Screenland (Nov 1945-Oct 1946)

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Plastic Sur 1 oery explained. Elaborate E illustrations. I2S pages. 1 Only 25c mail coin or E stamps. Glenville Publish S ers, 60 E. 42d St., Dept. \ HA. New York 17, N. Y. P 1 «m robe. Fortunately, there's nothing she can do to botch up her face! It's warm and lovely: from her green, black-lashed eyes, to her uptilted nose, to her full, expressive lips. All this transcends the dishabille. She's beautiful but she doesn't take it seriously. Her sense of humor is quick and spontaneous. People, words, cliches, phrases, situations, amuse her. Yet ' she can be authoritative and serious, too. Her dressing room is like an elaborate New York apartment. There is a 14x22 foot living room, a dining room, kitchen, bath. She uses the bedroom as an immense and luxurious dressing room. The main rooms are carpeted from wall to wall in soft green. The furniture is upholstered in deep rose. Some coverings are solid color; others are striped: rose and white. The full drapes are in rose and white stripes. The whole effect is dramatic because eighteenth century is skillfully blended with modern. Somehow, this extravagant dressing room with its many brilliant and bold colors, its contrast of the old with the new, is like Hedy, herself. Lying on the floor, tummy downward, she talks on the telephone, gives interviews, decides on fabrics for her costumes, poses for pictures, greets friends and gives orders. Her dressing room is the frame for Hedy Lamarr, the actress, and Hedy, the producer. For now a myriad of details rest upon her shoulders. Not that Hunt Stromberg, executive producer, and Jack Chertok, producer, do not carry the bulk of production. But for the first time, Hedy — who is a brilliant woman and no scatterbrain — has a say in what is going to happen to a picture in which she is being starred. She calls on the telephone to ask to see sketches that have been made for the title of the picture. "The right art on the titles means a lot," she explains seriously. "They let the audience know before the picture begins that care and thought have gone into the production." The designer comes with a soft yellow woolen from which to make one of fledy's suits for her next picture, "Dishonored Lady." Hedy crumples the material experimentally into a little ball. "That is going to wrinkle," she says. "Make two skirts so that one will always be pressed." She doesn't like the color and asks for dye samples. "It has to photograph dark," she remarks, "so let's dye the fabric emerald green. I'd enjoy wearing that." Someone calls from the set to announce the scene is set up for re-takes. Hedy talks to one person in French, another in THIS AD IS WORTH f$JoS Amazing NEW OFFER gives you 2 enlargements of your favorite photo FREE!^^^ mm To introduce you to the superb quality of our workmanship, that has gained us millions of regular customers, we will make you a free gift of two 5x7 enlargements which regularly sell for 50c each. Just send us any snapshot, photo or negative. Be sure to include color of hair, eyes and clothing — and get our bargain offer for having these enlargements beautifully hand colored in oil and placed in your choice of handsome frames. Please enclose 10c each for handling and mailing. Originals returned with FREE prints worth $1. Act AT ONCE. Limit 2 to a customer. HOUYWOOD FILM STUDIOS • Dept. ill. 7021 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood 38. Calif. German. She hangs up the phone and continues her interview in English. A script is shown her. "A certain scene is confusing me," admits Jack Chertok. Hedy, who is practical and analytical, spots the "bug." "Take the middle sequence out," she advises. Later rushes prove she is right. The scene has become smooth and logical. Again the director asks, "How would you do such-and-such if so-and-so happened to you?" Hedy thinks it over and then tells him. "Okay, let's shoot it that way," he orders. Again and again she is joyously conscious of the fact that in this as well as all future pictures her opinions carry weight. They are listened to and her advice acted upon. Since Hedy has always liked creative work and has a complicated, rather than an easy-to-define personality, she has needed a greater outlet than she has been given formerly. There is nothing more frustrating than to use only part of your mind or part of your ability. Hedy repeats again: "I don't know how to explain this new sense of freedom I have. I'm working harder than ever before, but it's easier, somehow. It's incredibly difficult to play a negative part and make it positive. And that's what I've been doing for seven years. To play a living, speaking, feeling person who does things is so much easier. To play someone who just stands around is hard." Hedy's job as a producer isn't the same as, for instance, Joan Harrison's or Virginia Van TJpp's. Hedy cannot write scripts,, although she is very clever about story construction, is aware that every picture must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. She isn't being facetious when she speaks of this. Too many pictures jump right into the middle without enough introduction. Others let the endings drag out interminably. Hedy has seen mistakes in other pictures, and it is from these mistakes she is learning. In all future pictures, Hedy is going to try for perfection. She wants her films to be right from every point of view. That's a tall order, and Hedy doesn't expect to achieve it. But she does intend to try to achieve it, which is more than a lot of producers can say. She believes, with Somerset Maugham, that if you want nothing but the very best, you'll get it. Hedy, for all her practical business sense, is still feminine enough to be superstitious. The company is named Mars, both for the planet and the last part of her name. She'll also admit this: "I know things will go right for me from now on. After all, the worst is behind me. Nothing more that is bad can happen to me — it's happened already. From now on, it has to be easier. Besides, every fortune teller — not just one, but every one — has told me this year would be my most successful one." Yes, Hedy, as a woman producer, is definitely feminine. When "The Strange Woman" was being cast, she wanted certain people for certain roles. She didn't list their qualifications or past performances, she just said: "I have to have them, period." So she got them. Also, despite her years of picture making, she has been learning much more than ever before now that she has become 88 SCREENLAND