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The good Bob, "Dr. Jekyll," in the left half of our circle, turns himself into the bad Bob on right, all for "Night Must Fall."
Dr. Je
an
d
Mr. Montgomery
He's made the most sensational change in years in Hollywood! Hear Bob Montgomery's own reasons for playing a "killer" role
By
Charles Darnton
IN THIS cage, ladies and gentlemen, we have the wonder of the ages, the marvel of all times, the leopard who can change his spots !
Observing this adroit phenomenon closely, you are amazed to identify him as none other than Robert Montgomery. Before your staring eyes he undergoes the most sensational change of years in Hollywood. Without turning a hair he turns from a gamboling kid into a stalking killer. "Night Must Fall" finds him giving up his playful ways and going in for industrious murder.
It fairly slays you to think of it. For you can't forget that here is a debonair star who never before has puffed anything more deadly than a merry shaft or a darting wisecrack. Harmless as his quips, he has gone his smiling way. For that matter, he still smiles— when anyone's looking. But the grim look of him when he's alone with his dark thoughts and black deeds would chill the blood of his warmest admirer. Then the good Bob becomes the bad Robert. You wonder what can have brought this about. Why the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Montgomery ?
"Why not?'' he comes back at you. "I've go't awfully
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tired of having them hand me a script and saying: 'Now this fellow's name is George. We know he doesn't mean anything, but you can do something with him.' I've been doing that so long that I wanted to do something different."
Resting from his homicidal labors in his portable dressing-room, Mr. Montgomery sits back and comfortably draws at his well-seasoned pipe, leaving you to assume that he himself, and not the studio for once, had deliberately chosen the blood-stained wretch he is playing.
"Right," he laconically confirms. "It all dates back to my seeing the play in London three years ago. I determined then to get it for a picture if possible, and talked of nothing else when I got back to Hollywood. But the studio flatly refused to make it, afraid that audiences would take it too literally and that it would be bad for me. Now I think an audience knows the difference between personality and performance. But it took me more than two years to persuade the studio to my way of thinking. At last I have a part I like and I hope I'm saying goodbye to the kind I don't like. (Please turn to page 70)