Screenland (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

for January 19 3 0 Psycho Clara the introvert: a complicated character whose nature pulls back just a little less than it strides forward. down in despair. The facts didn't agree with this self-portrait. I saw the Irrepressible One in half a dozen pictures and I'm sure Clara couldn't fool the camera all of the time, nor the public either. She simply sizzled with an energy that swept all before it. Her laughter rang true. That delightful and even dazzling streak of toughness in her was racy, of the earth and of the times. But I had the experience, just the other day, of seeing (and hearing) "Dangerous Curves.'" Then I saw that there was more in Clara Bow than we had thought before. She has developed remarkably, even in the space of a year: she is more truly an actress, she reveals a greater depth of character. She has all of the old bounce, impulsiveness and laughing energy; the blood of jazz runs in her veins; but she has revealed a fund of deep and moving tenderness, a passion that is strong and devastating, a new subtlety of action that is convincing. She was content in a good part of the show, of which she is the star, to remain a little in the shadows while the Kleig lights glared on Richard Arlen. The strain of self-sacrifice that ran through the part was more than a pose. We may take it for granted then that Miss Bow's answers to the questionnaire were sincere, whether wholly accurate or not, and that they connect with the dark 29 nalyzed -By James Oppenheim shadow that lay over her childhood. For a girl to be sneered at by her fellows, to have to wear shabby clothes often enough causes the inferiority complex, the feeling of being little, naked and no good, and hence tends to make the person somewhat introverted — withdrawing a bit from life, shy, hating unpleasant publicity, somewhat self-conscious. But this feeling of inferiority sometimes awakens a counter-feeling of extreme intensity. Just as fear and the feeling of helplessness often send a man into a rage, bringing up even an abnormal courage, so the feeling of inferiority sometimes brings up an Til show them all yet' feeling, a burning ambition, a dream of changing shabbiness for splendor, of rising from a non-entity to a world-fame. This is why the contradictions in Clara Bow's nature have brought her to the top, even the feeling of inferiority, of being unable to do it, bringing up powerful resources, reckless courage, an ability to overcome great odds, a laughter conquering tears. Or to put it technically, one with somewhat of the introvert in her who extraverts even more daringly and actively than the normal extravert. That is why I called her Miss America— Plus. The Plus comes from that vaulting ambition, that never-say-die recklessness. Besides that, if I were to place Miss Bow as a type, I should say that she is, like most women, mainly guided by feeling, feeling being the leading function, but sensation running a close second. She is not only charming, delightful, sociable, quick in her judgments, all due to her developed feeling, but she has played sensation heavily, the sensuous element, the love of the spectacular, the itch to get a kick out of everything, the love of change and danger. Feeling is more quiet, as witness, say, the nature of Mary Pickford. Sensation uses the loudspeaker and puts on a wow of an act. It was by depending largely on sensation that Clara Bow put herself across, and kept over' coming her fears and feeling of inferiority. But her recent development has been in the growth and maturing of her feeling and the evidence of more intuition. If she can go on taking the "Dangerous Curves" as well as she did it in the picture, she will cease being merely Miss America, the Girl with IT, the reckless and beautiful sensationalist, she will become a rarely good actress, of unusual artistic power, with depth and understanding, winning a deeper affection in the public's heart. But she will always be Clara Bow, the spirit of youth; in a sense the American spirit which hardly knows how to spend all its overflowing (Continued on page 101)