Variety (May 1935)

I. Wednesday, May 8, 1935 TO THE LADIES VARIETY 73 Going Places By Cecelia Ager Optici on Rollar Bearings I There are certain exercises said to strengthen the eyea, which consist 'o< rolling the eyes In the sockets while looking as far to the right, then ; to the left, again as far up, then as far down—as the exerciser possibly itfii. Exactly how to perform this exercise Is demonstrated by Marlene ^.iMetrlch In 'The Devil Is a Woman," who Is busy at It from beginning .». to end of the picture. Miss Dietrich's own very beautiful eyes may he ^^en as proof of the exercise's success. There Is also ah exercise reputed to Improve the contours of the mouth .^rnlle widely, then pucker the lips fuisomely In a pout; repeat ten times—at which Miss Dietrich Is likewise adept. Here again Miss Dler trlch'fl own mouth serves as example of the beauty that can be achieved ?. through diligent training, provided, of course, there Is natural beauty to i Jwgln with. i-. Besides exhibiting a continuous proficiency In eye and mouth exercises, ^MIsB Dietrich shows how to relax the muscles of the torso and neck, Bjust In case, no doubt, one should be called upon to go Into the Llndy I Hop. MIsa Dietrich's head wobbles on her neck whilst her whole body V slowly Jiggles, here eyes roll and her mouth draws flat against her teeth i and returns to its regular quizzical expression. Though It may appear J that ISB Dietrich has a bad case of the fidgets, actually she's only ■ concerned with giving a characteristically thorough Teutonic Interpreta- tlon of Latin fire. She hasn't got the jitters; she's got 'animation'. So '•"^conscientious is she about enacting 'Woman, the Eternal Enigma,' that jhe won't stop for a moment and be still, not even for the scenes ^of ^presumed dramatic tension. Should she permit herself to pausei In her ■^recurrent survey of the four corners of each set and look her vls-a-vls ^rtralght In the eye, It seems, he might see through her. He might dls- ^cover that her 'Mystery' Is developed from her mysterious, bewildering, Lastonlshlng clothes. Not even Garbo In the Orient has approached, for spectacular effects, j^Dletrlch In Spain. With fringe, lace, sequins, carnations, chenille, nets, '^ embroideries and shawls. Miss Dietrich is hung, wrapped, draped, swathed ^ and festooned. Matching the sets In their profusion of arresting detail, ■f ber costumes are magnificent In the way they each achieve a definite, ^.clea^-cut line despite their wealth of ornature, the way their knick- -knacks fall into a pattern designed ■with flair and Imagination solely to fatter and adorie. Her costumes are completely Incredible, but com f.pletely fascinating and suitable to 'The Devil Is a Woman.' They reeH , with glamour. j Miss Dietrich's mask-like make-up and bizarre coiffures abound, with ' beauty hints. When she lowers her shiny, heavy eyelids, it may be seen . that artlflclal eyelashes are afllxed only to the outer halves of her upper eyelids, Intensifying thus the wide-spacing of her eyes and yielding them ■ a provocative upw:ard slant. Her lower lids are deliberately not accented with black, which would define the boundaries of her eyes and so limit their size. Her natural eyebrows have been blotted out and soaring new ones etched far above them, which, though they rob her eyes of anything ;'other than a fixed, wondrous expression, assist the fantastic styllzatlon that characterizes Miss Dietrich's pictorial treatment. Though her head is bedecked with an Infinite variety of Spanish combs, flowers, shawls, fringes and veils, they've been arranged so as to frame her face, never to Intrude their fripperies upon Its expertly-enhanced, submissive beauty. Miss Dietrich emerges In 'The Devil Is a Woman' as a glorious achieve- ment, a supreme consolidation of the sartorial, make-up and photo- , graphic arts. Beauty Reians at State Gladys Glad, bruited about as Zlegfeld's loveliest blonde and living up ' to every word of the superlative billing. Is on view at the State this week where she Is proving that beautiful showgirls can, too, remember lines— they can remember lines Just like real actresses. Miss Glad plays straight for Mark Hellinger and Harry Jans and lends her good offices to several blackouts, and she concentrates so seriously on these endeavors that she Is even willing to let a little frown appear between her lovely eyes while ■he ponders over what comes next. That's how earnest she Is about her work. She will even frown for it—though everybody knows that frowns engender wrinkles In time. Miss Glad has chosen for her State appearance a series of very smart black costunies, rife with discreet good taste and dedicated to a genteel display of her excellent long-legged figure. They are almost tailored clothes, their blackness setting off to best advantage her shiny ash blonde hair, their simplicity accentuating her sweet femininity. For her finale costume, when at laat she may stroll on a full stage, again the most beauteous of them all. Miss Glad wears grey taffeta delicately plalded with red, and a red chiffon muffler casually looped Inside the neckline of the waist-length fitted Jacket. Miss Glad Is most comfortable In this icene, for Miss Glad loves what she can do beet—a parade. The six noblewomen of the Twelve Aristocrats, who also appear with the Mark HelUnger-Gladys Glad unit, dance rhythm toe taps In honey latln brevities made with orange chiffon godets and ruffles on the puffed rteeves, dance adagio waltz and fly through the air In white satin gowns With black bows marching up the tailored bodices. For the finale. Aris- tocrats In baby blue sotin minuto pleated skirts with baby pink bows and sleeves. Creeps and Chills Rats, bats and bugs, photographed In becoming soft clo,se-ups, scuttle Jerkily through 'Mark of the Vampire,' minding their own business—the ihudders and creeps racket. Actors with painted pallor, red moist lips and leers, slink self-consciously through 'Mark of the Vampire,' trying to muscle In on the rats, bats and bugs' territory—but the rates, bats tcad bugs are too good for them, too smart. They know better than to itraln for effects. Ringleader of the competition Is Carol Borland,-a moody and preoccu- pied young woman In a beautiful white shroud who stalks In the night through dark vaults musty with cobwebs, which never disturb a hair of her menacing coiffure nor rate a side-ways glance from her straight- ahead staring eyes. Thov jh she arranges her long black hair like a lhadonna, parting It In tl j middle and drawing It straight down to her Shoulders, it becomes, n demoniacal Miss Borland, a black hood of malevolence. It seems that when Miss Borland sees a tender young throat, her slanting eyes light with an unholy gleam, abetted not a little by the studio lights which a:t the same moment focus their beams upon them. Miss Borland, the stoiT goes on, was once bitten by a vampire, ftnd ever since she's been wanting to bite back. Miss Borland Is very ftood. In 'Mark of the Vampire,' at being a really not nice person. The tenderest young throat taunting Miss Borland belongs to Ellzabetli Allan, who Is the heroine of 'Mark of the Vampire,' and far too good for the stock swoonlngs and hypnotic trances the role requires, tliough UIss Allan never lets on that she thinks so. If Indeed she does. She's »bed most of the time recovering from her mysterious wounds, but once Ihe may be seen moving decoratlvely through the old castle garbed with just the right touch of impending-doom atmosphere In a long white robe with flowing sleeves and thick wWte cords tying the nock and waist. Impotent Menace It's darned tough on Lucrezla Borgia—she who'd gone through so touch to carve out a name for herself—now to have It said of her by Warner Bros, that their nice, American Margaret Lindsay la J\lst like W, It's mighty hard on Cesare, too, after having done so brilliantly In his particular line, now to have It bruited about that his Iniquitous blood «tlll flows In the veins of pleasantly earnest Donald Wooda. A pretty sad wind-up for the Borglas, having to return from their anug caverns (Continued on page 74) Did You Know That— Lupe Velez became so emo- tional Willie broadcasting the other night that she wept and wiped the tears all over her yellow suit.. .Nanette Guilford must have lost about 50 pounds. ...Joe Furnas' novel will be out next month...Mrs. Max Gordon's tliat busy getting ready for Europe.. .that new star sapphire of Gwen Heller's (Mr.s. Howard Lang) is 72 carats.. .Hazel Flynn Is writ- ing radio scripts.. .Tou can still find Eddie Buzzell's Rolls- Royce parked while he dines with June Clay worth.. .Doro- thy Hall and Neal Andrews are redecorating their yacht .., That was Helen Ferguson and Fay Wray at Bruck-Weiss the other day...If you really want to hear "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" ask Joe Breen's boy. Tommy, to sing it. ..Alice Glazer's daschhund Is named 'Frauleln Elsa,' no kUldIn'... Doris Warner L.oRoy has the most exquisite hands...Ruby Jolson leaves tommorrow (Wednesday) with her niece for California.. .The cup he won with Walter Hagen Is Bill Frawley's most prized posses- sion... Inez Courtney would like to know who's sending her those roses every day...Irma Warner Is crazy about polo, now that young Jackie plays. Marian Spitzer Is receiving In her pink and brown boudoir since that operation.. .The Aces (Easy Aces) are taking a house In Saratoga Springs... Flo Haley has some swell cracks to her credit.. .Friends of Mary and Dick Wallace are pulling so hard for his re- covery. Stepchild (Continued from, page 3) But when they do, they as a rule kick around the preparation of every other department connected with the picture. Despite the fact that still pictures are valuable to their popularity, players are the worst stallers. They win do anything to escape being photographed on the set. When finishing a scene, they usually look for a place to hide, and Invent ex- cuses to duck the still men who have become regular bird dogs In hunting out hiding players. Actors feel that their art lies In motion, not stills. Furthermore, It Is hard for them 'to hold an action pose In a atlll picture' after they have done It a dozen times for the screen. In the portrait galleries of the studios. It's another matter. There most players ar&at home posing-for those arty pictures. This holds true particularly of the femmes, who go sucker In a big way for fashion art. Two beet portrait subjects In pic- tures are Claudette Colbert and Carole liombard. Both spend days in the galleries being photographed as long as the pictures have a chance of landing In the slick mag- azines. Tallulah Bankhead while here lived In the portrait rooms, made her own deal for pictures of this nature. Toughest to get Into a gal- lery are Blng Crosby and Gary Cooper. Paramount has less than a dozen posed portraits of the crooner. On the other hand, studio has over 1,000 sittings of Miss Lombard. Grace Moore has become portrait conscious recently, sees the value of class photograplis. Both Joan Crawford and Jeein Harlow are pushovers for a portrait lens, but balk on set stills. If In the mood, John BaiTymore will spend days In a studio portrait gal- lery. If having an off day, horses couldn't pull hlnri In. Marlene Die- trich also likes to pose for sittings but until recently Insisted that Josef Von Sternberg supervise the light- ing. Garbo on each picture will epend two days making portraits but only if Clarence Bull Is the photographer. Sylvia Sidney no like photography of any kind, has to be sold Into pos- ing. Jack Holt Is another who re- fuses to go into a gallery. Joan Blondell only needs a suggestion and she's before a lens. Something that puzzles the set still man: To. him they are all pho- tographs and he can't understand why players will pose all day. for portraits, but refuse to stand still for ia minute while he grabs a still. Most of the BtlU boys are gradu- ates from newspapers, where they made reps as new."? photogs. To them a picture la a picture no matter how they got it. Among the Women By The Skirl Beet Dressed Woman of the Week: RUBY KEELER ('Go Into Your Dance'—Fil ) Go Into Vour Duds New York turned out full force to greet Al Jolson and Ruby Kcelcr's personal appearance at the Capitol Theatre Thursday evening, the occasion being the premiere of 'Go Into Your Dance." It was a memor- able event. Eddie Cantor, In rare form, introduced the stars, also calling on many well known people In the vast audience to take a bow. Among them were Joe Weber, Block and Sully, Morris Gest, Bob Hope and Archie Moyo, who directed the picture. Miss Keeler In a simple little black suit with white blouse was sweetly shy and retiring,, leaving the stage to Al Jolson, who sang several songs. Only a few hours previous she was declaring Eleanor Powell could dance rings around her. That Is Ruby Keeler. 'Go Into Your Dance' shows Miss Keeler is far more than Just a tap dancer. The routines go from taps to ballet, and as for acting, she Is at her best In this picture. It must have been the Jolson Infiuence, as she seemed so much more at home before the cameras than heretofore. As a dancer In a Mexican dance hall Miss Keeler leads'a number In short black pants with a white blouse and checked waistcoat. A row of show girls m black gowns, white wigs and huge picture hats back her up. The big number finds Miss Keeler In a fiuffy dancing frock consisting of several layers of net with a sparkllng^ belt and a simple bow at the throat. With the male chorus In full evening regalia. Miss Keeler goes from one costume to another, the other being a minstrel outfit of white studded In brilliants. A globe trotting number In real Warner Brothers style has Miss Keeler In Spain with, a long dress ruffled at the hem and short sleeves of lace. The large comb In the hair Is most becom- ing. The next costume for this number Is elaborately spangled In black and silver. The girls of the chorus are In black cerl skirts and silver brassieres. As a dance hall girl. Miss Keeler wears a short black skirt and bodice, scarf fashion. Off stage. Miss Keeler la seen in a series of cloth coats, tailored suits and several dressing gowns of note. Glenda Farrell Is well dressed throughout the picture. She shows an abundance of silver fox. One caped outfit has a collar of this fur ridiculously high. A black evening gown Is trickily trimmed at the top with much tiny white ruffling. Helen Morgan makes her appearance In an ermine wrap over a black gown with the low decolletage edged with a silver fold, A. light cloth caped dress Is lined with a metallic material. A couple of dark dresses are worn with sables. Abe Lyman and his band are a big fiash In a red setting, for the stage show. Lyman looks swell In talis and white tie and his men In white mess Jackets. Mltzl Mayfalr does her familiar routines In black Jet pajamas trimmed with ermine and a dancing frock of pale pink chiffon with the scams outlined In brilliants. Saxon Sisters are . In their white tailored suits. Rose' Blaine Is simply dressed In black and white organdie with a red belt. At the M. H. The Music Hall presentation starts off with the huge orchestra and Julia Glass as piano soloist. Miss Glass is In a deep coral gown, ankle length, and with low neck and no sleeves. 'Fisherman's Legend' follows, with the scene the ocean bed. It is something new for the adagio team of Nicholas Daks and Helen Leitch. Miss Leltch wears only the tiniest bit of gold fringe. From sea to Quaker Town Is some Jump and the Rockettes, none the worse for their water experience, look lovely In full skirted grey chiffon frockg and quaker bonnets. Cole Porter's 'Night and Day' received unusual treatment, although .done with placques used In other numbers. Some of the girls are in black cerl gowns with silver caps. A few are In nude satin with blue veils, and one miss stands out In a flaming red dress. The grand finale Is all too short. Coming up from nowhere, huge .flowered pedestals and a wide stair case show an ensemble of rare beauty. Girls recline on this staircase in white ruffled hooped gowns with huge hats and col- ored parasols. The Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur picture made here in the east between backgammon games Is all that was expected of it. Called 'The Scoundrel' and stars Noel Coward. Coward can write his own ticket after this picture. Julie Haydon, Martha Sleeper and Hope Williams do swell Jobs. MIsa Haydon Is new and promising. The clothes are not outstanding, although- In good taste. Miss Haydon Is seen in two dinner dresses, one of white lace with a square neck and one consisting of a dark velvet skirt and shiny sequin top. Miss Sleeper with a sophisticated hair comb looks nice In 4 white Bult with a striped scarf and sm.all brimmed hat. A negligee of white Is entirely surrounded with deep ruchlngs. A black dress has sleeves of white braiding on black. Miss Williams wears two becoming hats and Is slacked for skating. She's also seen briefly In a lace frock with a metal belt. At the Palace Will Rogers' picture, 'Life Begins at 40', drew a fair crowd to the Palace Friday afternoon (3). Vaudeville got underway with Serge Plash, Mattlson Rhythms, a youthful contingent consisting of five hoys and throe girls, are fortunate In having had someone who knows how to dress an act. The boys are In white belted suits, changing to tux, while one lad sticks to the white jacket with black trousers, A pair of the misses are In natural colored lace with a satin sash and bow. A little dark haired girl wears a lovely frock of blue taffeta made with full skirt and short tight fitting bodice. Crystal buttons run up and down the front of the bodice and edge a good looking short sleeve. Brown satin pants with an orange blouse are worn by one Of the girls for a short dance and all three girls came on Zor the finale In black trousers with silver moss Jackets anrl black blouses. If Harry Savoy's woman partner dressed well, all would bo okay. The dress worn by this/young woman Is badly hung and looks as though It had been run up In the dressing room. Grade Barrle Is nicely dre.'jued In the palest of pink lace, made fhlrtwalst fashion. Pearl buttons and buckle are the only trimming. 'Laddie' Drawa Titters 'LaUdic,' the picture at the Roxy, brought titters from a large audience. It's a dated story. Gloria Stuart looks well In the old fashioned costumes but Is a little too dignified. The child actress, Virginia Weldler, Is what Is known as a screen pest. Lines rldlculou.'jly adult are placed In this child's mouth. It's all too sad. Stage show has Kathryn Parsons singing old songs in a gay ninety costume of pale pink worn with a large picture hat. A parasol of blue was carried. Roslta Ortega did her Spanish dances In a blue satin frock made with one side ruffled in three layers while the other side was of tiny white ruffles. The whole dress was ornamented with what looked like diamond stars. Another frock was of white laco ruffled to the hips above a bodice of solid brilliants. The Gac Foster girls looked well In white satin skirts with white mess jackets. Blouses were red as were gloves and socks. High h.its wore banded with red and slippers were white. Colorful wr-re thp.^e girls In .Spanish costumes of many hues.