Talking Screen (Sep-Oct 1930)

Lupe Velez is so fond of the North Country she can sit in a nice -warm room and think about it for hours! Her easiest and hardest role was in The Storm. Remember it? Jack Oakie's easiest picture was Fast Company. He's shown here clinching an important debate before singing a request number under the ball club's shower. The Man I Love was Mary Brian's hardest assignment. She had to work nights, and — with all due respect to California's Chambers of Commerce — it was darn cold! M 'Y PART in Dangerous Paradise was the most difficult I ever had," began Richard Aden. "In the first place, the work was very exacting. I had to work one full day in cold water covering my fully clothed body. Recording was very difficult, too, and many scenes had to be remade. "On the other hand, the role I had in The Virgivian was very easy for me. I was good friends with Mary Brian and Gary Cooper and Walter Huston, and we had a great time on location and during work at the studio. Recording of the voice went well. We worked hard but when we quit, we played hard. I also liked the character, Steve, because of its many dramatic possibilities." "My hardest talkie role was in Sunny Side Up and all because of the songs I had to sing! ' exclaimed Janet Gaynor. "I had never believed I could sing, and at that, I rather talked my songs and that is terribly hard to do, even if you are a real vocalist, which I certainly do not pretend to be, of course ! "My easiest role was in High Society Blues. The character I played was a very good one and I enjoyed doing it. Also, we weren't long in finishing the scenes and hardly any retakes were made." MY HARDEST talkie role?" grinned Jack Oakie. "That's easy — The Dummy was. I didn't like the part to begin with. Then it was my first talking picture and I didn't know what to do with my voice! I would go to the rushes every night and then the next day I'd try to perfect my speaking. "My favorite and easiest role was Elmer Kane in Tast Company. To use a slang expression, it was right down my back alley! I liked everybody in the cast and Eddie Sutherland, the director. That made it much easier to work. I was able to wisecrack whenever I R\/ thought it advisable. The character was 7 human — a regular guy — that's why I liked it so much." "Untamed was my hardest talking picture," said Joan Crawford, "because my nervousness and desire tc make a success of my first talkie distorted the importance of every scene. "My easiest role — easiest because I enjoyed it the most, is the part I recently had in Our Blushing Brides. This is my third all-talking picture, and the nervousness and fear of the microphone has entirely disappeared. Having made Our Dancing Daughters and Our Modern Maidens, it was like going home to make the third of the modern trilogy. I played a girl of today with great opportunity for both light and shade in my charaaerization and I enjoyed every minute of It." Y MOST difficult talkie role," drawled Johnny Mack Brown, "was that of the Southern lover of Mary Pickford in Coquette. It was my first talkie and I was away from my home lot, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I was namrally nervous and worried and this feeling colored the role with a decided difficulty which was really not there at all. "I think my easiest talking picture role was the cowboy lover with Joan Crawford in Montana Moon. I was supposed to be a free and easy westerner and my southern drawl could run unrestrained. I really did enjoy making that picture." "My hardest talkie role to date was in Dangerous Curves'' said Clara Bow. "That was because of several things. First, the difficult clown make-up I had to wear in several scenes was anything but nice. Then lae high altitudes to which I had to climb and perform tricks sort of unnerved me at first. Also, I had to work all night outdoors during the rainy weather with only a thin canvas tent covering the company. "My easiest talkie role was in True to the Navy. I liked this because of the director, Frank Turtle, who made working so easy. He never shot one single scene that isn't in the finished picture. Then, too, I had worked before with everyone in the cast and so felt right at home from the first minute. I also liked the part I played — the girl in the soft drink parlor. It was a part into which I could throw myself." MY HARDEST talkie role," said Jean Arthur, was The W\J \\ Canary Murder Case. That was be i I \ / r c^use it was my first talking picture • ' ' ''^ ' and the company worked all night every night until it was finished. "My easiest role was in The Saturday Night Kid. I liked playing the mean sister because it was so difi^erent from my usual sort of part. I also thought the whole troupe was marvelous and I had so much fun that I never stopped to think that we were working. It was far more like play." [Continued on page 81] 43