Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1925)

WHY the different stars stick to their own particular roles — the girl whom you adore as a sweet young thing would he a failure as a disappointed wife, and the man you adore as a lover you would hate as an army officer •""There are two actors with a singular ability to portray ■*" stern authority. No one in Hollywood, available to the casting directors, can so convincingly paint -a picture of a banker, an editor or a sea captain in a big way as Hobart Bosworth. He has the unmistakable air of a man who has "arrived" by his own efforts, and who has a lot of brutal, ruthless force underneath a gleaming shirtfront. Anders Randolph has a power something akin to this, only he runs more to directness. As a bucko mate or a ruthless man-hunter, he is wonderful. Strangely enough, both Mr. Randolph and Mr. Bosworth are painters ; they would be at the easel now if they could choose the career that appeals most strongly to them. H1 Bessie Love is one of the few screen actresses who can really make you believe in pure virginal innocence and unsophistication ENRY WALT H A L L does a line of parts which are exclusively h i s by right of conquest. No one on the screen ever has approached him. They are a little hard to describe. He is at his best as a quiet, self-contained man of aristocratic blood, relentlessly consecrated to his own ideals. Stern elegance, so to speak. Alice Terry has a quality that is unique to herself; "*■•* that makes her one of the most interesting of the "free-lance" actresses available to casting directors. She has an air best described by quoting Stephen Phillips' Ulysses . . . "in her wildest abandonment a something withheld." She has a great power of suggestion ; she gives you always the idea that, if the heroine were not a missionary's daughter, or the daughter of an aristocrat or something, she would just naturally tear up the scenery. Also, she has humor. "K/Talcoi-m McGregor, the casting directors tell me. is a boy who also has a unique quality. The average screen lover is a lover. McGregor is a young business man in love. He always gives the impression that he has a number of interests and purposes in life; and one of them is getting married to the girl he has found. T-Jelene Chadwick is something like this. When she is wooed and won on the screen, you always have the feeling that she is entering into a marriage that will have its share of love and kisses; but will also have regard for gas bills and country club dues. There is a practical reality, a down-to-earth quality, to both these actors that is of great value in get ting over certain dramatic effects and cer tain kinds of stories. When you see McGregor win a girl on the screen, you know she has surrendered to a "good provider." And this without losing romance. Leonard Lewis Stone is about the only star who can act like a professional army officer of the American type "\7"iola Dana' is perhaps the most famous of the free* lancers available to casting directors. She has the unusual combination of high humor with big emotional fire. Viola also has the advantage of a beautiful flapper figure and a whale of a box-office appeal. But, of course, she demands — and gets — a very high salary. Tewis Stone also has a line of parts absolutely sewed up. ■*-* For one thing, he is one of the few actors in Hollywood not to the manner born, who can act like a professional army officer — of the American type, that is. I have seen no actor except von Stroheim who makes a German officer convincing. Even so clever and adroit a young fellow as Ben Lyon put in hours upon hours under the tutorage of an exPrussian dragoon captain trying to learn the German formal bow. In the end they had to give it up in despair. Eric von Stroheim has an educated back-boni that knows how. C. Heighton Monroe Helene Chadwick looks the kind of wife that keeps count of the bills as well as the kisses Lew Cody is the very best of the society villains — the caressing and wily betrayer of young wives "D obbie Agnew is another actor who has the inside track on a peculiar line of parts. He almost stands alone as the kid brother of the heroine — to be kissed and cuffed and confided in. Hulking, slow, loutish awkwardness goes (Continued on page 113)