We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
Checking On By Frederick
Their Comments James Smith
THESE Barrymores are picturesque mimes. A question to Jack will bring you any little intimate detail about his personal life that you may want. Ask Lionel and he will devote his comment to boosting someone else. I asked Lionel what he thought of the 1940 films as compared to the silent pictures of 1909 and 1910 when he started performing before the cameras. And he turned the whole reply into a eulogy of Clark Gable. Here it is:
"I am often asked whether or not the motion picture has improved. There is only one answer to that. Nothing stands still. It must either go forward or backward. It has been my great privilege to watch and appear in pictures from the infancy of the business. Out of all my experiences, I think the one I have enjoyed most has been the success of Clark Gable. Gable's career, in a very real sense, is an indication of how the screen has progressed. I first knew Clark when he was a struggling young actor, appearing on the stage with me in 'The Copperhead.' Between times he was doing extra work in pictures. In 1932 I played with him in 'A Free Soul,' the picture that made him a star. Now he has become one
of the truly all-time favorites of the screen. Gable, more than any other star in the business, exemplifies the progress of the screen. When I first knew Clark, the screen was just beginning to find itself. Now it is a mature screen, willing to tackle mature and important subjects. I hope to be a part of it for a long time, because the motion picture never has been doing a better job of entertaining."
Of course, the screen has grown in maturity. Every now and then the films do an astonishing, intelligent, fine thing. The run-of-the-basket pictures move along at low ebb, technically far better than the best of anything of the past, but really celluloid tripe. Yet the screen, as Lionel points out, has become a finer thing. And Barrymore actually personifies the whole development of the motion picture. Can you remember him in the pioneer D. W. Griffith pictures, later in such movie landmarks as "Grand Hotel," "Dinner at
Top to bottom: Dick Powell; Lionel Barrymore; Lynne Overman; and Bob Hope. Below: Greer Garson. All have views to express which call for a little checking up, just to see if they're really sincere about what they have to say. For example, Lynne says, "I hate playing good, upright citizens."
Often the stars say one thing and really mean another, so let's probe and learn the truth
10