The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

GEORGE JEAN NATHAN'S MOVIE FAVORITES Continuing our series of Favorite Stars of Famous Men. Last month Sinclair Lewis chose Hepburn. Now Nathan picks three! By DOUGLAS GILBERT IMAGINE my surprise when I asked George Jean Nathan, a short time ago, to discriminate among the fair of Hollywood, to select her who stood above her talkie sisters in point of glamour and ability — and he complied. Complied? He fairly showered me with choices, awarding three apples, one each to Loretta Young, Jean Muir and Sylvia Sidney, for reasons you will hereinafter be informed. An academic skeptic, the First Critic of our legitimate theater, a delightful sneerer of the screen, it was Mr. Nathan's erstwhile habit to lock himself in his ivory tower in the Hotel Royalton here in New York communing with himself and the higher drama and available only upon the stage whisper of Eugene O'Neill. I hadn't known that in these recent years Mr. Nathan had been slinking into movie palaces. The drama had always been his one escape. It is a curious, but heartening, unmasking, Mr. Nathan's sudden interest in the films; for here is what he said to me but a few years ago: "The talkies are but fifteen-cent theater. The best I ever saw was 'Under the Roofs of Paris.' (A French film he saw abroad.) It was ingenious; but ingenious trash." Now, this February, under the cinema's broadening influence, Mr. Nathan issues the following ukase: "I place in nomination these three women of the screen : "Loretta Young for her ability to play love scenes with infinitely more effectiveness than any of her contemporaries. She has, above all the others, the gift of convincing 'looking,' that is, the persuasion of an audience that her eyes are acting synchronously and dramatically with her ears. A number of screen players 'listen' skilfully, but no one save Miss Young, in my opinion, so well combines the aforesaid 'listening' and 'looking.' In addition, there is a warm, womanly quality in her that distinguishes her from many of her highly artif icialized and spuriously arctic sisters. "Secondly, I would nominate as the best straight acting per Jamett Montgomery Flngy George Jean Nathan, the ogre of Broadway, and the most feared of American drama critics. formance that I have seen in the last year that of Jean Muir in something called 'Desirable.' No other single performance that I have observed equals it. "In the third place, I should make note that, when it comes to substantial dramatic equipment in general, there is perhaps no young woman on the screen so competent as Sylvia Sidney. But it seems to be Miss Sidney's fate to be placed, in the majority of instances, in pictures that afford her no opportunity to demonstrate her talents." HERE is a forthright appraisal, and I trust Mr. Nathan's celluloid harem will be duly appreciative. Others, including myself, will be apprehensive. Let us take each of the Nathan girls in our stride. What truck, to begin, can Mr. Nathan have with Loretta Young? I think she is his most amazing choice. Mind you, I am not quarreling with Miss Young's ability, the ability Mr. Nathan rewards her with possessing. I, too, mire her love scenes. Oh, how I admire them. But what does Miss Young represent? In my opinion, something that Mr. Nathan instinctively rebels at — a good girl. She is the queen exponent of adolescence. She is always the girl playing at being a grown-up lady. In black velvet she is stunning. But you always feel as though she has been rummaging in mother's attic trunk, and dressing up. This is no flaw in Loretta 's screen technique. On the contrary, it is an asset, a decided box-office asset. For she convinces adults that she is your own little girl, and you don't want to see her "done wrong" by the city slicker who is on the make. This is a curious expression of Loretta's career, for she is an old-timer in the films and it should long have given way in the light of her experience. There is a yarn — probably a press-agent phony — that she was hired by Mervyn LeRoy because her voice was so appealing over the telephone. As the story goes, he called up one day to ask why her sister, Sally Blane, (also a film player) was not on the lot. Loretta answered and informed Mr. LeRoy that Sally had a bad cold. In substance he told her he liked her voice and, informed that she resembled her sister, asked her to report. She th Alexander Loretta Young for her ability to play love-scenes ad did, and the rest of it is already known to you. What matters is that it could have happened. Insouciance, naivete, are the characteristics of Miss Young. She could well have answered the telephone as she is supposed to have answered it. She is the epitome of innocence. And I, for one, cannot fancy a sophisticate like G. J. N., who is never without the aloe in his pocket, tolerant of any such pristine, fundamental quality. For Mr. Nathan has ever followed the precept of Meredith that a strong sin is better than a weak virtue. Another thing, (which should be anathema to Mr. Nathan), Miss Young has had virtually no stage training. She went to the screen practically cold. And with a frightful start since she supported Lon Chaney, as her first bow, in "Laugh Clown, Laugh." This was pretty tough living down, especially when, as the girl foil of Edward G. Robinson in "The Hatchet Man," she was dubbed the "female Lon Chaney." In this film her make-up required her to assume the character of a Chinese maiden. And if you don't think this was a tough job try pasting fishskin over the corners of your eyes, fasten it with collodion to make your eyes slant and then catch the free ends of the fish-skin with adhesive tape. You'll be something besides a Toya San after one 16 The New Movie Magazine, February, 1935