World Film and Television Progress (1938)

That's what the talkies have done to the movies. In the old days, if you didn't act it, nobody knew what it was supposed to be. Nowadays, talk, talk, talk, it's all on the sound track, and you can get by without acting at all. Did you know that there's a new school of acting taking place just now? They don't act. I'll tell you a funny thing to show you what I mean. It was — well, he's a good guy, so I won't tell you his name. He was to get shot through the shoulder in a fight, and step forward when he heard "Anybody hurt?" and say "I'm shot through the shoulder". Well, we play it, and he steps forward and says "I'm shot through the shoulder", like saying "I'm all out of cigarettes" or something. The scene has to be taken again for some reason, right at the end of our stay on location, when we're all tired and wanting to get home, and I says to him "Only another day now" and he says "What for?" and I says "For your shooting scene". He says "Hell, that will take less than half an hour". I says "Yes, the way you did it. Have you ever been shot through the shoulder? It hurts like hell, and that bullet was supposed to go clean through you from the back, or else it was a pretty bum bullet. Look, hit me in the shoulder, never mind shooting me, and I'll let you know I've been hit, and I was a prize-fighter". "Ah", he says,_. "you're out-of-date. We don't act nowadays". I couldn't resist it. I says, "Damn right. You don't act, but you call yourself an actor". There's more to it, too. With all this talk, there's something has gone out of the movies, nearly. I don't know if you remember, but in the old silent days you and I and my wife could go to a movie, and come out with three different ideas of it, because we were three different people. w a^^^fc^t Edgar Kennedy, Frank McHugh and Joan Blondell in the Warner Bros, hit ■•Three Menona Horse" Look, what I think is, people are interested in what a guy is thinking, not what he's saying, at least, they may be interested in what he's saying, but what they like best is to figure out for themselves what he's thinking, without being told. That's where they get the real joy, in seeing for themselves what's not too obvious. This is hard to explain, I guess, but I'll prove it to you. Have you seen Will Hay's act at the Palladium, his school act? Well, it's a swell act all right. Remember the bit where he has that gag "Moses was the daughter of Pharaoh's son", and one of the kids asks him to write it on the board, and he writes "Moses was the daughter o\'^ and then stops there with his back to the audience and his arm in the air ready to write and does nothing. It gets the biggest laugh in the whole act. Now, I ask you, why? Would it be funny if he said "I can't spell Pharaoh"? Would it? It would mean exactly the same as stopping there. But the way Will does it, the audience gets its chance to use its own judgment, and that's why they think it's so good. I guess the audience contributes. That's a fundamental part of the whole game. But who's got fundamentals, any more? I guess the most of the movies start way up top, with no fundamentals, they don't get down to the things that get the belly-laughs, or really do something to you. Just to show you what some guys know about acting, I'll tell you about the first musical I ever played in. The director has an idea and calls me into one scene, and says " Ed, I want you in here, and I want a slowburn, and I want it in four beats of the music". Well. I ask you. Can you imagine what it feels like to be asked to do a quick slow-burn? I'm a reasonable guy, so I practised a minute or two. and then told him it was no use. He goes to the music director, and comes back with the great news that I can get six beats. This was just about as bad. Finally, I got eight beats from him and made it. But hell! What an idea! Slow-burning to a metronome. Timins isn't done with a clock. Timing is just thinking. I said that to you away back, when I told you about forgetting lines, through Inning my head full of timing. Hullo, Will. Come right in. Will. Well. well, so you're sliding out before they see you go. I don't blame you. Will. When are you getting a rest? At the week-end? Well, you deserve it. So long. Will. There's a man that's doing a picture and a week at the Palladium at the same time. That's what I call working. He's a great guy, a real fifty-fifty guy. He makes a team. I never worked with a guy I liked working with better. He was a bit sin with me at first. His hobby is astronomy, he has quite a place, quite an observatory or whatever it is you call it, at his private house at llendon. I guess he loves his hobby as much as his screen acting. Sure, I like it here at Gainsborough. I like the way Will works, I told you, and I like the way the whole place works. They are treating me as well as e\er I have been treated 101