Picture-Play Magazine (1933)

What the FANS Think Joan's Galloping Eyebrows. WHAT has happened to Joan Crawford? She has changed so terribly! I first saw her in "Dancing Daughters" and "Our Blushing Brides." She was >uch a natural, human, vivid girl then. So lovely, too, with her eyebrows where they were really meant to be, instead of halfway up her forehead. Her mouth was softly curved, not the thick, heavily painted, crooked mouth she has to-day. She is homely to-day. Of course -lie's a good actress — she always was. But her cold, wooden maimer is not hit-*' man. and her hrittle, artificial exterior is anything hut lovable. ( Hi. Joan, please he gay and fascinating as you were before! And please pull down those utterly absurd brows of your-! Your mouth, too — can't you make it up more naturally? Please don't wear that horrid big blob of color for a mouth ! Even your manner has changed, Joan. You are artificial, affected — a poser. You have a high-hat, grandlady manner that is too exaggerated. Even your acting lacks the dash and sincerity it once had. No, I'm afraid I no longer love or admire the new Joan. L'ntil she get-, wise to herself. I shall go to see Barbara Stanwyck's pictures instead. Bertha del Roth. Buffalo, New York. Damita Has a Figure. RECENTLY T read an article about Jean Harlow's figure. She's not so hot ; her hips are large and she is short-waisted. Lily Damita has a figure that will outshine Jean Harlow's any time. She also is an actress, and that Jean will never he. Her acting in "Red-headed Woman" was as cheap as she is. Producers, please remember that the public demands at least halfway respectable picture-. Dale Pearson. MLS X. Springfield Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Gaynor Should Be Jealous. WYM FAUX'S letter in October Picture Play was the la-t straw. Even if I did not like Jean Harlow — and I surely do— I'd never he guilty of writing such absurd and childish remarks about Jean /'.her star. Instead of convincing any one how terrible Jean is, they show how terrible the writers are! I'm disgusted — and here arc answers to some of your inane 1 £? -L^ idi as, .Mi- Faux. jg^^S Von ^'iy her "cheap display of fem >)$'Nj iT m'ne wiles" passes for acting; she is a "star ham": she's an "artificial would-be ih a dying-cal look." Really, my dears, am I laughing? I wonder if you know that -tars have little choice of role and wardrobes. Jean has been given vindictive, mean characters to portray, and has played them convincingly, without injecting a particle of her own sincere, kind, and sweet personality into them. So, if she's convinced you that she's hard. had. and hateful, congratulate her. she's an actress! She is the direct opposite of the type she has played on the screen. As you remember, Jean was given her first real chance in pictures in "Hell's Angels," and. since producers have refused to consider putting her in sweeter roles, she's played their vamp roles too well. Now, however, I believe they will give her a chance to he the real star she is. Lois Carlson. Chamberlain, South Dakota. So "Phil Fan" Is Shocked! ONE of the most amusing remarks of the month was that of "Philadelphia Fan" regarding the bad manners of "that ruffian," James Cagnev. It seems that the inhabitants of the City of Brotherly Love are horrified at Mr. Cagney's pugnacious tendencies on the screen. Therefore, he is to be ostracized from polite society and branded "an unpleasant little rowdy." When, oh when, will the majority of the movie-going public learn to discriminate between the screen and real life of the stars? C'mon, Phil Fan, follow up your line of reasoning. By the same token, Norma Shearer is a gay modern of decidedly loose morals: Joan Crawford, Constance Bennett, and the great Garbo are shady ladies with lurid pasts; Edward G. Robinson bumps off a gangster every night after dinner ; Boris Karloff frightens all the kids on the block with his bogyman tactics, while Jean Harlow helps make this world unsafe for wives, bagging at least one unsuspecting husband every day. Reductio ad absurd um! Why not a little "uncommon sense" applied to this high-voltage enthusiasm for a group of human beings, who off the screen are not very different from your next-door neighbor. Wait a minute! Maybe I'm all wrong ! Perhaps Cagney violates every "don't" of Emily Post; maybe he does swing a wicked right toward every feminine acquaintance, but I sadly doubt it. If so, how has he escaped jail for assault and battery? Let's give a few discreet cheers for the rugged little redhead, who manages to inject a naturalness and salty flavor into every role he has attempted. His humanness can be appreciated by Park Avenue as well as the East Side. No, I'm not his press agent, but I still trust that his screen life may be long and hearty. "A Toronto Fan." Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Neil Against the World. NEIL HAMILTON certainly stole all the scenes in "Two Against the World." Don't they know an actor when they see one? I haven't missed a picture of his in seven years, and this is the first time he got a break with the reviewers. I hope some producer will get wise and give him the chances he deserves. He has never given a poor performance, and as for sincerity, well, JL^ "Beau Geste," "Strangers May Kiss,*5 "Mother Machree," "What Price Hollywood," and "Two Against the World" apeak for themselves, "An Erie Fan." Erie, Pennsylvania. Continued on page 10 /