Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

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BOOS AND lK*-'-v->uv>*-fcj". ■, ;*-»w<u W i*& FIRST PRIZE— $25.00 THE WINNER! the movies 9» HAT'S wrong with people keep asking one another. "What's wrong with the movies?" I think Bernarr Macfadden in his recent article in Photoplay struck the right chord. Sophistication has been ladled out to the movie-going public in such heavy doses that they have finally sickened of it. The trouble with most movie producers is that they lack originality. They are like sheep following the bellwether. The decline of the movies — and the public's interest — can be traced to two very interesting and entertaining pictures, "The Thin Man" and "It Happened One Night." The light, frothy manner of dealing with basically important problems and situations was amusing. The public enjoyed it as a change from too much stressing of drama and the sordid situations of gang warfares. And what happened? If one, two or three pictures of that type appealed to the public, the producers reasoned, why not two, three or thirty dozen? They called it the new "trend" and started grinding them out. As a consequence, the public got fed up. What the public wants is stories portraying the life and problems it meets every day, done in a touching way, dramatic but not heavy, with a musical occasionally for variety. Few wives would see anything to laugh about in finding a tipsy blonde sharing the twin bed with their husband when they come home unexpectedly from a vveek Paramount's contribution to the football season, "Touchdown, Army!" romanticizes the Army-Navy game with Robert Cummings, the hero and Mary Carlisle, the gal ^ hotoplay awards the following prizes for the best letters received each month: $25 first prize, $10 second, $5 third, and $1 for every other letter published. Photoplay reserves the right to use the letters submitted in whole or in part. Contributions will not be returned. Contributors are 'warned that if letters are copied or adapted from previously published material, which constitutes plagiarism, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Letters submitted to this magazine should not be submitted to any other publication. Address: Boos & Bouquets, Photoplay, 122 East 42nd St., New York City. end visit with Aunt Carrie. They are expected to split their sides laughing at such a situation in the movies. And there may be some husbands who would view with aplomb an unknown guest in tails and top hat, sleeping it off on their divan when they walk in from an Elks' dinner in the early hours of the morning. But, if there are any, they are in such a minority that all their combined nickels and dimes would make no impression on the box office. Yet these are the sort of situations which have been fed to the great movie public; the butchers, the bakers, the plumbers, their wives and their doctors and lawyers for the past few years — and the movie directors wring their hands and wonder "What's wrong with the movies?" Why don't they go to see a few. They might find out. Marie Calvane, Pan American Post Office, Aruba, Dutch West Indies. SECOND PRIZE— $10.00 PRONOUNCED DANYELL DAR EE-YEUH! I LIKE Danielle Darrieux. They put her in a hackneyed little story of a poor girl striving to turn rich girl via the "easy way" and what did she do? She made me laugh. Now, while I'm no Ned Sparks and not entirely without my own little sense of humor — I'm still a hard customer to crack. I sat stonily through Claudette Colbert's antics in "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife"; Constance Bennett's cavortings in "Topper" only evoked a yawn; and Lombard's long red claws inspire more amusement than do her familiar little tricks (booming laugh included). But Danielle Darrieux had me, to express it tritely, in stitches. Something about the sight of that squirming, by-no-means negligible figure pinioned under a window sill made me roar in what I'm sure would have been an annoying fashion had not the rest of the audience been occupied in following my suit — and the ridiculous way she strode about in those incongruous pajamas — and when she uttered grimly, "I can took eet . . ." I could go on for hours were I not afraid of appearing fatuous. Yes, sir, I like Danielle Darrieux. She's got curly hair, expressive hands, a lovely body, and if she's as convincing a tragedienne (and she is if the reviews of "Mayerling" are correct) as comedienne, then I vote for keeping her here in America. Mary V. Armstrong, Alexandria, Va. THIRD PRIZE— $5.00 "MARIE ANTOINETTE" I AM proud to say that I have seen one of the screen's greatest artistic and emotional masterpieces, the thrilling story of the tragic, sinful, devastatingly lovely Marie Antoinette. Norma Shearer must have been inspired in order to play that role the way she did, for she was not Norma Shearer playing a part, she was Marie Antoinette to the very nth degree, leaving her audience breathless from the emotional magnificence of her characterization. The whole story of France's glamorous 'Tointette was beautifully and intelligently handled by all concerned, and I feel that this marvelous achievement by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deserves the highest Academy Award for the most satisfying picture of this year — or any year. Shirley Wolcott, Hollywood, Calif. (Continued on page 83) PHOTOPLAY W'*$W4**&J0