Recaptured Love (Warner Bros.) (1930)

*RECAPTURED LOVE” — A Warner Bros. Production Special Newspaper Features “ACTING FOR THE SCREEN KEEPS PLAYER ON TOES,” SAYS JOHN HALLIDAY ich More Difficult Than Acting Same Type Role on the Legitimate Stage "aie HALLIDAY, popular stage player, has turned screen actor in Warner Bros. Vitaphone picture, ““Recaptured Love,” now playing at the of the husband of Belle Bennett Theatre, in which he plays the role who loses him to a gold-digging chorus girl. His impressions of screen ‘acting as distinguished from acting on the stage are fresh and vivid. “T find acting for the screen more difficult than on the stage,” says Mr. Halliday, “for the reason that in the films the actor cannot change his interpretation of a character. It is set once for all. The way he plays it before the cameras and the microphones is set for the life of the picture. ‘That does help to keep the actor up on his toes, trying to do his best, but it also denies him the opportunity of developing his part, of growing into it, putting on the little finishing touches that make for perfection in acting. Audience a Help “On the stage an actor can vary his actions, the intonations of his voice, the tempo of his playing— which is a decided advantage—permitting him to build up his charac . i .tOnl tie, Manger ab Deke _aax«erent audiences help him to build up his part as well as to inspiring him by their applause and appreciation. “On the screen, the actor is deprived of most of the audience help. Rehearsals and study do certainly aid him in fixing the part, to keep it consistent. He has an audience in the director, the stage hands, To the World They Are Just A Lone Initial Famous Dancing Twins Have Unique Method Of Identification JF either Eleanor or Carla Gurer‘in, the Berlin twins, who do acts on stage and screen, __4 £0 walk along Broadway and be recognized by fans, the latter would never be able to say “there goes so and so.” They bill themselves as “The G Sisters” and are reduced to the notoriety of an initial. Just a Letter Bach has an air on the G string, and the letter is popular with infants having architectural debacles with their blocks of alphabet initials, but never in history has any one tried to get a reputation and having nothing more recognizable than a letter G. They are dancers, whose performances can be seen in “Recaptured Love,” the Warner Bros. Vitaphone vehicle now showing at the Theatre. the cameramen and others who are looking on and he can tell in a way whether his acting appeals to them, but he does not have the leisure to work over a bit of acting and build it up. Screen Different “It is for this reason that acting on the screen is often done in bolder and more vigorous strokes than on the stage. And then there are many interruptions in filming a scene. Something goes wrong and the scene is cut so that an error may be corrected, an unexpected noise eliminated. All of this gets on the actor’s nerves, especially when he is new to the camera and the microphone, and is apt to interfere with the smoothness of his playing. -“Rxperienced “players on the screen do not seem to be subject to this nervousness, so it is doubtless due mostly to the newness of the surroundings to a _ stage player. When the actor has done a gqod bit of work and the cameras and microphones have recorded it, it is set for all time and audiences all over the country see the actor at his best. If the film is kept for future years, then audiences can see and hear the actor’s best playing long after he is dead. That is one of the marvels of motion pictures, especially Vitaphone. talking pictures. It widens the actor’s following not only throughout the country but throughout the years.” Germany, on August 8, 1911 and educated in Berlin. Their mother, a dramatic student of the famous Reinhardt, gave them dancing instructions. Debut in Paris Flushed with the desire of fame and the plaudits of France, they decided on a stage debut in Paris, where for a year they danced at the Moulin Rouge. Spain next YOUNG SCREEN PLAYER TELLS HOW TO BE NATURAL THOUGH AN ACTOR An Interesting Talk on Pictures and Picture Acting by One of the Youngest Of the Stage and Screen Stars HOUGH young in years, Junior Durkin, who plays with Belle Bennett, John Halliday and Dorothy Burgess in Warner Bros. new Vitaphone picture, “Recaptured Love,” now showing at the weeccescecssesescoes debut at the age of four years in Theatre, is old in experience, having made his stage “Some Night.” Consequently, he has been acting, on both stage and screen, for twelve years. The fact that he has been steadily climbing up in the acting profession entitles his opinion on naturalness in acting to consideration. “Acting should be fun,” Junior. “If the players do not get some fun out of acting their roles, they don’t feel the spirit of their parts and won’t be very natural. Like Child’s Play “Acting on the stage, and for the screen, is much like children’s playing at make-believe. At least, that’s the way it seems to me. If one thinks too much about how he looks to those watching him he becomes stilted and unnatural. It’s when a boy can throw himself into the make-believe playing of a game that he loses all self-consciousness and acts and talks with perfect naturalness. “It is hard to keep from becoming self-conscious as one grows older and begins to wonder how he appears to other persons—what they will think of his actions and his words, but to be a good actor it is necessary to forget all that+—to play at make-believe with all one’s might and forget as far as possible that others are watching him. “Acting on the stage and the screen is not quite so simple, of course, aS playing a childish game. Children make up their stories as they go. One cannot do that in a play or picture because the story has got to come to an end at a certain time, so there are authors and continuity writers to work out the plot in detail before the actors start acting. They’ve got to act the story as it has been written, first learning their parts—that’s what makes the actor self-conscious; the story doesn’t just bubble up out of their imaginations. Forget One’s Self “But after they’ve learned their lines and the ‘business’ and re called them, and while in Madrid| hearsed a few times, they begin to they gave a special performance for the king. They were brought to New York to participate in a number of musical comedies. And thence to the screen was a step—and in their case a number of dancing steps— to Hollywood. First they appeared in a picture with Paul Whiteman, then in ‘‘Mademoiselle Modiste”’ and now have just finished “Recaptured Love.” With but a fraction of an inch difference in height, they stand five feet seven inches, and are strikingly outstanding with their raven They were born in Konigsberg,hair and blue eyes. forget their self-consciousness and to live the parts as they did when ADVERTISEMENT WARNER BROS. present Cas | | motion pictures. bet on their continued single bless One Col. Slug—Style F Cut or Mat S says as children they played games. They begin to get fun out of acting. That’s the best way I know to be natural before the footlights and on the screen.” GERMAN DANCERS VOW TO AVOID MATRIMONY The Sisters G, the German dancers who appear in Warner Bros. picture, ‘“Recaptured Love,” in which Belle Bennett, John Halliday and Dorothy Burgess have the leading roles, and which is now showing at the Theatre, are a reincarnation of the Dolly Sisters as far as youth, good looks and dancing ability go. They were something of a furore in their native Germany, in Paris and in London, before they came to the United States to appear in Paul Whiteman’s picture, “King of Jazz.” The Sisters G are twins, tall, blue-eyed, black-haired, with perfect figures and classic features. They make a mystery of their real name, only letting it be known that they are daughters of a German Colonel and, hence, could not dance under their own name. Lincoln Eyre, Berlin correspondent of the New York Times, discovered them dancing at a charity ball and urged them to take up dancing as a profession. They studied under the Russian Eduard Owa, with D’Eviller and Nigrelle and Matray in Paris. } Their dancing is a striking feature of the cabaret scene of ‘‘Recaptured Love” and they are sure to make a big reputation for themselves in pictures if they do not get homesick and return to Germany, or get married and forsake the films for domesticity. According to the Sisters G there is no donger of the latter. They vow they ‘have eschewed matrimony and consecrated themselves to their art and to single blessedness. But they are still young and many young professionals have declared against matrimony just as strongly as they did and immediately forgotten their vows against domesticity when their hearts were impressed by some good looking youth whose plea that he could not live without the one girl he had ever truly loved carried enough conviction. Will the Sisters G succumb to ‘|matrimony as did the famous Dolly Sisters? That will be a point to watch with as much interest as their dancing progress in American If they want to edness they will probably find many takers among. skeptical Americans. Are Dramatists Instructors in Gold Digging ? Beautiful Dorothy Burgess, Screen Star, Thinks They Are “ @ RE all chorus girls gold dig gers? Do all Ziegfeld, Carroll and White show girls ride up to the theatre in their own limousines? Are our dramatists and scenarists establishing a school of gold digging?” Dorothy Burgess would like to know. And Dorothy is the metalchiseling chorus girl in ‘Recaptured Love,” with Belle Bennett and John Halliday as the other two angles of the triangle of which Miss Burgess forms the third angle. It is now the feature attraction at the Theatre. Always Gold Diggers “There is scarcely a picture, play or story dealing with chorus girls in which they are not portrayed as gold diggers,” says Miss Burgess. “Some get all they can from their wealthy men friends, giving nothing in return. Others give the expected return and lose caste even among gold-diggers. Writers for the stage and screen, particularly._ go on the assumption that all chorus girls are out for the coin that burns in the pockets of Wall Street brokers. and captains of industry. “One wonders sometimes if these writers have not constituted themselves the faculty of the College of Gold Digging and teach the arts of the gold digger, the vampire and the siren to unsophisticated girls whose good looks and dancing ability land them in the chorus. They present alluring pictures of the ease with which girls of the chorus can gouge money from wealthy idlers and tired business men, and furnish instructions in the way in which it can be done. Turn About “Can it be that our dramatists | and scenario writers are gold digging the humble chorus girl, presenting her in a light not altogether true for the sake of the money that can be made from a colorful picture of conditions on the stage they have taught the public to believe are true? “There are gold digging chorus girls, of course. Everyone who has been in musical shows knows that. The character of Peggy Price which I act in ‘Recaptured Love’ is a truthful specimen of the species, but my point is that the metalgouging chorus girl is the exception rather than the rule, dramatists and scenarists to the contrary notwithstanding. Gold didding is more a matter of one’s own character than of example or even poverty, although poverty, example (even fictitious) and occasion undoubtedly lead many chorus girls into the pathway of the gold diggers.” ae