Photoplay (Jan-Sep 1937)

PHOTOPLAY FOR JULY, 1937 119 When a wire reached her in New York ordering her to report for work, she was in a violently unpleasant mood. "We're assigning you to Walter Wanger," the executives at Paramount told Sylvia. "I felt as if I were being sent to Devil's Island," said Sylvia. "It was so obvious that Paramount didn't know what to do with me, so they were turning me over to Walter Wanger to handle. "When I went to see him, [ was spitting fire. I didn't want to make the picture, and I made my attitude very obvious. Wanger was kind and sympathetic. He gave me the script of 'Mary Burns, Fugitive,' to read. When I read it, the script seemed to me to be utterly unpromising; my own role seemed hopeless. But there was something about Mr. Wanger's quiet, intelligent handling of a situation that inspired faith in everyone in the cast. As the weeks progressed, the picture began to take shape: the story began to mean something." Sylvia was happier making this picture than she had been for a long time in Hollywood, and she gradually began to realize that perhaps her old creed of living was all wrong and that listening to other people was sometimes better than obeying her own impulses. When the picture was finished and she told Wanger that she was leaving Hollywood and going back to the stage, he said to her, "You'd be a fool to do that." "I'd really like to stay," Sylvia said, "if I could make a few pictures a year and appear in a play whenever I want, but I'm afraid no studio would agree to such terms." "I would," Wanger told her. And it was on those terms that Sylvia signed. "The funny part of it has been," she said, laughing, "that ever since then I've been kept so busy I've had no time to think of the stage But it doesn't matter so much now, for during the last year I've made pictures that I myself have found interesting. I'd rather play a small role in a picture like 'Fury' with an actor like Spencer Tracy than a large role with an actor like — well, I'd better not mention names." I thought, with a swift flash of amusement, that only a few years ago Sylvia would most decidedly have mentioned names; would have shouted them to the four corners of the world if anyone had cared to listen. "IF I had obeyed my impulse," reasone< 'Sylvia. "I would have quit Hollywood forever; I would never have made 'Mary Burns, Fugitive,' which really began a new life in Hollywood for me. "I have discovered that I don't really need a lot of material things to make me happy. And with that discovery, I have less respect for the importance of money. I live more economically than I ever did in all my previous years in Hollywood, not because I deliberately set out to live economically, but because I have found I do not need much to buy the things I really want. Such things as good music, for instance." So, to other girls who, like her, are given to impulses, Sylvia Sidney says, "Don't obey your impulses. Before you act, wait twelve, twenty-four or thirty hours I wish I'd slept on every impulsive gesture I ever made. Not once has acting on impulse done me any good." they forget that Nelson Eddy won overnight fame in one picture, "Naughty Marietta." Mr. Eddy is really a triple threat man because he is handsome, has a winning personality and one of the finest baritone voices it has been my good fortune to hear. His performance in "Maytime" is the most delightful make-believing in many moons. He is gay, romantic, charming and amusing, and after this picture is generally released, I think M-G-M will be swamped with requests for Eddy photographs. I have only one complaint to make — we want more than one Eddy picture a year. Muriel Marks, New York, N. Y. Returning from his usual spring concert tour, the handsome baritone will again be spliced with Jeanette MacDonald in "The Girl of the Golden West." MR. RISKIN— TAKE A BOW— Congratulations to Robert Riskin, the director, for his splendid handling of Columbia's "When You're in Love." And thank heaven for a good job of coaching done on Henry Stephenson's "conducting." Blow me, if these musicianless actors are allowed to give any more exhibitions over their respective dummy orchestras I'll have a stroke. If only for the sake of perfection let's get some semblance of intelligible rhythmic and expressive "directing" into our musicals. Edward Schroeder, Jr., Musical Director, Dubuque, Iowa. THE SHOE DOESN'T FIT— I don't care if you did give "Quality Street" a big star in your reviews of current films, I do not care for Katharine Hepburn and Franchot Tone in the leading roles. To me a film such as "Quality Street" cries aloud for British direction and British actors. So why must two players so definitely American and so identified with American types be cast in a period play by a Scotch dramatist? It is enough to make Barrie turn over in his grave. I like Katharine Hepburn and Franchot Tone, but I like them in modern American stories Let us have Katie as a modern young woman, not as Phoebe or Mary Stuart. Mrs. C. W. Toles, Colorado Springs, Colo. Hepburn's next picture will be "Stage Door," the modern comedy which wowed Broadway last winter. DEANNA IS DARLING What a pleasant surprise little Deanna Durbin is after so much sophistication. It's wonderful to think that so much freshness and charm can be caught by the camera and brought before millions of wearied, worldlywise people to touch their hearts and leave them newly inspired. And anyone who doesn't thrill to Deanna's voice as it trills from that tiny throat, so clear and so perfect — well, they're not quite human. May she stay with us as long as possible in her childish roles. 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