Picture-Play Magazine (1933)

s WHAT THE FANS THINK Mae Ain't No Garbo. THE roll call of predicted rivals and potential Garbos at the present writing includes Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Tala Birell, Gwili Andre, Katharine Hepburn, and now, shades of Cleopatra, it's Mae West ! The billowy, buxom, flamboyant Mae a rival of the tall, slender pantherlike Garbo ! It is to laugh. I've seen Mae West in person and in her two screen portrayals. She's great in her line. She admits she has created a personality — buxom bosom, undulating hips, modified shuffle, nasal tones, come-hither eyes, and together they spell Mae West. Omit them and what have you ? Nothing at all! Mae West out of character, or perhaps I should say out of type, and before lontr — out of the mind. public Imagine la West attired in a turtle-neck sweater, a straight skirt, and low-heeled shoes portraying Anna Clirislic or Garbo in a corseted costume of the gay '90s billowing about in "She Done Hi m Wrong." If such a burlesque is ever pro d u c e d , L a u r e 1 and Hardy will be numbered among the unemployed. We don't want Garbo to go West or West to go Garbo — it isn't necessary. Mae will continue to be a great box-office attraction, and so will Greta, because variety is the spice of life. There's plenty of room for both West and Garbo. We'd hate to lose either of them. G. M. F. Fort Wayne, Indiana. any one to say he isn't. (Whisper.) He wTrites an awfully nice letter, too. Fans ! Let's keep this new find in pictures. Don't let him get away from us and back to the stage. Phyllis Carlyle. 3 Cumberland Terrace, Portland, Maine. The billowy,buxom, flamboyant Mae West a rival of Garbo? laughs an Indiana fan. I To-day She Lives. HAVE been a movie fan for about seven years — since I was twelve or thirteen years old. In all that time I've never had any one special favorite actor or actress. I've always admired a great many at a time. Now there is one whom I place above all others. There are, of course, other actors who are just as talented, lint after seeing branchot Tone in "To-day We Live," he appeals to me more than any one else on the screen. As Ronnie in that picture he is priceless. I defy Tully Takes Pen in Hand. DAN ROHRIG seems to be a prophet crying in the wilderness completely surrounded by foghorns. It is all very well to jeer at Mr. Everyman, but he's the fellow who pays the freight. Chaplin, Chevalier, and Gable are a few topnotchers, who, unlike Sir Gilbert Roland, have a very queer method of achieving popularity. They gave the public what it wanted, worked hard and studied their homework. Of course, if one considers his own ego and vanity more important than success, fame, and mazuma, that's his privilege. But Phyllis Carlyle fan-letters from Maine that Franchot Tone is priceless. I think it silly to say a certain actor will "achieve dizzy heights of cinema glory" when that actor is not even trying to please the public. Cary Grant was heralded as "a second Gable." That is why I gave him my undivided attention. "The Woman Accused" should have been accused of other crimes besides murder for allowing Grant to amble in and out as he did. His feeble attempt at acting ruined that picture. He lacks feeling and his voice is a flat, colorless monotone. And he has a perfectly cock-eyed conception of dramatic emphasis. If Cary Grant is an actor, I'm Katharine Cornell's elocution teacher. I must not close before seconding the motions of Ethel Hitchcock and Al J. Mentosti, even though it may approximate a confession of inferiority or something. Mae West is Frank Tully returns to he fold with grand ! Frank Tully. the remark that if Cory Grant is 20 New Street, an actor, he's Kathaiine Cornell's Danbury, Connecticut. elocution teacher. Continued on page 12