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AUGUST 1924
tended Adolphe Menjou for a villain. So did Adolphe Menjou. Born in France, with a French father and an Irish mother, he was taken to America
as a small hoy. educated at a nulit.ii\
academy, and graduated from Cornell University : Ins dramatic training he picked up on the stage in stork companies and vaudeville.
HP hen he grew a moustache, went to
Vitagraph and started Ins screen
career playing villains. The moustache
forced his hand : so did his own temperament. Same and cynical and fas tidious — what other type of part was open to him? So did his early life,
with an epicurean father — a famous eaterer — who taught his young son to appreciate the good things of this world. All Menjou's dramatic talent was directed from early years towards the creation of villains. For apparently in the American screen world there is no place for the polished worldly hero. The hero of the American film has to be either a Man of Brawn or The Good Boy of the Family.
The trouble was that Menjou's villain was not really the villain of the screen
Right: A Close-up of Adolphe Menjou.
Pictures and Picfvrepuer
liellii Donna\ while Clarinet, Tht Kiss, I he Faith Healsr, I lead i
1 1 eels, I lie Fast Moil, and Courage, are
a handful, picked at random, of his
villainous attempts.
In all these he wai exactly tht same
— it was all eyebrow work and curling lip. rich clothes and illicit love. The
trouble was that for all his capable
acting ins villains never quite came off. Screen villains being two a penny, there
were other BtOCk players sueli Stuart Holmes, Charles Gerrard and
/.Left: In
"The
Spanish
Dancer."
Above: With Agnes Ayres and recumbent figure) in
either. It has been recognised for a long time that a man might smile and smile and be a villain — but he might not laugh. Menjou's sense of humour always told against him, just as his fastidiousness always told against his playing hero roles. So it happened that no one had heard of him before A IV oman of Paris — despite the fact that he had played — and played well — in lots of other big screen successes.
You can probably remember his face, and vaguely his name, but it would sur
prise many knowledgable fans
to read the complete list of his
parts and to realise that he
was there in the background
of many a film which they
have seen and seen again for the work
of some other star.
He was in The Three Musketeers, The Sheik, The Eternal Flame; he hid behind Mary Pickford in Through The Back Door : he had quite a good part in Singed Wings — but Ernest Torrence obscured him : he was to be seen in
Leatrice Joy pleads with hint in " The Marriage Cheat " Lew Cody — who, with only half his talent, made quite double his success. Nobody quite knew why until Chaplin came along. Chaplin knows. He has only to look at an actor and he knows. Look at the success achieved by Nellie Bly Baker in A>fVoman of Paris.
(Continued on Page 55).