Screenland (May-Oct 1934)

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72 SCREENLAND No more squinting at the sun • • • with Verichrome you take people at their best*., relaxed, natural. Forget about posing • • • just snap the picture* Verichrome Accept nothing but the familiar yellow box with the checkered stripe. HOW VERICHROME DIFFERS FROM ORDINARY FILM 1. Double-coated. Two layers of sensitive silver. 2. Highly color-sensitive. 3. Halation "fuzz" prevented by special backing on film. 4. Finer details in both high lights and shadows. 5. Translucent, instead of transparent. Made by an exclusive process of Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. KODAK ERICHROME FILM Kay Tells About Bill Continued from page 18 early the next morning. We were on location and it was frightfully hot and I became cross, really, very irritable. Finally I blew up in my lines and went all to pieces. Bill sauntered over and sat down beside me saying, quietly, 'Kay, if I didn't love you and understand how utterly exhausted you were, I'd, well, I'd — I'd spank you!' "That made me laugh. We both howled at the imaginary picture his words suggested and this broke the tension I had been on. Everything was serene after that. "We always laugh and joke when we are together ; our humor seems pitched in the same key ; but we are very serious when making a picture, for we feel it requires all our concentration. Bill has taught me to keep from getting a one-track mind regarding my role. In studying his characters he likes to twist the story around, figuring out different angles in the psychology of the persons involved, and you would be amazed how this broadens one's understanding of the drama as a whole and of your own role in particular." After a moment's thought, Kay said she considered Bill's outstanding quality was his deep understanding, his ability always to see the other person's side of the question. The only fault she could think of was his inability to be on time. "He even kids himself by keeping his watch set exactly thirty-one minutes fast," she merrily explained, "but even that doesn't help much. He's quite hopeless in this." Kay's own life sparkles with varied experiences that give her, also, a vast under standing of love and of people. Perhaps this is the key to their mutual congeniality. Educated through European travel and exclusive schools, Kay took an early fling at business. She sold real estate, was a social secretary, and promoted Raquel Meller when she blazed through America several years ago. She's been married three times, beginning at seventeen, and only recently divorced Kenneth MacKenna, and each marriage carried her into an entirely different environment. Besides, she's won stage success and fame as a foremost motion picture star. You would doubtless be surprised to see Kay Francis off the screen. She looks so much smaller and far more girlish than she does in her pictures. The day of our talk she was wearing a smart brown ensemble but she confesses she cares little for clothes — except for her pictures. Some distant day Kay wants to return to the stage and win new laurels. Well, some day, perhaps. But we film fans wouldn't like to spare her or the combination of Powell and Francis, from our screens. They supply an ideal team of ultra-sophisticates. Remembering Bill's great charm and feeling the glow of Kay's radiant personality, a thought flashed through my mind. A gorgeous thought. I hardly dare breathe it for I'm sure they will both take a shot at me when they read this. But — wouldn't it be great, now that they are both matrimonially free, if this popular reel-love-team of William Powell and Kay Francis should be duplicated in a real-life romance, with all the "happy-ever-after" sequences left into the drama? And Bill Tells About Kay Continued from page 19 helped. Then came pictures, and how I've enjoyed them. In my first film, 'The Bright Shawl,' I met Richard Barthelmess, and we have been great friends ever since. In my second, 'Romola,' I met Ronald Colman, who proved another true pal." I asked him how he kept fit — aside from a careful diet, for watching him at luncheon I'm sure he counts his calories. His reply is characteristic. "It's easier to keep from annexing the fatal 'bay window,' and jowls, than to lose them. So every day I look intently into the swimming-pool. I think a lot about tennis, and talk a dandy game of golf. But really, I keep fit by worrying. Sophisticated —poised — suave ! Good Lord ! Why, any ittle thing can upset me. I'm a very fine worrier and it makes me lose weight. I'm fittest when I'm lean. So there you are !" Walking out into the garden I thought again of Carole. Everyone knows that Bill was madly in love with her. Yet in two years the marriage ended. Their divorce was one of those friendly affairs and they continue to go about together, being very comradey. When I finally spoke of Carole, his reply was casual. He lives in an atmosphere of social poise, of cultivated sophistication where real feelings are kept out of sight. "We all generalize, talk platitudes," he said. "None of us speaks freely of vital things. Our 'big moments' are lived within ourselves and — alone. We don't trot them out on parade. It just isn't done. "Life is built of experiences and no one ever really learns. A child burns his fingers n the fire and vows he'll never do it again. But he does. He goes right on burning his fingers all through life. "I don't know what my future holds. I'm not making any wild assertions. I may marry again. I may not. You know, just having married and divorced doesn't change me as a man. Perhaps I'm still susceptible to feminine charm ! "We all need women in our lives. They are the incentive for every man's ambitions and achievements. When we are around twenty-five we can tell you all about the fair sex. But the older we become the less we know about them. All women are charming, all lovely !" Right now Bill Powell is more interested in his screen work than ever before, having recently set out on a free-lance adventure after being under studio contract for years. He feels this course will bring him more suitable roles. Already he has made "Manhattan Melodrama," with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, and "The Thin Man," from Dashiell Harnett's story. He has enough excellent parts lined up to keep him busy for more than a year. At that time, he rather wistfully suggested, he would like a real vacation in Southern France. While our chat had been more or less serious, Powell has an engaging humor that seldom finds a place on the screen. This is a loss. Perhaps in some of his new films he will be given a chance to lighten his sophisticated characterizations with his gift of wit that is so adroit and so effervescent. I think that facet of Powell's character would appeal to the public. Bill's final words, as he stepped into his car to dash to the studio, were, "I sincerely hope I shall have many more pictures with Kay Francis. It is such fun to work with her and also, a great satisfaction. You see, we speak the same language."