The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

What Won't Get You into the Movies (Continued from page 35) "another Garbo" or anything like that, why, just check what you have and what you haven't against this system. Let's listen to what Fred Scheussler, casting director at RKO studios, has to say. Fred's a veteran at the job; he's one of what you might call the Big Six among Hollywood's casting directors. What he sets forth about whom he'd hire and whom he wouldn't is representative of all Hollywood. Incidentally, too, Fred's the casting director who, years ago, gave Janet Gaynor her very first job before the camera. That was at Universal, in two reelers. . . . "And, if Janet Gaynor walked into my office today, I'd tell her I couldn't use her," he says. "Crazy? — yeah, I suppose you think it is. But it's true. If Janet Gaynor's box-office rating were not established, she wouldn't have a chance in Hollywood today. What we're looking for is Janet — plus the sophistication of — let's say Miriam Hopkins — and that's the only type I'm even giving a second look at among the thousands who come into my office looking for jobs." "In the first place, the old days of pretty face, of beautiful body getting a girl by just aren't, any more. Not even when they're a friend of somebody in the front office. No more do executives call us on the private phone and say: 'Look here, Fred, Miss So-and-So is coming down to see you for a bit. She's pretty enough. And besides — ah — uh — she's a friend of mine. So give her a job.' "Nope. Even the big-shots know that that doesn't work any more. They know a girl can have a pretty face and a you-know body, but they know that it takes more than that. They know the three things I look for first, when a girl walks into my casting office. Here they are: "FIRST— I watch them walk in. That 'entrance' and their carriage are the first hurdles. The great majority of girls who 'walk in' in pictures can't even get by that simple pair of obstacles. If they haven't an erect carriage, if they haven't that in their walk which is called poise, if they don't move with a certain sure determination and force, then I know they won't do. And you'd be surprised how many of them slither and slouch and shuffle in, don't they realize that the camera will catch that and magnify it? Apparently not, because they act so surprised when I tell them 'No.' They open wide eyes and say: 'But you haven't even talked to me, Mister Scheussler.' And I answer: 'No, but I'm afraid I've seen you walk.' But if they get by with their entrance, then: "SECOND— I listen to them speak. I don't mean that I care WHAT they say. It's HOW they say it that I'm interested in. And under that 'how' I include diction, modulation, timbre. True, modern sound technicians can do wonders with a voice, but even they can't do anything with a girl who runs her words together, who mumbles, who has a voice that sounds as though it had fought with seventeen adenoids before coming out, who talks too loud or yet too low. Maybe she could unlearn some of these faults, but the chances are that lifelong habit has so strongly made them part of her that she couldn't overcome them. "But say the girl's gotten by those two points — Walk and Talk. Then: "THIRD — I observe her mannerisms. How the girl acts during our interview is a giveaway, nine times out of ten. To be a good camera actress requires poise. When a girl fidgets and fusses and primps and tries to hide her hands, and doesn't know what to do with her feet, while she's talking to me, I know she won't be able to comport herself before the camera, no matter how hard she tries. The girl who can sit there or stand there, while I interview her, and be full mistress of herself and her nerves and her body — that's the girl who has a chance. But they're rare. They'll fuss with their purses, they'll toe in nervously while talking, they'll draw imaginary designs on the desk top to keep their hands and eyes busy while we're discussing her chances — and they're surprised when I tell them they won't do. "The final test and the hardest to pass is one I can't put into words — nor can anyone else. It's been called everything from 'It' to 'Personality.' Charm, presence, magnetism, individuality, sex-appeal, — these are some of the words that they use when they try to describe it. But whatever it is, whatever you call it, the fact remains that without it you're just about sunk in movies. And the oddest and hardest part of the final test, for us casting directors, is the fact that it doesn't show offscreen, nine times out of ten. Offscreen, when they talk to us, these girls may be as dull and lifeless as a dead mackerel. Yet put them under the lights and let a camera grind on 'em — and when Ave see the rushes, we yell and cry: 'Another star!' "I could sit here and suggest test after test to try on yourself to determine whether or not you have that quality. And none of the tests, nor all of them, would finally answer the question. It takes a screen test — and an exhaustive one, too — to tell whether or not a girl has that quality on the screen. "Oh, wait a minute, I nearly forgot something," said Scheussler. "A girl may get by all the other tests," he grinned, "and still find the casting office door a two-way proposition — in and out — rather than the one-way door to film success. "I mean that if she's under eighteen her chances of getting by are still just about zero with the rim rubbed out. For several reasons — under eighteen, they have to spend four hours a day in school, and that raises the devil with studio schedules. And besides — under eighteen is under eighteen." utij&J seA^/k^ keAMmiej l^eioijc UUXrtJ «J FAOEN / (WELL KNOWN MODEL AND NEW YORK DEBUTANTE) MORE than a mere perfume, FAOEN will give you a new personality . . a more mysterious, thrilling personality/ to bring men's hearts to your feel! As Parisian as the Cafe de la Paix . . as feminine as Cleopatra . . as exciting as a champagne cocktail . . FAOEN enhances your charm and discovers your hidden depths of lovely, languorous allure ! You would have to pay more, for a less effective perfume! The tuck-away size . . can be bought at all F. W. Woolworth Co. stores. FAOEN perfumes have their own singular captivating, yet delicate, fragrance. PAKK £rTILFOKD'S FAOEN ( F A Y O N ) Face Powder • Lipstick • Cleansing Cream • Cold Cream • Rouges • Perfumes The New Movie Magazine, January, 1935 57