Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1931)

J7|/£ary Pickford D enies All! MARY PICKFORD denies all! By KCtttlCrlTlC Albert assembled in the projection room she She denies that she will give knew that she had been right. It didn't up her screen career. have the stuff. "Secrets" wasn't there. Slu denies that she will remain ■^■^^■■lUWMHIHIH She dismissed cast and director. She had the artist and stop producing. ^^^^^^1 tnc 6owns returned to the wardrobe. In She denies that she is going on the stage. By .augfc&y^^B nice new tins, "Secrets" reposed on a shelf. She denies that there is any thought of Jjf* Jjfjk Ha tB Mary was producing then. It was her a separation between her and Douglas F ^.jB Iw money. She said, later, that because she Fairbanks. Br 4mC^WB had been called such a shrewd and cal She denies, and doggone vehemently too, .Sfl ^^PBt V culating woman she was truly ashamed that she is a good business woman. Which mt M \ "tOt "wSkW/J to a<'m't now much money she threw is, perhaps, the most startling denial of all. Efr *M pf ij away when she called off production. For years Mary has been called one of If m a America's best business women. Mary W0 *jmm ^^ F. 'THE picture could have been finished. has been pictured as a shrewd, calculating w4 a J5&L It would have made money — as all Pickproducer who divided her time between It I ^k .^2 ford's pictures have done — or, at least, it playing emotional scenes and paying off I^HN ^ would not have lost money. But when she electricians, conferring with writers, in f^U W itmW B found that something was lacking, that it terviewing prospective actors for casts. j^Oj I £l would not be a good picture, she chose to Her energy has been and always will be M fc*^B lose hundreds of thousands of dollars rather a mighty force with which to cope and she than let the film be released. has made her tremendous fortune not alone because of her great popularity (others have been popular and are no longer so) but because she has had such a heavy hand in the producing of her films. She is always the last word, and no detail is too small for her consideration. A few months ago she began work on the screen version of "Secrets," and, with the picture a quarter finished, startled the entire industry by making an unheard of gesture. Rumors fluttered up and down the boulevard like social climbers at a Junior League tea. You were told that Mary Pickford had seen the assembled material, discovered that her eyes were not as bright as of yore and had run from the projection room, screaming. You were led to believe that Mickey Neilan, the director, had said harsh words to Mary on the set, and both star and director had flown into hysterics. It was said that Mary had suddenly become tired of her empty fame and had made this her last fling before her retirement. AND the colony felt it strange that, immediately "Secrets" was shelved, Mary stopped producing and began working in "Kiki" simply as a salaried star. The fact of the matter is that none of the rumors concerned with "Secrets" was true. Mary felt, with that instinct she's been acquiring since the time when as a little girl with curls she made her first test for Griffith, that something was wrong with "Secrets." Were you to glance at the play you'd have been sure it was a perfect Pickford vehicle. Yet, as she worked, Mary realized that the spirit of the thing had been missed, some vague, remote motive was lacking, something intangible that made it all seem most unimportant. She worked on hoping it would turn out better and that she was wrong in this undefined feeling. But when she saw it America's Ex-Sweetheart smacks down reports that she's to divorce Doug, retire, or go on the stage That is not the deed of a good business woman. That is the gesture of the temperamental artist. "The trouble with me," Mary said, "is that I'm just a gentle Julia. I always postpone telling the truth because I hate to hurt people's feelings. That is not good business. I knew 'Secrets' was wrong, yet I held on too long. A director, marvelous as he might be, can be miscast exactly as a good actor can be. That is no disgrace. But perhaps I've changed now. I believe I've murdered gentle Julia. "I've never bothered for a second about the cost of anything. Upon camera work alone I've spent millions of dollars. I think now I've carried it too far. Cameras are a part, a big part, but they're far from being the whole thing. I've often sacrificed good acting to a camera angle. That is neither good business nor good sense. "The wardrobe people have come to me and showed me stuffs for costumes. Perhaps one, that looked almost as well, was half as cheap as another. I've invariably said, 'Take the best.' "Although on 'Kiki' I'm simply a salaried artist I still have my own money in the production, but not so much. However the next picture I make will put me back on the old system. I take a tremendous pride in producing. That I won't give up. ""V'OU see, one can't tell where acting leaves off and story 1 begins. It is all a part of a whole. The mechanics of pictures are all wrapped about the art of them. That's why I must produce. That's why I 11 always have final word on story and cast and costumes and camera." It has been pretty definitely shown that Douglas Fairbanks has not an overwhelming interest Iplease turn to page 116] ( i I'm a terrible business woman!" says our Mary GO