Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

^^vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv^vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv: She Lived Dangerously — Loved Secretly! The CAPTIVE of the SAHARA by E. M. Hull Willful Isma Chrichton, England's most ravishing beauty, is captured in the Sahara by slender dark-eyed Sheik Sidi Said, ruler of the City of Stones. Amid the hardships .pf desert life, Isma discovers the secret that has been buried deep in her heart — ardent love for her captor, the man she has outwardly hated. nailed, she'd push it way under. "What's eating you, Wyman? You're sitting on top of the world." Her first inkling of what was eating her came during the war. For years she'd been living in a land of make-believe. Now in camps and hospitals she faced up to reality. Boys leaving everything dear to them, not knowing when or whether they'd be back. Boys coming back with broken bodies, trying to keep their minds and spirits whole. She wasn't afraid of being soft with these kids. The question never arose. In compassion for them, she forgot all about herself — and wondered, with all the sadness, why her war work brought her a new kind of peace. Much later a friend explained it this way: "Let's say life's a road, and you're in a motorcar. If you turn the headlights in on yourself, you're driving blind and of course the road is dark If you turn them away from yourself toward life and people, you'll be amazed at how the shadows vanish." She also began meeting real people in her pictures. After a weary succession of varnished puppets, she met Helen in The Lost Weekend. To take pieces of dialogue, draw a girl out of the pieces, mould her into a flesh-and-blood human — such a chance had never come Jane's way before. Helen excited her, and troubled her, too. What was it about Helen that made her real? The answer came. "She's always herself. She never bothers to put on an act. She's not afraid to show what she feels." I'd hate to have anyone play me, Jane thought slowly. "They wouldn't know who I am. I don't know myself. . . ." the buried heart . . . She found out more about herself in The Yearling. Ma Baxter was like a mir-. ror, reflecting Jane. She too had been hurt by life, she too was fearful of letting the warmth come through. In the end it broke through anyway. They were preparing that scene. "Okay," the director said. "There was a heart, it's buried, let's find it." Jane looked at him oddly. "Anything wrong?" he asked. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Just the way you said it. Made the whole thing clear in a flash." When you've spent years building up a fake personality, you don't break it down in a week or a month. It took Jane a long time to get through to herself and she suffered plenty of pain in the process. But she made plenty of discoveries along the way. That a sense of injustice carried over from childhood is like carrying an elephant on your back. That heartaches aren't unique to you, everyone has them. That applause from the crowd may inflate your vanity, but leaves the real you empty. That most people have something better to do than sit around figuring ways to hurt you. That suspicion breeds suspicion and trust breeds trust and what you put into life, you get out of it. That the most important thing in the world is integrity, and unless you're willing to be yourself, you're nobody. Little by little the defenses dropped and the heart came through. With Maureen and Michael, there'd never been any defenses, but once the blinders fell, Jane saw the fruits of her own false values even in the children. Especially Maureen, who was older and more impressionable. Children take their tone from their parents. If you're crisp, they're crisp. If you're nervous, the mood communicates itself to them. If you're a smart aleck, they're likely to ape your style. "Well. I'll be seein' you one of these times," Maureen called out to a departing friend. Jane I On the Verge of a Broken Heart l STRANGERS MAY KISS by Ursula Parrott Lovely, ambitious Lisbeth wants a career — not Love. But she falls for Alan, a newspaper correspondent, with a fiery, consuming love. Then abruptly Alan leaves for the orient. Unable to forget him, Lisbeth builds her life around the day of his return — unaware of the terrible secret Alan has kept from her. Buy these Best-Selling Dell Romances at your Favorite Newsstand — only 25c each DELL BOOKS A 25c i