Silver Screen (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

56 Marie Wilson's frantic portrayals of dizzy dames in pursuit of love are winning her fame as a real comic. FOR A Lover Paul Muni as Dr. Pasteur, a perf ormance that is expected to win the highest Hollywood honors. BOUXDING merrily along in the Valley one morning, not so long ago, after leaving the airport where I had helped Merle Oberon see David Niven off to North Carolina (not that Merle needed any help, but she has promised me David if she e\er throws him over and I have to stand by and watch my chances no matter how slim) my mind suddenly turned for no reason at all to the great lo\ers of the screen. I haxe a mind (question mark) that's constantly playing tricks on me like that. There I was breathing in the crisp morning air (neither it nor 1 would be quite so crisp a few hours later), and admiring the glorious beauty of the mist rising above the mountains which rise above Warner Brothers studio, and sort of drooling pleasantly over the Life More Abundant that we Southern Cali'fornians enjoy, when all of a sudden my mind does a nip-up and for no apparent reason I have to start worrying about great lovers. (Some day I'm going to trade my mind in for a \acuum because I think it will be more restful, but there are those who will say it was an even exchange.) ■Weil, I said to myself, every studio just has to have great lovers, those beautiful creatures with beautiful arched evebrows, beautiful dreamy eyes, and magnificent body bcautifuls,' or else dames like me couldn't be lured into the loge scats even on bank night. Robert Taylor, Nelson Eddv. Clark ' c.alile, Gary Cooper. Henry Fonda, Gilbert Roland, Charles Bovcr-I began' to count thcni olf on my fingers just the way 1 do in "Blackjack"-whcn 1 suddenly thought of something else to worry about. Not a single one of ihc great lovers of the screen is on the 'Warner Brothers' contract list! Now how can the Warner Brothers keep on making pictures year after year if they have no sex appeal, 1 mean the pictures not the Brothers. Why they'd have to go bankrupt and rent their sound stages out as farmers' markets and plant an avocado grove in the l)ack lot. I'oor old Warner Brothers, with no alhue "nan, no si/zling romance. The studio, I suppose, would be but a shell of its former .sell, a sou (,! old uiiii lor the touiists to i)rowl around. But somclhing was wioin; soincw lici c. bciausc \\luii 1 drew Pat O'Brien is a sincere artist and audiences everywhere enjoy his convincing performances. up in front of the studio there was such a hammering as I'\e never heard and right -ivithin my scope of vision there were four new buildings going up, t^vo sound stages, and one of them modestly tagged as the largest sound stage in the world. The place fairly screamed prosperity right in your face. Uh huh, I said to myself again, they've got a great lover tucked away some place there, I've just overlooked him, and far be it from me to o\'erlook a great lover. "When a dame like me gets in a dileimna she just barges right in to investigate— and that's exactly what I did. Little asterisks now denote a period of time while I am questing for the roiriantic sex appeal boy of "Warner Brothers, and incidentally eating an early lunch in the Green Room because I'm a fan ivriter and a free meal is expected of me. My Big Disco\ery. No actor is the great lover for "Warner Brothers. Instead of having one stereotvped manner the plavers there are versatile actors, they are not leading men. Phooev. they said, what's a great lo\er when you can have a great actor? (They had me there, me being one to appreciate the arts.) AVhat's Robert Taylor when yoii can ha^e a Paul Muni? "Who wants to be just a good looking dope and pose in uniforms and tails when he can really come down to earth and put his teeth into something meatv? Our actors, they said, don't just act as a supporting cast to Glamour Queens, our actors act. And, believe me, thev've got something there. Take the case of Robert Taylor, we find him pla\ing' the same person over and oxer again, and that person is Robert Ta\lor. Since the public likes Bob (and I'm right there with voii. jjublic) there is no obvious harm in his repeating his mannerisms. We'd be awfully mad if Bob contorted that handsome face to play a shriveled Chinaman, or enveloped that phvsique in rolls of flapping rags. That's right, no matter how \ve go for Bob Ta\lor, and personally I go for him like mad, we just "have to admit that Bob is realh just a leading man, a great lover, and not a great actor. He cainiot carry a ])icture alonc-that's reallv the test of the tinng-btu must alwa\s have a Garbo, a Joan Crawford, an Irene ntuinc. a Janet Gavnor, a Barbara Stanwvck. anv one of