looking at hollywood with ed sullivan · 2009. 10. 14. · step andmounted itincircuitous fashion....

Looking at Hollywoodwith Ed SullivanShearer trapped in a bluingroom? Or Merle Oberon wres-tling to a finish with" the clutch-ing hand "? No, I'm afraid thatthe 1938 heroine is too, too ef-feminate. That goes for all ofthem, doggone it. Carole Lom-bard, product of the rough-and-ready Mack Sennett girls, is theonly one left who could handlea custard pie.The softening of the movie

heroines traces back to the door-steps of two estimable Iadles->(1) Theda Bara and (2) PolaNegri. Miss Bara was a plush-lined heroine with ideas. Untllher entrance sex appeal was arough-and-ready, slam-bang af-fair. Miss Bara reasoned thatthe half-nelson technique of herrivals was sllly. So Thedabrought the Slink to pictures.The slink was a voluptueus walkor shuffie designed to bring theheroine from a spot ten feetaway fro m the hero. MissBara's slink was .a deliberateprocess. Instead of slinkingstraight at the hero, she movedsort of on the bias. Agreeingwith the mathematicians thatthe shortest distance betweentwo points is a straight line,Theda traveled the long way, tobuild up the suspense. She'dfasten her eyes on the hero, yousee, and then start for him ona zigzag route. There was plainor garden variety lust in her bigbrown eyes, mind you, and asshe slunk forward. you could Seethe hero registering fear. Youknew from his closeup that heknew he was a dead pigeon. Hewas right.

and the novelty of it captivatedaudiences. They'd hiss Valen-tino the first time he made apass at her, and then be heartllysorry that Valentino was de-terred by Miss Ayres' pleas.Young America copied the

Ayres defense for years; Agneshad every young Romeo of thecountry in a dither.Marlene Dietrich, of the mod-

ems, simply streamlined theTheda Bara and Pola Negri tech-nique. As an additional asset,Dietrich's legs were more captl-vating, and when in doubt she'dlift the hem. of her skirt and ex-pose her supports, which werearchitecturally sound. But actu-ally Dietrich was a throwbackto the Theda Bara slink and theNegri come-htther look.Hedy La Marr, who wlll be

the newest sensation of thefilms, is also from the ThedaBara school, as you wlll seewhen you see ••Algiers." Evi-dently Theda and Pola had some-thing there, as the saying goes.

Pola N~ recline. with a come·hither look. cmd BeaU Rathbone demon.• lrate. what happeDII when" A Womcm Co~cmda "--er 1832 picture.

Agile. Ayre. in a dariDO mood thatbelie. her .ure - fire clin9ing. yine

atyle.What!! NoAmazons

Today?

of stress, Theda was swaying infront of him.Being a gentleman of the old

school, there was only one thingMark could do. He breathedheavily, and Theda knew itwasn't asthma. Women are in-tuitive that way. The rest iscelluloid history. The s Ii n kscored its first important vie-tory, and from then on heroinesstopped leaping to and fromrailroad trains and substitutedthe old allure. Pola Negri im.·proved a bit on the Theda Baratechnique. Miss Negri broughtthe couch to the movie screens.She ~as a bobber and weaver,more' on the style of Dempsey,and she always bobbed andweaved to a couch, where shewould collapse and eye the heroin speculative fashion.She was the first of the Come-

Hither Look school, j u s t asTheda Bara was the first of theDon't -Make-a·Move -Until-I-Get·There academy. The main dls-tinction between the two schoolsof thought was that Pola Negriwas a counter- puncher andTheda believed that a great at-tack was the better strategy.They both did very well, so it isdifficult to say which was moreetrective.In contrast to their brazen-

ness, Agnes Ayres brought tothe movies the Clinging Vinea p pro a c h. When Valentinomade passes at her Agnes re-pulsed him coldly. His ruthless-ness was dismayed by her Aprllshower tears. She leaped likea cat from his embraces, threat-ened to commit suicide if "youso much as lay a finger on me,you beast." The movies hadnever seen this type of heroine,

Today'. exponent of the lara·Negri "hool of c:ome.hither-Hedy·J.a Marr.

Britannia Still Rules the WavesBy ED SULIJVANHollywood, Cal.

IN CONTRAsT to PearlWhite, Ruth Roland, MabelNormand, Agnes Ayres, and

other hardy heroines of whatmight be described as the crino-line era or epoch of the silent.movtes, your 1938 movie heroinelives the life of Rellly, the fabledGaelic gentleman whose life wasso etrortless and pleasant thathe has gone down into history asa synonym for lush leisure.It seems only yesterday, and

perhaps it was, that Pearl Whitewas jumping from speeding ratl-road trains, that Ruth Rolandwas being trapped in a burningtenement house, that Mabel Nor-mand was being hit in the eyewith a custard pie, that AgnesAyres was being pursued bymean camels across meaner des-erts. They were heroines cutfrom the whole cloth of adven-ture. Those were the days whenthe women of the movies hadwithin them the same fierceflame that distinguished the plo-neer women who trudged alongthe Oregon trall and who moweddown Indian marauders with~lat, if not downright aplomb.Survey your modern movie

heroines and weep for the goodold Amazonian days when theladies of the cinema talkedbasso.Can you picture Luise Rainer

leaping from a. rallway bridgeto a speeding train? Or Norma

(Continued from pUge one.)at the southern extremity of theMalay penlnsula, and tracing azigzag line in a westerly direc-tion toward the canal, one willnote in strategic positions thefollowing cities:Rangoon in Burma, Trincoma·

lee and Colombo in Ceylon, Bom-bay in India, Aden in Arabia,and Port Sudan in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.At all of these are British

naval bases. Those at Colomboand Bombay are defended. Inaddition, out in the Indian ocean,also defending the approach tothe eastern door of the Medlter-ranean, is a fortified Britishnaval base at Port Louis on theisland of Mauritius. There is abase at Suez, at the southern endof the canal, and another at PortSaid, at the northern end.Planted squarely on the route

from Suez to the east and com-.manding the mouth of the Gulfof Aden is the British-controledisland of Socotra, which is pro-vided with several safe anchor-ages. It is conceivable t hatGreat Britain might utilize thisisland as a naval base, so stra-tegic is its position.Little chance a hostile power

would have of salling a fieet outof the Mediterranean by the wayof the Suez canal, the Red sea,and the Indian ocean.: It wouldhave to run too formidable agantlet.

Not only does Great Britain~ntrol the approaches to theMediterranean, but it also maln-tains a defended naval base onthe island of Malta, almost inthe middle of the sea that popu-lar opinion has been allotting tothe domination of Italy.Whether or not Italy actually

could control the Mediterraneanin a war with Great Britain,however, is a debatable subject.Even two years hence, under thepresent building program, Italywill have only six capital shipsin commission and two on theways. By that time the Britishwill have seventeen similar warvessels in service' and threeunder construction. In othertypes of craft Great Britain'snavy today overshadows that ofItaly in about the same proper-

tant natural resources, petro.leum, iron ore, and wheat. Theseare resources that become dou-bly important in times of eon-flict, but they represent onlythree items in a long list of com-modities that a nation must pos-sess in order to wage a success-ful war.011 is essential to the opera,

tion of a modern navy. Iron Isthe principal requirement ofarms factories. Wheat is a foodstaple, the maln ingredient ofbread for the feeding of the pop.ulatlon.Italy is almost totally deficient

within its own territories in pe-troleum, copper, coal, cotton,rubber, nickel, chromite, andtungsten, all of which are neces-sary in war. It produces only15 per cent of its requirementsof manganese. Its iron produc-tion, although on the increase,still is far behind its needs. ·Itis greatly dependent upon ror-eign lands for war materials ofalmost every kind, its gold re-

11.t±l:'f:'" serves are closely approachingthe vanishing point, and wherecould it turn for credit?Obviously not to Germany, at

the moment looked upon as itsnatural ally, for the Germansare not in a position to lend.In a war between the British

and the Italians the first named,holding Gibraltar and the Suezcanal, should be able to base alrfleets and destroyer and subma-rine fieets on the north coast ofEgypt and harass Italian ship-ping in the direction of the Dar-danelles. To the west Italywould have not only Great Brit-ain jo contend with but alsoFrance, assuming, of course,that the British and the Frenchwould be allied in a war such asthis.Even conceding t hat Italy

might retain control of the Med·iterranean, which is doubtful, itstill would be in a desperate 4itu.ation. The British, if necessary,could send their orient-boundcommerce around the southerntip of Africa, a slow but saferoute, completely isolate theMediterranean, and slowly ren-der Italy destitute of the essen-tials of war.Where in this picture would

be Germany, whose territorynow touches t hat of Italy?There could be free passage ofgoods, arms, and men betweenGermany and Italy, but Ger-many on the north would be ina still tighter place as regardsthe sea than Italy on the south.Germany's fleet, which does notcompare with its World warfieet, would have its hands fulldefending the Baltic. It couldnot go to the aid of Italy in theMediterranean.Even during the great war,

when the kaiser's navy was theworld's second best, Germany'sactivities at sea, omitting thedeadly submarine, were greatlyrestricted. The German fieetmade an excellent showing atthe battle of Jutland, but it neveragain dared accept the risk ofa fight.Great Britain rules the waves

of Europe today, .just as it didduring those trying times oftwenty years ago.

The Th.dcr lara nraion of thec:ome·hither-a la Cleopatra.

e e •

In "Cleopatra" Theda Barabrought the slink to its highestcommon denominator. Broughtto Mark Antony as a prisoner,Theda took one look and sizedhim up as qUickly and accuratelyas Joe Louis diagnosed the weak-nesses of Max Schmeling. Herassignment, howe'lJ'er,was muchmore difficult, as Mark was stt-ting on his throne, three stepsabove floor level. My bloodturns hot and cold at the recol-lection of her masterly strategy.She shuffied adroitly to the firststep and mounted it in circuitousfashion. She side-slipped to theleft, feinted' to the right, andnow was on step two. It wasthe second down and one to go,Other teams might have trieda forward pass or a slice throughtackle, but not Theda. She bust-ed right through center, and be-fore Mark Antony could say"Signor Jack Robinson," whichwas a phrase he used in moments

Mabel Normcmd .uffen for her artwith Fatty Arbuckle.

Pearl White ahriDb from the yU.laiD'. iDIIidioua inYlte.

(Acm. photo.)A Britah .ubmariDe of the newe.t

type.V.i«:e .f .I.e ~.,..,ieFDD Letters published in this department should be written on one side of the paper_If you wish a personal reply please inclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope,

tions, and will continue thus toovershadow it in 1940. Only insubmarines has Italy the greaternumber, but a large majority ofthese are small vessels construct-ed for coastal operations. By1940 under present plans theBritish will have 39 large sub-marines and 33 small ones, Whilethe Italians will have 11 largeand 95 small undersea craft.

••Show Boat," who went completely insanein ••Theodora Goes Wild" and" The AwfulTruth," How disappointing!There's Errol Flynn. (Every one else has

been mentioning him, so I might as well,too.) The same chap who set the gals'pulses on fire in ••Captain Blood" and de-lighted the ••drahmer" loving audiencesin ••Green Light" and ••The Charge ofthe Light Brigade." There he was, assomebody put it, capering around wrappedup in blankets In ••The Perfect SpecImen."How disgusting!There's Katharine HepbUrn, with" Little

Women," If Morning Glory," and ••StageDoor," all jewels, to her credit, runningaround with the back gone from her eve-ning gown in "Bringing Up Baby," How

. killingly funny!There are any number ot other ones,

too, but for pity's sake why go on? WhenLaurel and Hardy or the Marx brothersor Jack Benny appear on the screen Isettle down happily with the prospect ofa funny evening in store, but when alongcomes a serious actor with a silly glint inhis eye and intently bent on making afool of himself, one can be pretty surethere'll be some illusions shattered beforethe lights come on again.Comedy itself is grand, but all I can

say is, If I ever see Paul Muni or NormaShearer or Herbert Marshall entering thecomedy field--! Well, producers havebeen shot before.Sincerely yours, D. P. EVERETT.P. S.....:.Whentalking about comedies why

always drag in the inane antics of NelsonEddy on that Sunday night broadcast?You started it, Phillips.Editor's note: Guess I'd better keepout

of tMs.

Dear Miss Tin~: Could you tell usNorma Shearer's next picture and whoshe plays with?She was alwaysour fav~lte ac-tress, Wonder ifshe is going toquit the movies?Thanks a lot.Yours sincerely,L. M. S. andW. H. S.

P. S.-Couldyou squeeze thisin your column,and squeeze. in apicture of AnitaLou i s e, Holly.wood's most beau-tifUl blonde?What is her nextpicture?Editor's note: "Mqne Antoinette" is

the title of Norma. Shearer's ne~t film.Tyrone Power plays the male lead. MissShearer recently was ch08en to play ther~le Of Scarlett in "Gone with the Wind,"which goes in production ne~t winter.Anita Louise's ne~t picture is "My Bm."Others in the cast are Kay Francis, JohnLitel, and Bonita GranviUe.

friends who had seen It. More recently Ihave seen If The Baroness and the Butler,"Annabella's first American-made picture.I have heard many say they thoroughlyenjoyed Annabella In this vehicle (no or-fense to William Powell), so I wonder ifthe local theaters would give their patronsa break by showIng "Wil}gs of the Morn.ing" once again. I'm sure It would betheir gain.Many thanks, Miss Tln~e, for your splen-

did column. Sincerely, C. R. K.P. S.-I would appreciate It if you will

find room for this article in your column.Editor's note: Happy to obligeyou with

the ",'oom." Perhaps ezhibitor8 wiU dolikewise with the picture. Thank YOU!

ally detracts from Mr. Gable's popularity.Mr. Gable found success after much hard

work, without the aid of being coupledwith another who had already achievedfame.-Then, too, the two men are of such eon-

trastlng types that it seems foolish toclass them together.Hoping you'll let me try again, I amYours truly, LOUISE RUSSER~.P. S.-Could you tell me if Jon Hall, who

gave such a splendid performance in If Hur-ricane," is going to be in another picture,and when? Thank you.Editor's note: Indeed, 1 hope you win

"try again!' Jon HaU is 8cheduZedto playthe maZelead in another romantic SouthSea isZandfiZm-production to start sometime nezt winte,·.

e e e

Italy is strong in the air, butso are Great Britain, France,Germany, and Russia. Italy'sfirst ·.line airplanes, of whichthere are said to be approximate-ly 1,400, are more modern in themain than those of France, butscarcely as modern as those ofGreat Britain. France is said tohave 1,500 first-line aircraft andGreat Britain 1,.800. The aerialservices of Germany and Rtissiaare comparable with those of theother three powers, but variousfigures as to the air strength ofthe two last-named nations areextremely confiicting. Some re-ports go so far as to give Ger-many and Russia an appreciableedge in the air over the otherEuropean powers.Conceding that Italy is strong

in the air, unbiased observersare compelled to admit that itis no match for Great Britain onthe sea. And this is a storyabout the control of the searather than about the control ofthe air.The principal map on page

one shows the general distribu-tion in Europe and in parts ofAsia and Africa of three Impor-

Dear Miss T1n~e: I have been readingand enjoying your Sunday columns forseveral yearsnow, but as yethave not writtento .you, becausemost of my ques-tlons have beenanswered by oth-er contributors.However, I havenot seen any com-ment on my petpeeve, the ClarkGable and RobertTaylor comparl-son.Though I am

no judge of act-ing abUity, I dobelieve that Mr.Gable is so farsuperior to Mr.Taylor that thereis little comparison between the two. Toclaas the two together was evidently veryclever publicity for Mr. Taylor, but in myopinion it seems unfair to underrate sucha great star as Mr. Gable and comparehim, sometimes almost unfavorably, to aman of far less experience and developedacting ability. It is unfair because It actu-

ANITA LOUISEc.ll.d Hoilywood'i mOlt

b•• utlful bfond•• My dear Mae Tfn~e: Ed Sullivan wasright! The showing of Valentino picturesshould stop now! Although I was gladto see him again, the comparative imper-fections of old movie mechanics hamperedmy enjoyment of the rest of the film. AndI had known I must attend during a schoolmorning when young people were not like-ly to be present.They are so afraid ot their emotions,

these modern young! Once I dared to aska young man who was laughing In thewrong place, "Why?" I knew! I won-dered If he did. He could only say, ••Be-cause I know it isn't real." The scenewas an Indian scalping a man. Suchscenes have been real. This lad couldn'tface such realitles without his reassuringridIcule that they are safely past. Theycan't face such undiluted sentiment asValentino stood for,. either. They fear Itspower to sway a growing recognition forthe need of self-discipline. However poorlyevidenced, this is a good sign. Thi!y arethis much right-the past Is past.We should let Valentino keep his well

earned place among fine traditions.SIncerely, MRS. BEULAH BARKER.Editor's note: 1 wonder!

Dear Mae T1n4e: What's all this con-troversy going on about the current trendtoward zany comedies? Wait for me; Ilove an argument. So the Misses PhillIpsand Dayton would like to do away withcomedy aIto&,ether! They should remem-ber that all Muni and no Ritz make JohnnyQ. Public a dull audience. A &,oodlaughis &,oodfor us all. And also he's a noblefellow who devotes his lifoe to makina'this hanfed old world laugh. The maintrOUble, hpwever, with this comedy cycleis that too many of the wrong people aredoing it. Let's look at the record.There's the lovely Irene Dunne, the same

one who gave u. Sabra in "Cimarron"and the ever- memorable Magnolia 10

JON HALLWith Dorothy Lemour In

"Th. Hurrle.n ••••

Dear Miss T1n4e: Quite some time agoI had the good fortune to see a foreign·made picture entitled "Wings of theMorning," starring Annabella and HenryFonda. I raved about it for weeks onend, but could not find any among my