Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 39

\ Stage—Screen Music—Radio Part 4—8 Pages AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star. LORETTA YOUNG $ GRAND SLAM” METROFOLITAN MAE WEST S SHE DONE HIM WRONe” PALACE -Pu_blic Demands a Change And Actors Are Agreeable But the Movie Producers Place Their Stars in a Niche and Keep Them There—Paul Muni Wants Comedy Role, Polly Moran Would Be Serious. By E. de S. Melcher. edy; Noel Coward says that “people think I am always gay and frivolous because I write about gay and frivolous things”; Tallulah Bankhead would like the movies to give her “happy” roles; Leslie Howard’s ambition is to play Richard II; Polly Moran would like to do a serious role; PAUL MUNI wants to do com- Jean Harlow I to be a comedienne. Actors, e W] other words, are conspicuously | chafite? among those who dream of ac- eomplishing things they are not l}xlo!v;ved or supposed to accom- plish. Mr. Muni was right when he stated a few days ago that the films are not helping along this outlet for expression. “Once you make a success in something you have to keep right on in the same channel,” he says. Miss Bankhead recently corroborated this, plead- ing guilty to a desire for doing the “gay, frivolous things” and de- ploring the fact that she had to continue shedding long cinema tears just because Hollywood had made up its mind that she was a tragedienne. While it is perhaps hard to imagine Muni in a Charles Rug- gles role (this is what he is after), you have to admit after talking to him that almost anything may be expected of him. A versatile conversationalist, as well as a brilliant actor, he gives you the feeling that comedy 1is quite within his range. Miss Bank- head, too, reveals a twinkle in her eye which the screen has not caught, and Leslie Howard has a serious, deep quality to him which would suit admirably his Richard II desires. The movies, however, insist on types. Once they have put you in what they think is your proper niche, you are “set” that way for life. Due probably to the fact that they haven’t time to recon- noiter—that their pictures have to come out of the mill in a one- two-three rush—they overlook possibilities within their reach and which they might capitalize 4f they would only take time off to see them. Would the public object, for instance, seeing Muni in a Coward play, Coward writing a tra:gedy, Miss Bankhead laugh- ing for a change, Polly Moran crying, Howard in Shakespeare, Miss Harlow in a “Let Us Be Gay”? In other words, “types” being pulled down from their too- stable pedestals and flourishing in fields far removed from what is meant to be their forte? We doubt it. * X ok X 'HE public, after all, wants change. It tires eventually €ven of “Grand Hotels.” It likes Mae West because she has brought something new to the screen. She is loud and rough and nasal. She is a radical ele- ment in the films. No one has done quite what she does. You are bound to admit her success, because she is easy in her mim- ings, rowdy in her swaggerings and so at home before the cam- era that she seems almost to be laughing at its intrusion in.scenes which she makes you believe are happening within an arm’s length from where You are sitting. Miss West indicates that audi- ences like to be surprised. As she swings onto the scene you can almost hear her say: “Well, folks, you didn’t think I'd make it, did you? Well, here I am!” And there she is, after a turbu- lent career on the stage, having spent long hours in police vans and court rooms defending plays which obviously needed defend- ing. But who, a year ago, would have said that Miss West would become the most conspicuous figure on the screen during the new season? So, if Miss West can climb onto the bandwagon and be driven up to the stars, why can’t some of the others turn table momentar- ily and be allowed to do what they want to do? * k Kk % T is time that Hollywood let its imagination be stirred by those outside of their small ring of “chiefs” It is time they opened up deaf ears to those who have something to say. Muni, for instance, knows his theater probably better than many a first-class Hollywood impresario. .he can play com- give that The variety of talents he has shown on the screen and behind the footlights is so marked already that it seems logical to suppose that he could try another method. If you have seen him on the stage in “Counselor-at- law” (which would not make, in- cidentally, much of a film) and then have seen him as “Scar- face” you know that he is not theatrically single-handled. If, then, he believes that he could make people laugh as well, why not let him try? Those, of course, who have been picked on the highways and by- ways and scooped into the film world merely because their cheeks are pink or their faces soft and pretty need do no more than the assignments which have been %iven them. But actors who have ad long experience and who do | not take themselves too seriously (Muni, for instance, is curiously modest about his work) should sometimes be switched from the straight and narrow and set to rolling about in other spheres. ‘We should like to see Muni in a comedy. We should like to see a Noel Coward trafedy and Leslie Howard doing “Richard II.” We should like to see Tallulah Bankhead in “The Gold Diggers” (which she did for Londoners) and Polly Moran in a tragedy (no, we are wrong about this), but we would like to see Jean Harlow get a light, bright role in which when she laughs she really means it. Other changes in the amuse- ment world which wouldn’t hurt any one might include: Barrymore continuing a screen career which began more bril- liantly than either she or any one else expected; Ramon No- varro doing “The Cat and the Fiddle” (which, it is said, he may do anyway); Bette Davis getting other kinds of parts; Loretta ‘Young being serious for a change; Helen Hayes doing a screen ver- sion of “Coquette” (yes, in spite of the Pickford version); Ann Harding in a story just the oppo- site from “Holiday”; Katharine Cornell doing anything for the benefit of the camera, and Mar- lene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Greta Garbo and other great sis- ters of sorrow getting into films in which they do nothing but laugh and laugh and laugh. It is time to shake up some of these players. There is only one difficulty: 7f Paul Muni wants to be Charles Rugilees, will Mr. Ruggles want to Paul Muni? This might not be so good. Or would it? Consistent Popularity. Tl-m record of consistent popularity of Richard Dix is surpassed by no other film star. In these hectic days when the minimum life of & luminary is estimated at about five years. Dix's unending pcpuarity for more than a decade is something to think about and worth recording here. He is one of the few stars of the old days who made the transition silent to talking pictures without set- back. He appeared in more than 50 silent fllms. Many have been pro- nounced as classics and thus of the hall o:fl fame, such as “The Van- can.” “Hell's Highway” and others. These pictures have ca'led for a wide assortment of roles, from the Indian anishing Ame: the Ethel | good_J D. C, CONCERT PARTY VTHE PICCOLI¥ puss LEE TRACY-UNA MERKEL BCLEAR ALL WIRES” F O Xx 'TEPHEN DEAK, young Dutch violoncellist, will meke his local debut as guest artist in the third bene- fit m to be sponsored by the Ten O'Clock Club, Tuesday, March 14, at the Wi b, at 8:30 p.m. Mr. Deak, who is a member of the faculty of both Curtis and Peabody Institutes of Music, will share this program with Miksa Merson, popular Hungarian pi- anist of this city. In keeping with the spirit of these benefit programs, these artists will play unusual music—two works, sonatas, by living composers having their premiere Washington per- formance at this time. The composers 50 represented are Sergel Rachmaninoft and Gustav Strube. Option on "Ann Vickers." SINCLAIE LEWIS, Nobel Prize win- ner and author n{n bc:él ske”uen ‘{:r many years, soon aga Tepre- sented on the screen. R-K-O Radio Pictures has purchased an option on Lewis’ new book, “Ann_ Vickers.” “Ann Vickers” is the story of a carefree girl, who wanders from one af- fair of the heart to another, always seeking “the man” and seeking sublima- tion os the vainness of her search by serving as a welfare worker in prisons and penitentiaries. It is said to offer one of the most powerful character studies of a woman ever offered for the | motion pictures. —_—— No “Mertons" Left. film extra working for a thrill has vanished from the Holly- wood horizon. Young men and women who list themselves at casting offices for extra work today mean business. They want money and not the “thrill” of rubbing elbows with stars and ming- ling with them before the camera, ac- cording to Paul Wilkins of the Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer casting office. “We don't have any trouble these days with the thrill-seeking youngsters who ran away from home or left perfectly jobs because they were movie- struck,” he says. “The extras of to- day for the most part are the survivors of that great army of yesterday that flitted from studio to studio. These veterans are serious, hard-working - ple who have made extra work their calling. The new ones are people from various walks of life who have turned to extra work as their only hope of a living until things get better in their regular lines of work. “There is no place in the studios to- day for young men and women looking for jobs in pictures for fun. Every casting office makes it a rule to give employment to those needing it most and in accordance with the demands for types. There are no ‘Mertons’ left in Hollywood. We don't even have beauty contest winners any more.” Here Tonight NOEL COWARD, O asnission olont. to. apoear I the actors’ fund benefit whszg Daniel Frohman i3 staging at the Belasco Ty NAT/ONAL SALLY EILERS $SECOND HAND WIFE * COLUMBIA BEBE DANIELS %42 ND STREETY £EARLE S S How and Why PECTATORS who watch the 11 performances of “The Piccoli” this week at the National are not likely to interrupt their hilarity with such _disturbing thoughts as %o wonder how much trouble the Latin wizard has taken to make his show the charming flight from reality that it is. The fact re- mains that he has taken plenty, and wrought, in fact, a miracle of patience. Let it pass that Podrecca has taken 18 years of his life to develop his theater, that his show has been given 12,000 performances in the capital cities of the world. Let it pass that he has taken his company of 800 per- formers and 14% tons of theatrical properties through 30 countries and transported them by sled in Norway, by fishing smack to Finland, by truck through Germany, by rail through England, France and Belglum, by camel over deserts to give “command” per- formances before Asiatic potentates. Yet, to cite one chapter and verse, let it be said that there is one number in “The Piccoli’s” flim of parodies and burlesques W] is a curiously complex business. It is called “The Bul " and takes place in & brilliantly lighted arena with a wildly cheering fans in the background. In actual running time, this number will take exactly nine caj res g thel en capes, wpmzmhuvm;mo(mwn‘ In terms of sheer narration, it is simply a tale of a noble bull who sees red, is enraged by the darts of the banderilio who has ph them nicely into his chest, of the picador and his horse, whom he sends ignominiously over the barrier, and of the swaggering matador, who sends his gleaming sword with fatal dispatch into the charging bull as thousands howl with delight and a shower of sombreros and flowers crown his triumph. Conceiving the idea for such a num- ber is the least, in point of time, in the cycle of ‘development. For immediately after conception it must be reconceived within the limits of marionette e: - sion—or at least in terms of the performers who are a unto themselves and far more elaborate and human than ordinary marionettes. After the simple plot is outlined, its action must be translated into travesty, movement must be stylized. sentiment satirized. Into this scheme must fit the activities of the scenic de- signer, the sculptor, the painter, the ! costumer, the manipulators, the singers | the musicians. Over them all | and watches Podrecca like a brooding hen. ‘The period of experimentation fol- lows without definite rhyme or rhythm. | After each character has been fashioned by the sculptor, it is almost always the case that it has to be done over again | after testing its movements. The bull may be too slow, by resson of its weight, for movements; the matador’s joints may all have to be shifted a shade or two to give him a dignified demeanor. Before a character Deen pu thtongh, all the permutations pul e utations of movement, and the spice of carica- ture extracted. Then the staging must be done to provide & ‘maximum of illusion. Since “The Piccoli” is & of illusion where e proceedings have the 3 tasy [y mockery of all things real, whe:ech.%mue must be swift, neat and flawless, and where every moment must contain a surprise or a belly laugh, the stagecraft must be of the Tany, cacey 150 Stage settings, 3 Switeh: carry 150 stage sef 3 8 - g::-yd, a stage and innumerable gadgets for stage c. Some trick of legerdemain is evident in every one of the revue numbers, and especially in “The Beauty,” in which spiders LY across the entire proscenium, and in the Japanese operetta ‘“The Geisha,” where a chorus of geisha- girls and midshipmen cavort about & chrysanthemum garden. Mary Brian Returns. ARY BRIAN, who made her screen debut at the Paramount Studios “The Beer Baron.” which includes Charles Bickford, Rich- ard Arlen, Jean Hersholt, Louise Dres- ser, Jenkins and Andy Devine. In Washington Theaters This Week. BELASCO—Actors’ Fund Benefit, this evening at 3:3‘(:'0l o';loc;. NATIONAL—“Counsellor-at-Law,” tonight at 8:20 o’clock. To- | morrow night and the remainder of the week, “The Piccoll.” GAYETY—“Liberty Girls,” burlesque. This afternoon and eve- EARLE—“42nd Street,” and vaudeville, evening. This afternoon and LOEW'S FOX—“Clear All Wires,” and vaudeville. This after- noon and evening. RIALTO—“Rome Express” This afternoon and evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—“The Great Jasper.” evening. This afternoon and PALACE—“She Done Him Wrong.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“Grand Slam.” This afternoon and evening. OOLUDBIA'T!“I?’ANHQ With Care,” today. Tomorrow, “Second- and the | SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 5, 1933. T RICHARD DIX WERA ENGELS ¥THE GREAT JASPER” KEITH'S 7 Automobile and Aviation News ° Cavalcade™” Coming. N “Cavalcade,” which Fox Film Cor- poration brings to the screen of the National iter on Coward the pattern of his record of the march of the generation. ‘The first romance is one between husband and wife. of the Marryots enduring through the trials and vicissitudes of the chaotic past 30 years that is said to add much power and strength to “Cavalcade.” The second romance starts with & boy and girl affair between the older Mar- ryot son and Edith. the daughter of joo b Mrhl. erryh ot's !nrnd,' %utlmmm in a happy honeymoon, fai ur:m termination wg:‘n the Titanic, on they are passengers, goes down in mid- Atlantic. flme ;flhltrd is a moden}-dlyul.ofl n'f a ween young Joe TTYO! proud and handsome in his officer’s uniform, and Fanny Bridges, dancer, who is the toast of London, but whose parents formerly were servants of the Marryots. Their affair persists through- out the war years, Fanny steadfastly refusing to marry Joe or discuss the matter until peace is declared. Despite his protests she is skeptical of the at- titude of his family toward their mar- riage. Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook, heading the cast, have the roles of Jane and Robert Marryot, John War- burton and Margaret Lindsay are Ed- ward and Edith, the ill-fated Titanic honeymooners, and Frank Lawton and Ursula Jeans are the young war-time sweethearts. SN In Pictures 20 Years Ago. 'RNEST TRUEX, diminutive come- dian, who is sharing starring honors with Elissa Landi in “The War- rior's Husband, of the Hollywood “home guard,” who strenuously resent the appearance of Broadway stars in pictures. He set one of the more obnoxious of the “movie actors only” clan on his heels recently when the gent, with a very patronizing air, volunteered to give Eu:x some advice on “how we do it H 0 ‘Truex listened gravely during & 10- minute lecture, designed to impress him with his own unimportance an with the superior knowledge of his in- formant, who had been in pictures all of five years and knew evi there was to know. “Thanks for the advice, my boy,” he said. “But as a matter of fact, I first came into pictures 20 years ago, 5o per=| | haps I'll be able to find my way around.” ‘Truex—the perennial juvenile come- dian—is proud of his 37 years in the theatrical business and doesn’t care who knows that he is 42 years old and has two strappirg sons in college. 1055" when e Dieyed opposie. sary when he play Pickford in ‘“The Goodog.ultfle Devil,” her first full length picture. At the Earle It is this romance | ,” gets a great kick out ing d | was ready and eager for anything that F the Theater Guild's sub- scribers it has been said, as Henry James said of the Ibsen audiences, that they are “bot- tomlessly bourgeois,” the in- ference being that they are a stolid, middle class type of playgoer, seeking to burst vicariously the bonds of con- servatism through the medium of the drama. According to observers, who| for obvious excuses do not wish to be | quoted, they are respectable citizens | who depend upon the stage to awaken | them occasionally from the dull slum- | bers of the virtuous man. The Guild’s | permits them to sit on soft | my informants continue, and in safety the-perilous for them by such bold sex- as S. M. Behrman and Eu- { O'Neill. Thus, without jeopardiz- | ing the comforts of prudence, | enjoy life's extra-hazardous adventures from a protected seat in the grandstand. More than that, they are happily con- | vinced that by so doing they become | the patrons of a deserving Art, neg- | everywhere else except in the cinema’s nasal cathedrals. There per- sists, skeptics say, a superstition .that when the Guild performs a play it is good, whether you like it or not. I am not qualified to assay the Guild’s constituency, since I see only the more privileged portion of it—the | first-nighters. These are not, as most | other Broadway first nighters are, gay, over-dressed, noisy, care-free, compla- cent, amusement-seeking exhibitionists, but stable drama-lovers, prepared de- voutly to worship at a shrine. You will | not see Miss Connie Bennett there, or | Mrs. Peggy Hopkins Joyce. Gene Tun- | ney will be elsewhere, and there will be | an absence of Miss Sophie Tucker, ex- Governor Smith, William elander Stewart, Irving Berlin, Sam Harris, Miss Norma Shearer, Vincent Astor, Zukor, Jack Whitney, Lasky and Miss Laurette Taylor. The excited ingenues | who throw conspicuous kisses, on ordi- nary opening nights, to alleged friends in other sections of the auditorfum are not to be seen at the Guild premieres, and there is little aisle-acting by the audience between the acts. Once, by the way, I asked John Barrymore, who was my host at a first night, to tell me the name of a show girl who was waft- spectacular caresses to imaginary acquaintances in the audience. “Her name,” said he, “is Legion.” | I witnessed this so-called “bottom- lessly bourgeois” audience the other night as it regarded with understand- ing and compassion the processes of “American Dream.” It was a gather- ing of solvent, well-dressed, decent highbrows, eager to take it on the chin. Inured to Eugene O'Neill's poesies, it ons, to descry explored travel the Theater Guild might hand it. So when “American Dream” became in its ESTHER RALSTON AROME EXPRESS” RIALTO Little Merit in Guild’s Latest New York-Offering Critic Says Preduction Organization Is "Slippinfl" in Its Selection of Dramas—""American Dream™ for a "Bottomlessly Bourgeois™ Audience. By Percy Hammond. last act a sinister burlesque, emphasiz- ing modern America’s degradation in terms too obscene even to be hinted in a home paper, the clients nf‘phudzd it politely, and indicated by their hand- clapping that they were having a good time. ls,‘anenhyw,msudlenum- lessly bourgeois when it accepts as com- parative entertainment some of the they | N the presentation thereof, is, if one to say so, slipping. berg, is the hero of the guild’s “Ameri- can Dream.” It is he who is the only noble person in the charade. It is he who tears up the flabby millionaire’s to respond to the principal lady’s teas- ings. But he resists her in the best fashion of a virtuous Bolshevik, and the curtain falls as her husband. the last and most odious of the Pingrees (Doug- las Montgomery), blows his brains out because he can think of nothing else to_do. o Dream,” like most serious United States dramas, is a hysterical hotch-pot. It begins sedately enough in 1650, but when it arrives in 1933 it tuat] f today. In its last act are to be heard words and phrases that even Jack Pearl, or other popular musical comedians, would hesitate to utter out- side the privacy of their dressing rooms. The scheme of “American Dream,” as you know, is to trace a Pilgrim family from its bleak beginnings on these inno- cent shores to its terminal in an orgy of cocktails, abnormality, prostration and suicide. with what may be suspected to cold and tricky enthusiasm. In author, Mr. O'Neil, honest poet into a bally] side-show man, one eye on the boxoffice, the other should win the a Guild and its my&mcp bourgeois audience. be & it the an but bott Chinese Shadow Plays. . 'OUR Chinese shadow plays will be given in the Little Theater of the Arts Club instead of at Meridian Hill Studios as previously announced, on March 6 and 13 at 8:30 o'clock. The plays are being produced by Genevieve ‘Wimsatt, assisted by Ada Rainey. The first evening a double bill, “The Lotus Flower Temple” and “The Moon Goddess” will be given. Both are au- thentic Chinese plays of ancient lineage which have been adapted slightly to ‘Western audiences, but changed from their original form as little as possible. The first is a play of the eighteenth century and is a romance of the gilded youth of that day. “The Moon God- ” is a fantasy with music which been & modern Chi- writer 1d legend. h 13, “The i i of g : g i i 2 & ! o e 10 g§§§.g§§e | 5 4 % 1 HE fiEE bill, follow-. i | H figures | role o, B Budd cast. In “The Silver Cord.” FRANC!S DEE, pretly brunette, is going to get the big chance of her life in R-K-O Radio Pictures’ “The Silver Cord.” Cast Announcements. RmmALD MASON, the schoolmas- ter-soldier in the original produc- tion of “Journey’s End,” has been signed a su role in to be directed Alexander Hall. Hare, stage and actor, has been assigned an in “International House.” ailee, Col. Stoopnagle and Burns and Allen are in the scTeen it