea how particular these young ladies can be.

First of all the leading man must have a sex appeal, look interesting enough for the star to appear to have a passion for him and be old enough to make the star seem younger.

If he passes these qualifications, he must then prove his ability as a first-class actor – really better than the star herself, but with sufficient discretion not to steal any scenes from her. Our feminine stars really consider it ungentlemanly for their leading men to steal scenes from them.

There you have the demands made of leading men today – and also the reason why nearly all of the feminine stars fight over a scant handful, while the others trade their Rolls Royces for Fords.

And if you don't think the feminine stars really battle for their leading men, you should overhear one of the conferences sometime. Of course, there isn't any hair-pulling. But from a verbal standpoint the battles are long and loud.

At present, and for some months back, Clark Gable has reigned as the most fought for leading man in the business.

The stars around the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot all know that the presence of Gable in a picture will add plenty to its box office value. And they know that Gable will be a good boy and not steal any scenes from them – or at least not very many.

As a result Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo – the trio most apt to get their own way on that lot – do plenty of begging and flighting for Gable's services.

So far Joan is in the lead, having walked off with the prize for three pictures.

Marion Davies is another feminine actress who appreciates the worth of Gable. Clark saved the day for her in “Polly of the Circus,” even if he was miscast. Miss Davies sought him again for “Two Blondes,” her next film, but was turned down by the studio.




However, the fighting isn't as bad as it might be on that lot, thanks to Robert Montgomery. Although he is rated as a star in his own name, Bob is quite coveted as a leading man by that trio of ladies despite the fact that they know his name will go up in letters almost as big as they command.

But Bob is a nice chap who seldom quarrels because his part doesn't happen to be quite big enough. And he has such a graceful way of stealing scenes that the stars don't realize they are being subordinated.

Montgomery, whose current release is “Letty Lynton,” in which he shares honors with Joan Crawford, is slated to play opposite Miss Davies in “Two Blondes.”

Of course Bob gets his fat roles in his own starring vehicles, in which he has practically his choice of the studio's lesser feminine players for his leading ladies.




Another young man who has caused harsh words between stars who otherwise are quite friendly is George Brent – no relation to Evelyn.

George is a veteran of the legitimate stage, having spent many years on Broadway. But as pictures go, he is only five months old. That hasn't stopped Ruth Chatterton, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell and Loretta Young from requesting, or rather demanding, his services.

Miss Chatterton absolutely insisted upon having Brent emote opposite her in “The Rich Are Always With Us.” And Stanwyck is said to have done the same for “So Big.” Joan and Loretta still are running second to them.




After being in the picture racket for quite some time, Joel McCrea suddenly has leaped into that envious position of having girls whom men usually fight over do the fighting with himself as the object.

Ever since Constance Bennett had Joel opposite her in “The Common Law” he has been her preference as a leading man. And Constance is one young lady in this town whose word is law.

Consequently, her latest picture was postponed until McCrea could finish “Bird of Paradise” and play opposite her.

Joel, incidentally, went into “Bird of Paradise” because Dolores Del Rio was quite insistent upon having him.

While Miss Bennett is making a talkie for Warners, McCrea is to be featured in two adventure stories under the Radio banner. “The Eighth Wonder,” the last mystery story written by the late Edgar Wallace already is in production.

Joel's next will be “The Most Dangerous Game.” Fay Wray is playing opposite in the Wallace opus, under direction of Merian C. Cooper.




Others who might also be placed in the “pet” class are Spencer Tracy, Melvyn Douglas and Wallace Ford. They are constantly in demand and often cause hard feelings when their services can't be procured.

It's tough to be so popular – but, always there is room for a few more actors who would like to start battles between lovely screen stars.

SPEAKING VERY CANDIDLY

By Chester B. Bahn
May 8, 1932

Hollywood can do everything except “take it.”

How else is one to interpret the film colony's reaction to a bit of clowning by Will Rogers and Wally Beery at the Hollywood premier of “Grand Hotel.”

It was announced that the event would be graced by the presence of the elusive Greta Garbo, the Swedish star, taking a bow or two on the stage after the film's presentation.

When La Garbo was announced by Mr. Rogers, Mr. Beery, who played Swedish servant gals in good old slapstick days, waltzed on in comedy attire and told the assemblage, “Ay tank Ay go home.”

Normal persons, of course, would laugh at such a sally, but Hollywood's elite accepted it as something between pure sacrilege and lese majesty, and silently filed out of the theater.

Why? Well, in the first place, egotistical Hollywood lacks a sense of humor, and in the second, it is painfully thin-skinned.

The feverish thought, “We must stop this sort of thing lest we be the next targets,” eveindently was highly contagious at the premier.




“The Trial of Vivienne Ware,” is the talkie in which Director William K. Howard, striving for a record, completed in 17 days of the alloted 24 shooting days and then discovered it was two reels, or 1800 feet short of the required length for release.




The spirit of unrest manifested by the “revolts” of James Cagney, Marlene Dietrich, Josef Von Sternberg, Nancy Carroll, among others, seems to be spreading in dear old Hollywood.

That affable and eminently amusing comedian Charlie Ruggles, is another who, if you will believe what you are told, has had quite enough and is ready to reopen that comfortable residence at Setauket, L. I.

Charlie's contract is shortly to expire and he has indicated that he does not care for a renewal... especially a renewal at a lower figure. So in his case, anyway, Richard Barthelmess' example is a futile beau geste.

Mr. Ruggles, I gather, contemplates a return to his better-loved stage.

His opinion of the cinema is refreshingly frank:

“Motion pictures, from the actor's standpoint, are entirely a monetary business. They have no heart, no romance, no traditions, as has the stage.

“Most people are in the business in Hollywood to make a lot of money and get out. Some of them get out. Some keep on collecting money.”

Are cinema directors and players creative artists, or “hired help”?

There, in a single sentence, you have the issue in the case of Paramount versus Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich.



It is not exactly a new question, of course; Jetta Goudal, erstwhile “cocktail of temperament,” raised it when she sued for, and was awarded, damages in her now historic clash with Cecil B. DeMille. The court held that termperament was an integral part of the artist, if I recall correctly.

The Von Sternberg-Dietrich “strike” runs parallel, in a fashion. It is, or must be, their contention that they were ordered to do that which their artistic knowledge – genius, if you prefer – told them would be disastrous.

Whether it would be, of course, is something else again.




Those supposedly authentic announcements that Charles Bickford, “the Bolshevist of Hollywood,” had recanted and signed a Universal contract were without foundation in fact, it develops.

Not even the promise that he would be starred in Jim Tully's “Laughter in Hell,” grim drama of the Southern chain gangs, was enough to induce Mr. Bickford to sign on the dotted line with Uncle Carl Laemmle's organization.

The delineator of red-blooded he-man roles has been free-lancing since his unsatisfactory (well, to him, at least) experience as a contract player at M-G-M.

The agreement proposed by Universal would have netted three Bickford starring dramas this year, and four next. Further, the star was to have the right to pass upson stories and directors, I understand.

The chances favor Mr. Bickford's appearance in several Universal productions on a picture-by-picture basis; such is information reaching me from the studio.




The week's best Hollywood tip-off was supplied by Dan Thomas who, writing of the West Coast premier of “Grand Hotel”, observed: “Seldom have I seen so many men with their own wives.”



HOLLYWOOD SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

By Robin Coons
Hollywood - May 8

An unpretentious little theater at Hedgerow, near Philadelphia, saw Ann Harding's bow to the footlights in Susan Glaspell's “Inheritors.”

Hedgerow is unpretentious in physical trappings, distinguished in artistic honesty. There fine things are done, strong things.

Miss Harding, since she and Harry Bannister informed the press they would seek a divorce, has denied herself to interviewers, feeling that the letters in which they set forth the reasons for the step need no elaboration.

Bannister already has established residence in Reno, while his wife remains to work out her contract for films.

This contract expires within a year. Hollywood is asking, “Then what?”

One good conjecture on that score is as good as another, and mine is that once this contract is fulfilled Ann Harding will lose no time in getting away from Hollywood, and her destination will be – Hedgerow.

She may or may not receive an offer of a new film contract. That will depend, of course, on public reaction to her next few pictures. But it will make no difference in her decision to leave. She will go to Hedgerow, and there will be a revival, coincidentally, of Ann Harding.

“Inheritors” is a story of ideals, of conflict, of lofty courage. “To be the most we can be that others may be the better because we were” – that’s the principal of the play. Once during an interview she read from it, an unusual treat for any interviewer.

It was in the evening, after a hard day at the studio, and she was tired. But as she read, beautifully, the tiredness seemed to leave her. It was inspiring, and she was inspired.

She told me: “This is my Bible,” I think in the same sense, that Hedgerow is her “church.”

Miss Harding’s intimates knew, even before those startling letters from her and Bannister were delivered, that she took little joy from the wealth and fame Hollywood was giving her, that she felt she had gone astray and sacrificed much when she signed the contract that is keeping her in Hollywood.

That’s why there is ample reason to believe that she will return to Hedgerow, as to church, to be “shriven of Hollywood” and start anew. And a truer and finer artist should emerge.

ONLY 27 PER CENT OF FILMS’ POTENTIAL STARS ARE FOREIGN-BORN

“Menace Branded Mythical”

Native Players Well to the Fore in Hollywood Talkie Studios

By Chester B. Bahn
May 8, 1932

Just how serious, anyway, is this menace that Representative Samuel Dickstein sees enveloping Hollywood?

Mr. Dickstein, as you may know, is the native of Russia who would have congress place foreign actors under the labor clause of the Federal immigration laws. The congressional measure, now pending, bears his name.

Thus far, editorial writers and cinema specialists discussing the restrictive legislation have dealt almost exclusively with the imposing list of first-line players, stars and featured artists, who have Continental antecedents.

That is all very well, but it seems to me that a much fairer and saner estimate of the “menace’s” importance is to be found in The Herald’s own survey of studio star material.

Mr. Dickstein, I believe, has urged that his measure is necessary if the American actor and actress are to have an opportunity in Hollywood. He feels that major studios are inclined to ignore home talent and give the breaks to imported artists, not those of exceptional ability but the obscure troupers who may be built, cheaply and profitably, into new Garbos, Colmans, Dietrichs, Chevaliers and Dresslers.

The Herald’s survey establishes just how groundless Mr. Dickstein’s fears really are. Refreshing your recollection, briefly, it showed that six major studios had a total of 63 players regarded as potential “names.”

Carrying the canvas one step farther today to include United Artists, and adding as well five other players with stellar possibilities, the aggregate stands at 69. Of this number, only 19 are actors and actresses of foreign origin. Not much of a “menace” there, I submit.

The imported troupers, by studios, are:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Nora Gregor, Maureen O’Sullivan, Diana Wynyard and Heather Thatcher (the latter two are my own additions to the studio list.)

Paramount – Sari Maritza, Cary Grant and Adrianne Allen (I have added Miss Allen to the studio list)

Fox – Elissa Landi

Universal – Tala Birell and Margaret Lindsay

Warners-First National – George Brent

Radio – Gurli Andre, Zita Johann, Phyllis Clare, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Ratoff, Ricardo Cortez and Jill Esmond

United Artists – Anna Sten




The misses O’Sullivan and Landi by this time are old friends, as is Mr. Cortez.

The misses Gregor and Thatcher received attention in this department a couple of Sundays ago when they made their screen debut in “But the Flesh Is Week;” and Mr. Brent, Miss Esmond and Mr. Olivier similarly have enjoyed the spotlight recently.

Miss Johann is presented in “The Struggle.”




“The Roadhouse Murder” serves to introduce Miss Clare who was born in London, received her schooling at exclusive private schools there and on the Continent. Then the lure of the theater won her and she obtained a place in the chorus with a London musical show.

It wasn’t long until she was playing leads on both sides of the Atlantic. Her first New York part was in “Artists and Models.” “The Charlot Review” followed. Then came more roles in London. She returned to New York to do a featured role in “The Band Wagon,” a Broadway hit.

RKO-Radio scouts were impressed by the golden haired beauty and a screen test was arranged. It resulted in a long-term contract and a trip to Hollywood.




Margaret Lindsay, too, is a native of London, although she is the daughter of American parents. Like Miss Clare, she upset their plans by determining on a stage career. After a fair measure of success in London, Miss Lindsay came to the United States on speculation rather than on contract, attracted Carl Laemmle’s attention, had a test made and then signed on the dotted line with Universal.




Tala Birell, Universal’s other foreign actress, is a native of Rumania, but rates as a Viennese. Stardom for her is already assured. More about Tala another Sunday.




If you will believe Hollywood whispers, Diana Wynyard is M-G-M’s “ace in the hole” if La Garbo sails homeward next month. The studio, of course, is discretely silent on the subject.

The actress was imported from London to appear on Broadway in Benn Levy’s “The Devil Passes;” she created a distinct stir in New York, her beauty and ability “bringing out the better critical adjectives” as one critic phrased it.




Adrianne Allen, blonde, blue-eyed, was another London beauty to find quick success on Broadway. She arrived last fall a comparative unknown. She was cast in the role of a tragic, love-seeking working girl in “Cynara,” one of the outstanding hits.

Her husband, Raymond Massey, an actor-director, was grabbed up by Universal. Paramount signed Miss Allen and she left her show to rush to the coast for the leading role in “Merrily We Go to Hell,” with Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney, themselves likely to be rated stars during the 1932-33 film year.

Miss Allen has been interested in acting since she was a child. She is the daughter of a Manchester banker with investments in theaters. Through him she learned backstage happenings in London and acquired an ambition to act. After being educated in England, France and Germany, she enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, founded by Sir Beerbohm Tree.

During a performance of her graduation play she attracted the attention of Noel Coward, who later offered her a role in his play, “Easy Virtue.” She scored a success and after the production closed mailed her photograph and press clippings to 30 London producers. One of them, Raymond Massey, replied and put her to work in another Coward play, “The Rat Trap.”

Massey, a brother of the premier of Canada, soon asked Miss Allen to become Mrs. Massey. She said “yes,” but the marriage did not prevent her playing in “Private Lives,” “An American Tragedy” and “The Stag,” on the London stage, and the British cinema’s “Loose Ends,” “The Woman Between” and others.




Sari Maritza, who will be introduced to American fandom in Paramount’s “Forgotten Commandments,” drama of present-day Russia, is late of Berlin and London. Blue-eyed, brown-haired and only one inch more than five feet in height, her tabloid biography reads:

Born in China, where her father was in the import and export business, she was taken back to Berlin at 12 for an education. She finished her schooling in Berlin and Paris, and showing prowess in ice skating, then went to Switzerland where she took some prizes at St. Moritz. She speaks three languages fluently and is a precocious athlete.

Her first appearance as an English-speaking actress came two years ago when she appeared in a British picture, “Greek Street.” Londoners seemed to like her and she got three other pictures thereafter, winding up with “Two-Way Street.”

Of Hungarian ancestry, Sari was working on a picture in Budapest when she attracted the attention of Miss Vivian Gaye, a young actress, who became her manager, and came along to America.




Cary Grant’s ability as an electrician resulted in his becoming an actor.

At the age of 12 he conceived a new theatrical lighting effect which so interested the manager of the Princess Theater in Bristol, England, his home town, that he was allowed to install the machine and operate it for a show.

This brought the boy into contact with stage people. He developed an ambition to act and soon ran away from school to act in Bob Pender's Acrobats. His father went after the boy and brought him home, but at 15 he ran away to join the same troupe. This time his father let him go. Blood was telling, you see, for Cary's grandfather was Percival Leach, famed British actor.

For a year Grant appeared with the “knock-about” comedians, as England knows them. The company then came to New York to appear at the Hippodrome and remained two years in America. Grant then returned to England and spent two years in stock where he developed his rich baritone voice.

He met Reginald Hammerstein who brought him back to New York and put him in “Golden Dawn,” Thereafter he appeared in “Polly” and “Boom Boom.” Back in New York after a three-month vacation at home he had leads in “Wonderful Night” and “Street Singer.”

Last summer, the brown-eyed, dark-haired Grant joined the St. Louis Repertoire Company, singing the lead in 12 operettas. In the fall he returned to Broadway for “Nikki,” playing the part which Richard Barthelmess had in the screen version, “The Last Flight.”

With the close of this show he set forth on an automobile trip which brought him to Hollywood. There he met Paramount executives, took a screen test and was given a part in “This Is the Night,” recently seen.




Gregory Ratoff was seen last week in “Symphony of Six Million.” He came to the United States from Representative Dickstein's native Russia, where he had been associated with the Moscow Art Theater as producer and actor.

His first real American hit was “The Kibitzer,” which he produced and directed and in which he starred. His wife is Eugenie Leontovitch, a factor in the success of “Grand Hotel” in New York.




That, I believe, leaves us two newcomers for consideration. Anna Sten, also a product of the Russian stage, will make her American screen debut opposite Ronald Colman in “Way of a Lancer.”

She was on the Russian screen as well as stage, and has had a successful career in Germany. Her last picture there saw her co-starred with Emil Jannings; the vehicle was “The Tempest.”




Radio will introduce Gurli Andre in Richard Dix's “Roar of the Dragon,” and Don Eddy assures me that Denmark's contribution to the roster of foreign beauties is headed for stardom. Strangely, Gurli was in Hollywood three years ago, but failed to attract attention.

Originally, her beauty caught the eyes of John Leroy Johnston while scouring the country for film prospects on behalf of M-G-M. He made tests and Gurli was to have gone immediately to Hollywood, but her mother's illness caused her to leave for Denmark instead.

On the liner returning to America, Miss Andre, whose real name is Guila Andressen, met Joseph M. Schenck of United Artists, who was so struck by her beauty and poise that he asked her to see him when she came to Hollywood.

When Schenck returned to the coast, however, he found Hollywood trembling in its boots before the talkie revolution. Gurli went, saw Schenck, met socially many of Hollywood's most influential people, and waited.

Perhaps because she had an accent, perhaps because the producers were all mad for stage talent, she waited practically unnoticed, and eventually departed for New York to model again. She was working there when Radio scouts “discovered” her again recently.