Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1930)

^he "Other Wo man" Aileen Pringle having her wicked way with Conrad Nagel, in the famous film version of "Three Weeks," produced some years ago. Aileen was, and is, a noted "other woman" WHAT is the attraction that lures a sedate husband from his comfortable Late Grand Rapids living room and the tasty apple pies of his wife to the drawing room of "the other woman"? The husband thinks he knows, but he doesn't. The wife thinks she knows, but she doesn't, either. Nobody knows, except Elinor Glyn, who writes pieces on the general idea, and the other woman. You can bet your red flannels that the other woman knows. The other women of the screen plays have some rather definite ideas on the subject. A formidable list — these cinematic enchantresses — spelling murder to just about any happy home and fireside. When Evelyn Brent looks out of those smouldering eyes it's time lor the ingenue to turn on the baby stare and work like the deuce. And wdien Aileen Pringle brings out her domino set, there's a divorce just around the corner. Janet Gaynor had a tough time lashing Mary Duncan to the mast in "Four Devils," and for a while Mary had Charlie Morton jumping through hoops. Then ibere are Margaret Livingston, Jetta Goudal, Estelle Taylor, Lilyan Tashman, and the archsorceress of men, the mysterious Garbo. Of course, before there are any hard feelings, it has to be clearly understocd that they are other women only on the screen. In private life they may teach Sunday School classes, and bake swell gingerbread for the neighborhood kids. But the other women on the screen have to have the same attributes as other women in life. Having wreaked destruction to domesticity on the screen, these women have the psychology of the business down to a fine point. 36 Some great menaces of the screen give their ideas on home-smashing The vampire of the screen has had as great a metamorphosis as the screen itself. The old paraphernalia of peacock fans, slinky, snaky gowns, and a come-hither that any half-intelligent child of six would recognize, might have been interesting, but it wasn't convincing. The new-model vamp, and you really can't call her that, is a human being. On the screen she wears Paris gowns, plays tennis, dances, and drinks bath-tub gin. She's a good fellow, and she's a man's woman. THE 1914-18 dame was something out of a Bram Stoker thriller. A real life male would have taken one glance at Theda Bara, and then started a marathon for home and mother, yelling at the top of his lungs. The Baras, Glaums. Suratts and Pearsons, and their sirening, are as extinct as the dodo. Betty Blythe, a contemporary, was a bit more convincing. No one else has managed to be so utterly majestic and dignified in a string of dime beads. Which gets us around to the place we've been trying to get around to. The old vampire was about as dangerous as the Rover Boys. The new bad woman on the screen is dynamite to the wife or fiancee. She is subtle, and does she understand men! She could write prologues and epilogues for Darwin. Even the term "bad woman" is an anachronism." The new charmer has to be real. The old vamp had no motivation unless it was to pose with her hair over her face, looking gleefully on a pile of human bones, and with a raven perched on her shoulder. No one understood what the interest was supposed to be in the vampire. Everyone is interested in what the attraction is in the modern woman who makes a business of keeping men guessing. There's no better authority on the subject than these other women of the screen, themselves. Well, just wdiat does the man see in the other woman? George Bancroft says it isn't the bad in a woman that attracts the man, but the desire to bring out the good in her. NOW that's a pretty theory, but somehow we feel it's "hooey." Not many men are such good Samaritans. The desire for reform isn't exactly burning in the average predatory male. "It is the contrast with his wife or sweetheart," said Evelyn Brent. "He is attracted by her experience. First of all it becomes a matching of wits, the wish to conquer a formidable enemy. Then there's pride. He likes to be seen with a woman that other men want. That's the secret of Peggy Hopkins Joyce's attraction. '"Other men are interested — well, so is he. The other woman does not allow herself to be held by the conventions that bind the wife and sweetheart. She has the courage of her convictions, the courage to do wrong in the conventional meaning of the word. "