Picture Play Magazine (1938)

What the Fans Think "It's always fair weather when good fellows — Bing Crosby, Jack Holt chinning about horses. Continued from page 4 Loretta Young, a very fragile feminine eauty, also of the romantic type. Her udio seems to recognize the public is gain interested in the beautiful, feminine nd romantic and are giving her the breaks le deserves. Of course, there are others as beautiful nd talented in Hollywood who are of the jmantic type, but we only list our favores. We hear of certain male stars being andsome and romantic, but it has been ears since the beautiful romantic feminine ar has held the spotlight. We want to see the modern romantic picire along with the comedies, adventure tories, melodrama, historical and biograliical themes. Six Young Dallas Women. I Dallas, Texas. Trial-horse for Ingenues. SPEAKING of "studio stepchildren." if lere's one star who's being sorely neglected y his studio, it's Dick Powell. There are ozens of stories to be chosen from the best tagazines, but when it's a Powell film that's eing decided upon, that gentleman's studio an think of only two. plots: 1. Young inger makes good on Broadway or radio: The show must go on. Time was when Mr. Powell was given jngs worthy of his voice, but now the best ines are handed over to the lesser lights f his films, and Dick hasn't had a hit tune a months. Other actors of Dick's popuv. irity are given talented and established fading ladies, but Warners see fit to use ood-natured Dick as a sort of trial horse pr their untried young ingenues. (Joe E. iJrown used to be the goat.) He's had three f them during the past year, and not one rith a spark of personality or acting ability. Marie L. Dailey. 4 : Racine, Wisconsin. What a Mess! I HAVE just seen "Conquest." and want ? chide MGM for ever producing such a less. What could have been a masterpiece > nothing but a dull, illogical spectacle, the haracters of which we watch as we would ained fleas in a side show. The Napoleon of "Conquest" bears small esemblance to the Napoleon of history. Spence Tracy, This is in part due to Charles Buyers performance. He never once catches the flame of ambition that was afire in France's Emperor; he fill one with no emotion of anj kind. Garbo fares badly. Her pari is contradictory, entirely lacking in power, and a bit stupid. Nevertheless, she gives a good performance under tin' circumstances. The trouble with "Conquest" i- that it is far too impressive, worrying too much about detail and too little about depth. It never touches beneath the surface of tin' lives of the characters. The continuity is poor, the love scenes dull and empty, the story powerless. This is all due In the bad adaptation. Daniel Eisen. 84 West 188th Street, New York. Open Letter to Joan Crawford. YOl'K career has always been <>f absorbing interest to me, not because you are so innately gifted as an actress, but 1><-. ivj your place in the Hollywood sun has been won by your own grit and ambition, always in the face of opposition. And now there is a crisis, it seems, in your career. That makes me just damn mad. This so-called crisis i-. a fabrication, an illusion, provoked and fostered by newspaper and radio commentators, all of whom apparently cherish an undying malevolence toward the very name of Crawford. One is Billy, the other is Bobby twins because when one works Mauch. Kind of convenient to be ai "Penrod," the other can play.