Screenland (May-Oct 1934)

for August 19 3 4 95 Grand Duchess Marie Continued from page 15 own section of the palace. She was working while her husband amused himself with his toy soldiers and a kennel full of hounds which he kept in his bedroom. Empress Elizabeth, Catherine's aunt by marriage, mistrusted her but took no definite action against her except keeping her at a distance. Catherine's political sympathizers were risking their lives by taking part in her intrigues but she knew how to guide them and also how to inspire them with loyalty both to her person and to her cause. The story of her own daring as well as the courage displayed by her supporters who ultimately helped her to the throne would have made a far more exciting film subject than the one chosen. There was no love lost between Elizabeth and Catherine, the older woman suspecting the younger one of scheming. Nothing, therefore, could have been further from Elizabeth's mind than to let her niece-inlaw handle affairs of state or to think of entrusting Russia at her deathbed. Peter was her nephew and heir and it was to him that she left the throne. Elizabeth, although not as strong a character as Catherine, had nevertheless a very definite personality of her own. In this youngest daughter of Peter the Great were blended both the Asiatic traits of her Moscovite forefathers and the refinements of a newly imported Western culture. A very beautiful woman, she had the grace and dignity of an Eastern Sultana mingled with the smiling elegance of a French Marquise. She was an indolent, feminine, and kindhearted woman who since the beginning of her reign had refused to sign a single death sentence. The love of her life had been Count Razoumovsky to whom she was secretly wedded for many years. To see her portrayed in the film as a screaming, hysterical creature with a badly fitting wig and a make up reminiscent of the Virgin Queen, to see her slapping her courtiers one minute and embracing them the next is somewhat surprising, to say the least. Peter, Elizabeth's unbalanced nephew and heir, a young man who was gifted neither with charm nor distinction is the only figure on the screen that has been allowed some elbow-space, and he becomes the play's most sympathetic character. At the side of the mincing, virtuous, and tearful Catherine he acquires in spite of himself a certain dignity. He also is the only well dressed and well groomed person of the entire cast, his clothes being so elaborate as to make one believe that when Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., had once been fitted out the credits were exhausted and the other actors including the other stars had to be satisfied with anything they could get in the way of apparel. It is a poorly dressed and poorly mannered crowd of courtiers that rushes back and forth through the very accurately copied rococo halls of the Tzarskoe Selo Palace. There is very little of the Eighteenth Century elegance in the pancake curtsies of the ladies and the stiff -backed bows of the gentlemen. In their general demeanor there is not one refined or graceful gesture. Even Catherine's supporters treat her with disconcerting familiarity making it obvious that very little attention and time were devoted to the schooling of the court in appropriate behavior. No local color worth mentioning has been introduced into the story which as it is conceived could have taken place almost in any country. The opening scene with its perfectly modern gypsy songs and a few glimpses of the Moscow cupolas with closeups of church bells in full volley are unconvincing and but loosely related to the principal theme. At the risk of appearing too exacting it must be pointed out that church bells in Russia are brought into action differently from anywhere else, differently also from the manner in the film. The tongue alone in Russian bells is swung, the bells themselves being so attached to their crosspieces that they cannot oscillate. It is a pity that even the singing behind the stage supposedly at Empress Elizabeth's bier has nothing to do with Russian melodies— a fact that is hardly excusable considering the present popularity of Russian music. Very little can be said of the acting. Miss Bergner's reputation as an actress of talent had preceded the film but the part she has to take in it could but do her injustice, to my mind. Next time that Europe sends us one of her historical film productions we must hope that it will be something more authentic, something at least into the making of which would have gone some knowledge, discernment and taste, even if it does deal with such a remote and exotic subject as Russian history. She Said "No" to Thalberg Continued from page 25 stock company there. The director, who had met her in a theatrical manager's office in New York, thought she was a Broadway leading lady and begged her to go west with him to play the ingenue lead in stock. Before she arrived he billed her all over town as a prominent New York actress, and announced she would be the company's guest artist for the summer. So Claire just had to make good — and did, in a big way. Previous to this, she had never been on the stage in her life, except for a few church entertainments and as a student in the American Academy of Dramatic Art, in New York. Following this summer in stock she returned to New York, where she appeared in a number of short films. By this time, the spell of the footlights, the glamour and fascination, was in her blood — and she was off on a career. Originally Claire planned to enter Smith College, but a little matter of credit shortage caused her to abandon this course. This served to depress her considerably for a time, since many of her friends in the old home town, (Larchmont, N. Y., a few miles above New York City), attended that famed girls' school. But soon she decided to become an artist, and travelled daily up to Columbia University, where she took art, design, and French. There dawned upon her one day the realization that the artist market was flooded — what chance had she in amounting to anything in that field when already WHY BE FAT? 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