Since You Went Away (United Artists) (1944)

Colbert and Liberty; Gifts from France Claudette Colbert, who plays the finely etched role of Anne Hilton in David 0. Selznick’s magnificent epic of the home front during the present war, “Since You Went Away,” now playing at the .... Theatre through United Artists release, was born in Paris, France, just a few years prior to the first World War. According to her admirers, France has given the United States two famous women. One is a lady carrying a torch, standing sedately in New York Harbor, whose name is Liberty; the other is a beauti¬ ful, vivacious lady who has the men carrying the torches. Her name is Claudette Colbert. At least that is the name we know her by. Her real name was Chauchoin, but Claudette thought it difficult to pronounce and changed it to Col¬ bert when she went on the stage, retaining the first letter “C” hop¬ ing it would bring her good luck. Her entrance into the theatrical world came about through a friend who had a friend who happened to know Ann Morrison, the play¬ wright. This second friend sent Claudette to Miss Morrison, who was impressed with the way that she carried herself and gave her a small part in her play, “The Wild Westcotts.” A succession of plays on the road and on Broadway followed, but it was not until she played in “The Barker” with Walter Huston that Claudette was established as a star on The Great White Way. Not only did she get the reputa¬ tion of being a fine actress, but the great discovery was also made at the same time that Claudette was really a beautiful girl. Her legs also got quite a play that year, too! In the show she had to wear an abbreviated costume that showed them off to great advan¬ tage and pretty soon she was talked about as “the girl with the most beautiful legs on Broadway.” After a few years of stardom on the stage, it was inevitable that the movies should hold out a wel¬ coming hand to her. She did all right in Hollywood, she admits, but no startling roles came her way. Claudette didn’t like this very much and when the role of Pop- paea in “The Sign Of The Cross” was being cast by Maestro Cecil DeMille, she went to his studio and asked to make a test for it. When the film was released, with Miss Claudette Colbert in the top-spot, the public did plenty of talking about her and the screen industry labeled her as an actress with serious dramatic abilities. Claudette is five feet, four and a half inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. She is one of the few stars who doesn’t have to diet, eating what she pleases and as much as she pleases. Her hair is dark brown and so are her eyes. She is a fanatic about skiing and before the war spent all her free time in Sun Valley, Idaho, gathering up the various trophies. On Christmas Eve in 1935 she married Dr. Joel Pressman, who now is a Lt. Commander in the Navy. It took them three years to complete their home in Holmby Hills, Hollywood, as Claudette had all the furniture and wallpaper designed to order. She has one secret vice, collect¬ ing perfume, hates bright nail pol¬ ish, prefers tubs to showers, is completely honest and sometimes uncomfortably blunt when asked an opinion. Thinks hats are a nuis¬ ance but whenever she feels blue she goes out and buys one. She claims it cheers her up. “Follow Hunch 99 Says Colbert Claudette Colbert insists that her film successes came about strictly by “following her hunches.” Says she: “I simply fol¬ low my hunches and when some seventh sense signals ‘Go ahead’ I put on full speed and never look back. “I did it with ‘It Happened One Night.’ Columbia wasn’t an im¬ portant studio then, nor was Frank Capra the outstanding director he is now. Every other actress with a name in Hollywood turned down the part, but I had a hunch that it was good. And it was. With that picture I struck the jack-pot! And got the Academy Award, too. “I had a hunch about the role in Fannie Hurst’s ‘Imitation of Life’ also. In that I played the mother of a 20-year-old girl, and my part was actually second in importance to that of Louise Beavers, the superb Negro actress. It was my first really mature role, but it proved a winner.” Recently when David 0. Selz- nick suggested that she play Anne Hilton, the mother in “Since You Went Away,” now running at the .... Theatre through United Art¬ ists release, Claudette pondered the offer. She read the’ script, hesi¬ tated for a moment, and then had a hunch about the famous “Selz- nick touch” that has distinguished so many motion pictures. It was “full speed ahead” after that for Claudette, who now feels that her role of Anne Hilton is the most exacting and exciting that she has ever played and that “Since You Went Away” is the finest picture in which she has ever appeared. “Once again,” she says, “my hunch worked out.” schizophrenia. And when one con¬ siders that he has played a simple engineer (Journey Into Fear) ; a psychopathic murderer (Shadow of a Doubt); a Scotland Yard detec¬ tive (Gaslight) and now a devil- may-care naval lieutenant in “Since You Went Away” playing at the .... Theatre through United Artists release, one realizes why Cotten feels a little like the living example of a Jekyll-Hyde character. You will not hear Cotten com¬ plaining about the variety roles, though. He has not forgotten that not-too-distant-past when he would be satisfied with any role. In fact, he still speaks a little amazedly about his present unmistakably high position in the movies. Cotten’s route to movie stardom was, to put it mildly, circuitous. Though he was a graduate of the Washington, D. C. Hickman School of Expression, Cotten found no welcome signs waving frantically from producers’ offices. He prob¬ ably was never after treated with such supreme indifference as the inhabitants of those offices dis¬ played .towards his ambitions. When he reached that point where his three skimpy meals a day had dwindled to one skimpy meal, Joe decided that while art is long, the stomach grows empty and demanding in a short time. He went and got a job. His job—paint salesman with a small Brooklyn paint company— was the start of what looked like a long detour around the path to theatrical success. From being a paint salesman in Brooklyn he went to Florida to taste some of the fruits of the boom down there. Result—he came back north— broke, but with a letter of intro¬ duction to Burns Mantle. Mantle was impressed enough to write letters to John Golden and David Belasco. Cotten went to see Belasco first. The producer was delighted to see the actor. And as Cotten trailed Belasco to the the¬ atre he thought, “An open and shut case of mistaken identity.” Whether this was actually the case or not, we will never know, for Cotten remained with Belasco un¬ til the producer’s death. In 1931 Joe was engaged by the Copley theatre of Boston and si¬ multaneously got married to Leo- nore Kipp whom he had met in Miami some years before. A few months after his mar¬ riage, Joe finally got a break on Broadway — a role in “Absent Father.” This was followed by “Accent on Youth” and “The Post¬ man Always Rings Twice.” It was during the run of this latter play that Joe met Orson Welles and began his long friendship with that young genius. Joe’s first appearance in movies was a part in Welles’ revolution¬ ary “Citizen Kane.” He returned to Broadway after completing the picture to tour with “The Phila¬ delphia Story.” When the tour was completed the Cottens found them¬ selves on their way back to Hol¬ lywood with a contract from Alex¬ ander Korda. Cotten has played just about everything since his return to the film capital. But as you can see, he’s not complaining. Nazimo vaT ops For 3 Decades David 0. Selznick’s “Since You Went Away” now playing at the .... Theatre through United Art¬ ists release boasts a cast of lead¬ ing players which includes Clau¬ dette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Jen¬ nifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Lionel Barrymore and Robert Walker. But besides these top names, “Since You Went Away” has a cast of featured players which in any other film would be sufficient for an all-star leading cast. Best known of these name players is the famed Nazi- mova. For more than 30 years Nazi- mova, probably Russia’s greatest star, has ruled the theatrical roost. From the moment of her debut in America in 1905 in “The Chosen People” Nazimova has been recog¬ nized as a star of international magnitude. In New York and on the road the great actress’ per¬ formances of Ibsen and Chekovian dramas were noted for their fault¬ less technique. It was in the early twenties that she first associated herself with the silent screen, her memorable vehicles including “The Doll’s House,” “Salome” and “Camille.” Among her more recent foot- light accomplishments are “Mourn¬ ing Becomes Electra,” “The Good Earth,” “The Simpleton of The Unexpected Isle,” and a revival of “Ghosts.” Nazimova recently returned to the film world. Oddly enough, she is living in the Garden of Allah, an apartment house which was the site of her former home when she first came to Hollywood. The great actress plays a woman welder in Selznick’s poignant tale of the home front. Agnes Left Parsonage For Films It’s always news when a girl born in a parsonage goes on the stage. The latest one to achieve fame as a successful actress is Agnes Moorehead who has a prom¬ inent featured role in David 0. Selznick’s unusual saga of the American home front, “Since You Went Away,” now at the . . . . Theatre through United Artists release. In the seven-s+ar cast of this brilliant successor to Mr. Selznick’s “Gone With The Wind,” are Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Monty Wool- ley, Lionel Barrymore and Robert Walker. Miss Moorehead, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, is cer¬ tainly in good theatrical company. Although born in Massachusetts, her education took place in Wis¬ consin. When she graduated she taught school, but always in the background of her mind lingered the desire to go on the stage. Finally, she couldn’t put off the urge any longer. Having saved money from her career of teaching, she headed for New York and en¬ rolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In her class was another “young hopeful” named Rosalind Russell. Broadway was kind to Miss Moorehead and in direct succession she appeared in featured parts in such plays as “Scarlet Pages,” “All The King’s Horses,” “Courage” and “Candlelight.” Radio was even kinder to her and she played prom¬ inently along with such stars as Beatrice Lillie, Bob Hope, Bert Lahr and Fred Allen, establishing quite a reputation for herself along the air lanes. It was because of Orson Welles, however, that she finally arrived in Hollywood. Meeting him on a broadcast, he promptly invited her to become a member of his famous Mercury Players. When Welles went to Hollywood he brought Miss Moorehead with him. Al¬ though she has had outstanding roles in “Journey Into Fear,” “The Big Street” and “The Youngest Profession,” among other films, her finest screen portrayal was as the frustrated spinster in “The Magnificent Ambersons,” in which Joseph Cotten and Dolores Costello were starred. Playing character roles is Miss Moorehead’s favorite avocation as well as vocation. She is married to Jack G. Lee, also an actor. They own a 320-acre farm between Zanesville and Cambridge, Ohio, where they grow alfalfa, wheat, oats, corn, soy beans, potatoes, muskmelons and popcorn. At least they will never go hungry, if act¬ ing jobs take a sharp decline! In real life, this fine actress, who has in so short a space of time won a fine name for herself in filmdom, is an attractive, frank- spoken young woman with blue eyes, brown hair and a knack of dressing very smartly. Fans, she claims, seldom recognize her on the street and this she considers a flattering tribute to her ability at miming. Page Ten