Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

MARCH 1925 Pictures and P/cfurepoer 27 n i'v watching hex dance and ting behind the Nen SfoA fool lights, m read bei clever work m American iw guinea One of hrr earliest films wu .1 Pathe* aerial, I'll, Hidden Hand, in which the played opposite Mahlon Hamilton; the one land of acting winch is entirely unauited bo her keen, chiselled technique and dignil gesture. Cince then she has appeared in The ^ Great White J rati, The Street of tin Seven Stars, Twilight, The Band Box, The Harvest Moon, and The Conquest of Canaan with Thomas Meighan, a,nd several other piatures for Paramount. But it is Monsieur Boaucaire tha* gives Doris her chance for a character study of real skill and originality, and allows her peculiar beauty to have full scope for the first time on the screen. Left : She is a colour enthusiast in both iress and decoration. Circle : Doris in " If I Marry Again" everything that an artist can do in her short life, and that there is nothing that she has done that she has not done well. Originally. Doris Kenyon was going to be a doctor. She took her medical degree at Columbia University, but quickly turned from science to art, and began to make her name on the New York stage. Then the firm companies ran after her, and she divided her work between the silent and the speaking drama for a considerable time, acting in the studios by day and behind the footlights by night. Neither the stage nor the screen could be persuaded to part with her altogether, so Doris, who likes hard work, has had to keep honours even, and is likely to do so for a considerable time. Dut Doris Kenyon is more than actress All the arts have sent presents to her christening. She sings like a bird, and hopes to appear in grand opera in the near future. She dances like a butterfly; an elfin, soulless creature. And she is a poet, with several volumes of published verse to her credit. Hep last little book was brought out in conj unction with some work of her father's who is also a poet ; a slim, charming volume, with that same curtain of mystery hanging over it, and the same resistless fascination of the unknown and the inexpressible, that has marked all her work, sung, danced, acted and in speech. Doris first swam into my vision in Get Rich Quick Wallingford, a Paramount picture of two or three years ago, with Sam Hardy and Norman Kerry in the leading parts. Her film appearances have not been too frequent — not nearly frequent enough for her English admirers, who cannot console themselves for her absences from the i o Valentino n tin prs I in pari <<i Lady Mary wua . « luu. Valentino demanded Doris Kenyon and no othei in the i>.irt, declaring that she was tin only woman who could bring to h the right atn pherc •>! pehantm< at, the right ICy Ot' ;; Mid |,ri(|. Ih .uity. That Doris Kenyon did i>rm^ ill these .ind more is beyond all questions. Various players were criticised, when the movie was shown, for variousal comings. This one was too modern, that one too hard. But the chorus of praise for Doris Kenyon was wiih/nit a single discordant note. She was aristocratic, she was beautiful, she was alluring and coquettish by turns, she swayed her audience as easily as she swayed her film court, with a glance or a gesture. Her remarkable grace of gesture it was that influenced Valentino when he insisted she should be his " Lady Mary." And Valentino had his way. Doris and Lady Mary became one, the loveliest, hard^t, most fascinating heroine who ever graced an English screen. Now all the producers arc running after her, and she is scheduled to make as many pictures as there are days in the year — almost. And still the problem of her charm is unsolved — a riddle of which she only knows the answer. E. R. Thompson. Below : As " Lady Mary " with Rudolf It Valentino in "Monsieur Beaucaire."