The Rich are Always with Us (Warner Bros.) (1932)

2 GREAT FEATU Crisp Dialogue Marks Lines! Chatterton Is One Star Whe in Ruth Chatterton Film By Lesley Mason Temperament is something she will not tolerate in herself or those around. her, She has the clearest head and the swiftest mind of any star on the screen today. Her outstanding characteristic is poise. She understands precisely what she is doing, and asks of others only that they know their jobs as well as she knows hers. Incompetency is the one sin she cannot forgive. The self-absorbed egoism of many stars is quite foreign to her. She has a keenly sympathetic appreciation of the problems and difficulties of those working with her, and is invariably ready to help in their solution. In spite of the years of stage success and the eminence she has attained upon the sereen, she is still a young woman, looking forward with all the eagerness of youth to the greater achievements that unquestionably lie before her. There are plenty of stellar celebrities who answer to one or more of those descriptions. There is only one, as far as I know, who unites them all in her single person. That one is Ruth Chatterton, whose first picture for First National, “The Rich Are Always With Us,” opens next at the Ruth Chatterton is a flat and com plete contradiction of the sensational | legends that have grown up around so many stars of both the stage and the screen. And of all these legends, there is none that she contradicts more completely than the one that temperament is necessary to a star’s greatness. Not that she doesn’t know what she wants, or is too proud to fight for it. She not only has definite ideals Advanee and Current SHORTS Ruth Chatterton Has Secret Ambition To Direct Pictures A motion picture star in her own right for the past three years, Ruth Chatterton nurses a_ secret ambition to direct a picture herself some day. The First National star, whose first picture under that banner, “The Rich Are Always With Us,” is at the Theatre, was a successful actress-manager for years before she deserted the stage for the screen. Page Five and beliefs, but she is ready to fight for them, and has fought for them when to do so meant more than a substantial sacrifice. More than one turning-point in her career has been a battlefield of this sort. After stardom had come to her under Henry Miller’s management, a contract for six motion pictures a year was offered her by one of the foremost concerns of the day. The figure was staggering — $300,000 annually for her appearance under the firm’s banner. Every concession she could ask was cheerfully made —except one: her own choice of stories. For the sake of what she conceived to be a vital principle of her work, Ruth sacrificed a fortune and remained a stranger to the screen for nearly ten years. When she finally stepped across the frontiers of filmland, times had changed and with the change had come a new understanding of artists like Ruth Chatterton. She was willingly granted the right to veto upon story material selected for her. And there is no record of her ever having abused that right. She thinks things out first, with a mind that is beautifully balanced, alert and accurate. She marshals her reasons and has them ready when a moot point arises and the inevitable discussion looms. She is thoroughly capable of being her own Portia. She states her own case with a simplicity and a clearness that leads one to believe she could easily have been a brilliant lawyer if she had not decided to be a brilliant actress. No one who has ever spent ten minutes in Ruth Chatterton’s neighborhood could conceive of her indulging in eccentricities. To her mind, they have nothing to do with either the art of acting or the art of life. And those who know Ruth Chatterton best will tell you that she is an equally distinguished artist in both. & “First Lady Of Screen” Bestows Highest Praise On Newest Leading Man When she finished work on her first First National production “The Rich Are Always With Us,” coming BOS CRG ai ee ne ee Theatre next said of George Brent, her leading man: “He is a splendid actor, the best leading man I have worked with in Hollywood. He was perfect in his lines and perfect in the ‘business’ of the part. He gave me the most perfect support I have had since coming to the sereen. It is a downright pleasure to work with such an actor.” Ruth Chatterton. Cant Stand Temperament The charge has been brought against numerous talking pictures that they are too ‘talky.’? Too often the charge is well founded—or has been in the very recent past. Occasionally, even today, you find yourself watching a picture that suddenly comes to a standstill, while two or three characters hurl wordy speeches at one another. Of one thing you can be certain —such dialogue never came from the pen of Austin Parker, the man who is responsible for the crisp terse, graceful lines that speed along the story of Ruth Chatterton’s First National picture, “The Rich Are Always With Us,” now playing at the Theatre. Parker has the ability to make his characters talk with the brevity of people in real life. His men and women never rant, never indulge in rhetorical periods, never make you feel they are trying to be funny or clever. He has a horror of verbosity. He is as frugal with words as a Scotchman is with nickels. In “The Rich Are Always With Us” Parker is dealing with a group of people with whom smartness is the first article of their creed. Their conversation is as smart as their clothes. They would rather die than be dull. They may not be deep thinkers but they are clever ones. They dress their emotions as carefully as their bodies and much more prudishly. A. display of flesh may be smart, but a display of feeling can only be vulgar. How skilfully Parker has done his work may be realized from a few sample scenes selected from the seript of the picture. When we first meet Caroline Grannard (Ruth Chatterton) and Julian Tierney (George Brent) in a fashionable New York restaurant, Julian, just returned from Central America, is making open love to her. She is married, “peacefully and per > Bette Davis Joan Blondell School Day Friendship, Renewed On Studio Lot When Bette Davis, new Warner Bros.-First National contract player, moved over to the new studio, she found that she was not a_ total stranger on the lot. To her great delight one of the first persons she met was Joan Blondell, with whom she had gone to school in New York. Now Joan is playing a featured lead in “The Famous Ferguson Case,” and Bette has an important role in “The Rieh Are Always With Us,” starring Ruth Chatterton, and | coming to the a “te | next « manently,” as she tells him. oe does not deter him in his love-makin On the surface, it is light and hal playful, but his real seriousness ‘bo of them realize. Julian has just finished telli Caroline why he had returned to ° States so hurriedly, and adds: “T decided it was time to get b home to you. CAROLINE: And five or six othe Juuian: If you insist on bein platonic, I’ll need five or six others to take your place. CAROLINE: What a lovely compli ment! But I wouldn’t go pl’ on you. JULIAN: Are you sure ab Caroline? CAROLINE: Absolutely. Fri is either too nice to be plato: too platonic to be nice. (The fully) Did I read that or did Ix it up? JULIAN: It isn’t very good, how. With all this burning pa you feel toward me, I think it’s ° of you not to divorce Greg and r me. CAROLINE: polite! Be At Caroline Grannard’s house } a few nights later, Julian and ©, line encounter Greg and Allison Ad: Less than half an hour later Caro] is to discover that this girl has st’ her husband, but is blissfully una of anything amiss at this mom It is impossible to do more partial justice to Austin Px dialogue with brief extracis, nc ter how extensively one may , These few serve, however, to trate his power to make a chai come alive the instant he begii talk, and the complete lack of su fluities in their speeches. You feel that he has lived with people he portrays, knows and un¢ stands them to be able to mirror th so accurately and interestingly whatever they have to say, in course of the drama. 4 | George Brent, New Scree Hero, Was Hero Of Iris Revolution At Twenty — Mean? It isn’t George Brent, Ruth Chattert leading man in “The Rich Are Aly With Us,” which is now at the.. DE Be Theatre, was the hero o revolution at the age of twenty. — He had just left the Natic University in Dublin, his na city, when the Irish revoluti out. For months he serw trusted courier of Mich the Trish military lee Collins’ death, ey to America.