Modern Screen (Dec 1935 - Nov 1936)

MODERN SCREEN lEnglish because I was born there!) " 'The Guns of Loos' put me over — " "And then," put in the Captain, "my break came, and her hard luck began. She slipped out of sight one day and came up on the shores of Lake Como, married to — me !" "You see Astley and I had been oyerisold to each other by a matchmaking witch, prominent in London society. So naturally we avoided each other. Then one day we met, liked each other, decided not to stop doing so, slipped off to Lake Como and ,did it. We were married with great ; secrecy, but an old Milanese photographer igot a snap of us looking like something the cat had dragged in, and the picture came out in all the papers. "After I returned to England (after the .\merican experiment)," said Madeleine. "I was very lucky. I had two successful pictures, 'I Was a Spy,' and 'The ThirtyNine Steps.' But I still wanted to come back to Hollywood. Hollywood is a woman's Paradise. Not. of course, that I'm giving up England I' forever, but they'll have to struggle along ■ without me for awhile. "For after all," went on Madeleine, "in time Hollywood and London studios will be indistinguishable, except for the fog. My chief complaint against England is that they were typing me in too dignified roles — thrusting a queenliness on me that I I didn't deserve or desire." "You weren't too dignified in those 'Thirty-Nine Steps,' " I said. "Thanks," smiled Madeleine. "It's true I wasn't, but they were trading on my reputation for dignity to get the effect they got. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors in the world, in my opinion, knew that I was shy and a bit unhappy about the dignity business so he decided to play a practical joke on me. Do you remember the handcuff scene? "Well, the first day of the picture, before I ever had met the leading man, Robert Donat, Hitchcock had his brain wave. Although the handcuff scene didn't come until the middle of the picture, he decided to shoot it first. It happened that I had hurried to the studio that morning without breakfast, thinking I would snatch a snack sometime betwen scenes. "The first thing that Hitchcock did, knowing that Donat and I were perfect strangers, was to handcuff us to each other and pretend to lose the key. By ten o'clock I was a wreck. I wanted to get the handcuffs off, go and freshen up a bit, but I didn't feel like lugging this mere acquaintance along, charming as he was. I appealed to Hitchcock, he sent us to props. Props hadn't the key. The brute never found the key until one o'clock. He admitted later that he wanted to get a lot of discomfort into the scene, and he certainly did." I rose to go. "But you haven't told me your idiosyncrasies, you know — your favorite color, and whether you rub your salad bowl with garlic." She answered promptly. "The rainbow contains my favorite colors. Furthermore it may interest your women readers to know that my hair was once mouse-colored but is now ashblond. I like to read religious books. I absorb other people's accents like a chameleon. I like to slip away from London with Astley to live on bark and berries in a little primitive stone house in Sussex. I pursue the single course plan of dieting to keep my weight down to fighting Irish," she rattled on breathlessly. "I am mad about politics. Vionnet makes all of my clothes and I hate to give up my old ones. I play tennis. I don't smoke. I ride in an old sweater, I once delivered a lecture on peace. And now you tell me — do I tick?" "Miss Carroll," I said, "you tick." THE ONE CLEANER GOOD FOR ALL WHITE SHOES GRIFFIN^* GRIFFIN J GRIFFIN ALLWITE 10 LARGER SIZES FOR GREATEST ECONOMY Hollywood's most popular socialites at the Victor Hugo. They are Merle Oberon, David Niven, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg. WORRIES FLY OUT THE WINDOW WHEN YOU CHEW BEEMAN'S ... it QUIETS YOUR NERV&S . . . AIDS DIGESTION SUCH FLAVOR 89