Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1957)

struggle in small parts and a frustrating contractual involvement with 20th Century-Fox, John felt confident of the future. But a series of A parts in B movies and B parts in A movies followed, and by 1953 it was obvious to everyone, including John, that something was seriously wrong. Undaunted, he tried to win respect as an actor at other studios. In 1954 he banked on the small but meaty role of John Wilkes Booth in the Richard Burton starrer, “Prince of Players,” to put him over. Though he turned in a competent acting job, it wasn’t quite sharp enough to establish him as a leading performer. Verdict: Today, John Derek is in a serious rut. At 30 he has not shaken off the “pretty boy” tab. He gets star billing in secondary features like UA’s “Fury at Showdown,” secondary spots in films like Paramount’s “The Ten Commandments” and “Omar Khayyam.” Today John Derek is unhappily proving a Hollywood rule: Good looks help on the climb to the top, but ability, personality and dramatic parts have to be of ace caliber or else the original asset becomes a great drawback. More than anything else, John wants to establish himself as a mature performer, worthy of serious consideration, good looks aside. To do this he must have intelligent help from producers and a morale boost from fans. DEBRA PAGET Debra Paget’s career is the feminine equivalent of John Derek’s — and there is more to it than the fact they both started in movies about the same time, and both have appeared recently in the same two movies, “Ten Commandments” and “Omar Khayyam.” For like John, Debra has pretty, regular, symmetrical features, and these were her fortune, at least initially. Child of a show business family (her mother was an actress) Debra was signed by 20thFox at fifteen, after a scout saw her in little theater roles. That was in 1948. And many ineffectual parts followed, in which Debra rang the bell for pulchritude but racked up no scores for her acting. Today, at twenty-four, she is floundering. A year or so ago, Deb went on a “glamour” binge, sporting daring gowns, riding around in a pink, jewel-encx-usted Cadillac. She took over Connie Bennett’s twenty-six-room mansion, a flamboyant relic of the Twenties, which one wag said was decorated in “Early Hollywood.” All this glamour gloss failed to get her good roles from the studio. Her Hollywood friends looked on disapprovingly, felt it was all phony. They begged her to be herself — shy, simple, sincere, hardworking, sensible. Deb has never stopped believing that she will one day be a great glamour star — one of the immortals. Will her dream come true? It’s a moot point. Once there was a girl of twenty -four — Deb’s present age — who had only beauty and couldn’t act for beans. Her name was Ava Gardner. Hollywood laughed at her aspirations. But as this girl made the turn into the Thirties, an expansive womanliness, an electric sex appeal, an indefinable glamour came over her and she confounded those who had branded her a pretty climber with no brains, depth or talent. Will Deb do a Gardner? t 90 Verdict: Much depends on the roles she gets. Certainly an “Omar Khayyam” does nothing for her. While she plays in shallow costume epics, her career is slowly being snuffed out. She needs a part, no matter how small, in which she can prove she has star quality. Public demand (strong after “Love Me Tender,” but waning now) just might help her get it. JEAN SIMMONS She came to Hollywood at twenty-one, a recognized star in England, her birthplace, where she had brought film audiences to their knees with her portrayals in such films as “Great Expectations” and “Hamlet.” After two hesitant years in nondescript Hollywood parts, she hit her stride in M-G-M’s “Young Bess” and followed it up with roles in such A pictures as “Desiree,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Hilda Crane” and the current “Until They Sail” for M-G-M. What then, is wrong on the Simmons career front? Here are some possible reasons for Jean’s failure to hit straight-A starring status. (Jean is known as an “Aminus” screen personality — the kind who almost, but not quite, makes all-out, permanent stardom.) For one thing, her marriage is all-important to her. She is sensitive to her husband’s personal feelings and career ambitions, and in the European manner, her close friends suspect, she has deliberately inhibited her career ambitions to give Stewart Granger greater glory. Maybe for another thing, while her personality is piquant and charming, she is, on the whole, a trifle British, a trifle quiet and subdued for the larger American public, which idolizes such flamboyant ladies as Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe and Kim Novak. Though as much the lady as her fellow countrywoman Deborah Kerr, she somehow lacks Deborah’s mellow authority. She is admittedly beautiful, but she resembles too many other screen beauties, notably Vivien Leigh. Lack of shrewd, distinctive personal exploitation, moreover, has left her a nebulous figure in the mind of the moviegoing public. “Oh, yes, Jean Simmons— nice little girl. Wasn’t she the one in ‘Guys and Dolls’?” about expresses the public reaction to her on these shores. Verdict: Jean is a good actress and this is very much in her favor. If her career continues the way it has been going, the future is reasonably predictable, though not as exciting as it might be. She will probably always have stardom of a sort, but to achieve a permanent place as an all-time great will take an extra spurt of hard work on her part and careful career guidance. Do you agree? DANA WYNTER Two years ago when lovely English actress Dana Wynter made her first strong impression on American audiences in 20th Century-Fox’s “The View From Pompey’s Head,” there was considerable publicity buildup about a new star getting herself born. The next year, Dana, after only a few pictures, married Hollywood lawyer Greg Bautzer and announced that henceforth her career was to take a back seat to her marriage. She underlined this by refusing “Island in the Sun” because it would separate her from her new husband for three months. Daughter of a London doctor who moved to Southern Rhodesia when she was a child, Dana saw the horrors of war in England, developed a maturity beyond her years. Ladylike, well-educated, deepthinking, Dana seemed headed for success in American films when she married. There were ominous notes, though, even at the beginning. When, after TV and theater stints in England and on Broadway, she made her first movie, several commentators announced that she had the looks of so-and-so, the bearing of suchand-such, the personality of this one and the talent of that one. This “comparisons prove” gambit piques public interest but is generally not helpful to a career. Verdict: Dana has a fascinating per sonality all her own, but it has yet to come to full flower on the screen. Though her marriage will undoubtedly always be first with her, she has a deep interest in acting and shows no signs of quitting the business entirely. Continued backing from fans who understand her situation and good pictures should keep her with us a long time. SHEREE NORTH One girl who is given a better than even chance of rising above her temporary career slump is Sheree North. For Sheree came up the hard way, weathering the toughest kind of night club work, plus a bevy of disappointments on Broadway and elsewhere, and hills and valleys are so much a part of her conditioning that at twenty-four she has a built-in mechanism for rolling with punches, careerwise and personally. Married at fifteen, a mother at sixteen, divorced at seventeen, Sheree threw herself into a dancing career “to get milk for my baby on a regular basis.” Years of unsung barnstorming brought her finally to national attention on Bing Crosby’s first TV show in 1954, where her lithe, offbeat dancing style electrified viewers. A one-and-a-half-minute dance number in the Broadway musical, “Hazel Flagg,” was so breathtakingly executed that her name went up in lights. Then she did the movie version, “Living It Up,” with Martin and Lewis. Called to replace Marilyn Monroe in 20th Century-Fox’s “How To Be Very Very Popular,” Sheree was an instant success, went on to rewarding assignments in such 20th Century-Fox films as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “The Lieutenant Wore Skirts.” Verdict: Conceded one of the best dancers in the entertainment world, Sheree has looks and personality to boot. It looked like clear sailing ahead, but weak pictures and strong competition from Marilyn Monroe on the home lot had gotten her into a rut by early 1957. She, and Hollywood, began to wonder if she had had it. Determined to extend her range, she took a dramatic assignment in “No Down Payment,” and movie audiences were mightily impressed with her sincere acting job as Tony Randall’s unhappy wife. Her rooters are hopeful that Sheree may have a whole new career as a dramatic actress now. Her admirers believe that, while her present is clouded, her future may be rosy, and for some very important reasons: her quiet, workmanlike approach to her career, her trouper’s spirit, the depth and balance her early sufferings, financial and emotional, have brought her, and the fact that, although she has never been a “pusher” she has a quiet, channeled intensity that will keep her in the running. What do you think? VICTORIA SHAW Victoria Shaw has been in movies for only two of her twenty-two years, not enough time to have met many career crises, yet one of major proportions is clouding her future now. Vicki’s auburn-haired, green-eyed beauty was evident even when she was a child, but the thought of a show-business career didn’t occur to her until after she graduated from school, took a fling at the business world and discovered that typing and filing weren’t her cup of tea; at which point she applied for a job at a modeling agency. Within three months she was known the length and breadth of her native Australia as “The Face” and found herself the highest-paid model in the country.