Modern Screen (Jan-Jun 1945)

THESE ARE THE LOVELIEST! (Continued from page 58) Gracie Fields' hilarious song about the Aspidistra, and apologies for Johnson, Bogart, Flynn, Milland and Cotten as victims of the biggest Astigmatism in the world! "Astigmatism" commonly is defined in dictionaries as "a structural defect of the eye, such that the rays of light do not converge to a point on the retina." That is Messrs. Funk and Wagnalls' polite way of saying that the five Hollywood heroes are so cross-eyed that they couldn't see Catalina on a clear day. Either these five boys are cross-eyed, or they don't get around. (On second thought, this is hard to believe. Bogart covers more ground, standing still at Burbank, than a World Atlas, and Flynn, according to stories I read in the papers, gets to the darnedest places.) No, I'm afraid they are just cross-eyed, and Van Johnson also suffers from youth, which I would like to be suffering from too! As it stood when I came in, these five favorites of yours had voted Garbo and Lamarr into a tie for first place. They voted Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Dolores Del Rio into a four-cornered tie for second place. And there was a four-cornered tie for third, Olivia de Havilland, Danielle Darrieux, Virginia Bruce and Loretta Young. With the deciding vote entrusted to me by the editors of this magazine, I hereby pick Hedy Lamarr as more gorgeous than the stunning Garbo; I pick Ingrid Bergman to dissolve the second tie, and I pick Loretta Young as winner of the tie for third. Which gives us Hedy Lamarr, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Dolores Del Rio, Loretta Young, Virginia Bruce, Olivia de Havilland and Danielle Darrieux as the Top Ten. (These are the selections of Van Johnson, Bogart, Ray Milland, Flynn and Joe Cotten, not mine. I disown that cross-eyed jury.) In acting as the expert swordsman to cut the Gordian knot, I concede that I am a dope. Judging beauty contests, of any kind, is hazardous and perilous. The judge can't win! Immediately this magazine is on the street, menacing voices will telephone and tell me off. This is to be expected. From the dawn of time, the subject of beauty has engrossed more men than you can shake a sorority at. To console those who aren't beautiful, various writers have disparaged its possession. So we have the Polish proverb: "Beauty will not season soup." As though any guy in his right mind would want soup with a Hedy Lamarr at his table! Some author, smart enough to remain Anon., thus went morbid: "Beauty is but skin deep; Ugly lies the bone; Beauty dies and fades away, But Ugly holds its own." Truest summation of all, of course, is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Each one of us responds to something else, and the something else may be a blonde, brunette or titian-haired. So while I can disagree with Bogart, Flynn, Johnson, Cotten and Milland, just as certainly they can disagree with my equally stubborn and positive preferences because beauty IS in the eye of the beholder! In "Algiers," Hedy Lamarr was, I think, the most exciting beauty ever to appear on film. Jimmy Howe, who photographed her, can take credit for at least an assist! Jimmy (his formal tag is James Wong Howe) always has claimed that to become a glamour girl, a woman needs only two features — full lips and expressive eyes. He proved it with Hedy Lamarr, because there are two weaknesses in The Lamarr: she has a slightly weak chin, and is a bit on the flat-chested side. So Jimmy had the chin appear stronger by throwing a heavy light on it, thus creating a heavy shadow underneath. He took your attention from her chest by focusing on her eyes and lips. And then little James Wong Howe played his camera ace: He always has maintained that a woman looks most seductive when she is wearing a veil. He created the effect of a veil by shadowing the forehead of Hedy Lamarr and he says that it was this lighting effect which caused audiences to murmur excitedly when she first appeared on the screen. If you doubt that Howe knows what he is talking about, consider for a moment that Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Loretta Young all have weaknesses and irregularities but EACH has full lips, eloquent eyes. Your reigning beauties all have irregularities of features. Regard Ann Sheridan's irregular nose and round full face; Bette Davis's pop eyes, Dietrich's broad nose; the broad forehead of Zorina Look at yourself in the mirror and you'll find that very few people have No curative power i» for PHIHP MORRIS AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE Philip Moms are scientifically proved far less irritating to the nose and throat M When smokers changed to Philip Morris, substantially every case of irritation of the nose or throat— due to smoking— either cleared up completely, or definitely improved. is claimed • • • but — findings reported in a leading medical journal. FAX FM£# PLAVOX-PLVS MR /H0P£ PPOTECr/O/Y