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26
SCREENLAND
Why Dietrich Waited for Donat
"[""NO YOU like Robert Donat without his moustache?" 1 That's the first question when film folks meet in London these days. Certainly Robert looks much younger now and his smile has gained an added frankness very charming, but on the other hand he seems to have lost something of that whimsical debonairness along with the adornment of his upper lip.
He shaved to play with Marlene Dietrich in "Knight Without Armor" because his glamorous fellow-star has a firm objection to acting in passionate love-scenes with a moustache — she says it scratches her face and spoils the proper dramatic effect of her kisses ! And handsome brown-eyed Robert is so intensely grateful to Marlene I'm sure he would promptly shave off all his hair as well if she told him she preferred her screen lovers to be bald.
For behind Robert's appearance in Korda's new film lies an amazing story of comedy and tragedy — never told until now — in which he has had a part far more poignant than any role he could mime before the cameras. Twelve
The amazing story of how glamorous Marlene's patience and courage helped the popular male star when illness threatened his career
By Hettie Grimstead
Dietrich, lower left, in an imperious pose such as she tool in demanding Robert Donat play the part he portrays in close-up at lower center. Just below, Dietrich in a semi-closeup and in a still from the new picture.
months ago Donat was the first male name in British screenland, the thirtyyear-old star on the crest of the wave with his fine portrayal in "The Ghost Goes West," and producers in London and Hollywood alike bidding eagerly for his services. Irving Thalberg offered him three hundred thousand dollars to play Romeo to Norma Shearer's Juliet but Robert refused because he wanted to return to the stage again for a time.
So he put on a sombre intellectual play with his own money and at the dress-rehearsal he dropped his little make-up mirror and smashed it to fragments. "Pooh ! I'm not superstitious !" he laughed ; but the piece proved a lamentable failure just the same and standing in the draughty wings one night, Robert caught a chill. He was ill for weeks, finally returning to the studios with a persistent cough. He arranged to film as Hamlet but after several postponements, production was