Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

70 Hollywood High Lights The latest happenings in the movie colony are duly reported and discreetly commented upon. By Edwin and Elza Schallert SPANK the stars and make them be good — this seems to be the slogan now practiced by the motion-picture producers. There is a new tendency on their part to make the producing organization stand out head and shoulders over the destiny of the individual player, and there are various methods of chastisement used in putting the player in his place. One of the most popular is to send a disobedient j ~ star — that is, for instance, one who has objected to a certain role rather obstinately or has seemed deliberately to play it badly — over to some small and insignificant company on Poverty Row to work in a "quickie" — a picture made in two or three weeks, and cheaply. The system is quite highly perfected, and certainly quashes temperament. We aren't naming any of the victims, because we want to spare them embarrassment, but it's no secret that some of our favorite players have felt the unpleasant effect of this system. They don't relish it, either, and we certainly extend to them our personal sympathy, because the policy is sometimes upsetting to high ideals and ambition. Greta Objects Greta Garbo recently had a quarrel with Metro-GoldwynMayer. By this time it is, we hope, all smoothed over, and she should be playing the big title role in "Anna Karenina" by the time this is in print. But we heard that there was some talk for a while of sending her back to Sweden. Greta doesn't like to play unsympathetic characters. She objects to becoming another Theda Bara, and in "The Flesh and the Devil" her role did bear a distant kinship to some of the famous vamps that Theda created. Greta isn't the first foreign actress who has made this complaint about unsympathetic parts. Pola also made it on her arrival in this country, and has for the most part been doing "nice" parts ever since. Incidentally, she hasn't been half so interesting as before. John T. Murray and Louise Fazenda undertake to kidnap a bloodhound in the film "Finger Prints," but they have their hands full. The bloodhound says, he should worry. Raises for Three Three girls of the movies who have been playing ball quite consistently were recently very nicely rewarded. They are Renee Adoree, Sally O'Neil, and Joan Crawford, all of whom had been signed at very low figures in their original contracts with M.-G.-M. But the company recently tore up their first contracts and gave them new ones at increased salaries. Renee is reported to be getting $750 a week now ; Sallv O'NeiL $500; and Miss Crawford, $450 — all of them with the prospect of further advances in the not-far-distant future. Chaney Grows Rich Lon Chaney, we learn, is one of the highest salaried players at the MetroGoldwyn-Mayer studio. This may surprise a good many people, in view of the fact that he is a character actor. Chaney is reported to be getting about $3,500 a week for his services now. He is a great hit in "Tell It to the Marines." He plays a fine, sympathetic role, such as is really his specialty despite the fact that he nearly always starts out as a heavy. The production of "Mr. Wu," the Chinese thriller Avhich he has been making, is also likely to be unusual. Lon is a Chinaman in this, who murders his daughter. Renee Adoree is the surprise, though, in her impersonation of a Chinese girl. Around the studio, just for fun, they called her the little "Chinese frog," but Renee flicked this, appellation off with the rejoinder, "No, I'm a little Chinese flapper." Renee always stands for a lot of kidding, particularly from the men on the lot. It's All Off, Says Clara Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, according to Clara Bow, and so she called off her engagement to Victor Fleming. We wonder whether Clara