Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

Pointed comment on cinema affairs and people ■'•■^^p^k Th by W. H. FAWCETT Publisher of HOLLYWOOD Magazine PAGE Variety in Entertainment It Is Difficult To Please everybody all of the time but the studios are doing a mighty good job trying to achieve that very goal. To the moaners who think only sin and sex rule the screen we recommend Paramount's Cradle Song, starring Dorothea Wieck, and RKO-Radio's Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn. Their themes are far removed from the criticized sex and gangster films and will leave fans with memories of sweetness and idealism that should not soon forsake them. We do not urge a cycle of films to follow their pattern because all types of pictures are necessary to a well-balanced entertainment season — a steady diet of bonbons soon would cloy the appetite. These studios, however, deserve orchids for supplying refreshing variety in these films. Chico Marx became somewhat involved but he certainly rang the bell with his description of a certain type of personality when he said: "He's the kind of a guy who would cut your throat behind your back and pat your back to your face." Experiments When You Hear That Lives of a Bengal Lancer, after an expenditure of about $1,000,000, probably never will reach the screen, don't exclaim in horror over what appears to be another unwarranted movie extravagance. Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and Jack Oakie were to be in the leading roles when the book was purchased for picturization five years ago. A camera unit spent eight months in India obtaining atmospheric shots and the story was rewritten innumerable times. Now it has been decided that this officer's description of army life in India never can be adapted for filming. The studio was striving for something new and therefore should be commended for its experiment. No progress has been made in any line of endeavor without experiments — and often costly mistakes. Al Has a Place AL Jolson is before the cameras again for the first time in l nearly four years as filming goes on of Wunderbar, the famous German musical comedy. Al had planned to retire from the screen and take his wife, Ruby Keeler, with him but he has been induced to sign a new contract with Warner Brothers. There is a definite place in the cinema world for Al — so long as he confines himself to the type of singing that made him famous and does not try to a!ct. Al is not an actor and he knows it now. None, however, can put over a song "with a sob in his voice" quite like Al, although his imitators through the years have been legion. If he sticks to his singing, his blackface and his clowning, he need not soon think of retiring. Movies certainly never will go silent again although there is a definite trend toward less dialogue on the screen. A new RKORadio picture, as yet untitled but written by Lulu Vollmer, will contain less than 2,000 words of dialogue as compared with the 10.000 zvords of the average feature length talkie. Fighting Fair Joan Blondell recently sued to break her contract with her agent on the grounds that he had attempted to induce her to force the studio to increase her salary by walking out and through other methods in direct violation of business and ethical principles. Which is something new. Disgruntled stars usually walk out and discuss matters later — like the plug ugly who says, "Hit 'em first and argue later." Joan, through loyalty to her husband, Cameraman George Barnes, wanted to discard her own name and become Joan Barnes on the screen. The studio couldn't see it, naturally, because of the time and money it had spent in building up the name "Joan Blondell." Joan has been persistent in her efforts to force the name change, but she has fought fairly. 12 HOLLYWOOD