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74
SCREENLAND
Madeleine Carroll deserves what she has? Imagine any of our Hollywood stars passing up the opportunity to publicize a background like hers !
Between you and me, a number of our own stars arc feeling foolish for, observing how modestly Madeleine behaved during the filming of "The World Moves On," they concluded she was just another import. Her unobtrusive good taste made no dent on the local newly-rich. But when they heard all! Well, you know how some folks are !
"I learned more about acting from this one Hollywood production than I could from a half-dozen English pictures," she asserted to me when I called on her prior
to her departure. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I was offered the lead in 'Cavalcade,' but I didn't think I was a good enough actress to essay such a role and suggested Diana Wynyard.
"Personally, it is my contention that screen success should evolve from a dignified portrayal of a character, and not from superficial, sensational attributes."
Abroad she has her own say on director, story, cameraman — everything. In Hollywood her simplicity was marked. Nevertheless the crew on the picture tested her sportsmanship. On the second day of production they sent her a big bunch of daisies. When she had thanked them profusely, a prop boy cried, "You're mistaken. They
weren't for you. They're just props!" Without rising in wrath, as they suspected she might, she astounded them by apologizing seriously for her error and sending the bouquet over to the prop department !
It is interesting to note that Miss Carroll's first American film, "The World Moves On," was in production 49 days — the longest schedule for any dramatic film ever made at the Fox Studio — "Cavalcade" had 40 days' actual shooting time.
I might add that Madeleine Carroll is one of the only two actresses who have been presented to King George at Court. There can be no greater social honor in England — and yet none of the Hollywoodites knew this. She failed to mention it!
Hollyw
the troupe, and here is what they have.
The leading man is Mr. Claude Rains of the Broadway stage. This able mummer's only claim to film fame is the fact that he was The Voice in "The Invisible Man." Mr. Rains plays a criminal lawyer in "Crime Without Passion"— in itself a screen novelty !
The leading lady is a flashing minx called, simply, Margot, whose public career, to date, has been that of a Spanish dancer. Mr. Hecht saw her dancing at the WaldorfAstoria Hotel, and decided that such an excellent performer of the fandango would make a nice natural leading woman. We shall see.
Then there is Miss Whitney Bourne, a beauteous Manhattan society gal who had played stage bits but didn't know a camera from a whippet tank. There is Mr. Stanley Ridges of Broadway, who has never done a picture. Greta Granstedt, Hollywood bit plaver, is present— the boys probably letting her in because she had never done much acting anyhow.
To round out the troupe in a good amateur-film manner, they hired the beauteous Miss Ethelynne Holt, a professional model whose chief claim to fame is the noted "Camel Girl" ad for which she posed a couple of years ago, in which she practically introduced the "pinch-crunch" hat and wore a wedding ring on her right hand.
Now there's a good "natural" acting company! Not a star, or even starlet, in a studio-load. But whoa! Did I say no stars ? The Pecks' Bad Boys are of course the stars of their own picture, though you won't see them, and more's the pity. They'd make Clark and McCullough look like a pair of hired pallbearers.
Once the gang was hired and the geniuses caged, Wheeler and Woolsey — I mean Hecht and MacArthur— got very professional.
History tells that shooting was to start at nine of a Monday morning.
Master Hecht mounted a table, timepiece in hand. On the stroke of nine he raised a fist and shouted : "Let Hollywood beware ! Roll 'em over, boys !"
A new and bawdy epoch in the movie industry had begun!
Then things REALLY began to go nuts ! Everything in the picture is going to be Impressionistic, Sur-Realistic, and Egotistic, so Mr. Garmes is shooting the whole film, practically, in corners. That is to say, Mr. Rains, standing in an angle made by two pieces of scenery, may either be in the Hollywood Bowl or in the Grand Central Station.
A drug-store is not a regular movie drug-store, but merely a table filled with toy airplanes and nineteen cent novels.
s Bad Boys Make a
Continued from page 53
The great leveler! Elissa Landi and Jean Roth, her "stand in," inspect the shoes with three-inch soles which make Jean as tall as the star.
The boys did throw a sop to the public by inserting a night club scene, (novelty), and a courtroom scene, (encore), but mostly it is being done in ratty old corners of the studio, out of the way of the charging geniuses. Never was a feature film shot in less space.
Hecht and MacArthur, being the bosses, are having the time of their lives — which in their case means much. Each of them has lived about 5,000 years in his forty, or so.
The little monkeys go in for signs, in a very big way. Such banners as "Let the public in on our secret" and "What will the audience be doing in the meantime?" brighten the walls.
One of the best Hecht-MacArthur slogans is "Better than Metro is not good enough!" This one has the Home Office of Paramount, over the river in Manhattan, as nervous as a witch, and the bosses sit around brooding and wondering how they can coax the madmen to take it down.
Another — this one hanging over a splendid collection of photographs of undressed ladies — reads, "Why don't you keep your mind on your work? What are you thinking about now?" A gentle hint to their slaves.
On the set, Hecht and MacArthur are elaborated polite to each other. Mr. MacArthur calls Mr. Hecht "Mr. Lubitsch," while Mr. Hecht addresses Mr. MacArthur obsequiously as "Mr. Von Sternberg."
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When they are fighting and screaming, each calls the other "Mr. Belasco" with sarcasm that would cut hot butter.
Off the set they transact the intricate business of Great Producers by playing backgammon, at a dollar a game, on the floor of one of their palatial private offices.
Many a potent visitor, calling on matters of world-shaking import, has entered the sanctum to find Mr. Hecht viciously accusing his co-genius of gypping him out of a buck. Sometimes the visitor, having been revived, gets down on his knees and joins in the fun.
Such monumental movie madness has never been known !
Over the river the Big Bosses sit and quiver. What devilish forces have they let loose on the world? Shaking in their fifty-dollar shoes, the Big Bosses have laid down one iron-clad rule for the loonyhouse, which is that absolutely no direct quotations from the crazy men are permitted the press.
Hecht and MacArthur, when interviewed, have the droll habit of putting their feet on the desk, tearing off their shirts, and alternately denouncing and spoofing the ways of Hollywood and the men of the movies — especially their own bosses of the moment.
Believe me, Paramount's no fool, whatever the Bad Boys may say!
Does it seem, that with all this celestial goofiness going on, that no work is getting done on the Hecht-MacArthur masterpiece? Yes it does, but we are all wrong.
In the midst of all the clowning, the lads are making a talking picture. The day I was on the set they were only an hour behind schedule, and by the time the crank stopped turning they hoped to cut that to a mere half hour.
I say they are making a talking picture. I must temper that by saying that it remains to be seen. It will either be a novel and exciting thriller, or it will be the goshawfullest hunk of Stilton cheese that ever sent a bedevilled audience howling into the highway.
There's nothing half-way about the Mad Mertons of the Movies. They're great — or they're terrible !
In the meantime Hecht and MacArthur are writing a case history of motion picture insanity that will be studied for years by the loony-doctors of Hollywood.
I left the joint counting my fingers, and went at once to my own head specialist. After going me over, he said it wasn't serious or permanent — but that it might be a good idea to keep away from the Long Island studio while Hecht and MacArthur were going on.