Screenland (Nov 1934-Apr 1935)

70 SCREENLAND Master of the Hit Formula Continued f rom page 12 world, accomplishing things in a big way. You saw the glamorous effectiveness achieved in his "Golddiggers of 1933" ; you watched the sordid, impressive realism of "A Fugitive From A Chain-Gang"; you felt your pulse stir seeing "Five-Star Final": you roared with mirth over the uproarious vulgarisms of "Tugboat Annie" ; you thrilled to the power of the "The World Changes." You have, then, come in contact with the workings of one of the most dynamic, incisive minds known to the world of the cinema, that of Mervyn LeRoy. Here, indeed, is The King Of The Lot ! It was several years ago that I met Mervyn for the first time, on the set of "Tonight Or Never," starring Gloria Swanson. If you want to experience a strange sensation, you want to sit in one of those immense barn-like rooms on a motion picture lot, face a woman like Gloria, sophisticated to the tips of her tiny toes, regal rather, an experienced and accomplished actress, and have her smile up at a blue-eyed slip of a boy in a camel's-hair coat and say, "May I present Mr. LeRoy? My director, you know." Call it what you like, the irony of Fate or whatever, but in those few words of Gloria's lies a story. Ten years ago Mervyn was playing the part, a small one, of Gloria's brother in one of her silent pictures. Today— well, you catch a certain ring of deep respect and admiration in the young woman's voice when she says, "My director, you know." Since that day, I have come to know Mervyn LeRoy rather well. He is a very real sort of person. One can find, in a half hour's conversation with him, more vividly interesting material, relative to the battle of success in a great field than could be found in the diaries of the most celebrated stars. Mervyn has lived the game of the theatre from the ground up. He knows what he's talking about. Yet he never talks just to hear his head roar. He has bigger things to do. "Tempo," he says, "tempo and speech. These are the most vitally important things in the making of a good picture. _ Let a scene drag for so much as a fraction of a moment, and you have a failure, a ghastly flop. The action, the dialogue— they must live!" "The director, you see, sits where the audience sits. He must be that audience. If, during the filming of a picture, there comes a scene wherein I feel myself slumping in my chair, like this," (the enaction is most convincing), "then, were I to leave that scene unchanged, I would lest assured that the world, when it saw it, would slump, too. But if the scene is good, the tempo up to the mark and my audience I feel to be sitting upright and interested — then we've hit. The scene stands. What I strive to attain, however, is to get my audience dangling on the very edge of their seats, avid for more. If I ever do that— well, that's marvelous !" Later on, speaking, without the slightest essence of ego (of which this young man shows the most surprising lack), about his various box-office records, Mervyn knocked on wood. "I feel, in making such a picture as 'Fugitive' that I have done a good job. But I'm not satisfied yet. I've not done my best. I've better things to do. I don't like people calling me 'the boy-genius' or 'the boy-wonder.' It's silly. I mean that. There's no such thing any more as genuis. It's only human effort. Why, I've been m this game for twenty years. I guess I'd be Mervyn LeRoy and his wife, the former Doris Warner, arriving in New York on a recent visit to see the shows and shop for tiny articles. pretty dumb if I didn't know something about it ! None of us is better than the next fellow. We do our best, that's all. And if we're earnest, sincere and ambitious, of course, we get ahead. "It isn't the director alone who makes a picture a success. It's everyone involved. From the fellow who sharpens the pencils for the script-girl to the cameraman and electrician — we've all got to co-operate. The day of the yelling, commanding high-mogul with the megaphone is over. It's a matter of combined interest and intelligence." There are infinite highlights on the technicalities of motion pictures that Mervyn can tell you — absorbing facts. But there are other things, little intimate glimpses of his life that aren't so glowing, so_ glamorous. Mervyn, you see, knows what it means to strive, to fight for what is termed success. The fact that he was born a first cousin to a man by the name of Jesse Lasky didn't help much; only made the going a bit tougher. "You can't win on another's laurels, no matter how big a name he's got," Mervyn will tell you. "Maybe that's what made me try so hard." There isn't an angle that I can think of that Mervyn LeRoy hasn't tackled in the show business. Hoofer in Broadway shows and vaudeville at the age of twelve, wardrobe boy at the old Lasky Studio, cutter, cameraman. Mervyn recalls a rather important incident in his life at this point, his cameraman days. "The director wanted a 'moon' shot, moonlight on water, you know. Well, they couldn't get the effect. Finally I took a hand. Nobody asked me to. I worked day and night on the darned thing. I got a big box, like they use to mix mortar in. Painted it black and filled it with water. Then I fooled around with all kinds of lights, strung up over the box, trying to get that look of moonlight rellected on rippling waves. I must have used up plenty of film, but I got it, finally. And next day, when the boss saw it, I was promoted to second cameraman !" Once, when Mervyn was a comedy constructor (gag-man), on a Warner Brothers' lot, he put out some mighty good work in the way of comedy. Jealousy amongst several of the higher-ups broke out. He didn't know about it until the following day when he received word from Jack Warner that he was fired. "Right then," Mervyn says, "was when I decided I'd had enough of gags and was out for becoming a director. Well, here I am." Yes, here he is ; and yet now, at the pinnacle of his career, he can say in that simple, naive way of his. "I get such a kick out of it all! Life's a swell thing, isn't it? See those pictures in there?" He nodded to the photo-lined walls of his study. "I can't tell you what it does to me, just reading over and over again the words those grand people have written above their names. Real friends, those. And friends count, believe me !" You will find amongst Mervyn's collection of autographed portraits such tributes as this: "To my dear Svengali. From Aline MacMahon." (It was Mervyn, you know, who discovered Aline, gave her her first role in "Five-Star Final," and in doing so, gave to us one of the finest character actresses on the screen today.) Another of Mervyn's protegees has written this : "I owe all my success to you. Glenda Farrell." These are but two of Mervyn's prize possessions. They are a part of him. "Because," he says, "I know each word to be sincere, and sincerity — well, it's hard to find." As to whom he considers the screen s greatest actors, Mervyn says, and without the slightest hesitation. "Paul Muni. There's no actor for you. There's an artist ! He doesn't act his part. He lives it! Consequently every move he makes is faultless, real." Others he mentioned were Helen Hayes, Marie Dressier and May Robson. An indisputable selection, surely. In comparing Mervyn LeRoy with other successful men, I should say that, in my opinion, he is a Noel Coward in his directorial field. A prolific, versatile past-master in his line, who can turn from one type of story to another with the same remarkable perspicacity and skill with which Mr. Coward turns out his "Cavalcade" and "Design For Living." This thirty-two year old director has gone far since the days of "playing movie" in his old back yard, and he's not stopped going yet. He wants — Little Man, What Now? Of course. He wants to become a producer. That's the next step. Well, he'll make it. But as he goes, he'll continue to gather unto himself the very things he values most in life — the respect and sincere encouragement of true and trusted friends. Values most, that is, next to the very smart and pretty little person who not so long ago changed her name from Doris Warner to Mrs. Mervyn LeRoy. For Mervyn's amazing success story has the happiest of endings—he fell in love with the boss' daughter and she fell in love with him — and now they're two of the most blissful "young mar rieds" in Hollvwood.