Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 October 1937 — Page 30

PAGE 6

Movies and Retailers ace Same Problems

Director Says Each Can Prosper

From the Other's Experiences

By W. &. Van Schmus Managing Director, Radio City Music Hall

Fifth Ave. department store and the de “picture houses only a few blocks away have more ih common than first meets the eye. Fach has something to sell, and whether it is entertainment or mer. s ———————————— chandise it must be done oh a large | scale. Tt is not the occasional pur- | chaser of yachts or diamonds or | mink coats who spells the success of their enterprise, but the average | * consumer, the man-on-the-streat | Bette Daw who buys thousands of hats and 4 J shoas and common pins—and thea- | ter admissions—every vear. To create a desire, to satisty that | desire anc to bring the customer back again and again is the fundamental problem of both the retailer and the manager. It demands showmanship, an under | standing of human nature and hon- | esty in keeping faith with the public. | Every merchant who creates an attractive store window to beguile | the eye, who has a fashion show or ives skiing lessons or soothes the | frayed nerves of last-minute Christ- | mas shoppers by carols from a mys- | terious choir, is preving himself a shownian, Theater Also a Business. On the other hand, the theater is -Dby the same token—another business, in the last analysis. The patron in the front of the house indulges in all the comforts, luxury, glamour and artifice that imagination and ingenuity can contrive, but behing! the scenes is a well-ordered, hard- | working organization which come bines efficiency, systern and ¢o- | operation to achieve its results as In any successful business enterprise { Because they have so much in common each can prosper from the | other's experience, Theaters must follow the example set long ago by the Fifth Avenne | merchants of using advertisements in the newspapers which are striking | by ‘virtue of their simplicity rather | than their extravagant claims, By | tempering their enthusiasms and re- | lying upon simple statement of fact | to sell their product on its merits | alone, they better themselves in re-| specting the intelligence of their | prospective public. Good taste and! sincerity are by a will to | believe and creation of confidence on a firm foundation. | Employees Attend Preview. Every new picture is, ih a sense, ! 8 gamble, for the public taste is cone | stantly changing. In our own thea- | ter we are fortunate in being able to the public's pulse” by pre- | viewing each picture before it is booked before as |

The

» Three years ago a young lady from Massachusetts named Bette Davis ‘played , the self-centered waitress who spurns the love of a crippled and sensitive boy ih the picturization of W. Somerset Maugham's distinguished novel, “Of Human Bondage.” The orippled youth was Leslie Howard. Since then Miss Davis has made & name for hersely as one of the most capable actresses In American motion pictures. Last year she won the award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the most distinguished performance of the year, And now Miss Davis and Mr. Howard are reunited in a Warner Brothers film which will be releasad during the fall. “It's Love I'm After” is the name. snd it's a light bit of comedy about the adventures of an actor and an aetress who make love on the stage —and off, There are not so many In Hollywood who would be capable of the change of pace, but Miss Davis and Mr, Howard live up to the traditions of their eraft,.

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1 alive means of reports of staff criticisms which All lett from with care. Any or complaint receives tion and proffered often constructive, the number of that are evoked straightforward reply to & query, | It is our effort to learn not only | what our audiences may like or dis- | like but also why, and in this way | more closely approximate the ideal of periecy entertainment, { Creating Confidence, Occasionally approaching tion is not enough, however, to in-| sure success. It is the quality of any product that counts and only | by consistently maintaining a certain standard is i possible to create con- | fidence. Motion pictures still have 8 way to go in this respect, but more and more are producers awakeing to the general intelligence of | the great Sig) public and beginning to branch out into new and | experimental fields, So long as the evil of the double-feature continues | the progress of the industry is ime | peded. The first-run houses are able to fight it best by proving in dolly and cents the superiority of quality over quantity to the satisfaction of | the consumer, the exhibitor and the | producer alike. Building up faith, creating a “motion picture habit,” is | one problem of the theater manager which is bast accomplished by adherance to a strong policy In the Iast analysis the retail store and the motion picture theater find their primary objective to be of service to the public. We are measurad by three things: —our ability to make our ‘wares attractive, to be honest and exciting at the same time, abilify to maintain A certain and create a reputation, our ability to provide a pleasant and harmoni 1s atmos. phere, otreate a “mental se a frame worthy of the picture within,

Cangster Plot for Musical

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Brown alwavs smiles vaguely when someone asks how he {directs ‘Greta Garbo. Then, if he feels like talking, he says: “You don't direct her.” Although that sounds a bit paradoxical, Mr, Brown knows what he is talking about because he has di- | rected the Swedish star ih seven | productions, including her latest, | “Conquest,” with Charles Bover, which will be released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer later in the fall. Sure of Herself, “She comes on the set sure of her lines, sure of what she is going to

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Season Offers

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18. 103%

Lubitsch Demands Beauties

Pulchritude Essential on the Screen, Says Director

‘she might be, 1 will never direct a |

By Ernst Lubitsch, Regardless of how good ah actress |

star who 1s hot beautiful, and, 1 | might add, how that 1 am observing my twenty-first year ih this busi | ness, I have never willingly directed a star that I didn't consider to be beautiful, That is why I selected Marlene Dietrich as the star th “Angel,” my

| most recent picture, and that is why

I responded to readily when Mary |

| Pickford {hvited me, thirteen years | ago, to come to Hollywood and die | rect her th “Rosita,” my first Holly. |

wood picture, And that is why |

[ Claudette Colbert will be the star of |

ee t——————————————————————— ee ee

‘Greta Garbo's Director

| sistent

ana Bernard Hyman, producer, were

take over a recording studio forms do,” Mr. ‘Brown goes on, “and she!

the plot of Republic's “Manhattan Meorry-Go-Round,” a new musical which may become an annual feature. Incidentally, the scheme of the plot offers a fine opportunity to introduce the variety of talent that has come to characterize the screen's musical spectacles, The gangsters, who are headed hy Leo Carrillo, are loan sharks and they take command of the studio when someone defaults on interest. Then the complications start, most of them arising from the activitias of James Gleason, who petsuades such stars as Cab and Ted Lewis to point of a revolver While waiting for one of these performers to appear a young man named Joe DiMaggio shows up and he is taken for an opera singer. Starred in the picture are Phil Regan, the ex-Brooklyn policeman who became one of radio's first stars, Ann Dvorak, Henry Armetta,

has an emotion. “When she decides oh the meanIng of a scene, she needs nobody to tell her how to play it or how to read her lines. A suggestion as to

uncanny gift ot expressing

movement for may be

ictorial composition, necessary, but that's all.

self. “Once in a while we differ on the significance of a scenes. Then we argue it all out until we are sure of ourselves. But that does not in- | volve the question of how the scene ! is to be acted.” | Studied Napoleon, “Conquest” is the story of a little | known interlude in the life of | Napoleon, his romance with the | Polish countess, Marie Walewska, Who was probably the only woman | Who ever really understood the | French Emperor. Miss Garbo, Mr. | Boyer, who plays Napoleon, and the

Calloway perform at the

the right camera angle, the right |

After all, a player cannot see hime |

| |

; want mv stars to be good actresses |

| my next film for Paramount, "“Blue-

beards Eighth Wife.” Now, this point of view fs not | superficial, as it might appear at | first thought; nor is it because I | minimize the importance of good | acting. The opposite is trie. 1

(also, But if I have to give a little,

A cigaret helps Bette Davis con. sider her lines in the Warners' film, "It's Love I'm After," that brings her gether again with Leslie Howard.

to.

Greta Garbe Is more beautiful than ever as the love of Napoleon ih Metro - Gold. wyh «- Mayer's forthcoming "Conquest."

Between shoot. ings of Para. mount's gigantic panorama of the old West, '"Wells. Fargo," Frances Dee takes a leisurely stroll,

Explains How It's Done

others in the cast became hibliophiles, more or less, during the filming of the picture in order that their characterizations might be vivid, vet cohwith historical records. “Would sh® have done this?” Miss Garbo would ask Brown when some little action was in doubt. “Do you think this is in character?” Memoirs and letters then ‘would be consulted =o that Marie Walewska might emerge as a woman, rather than a figment of history. Often Charles Whittacker, research expert,

the role than for any previous pic« tare except “Queen Christina,” and worked for days with Adrian on the twelve costumes she wears in the picture, “The really remarkable thing about Garbo's work is her absolute SUreness,” Browh says. “She studies every bit of information, rehearses everything in her dressing room and when she walks out, she is utterly confident of what she ought to do. “It is this trait that makes her a perfect actress. There is never a hint of doubt or uncertainty in her work.” Directed Silent Films, Brown started directing silent pie. tures with Clara Kimball Young and Rudolf Valentino twenty years ago and he was one of the few who succeeded th bridging the gap between the techhiques necessary for silent and sound treatment. His first | work with Garbd was “Flesh and rench ‘etiquette fh the period of | the Devil,” with John Gilbert, which 1300 for ready reference. She con. | was her first great success ih this ducted more personal research forcountry. Since then he has directed

her in “Anna Christie,” “A Woman of Affairs,” “Romance,” “Inspiration,” “Anna Karenina,” and now in conquest.” Only two other direcs tors have ever directed her more than once: —FEdmund Goulding ih “Love” and “Grand Hotel”; and George IMitzmaurice ih “Mata Hari” and “Mysterious Lady.” People who worked on the pieture found Garbo apparently happier ih her surroundings and more approachable than they had found her for years. Frequently she remained on the set after the filming of a scene to chat with Karl Freund, European cameraman, instead of re. tiring to her dressing room. She joined ih the “parsonality’ game with Director Brown and the cast and crew, and occasionally she played indoor baseball with the director, who found the exercise good for a recently brokeh arm. She throws a ball just like a boy, it seems. Between scenes, she often walked back and forth ih the suns light with her famous athletic stride. Worried About Scene. One morning Brown scoimed worried after she finished w scene and she asked him what was wrong. “I don’t know exactly,” he said, “but something was out of tune.” Then a wardrobe ttendant rushed frantically out on the set with a gold brooch in her hand. Garbo had forgotten to put it on her gown and this was what had bothered the director because it had | been there the day before,

called into conversation settle a point, Personal Research, In her dressing room on this set Miss Garbo kept such books as Winter's “The New Poland:” “Pani Walewska,” the Gasiorowski novel on which the play was based: | Breeds “Opinions and Reflactions | of Napoleon,” and a volume on|

to try to

THE LONG, LONG STORY OF A QUEEN,

One of the great film spectacles of the season will be “Victoria the Great,” produced by Herbert Wilcox and distributed by RKO-Radio Pictures. This picture presents Anna Neagle as the magnificent queen | In gradually aging sequence from her coronation at 19 to her diamond | Jubilee at 79. - Sixty years a queen! Miss Neagle carries the difficult role on | through scene after scene with ease and sublime understanding, say those who have seen the filth ih preview. Anwh Walbrook plays the | | Deen role of Albert, and their love Story is oe Of the tenderest sequences | yg oh Ta BE ii ov M » | win 1 he x y ever captured oh the scresh | [that I didn't Jook inte the ‘mirror

eee | DOfOrE COMINK Out,” she exblainied.

1 would prefer that it be inh acting ability rather than beauty. Secondary oh Ntage, Such would not be the case if my medintm were the stage, Then 1 would say beauty is of secondary importance, But ih the movies—ah,

| Bramees Dee

Beats Deadline

Let us, for the moment, consider the case of Frances Dee and how it came about that she is a Hollywood movie queen, to use a phrare that you nmwer see ih Variety, You remember that Miss Dee turned in a striking performance ih “Souls at Sea,” and this winter you ean s% her in Paramount's historical film, “Wells Fargo,” an account of the development of the American West from 1844 to 1870 Miss Dee was a sophomote at the University of Chicago ih 1930, Her family took her out to the West coast during a vacation, and Frances thought it would be grand to get in the movies. Her family thought her idea was foolish, but they let her stay in Hollywood oh one condition: —If she was still an extra at the end of one year she . would return to the university to finish her studies, Time passed and Miss Dee was still ah extra. Then, one day, when the year was nearly up, she was having luncheon in the commissary and the appreciative French eyes ‘of Maurice Chevalier lighted on her. Well, it was the Qinderella story all over again. Soon she was playing opposite him in “Playboy of Paris”, mama and papa never alluded to the subject of college again, and Frances has gone from one part to another, eath a little better than the last. Isn't that a pleasant little story?

| publics eye,

there you are making a dish for the | phrase fh a symphony, That eve. The movies talk how, to be | something that the old-timers didn’ sure, but they are still movies, and | have—not for te, anyway vou see thet rather thah hear them, | 1 am glad any time to toast th As lohg as that is trie, and ft will | the beauty of the stars I directed be trie until pictures acquire depth, | ih a day now definitely th the past= or the third dimensfon-—-and maybe to the beauty of Pauline Frederick, eveh after that—movie atars will May McAvoy, Pola Negri, Clara have to be beautiful, Bow, Irette Rich, Patsy Ruth Mile All feminine stars, for both stage . ler, Lilyanh Tash.nah, Morence Vidor and screen, should possess both and Camilla Horh, Their beauty did beauty ahd acting ability, with em. Much to launch a great industry, phasis upoh beauty for the screen, that of pictures, All of us are fire acting ability for the stage. debted to them, Standards of beauty are always | A Face of Her Own. changing. It is one of the things | Hut to retiirh to contemporary that a director, ih casting his pice | gersen beauties, 1 consider Marlene ture, must always keep ih mind. As | pistrich outstanding, Bhe is a strikes 1 look back over the years, 1 cah | {ng exathple of a womah Who DOB see how the tastes of the thenter- | gasses another Virtie which 1s ihe going public have shifted about. It | dispensable for a motion picture star, also impresses me with another | she has a face of her own. Nature fact, which is that a few players | has an tncanny way of duplicating possess an indefinable quality which | faces, not only among members of keops thelr beauty ever fresh ih the | the mame family But ih persons | totally unrelated There are types that are duplicated fres [ the type is already reps on the screen it makes 1% hard for another person of sme type to succeed fh the same medium On the other hand, beauty mist not pe of too rare a type, If ft utterly strange the pubife will nes cept it only in exotic roles, Th other words, the plaver will be definitely typed, which is w great handicap, Marlene Dietrich's beauty fs highs ly distinctive, There fs no other face even approximating hers oh the screen, 1 have never ween one off the screen, That is one reasoh 1 was anxious to obtalh her as the star opposite Herbert Marshall ahd Melvyn Douglas Ih “Angel.” 1 think a sculptor probably would tell you that her beauty is about as close td perfection as humah beings ‘ever come, Next time you see her 6h the screen watch her hands, They are [as good looking as her logs, Rare and Distinctive,

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Ntill Attractive Today. Ah example that comes to me off- { hand fs that of Norma Shearer More thah ten years ago, ih 1927, to be exact, 1 directed her and Ramon | Navarro in “The Btudent Prince.” | Most of her contemporaries of that | period have faded from the on account of that shift ih tastes | which I have mentioned. But I cotceive of her as being ns attractive to the public today as she was then; | perhaps it would be more tris to say her beauty has taken on even greater luster, Right after making “Rosita” 1 started casting “The Marriage Olpcle.” There were two actre at that time who had won the ev approval of the public. They were Marie Prevost and Florence Vidor, | Although I ‘would still consider | these ‘women attractive if they | were available, I don't think they would have the approval of the public today, However, there was | no doubt in that day, and thev were | given leading roles in the picture. | glamour in Hollywood, 1t is a ward I think our modern beauties on | of Beotch origin, You know, which the screen have a certain suavity connotes beauty seen through mists, and 1 confess that my personal | Th view of this, IT ean't help Wis tastes are more {h line with the | think my “Angel” fs the only tre present trend. Marlene Dietrich is | exponent of glamor ih Hollywood, a good example of the modern type, | It is the sort of glamour that the There 1s a great divergence be-| camera ohtehes, There is another tween her and Olaudette Colbert, | conception of glamour fh Hollywaod. for ‘example, but yet this quality I|Tt has to do with long motor cars, have mentioned gives them much | vachts and midnight promenades ih in common, the moonlight==all of it Iargely sons Ih contrast with the cerned with private life, But Miss prevailed a decade ago, Dietrich's beauty, her glamour, gets make ah ingratiating, appeal | on to the screen, and that fs why 1 to the eye. Their beauty persists | was happy to have her ih my pleih the mind like the echo of a ture

pretty the

scene

that both

type they stihtle

cr ————————————

Season's Screen Clitters With Many Spectacles

Practically Every Star in Movieland Appearing in One or More Pictures,

(Continued from first Hollywoodmusic selacted to accompany action, | Forecast Page). | As from the Metropolitan Company, Ins cluding Grace Moore, 1 Pons and

several stars

usual,

Y ' " opera “The Adventures of Tom Bawve: f

Is being perpetuated with sound and h ‘ b . with freckle-faced Tommy Kelly, of | Nino ‘Martini, are reappearing fh l'the Bro { pletures this fall, and they will be | 2 No a the Queen | foined by such new recruits froth OE > : the musical world as George BalanA picture depicting eighteenth cen |

[chines American Ballet and Laapold tury England and Quéen Victoria's | Siokowski and the Philadelphia reign may arrive concurrently with

Symphony Orchestra, fone called "Love on Toast.”

{ iy

The | Beveral films dealing with the lives lo A ' y the | life of the great French writer, Emile | Of Beethoven, Chopin and other

comporers are scheduled for release Zola, the development of transporta= | sann after the first of the year, ih tha United pioneer | The nautical theme which proved [days in Chicago, life on that rock: ful during the last seasoh | PT in films as “Captains Cours shelf of Aleatraz, the building of and ‘Souls at Bea” Will ok | the American West between 1844 and | be neglected. Besides “Fhb Tide” 1870, intimate scenes in the paddock | there are a number of pictures of [of Bn great race track==these are a entures at sea, including a techs [ minutely fractional part of the sub= | nicolor production of “The Hurts

| fects that are coming under Holly= | cane,” another sea yarn by the aus thors of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

| wood's eonsideration. | Pang who are primarily fhterested | And technicolor. by the way, will [ih stars can rest assured that they | we emphasized this fall, A number [will be able to inspect their favorites | of big-time producers already have again this fall Practically every | made several productions ih full star fh the business is appearing | color, and other firms are employing ih something, some of them twice. | it more or less tentatively, but more Greta Garbo will be the Countéss | generally than fh previous seRsons, Waleswka, beloved of Napoleon, ih Disney ‘Cartoon & Fenture, “gy " tle yiotrich | , Conquest,” and ‘Ma lene 1 ie Ii | Sno of the outstanting techn appears as the wife of a European | statesman in “Angel.” Joan Craws | color prodictions=-and, in fact, one ford is to be seen in both “The | of the events of the season=will be Bride Wore Red” and equin, [the release around Christmastime o8li ard in “Stand=In” | k » 3h a Maa) aah Walt Disney's first full-lshagth anc ; y ter, 1 CF also ®ee, to select a very few animated cartoon, It is “Snow White Merle Oberon, George Arliss, Bette land the Seven Dwarfs,” from the Davis, Franchot Tone, Eddie Ao Grimm fairy tale, and the preparas arrv 1" rr Vv Fils ' Jou DO arn Lov, a tion lasted over two vears at a tes Meg Ge Me Lo ported cost of $1,000000, If ft well received, Mr. Disney plans to

[ Bennett, Henry Fonda, Carole Lom= ar tederic Marcel cllwar Gi bard, Frederic March, I Abe : release one full-length cartoon a the future,

Robinson, Edward Arnold len ‘ Falter Winchell. Prod Macs : rye, A rn 9 E 8 yas [ It will be interesting to compare RG Joan ongle he oe Wh, his efforts with those first faltering Barbara or Lee A | aa vtobns that used to accompany ( Howe's Travelogues = how many

Dolores del Rio, Spencer Tracy, New Players Introduced, | years ago was it, now? The pros ducers regard "Snow White and the

| A whole and new personalities fs being Introduced | Seven Dwarfs” with a good deal of justice as a mort of landmark ih

AMONE | te film industiy, like the advent | the promising ones are Sigrid Gurie, | or sound a young from Norway, Filming Broadway Hits, plays the daughter of Kubla Khanh | mollywood's int ‘rest, financial whl in the Marco Polo picture; Zorinm, | stharwise. in the activities 6h Broads I dancer of Swedish descent, Who [way fs bearing a rich harvest, With used to appear with the Monte Carlo hits of last season about to Ballet Company, and Oscar Homolka, me raleased ih pictures, Katharine (a Viennese star of stage and scréen Hepburn and Ginger Rogers share | who already has a small but appre- [adventures in a theatrical boarding |elative audience here through films house in “Stage Door,” ah adapta jo" a jh am samy 1s fee | OD Of the Edna Ferber-Gleorge 8. [ing one of those Oth IIsiars Ruufistn Pay wi Praniois, Vers) Teasdale and Anita Louise play the

in which operatic arias, tap dancing, chorus numbers and lyrical love= |leads in “First Lady,” and Claudette | making are strung together with the &oipart and Charles Boyer play the titled White Russians ih “Tovarich®

[Pparest outline of a plot. Most there films are new editions under . . titles that have beeh made popular Which finally is going to be tes during the last few years, and a leased as "Tovarich” instead of “Toe couple of these musical ventures have | pioht's Our Night” Another piap been launched as annual produces |, x FR REA » | tions. One of them i bringing Ww, | Wie films 1s “Storm ih » Teacup, C. Melds back to the screen after a the European success which the New long absence, due to illness, York Theater Gulld put on last seas son as “Storm Over Patsy.” Even ih the musical films, pro- | And that's a quick preview of the ducers are giving increasing atten- biggest wemson Hollywood has eve tion to the type and quality of planned,

fion Slates,

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host of new faces to sereen audiences this fall,

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several

Many Musical Films,