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THE ADULT AND THE CINEMA like to have Barbara Stanwyck's manner, I like her cynical, wisecracking way, but I have never consciously modelled myself on her. I don't think any films in particular have affected my behaviour. Perhaps Going My Way made me a little more tolerant towards Roman Catholicism.
There is one thing though that has altered a lot of my life and that was a visit to Rebecca when I was fifteen. I remember at that time I had decided that Charles Boyer was THE answer to a maiden's prayer. But I sat through Rebecca and — Mr. Boyer est mort. Vive Mr. Olivier!
But because of a schoolgirl 'pash' I gained much. After all I was fortunate in my choice. Here was somebody who was not just another handsome hero but who really changed in every picture. Yet his dignity, mobility and expression of face, and beautiful speaking voice could give most of Hollywood's strictly glamour boys points. Even to-day, at my calmer nineteen I would still make an effort to see any film in which Olivier starred. Did I say starred? Nay, acted is the word.
He made me realise that acting is an art. I studied film players more closely. Soon I could claim honestly to prefer seeing Mervyn Johns to Robert Taylor.
Then I gained an informal education, too, and also a devouring love of the theatre.
I went to see all Mr. Olivier's films, they are usually above the average. Because of them I read Wuthering Heights and own my copy of Pride and Prejudice. I read a good deal about Nelson too. I also listened to Laurence Olivier's broadcasts. He read some air poems by Pudney, which I now own, once. That aroused my interest in modern poetry in general. He read Maud by Tennyson — I started to read Tennyson. He appeared in The School for Scandal and I read that. I read Raynal's Unknown Warrior because he broadcast an excerpt from that. I have read innumerable portions of Shakespeare, all thanks to Mr. Olivier. I was almost seventeen when I worked in the Central branch of the C. libraries. We had a large stock of books on the theatre. When I should have been dusting them or putting them tidy, I was usually flicking through them for bits of information about my hero.
Not surprisingly this led to an interest in the books themselves. I was soon greedily reading all books on the theatre particularly dramatic criticism. I now long to become a dramatic critic myself! I read all the press notices by Ivor Brown, Desmond MacCarthy, James Agate and Alan Dent that I could lay my hands on. I
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