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not offer much chance to those who are lacking in stage experience, for the sound film demands special aptitude in both delivery and pantomime, such as can be found only in experienced dramatic artists. Hitherto, scene directors have preferred actors who were content to renounce all personal initiative and to place themselves supinely in their hands. Rodolfo Valentino, the beloved of the ladies, is stated to have been the ideal marionette of this type; Adolphe Menjou is now following in his footsteps. Like wax in the hands of the modeller, actors of this type obey the will of the scene director and move and grimace with the precision of mechanical toys. Films of this kind were taken as follows: The scene director shouted through the magaphone: « Turn your head! »
« Look towards the door ! » « Now you hear a noise ! » « Smile wistfully ! » « Rise deliberately! » — and so on.
Let us now glance at the fundamental difference between the American cinema actor and the European actor and first of all the German actor.
In most cases, the European film actor has been recruited from the theatrical stage, which is not the case with the American actor, except in very rare instances. There is therefore little matter for surprise that the successes of the transatlantic film favourites have been very m6dest on the microphone. It may be said with confidence that 75 per cent of the American favourites have been unsuccessful in sound films. So far we have seen that, in the sound film, a good dramatic artist eclipses all the film stars who are lacking in stage experience — even the most renowned ones.
It must not be assumed that the ill-success of the majority of « movie » stars on the sound film is due to the inadequate adaptation of vocal means. The essential reason lies in their lack of individuality. The public was wont to raise its eyes in extasy to the film star of the mute screen, to idolize her as queen of an unreal world, and burn incense at her feet. None of the greatest heroes of the dramatic stage was ever accorded such apotheoses!
But the actor in sound films is a mere man more or less like ourselves, who lives in a real world, and who talks and shouts, and laughs and sighs — whose art, in short, is entirely individual.
The moment that an actor passes from the mute to the sound film, the illusion that he or she is a superior being vanishes. Mary Pickford, for instance, is revealed to be a quiet, resolute lady, with a somewhat harsh and deep base voice, and Adolphe Menjou, a handsome and elegantly dressed gentleman as ever, but
— with all the good will in the world — not highly interesting when he opens his mouth.
There is therefore no cause for surprise that some of the most skillful and experienced cinema actors, such as Mary Pickford and Henny Porten, who are too intelligent not to be aware of their limitations, do not take kindly to the « talkies » .
Very few persons in the cinema world are in a position to stand against the current and remain faithful to the mute film. One of these, the greatest of all — Charlie Chaplin — has repeatedly declared that he will not abandon the mute