Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 October 1937 — Page 32

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Directing Easier Task Today

But It Is Also Much Less Fascinating

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Than | By John Ford. {Academ:

Informer” ricane” for

mnino direc

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Sami Directing motion is an easier task toda: it was in the hey-day silent films. [t less fascinatin bv affordi telling the director's job has cut In silent pictures to tell the and the quired a ni made demand uj resourcss. Today 1 Ing stories coming lost the easier through the most vital ic.ure, the motion most cases today

less degree

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mor: Sore infinite

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gre dialogue. Ventures a I'll venture somebody t« completely wi the story onl: then “dubbed’ music after tl pleted, the smash hit one must balan fact th public has OM accustomed to] dialogue and might re

Prophecy the prophec

Oday made 8

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with the

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Dieterle Gives Views on Historical Movies

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By Emile Zol has become a familia

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Of An { d

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lia

motion picture 1 simple syrup, to ment plaints, I think I shor set that there

tha 3 ~ ty In the accusation

1ld admit at the ou

CONS

is derable trut} a that a lot have cont & great deal more kind fancy cold, fact. But 1 think I shoul picad guilty wholly and thre self on the mercy of the The critics are accurate, although they do and I sincerely thank them for point the way to us. For instance, | the most severe complaint against | “The Life of Emile Zola,” my last | offering, was that of a critic who | said that in real life Captain Alfred | Dreyfus was killed by an assassin | along around 1908, where in reel life he still was going strong at of the film. The critic e Captain Dreyfus lived until of years ago. Two Methods Used There are two ways of making a picture. One ol of directors employs the direct, forceful approa that discards everything that is not essential to the basic idea underlying | the story. The other school uses the | method of indirection that employs by-play and suggestion, side-plot | and flashback It is the difference between the lion and the cat. The ! goes direct to the kill, a straightforward | smashing attack. But the cat plays| with the mouse, patting it, pretend. | ing to ignore it, delaying the inevit- | able issue. { i prefer the forceful | method. I believe that a picture's basic idea is more important than the story that is told. A story can be trivial. Granted the worth of this idea, 1 believe that nothing should be permitted to Interfere with its devel | opment. Now history is not so accommo- | dating as fiction, though it may on | occasion be stranger. Nor the | Dp that history trying |

SNo nea than d not

of pictures

not always entirel;

va 11 generally,

the end

1 y rred sliehtls Tea SIgHTLY

a couple

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direct

in Old

is to | make through its Pasteurs and its! Zolas always realized at the mo-| ment of impact. Sometimes the | message is realized only when the! years have brought it inte per. spective, = History does not mind taking its chances. History no doubt | figures that it will get its message 8Cross sooner or later, | Faces Different Problems. But a director has a different | problem. He is trying to convey to | it some definite idea, something that must be developed emotionally In order not to distract attention the events of the being told must come in an orderly, consequent procession, the one following the other in logical sequence That, I think, justifies some slight rearrangment of history If you were to take the life of Pmile Zola, the novelist and crusader, and make it into “The Life of Emile Zola,” a complete, pictorial biography of the man, would have a film that would run anywhere from six hours to a couple of days. But it was the Dreyfus case that made the story timely, that gave it its wide audience acceptance. There | are thousands of Dreyfuses in the world today, innocent victims of systems or castes of one sort or another. Their names may be Cohen Miller, Jones or Smith. But there is no Zola to fight their case for them. I suppose it is impossible to make a historical picture without some compromise. “Zola,” 1 think, has it

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elimination I have found, owever, that moving, visual has always been more satfactory to the audience than verbal ntertainment can possibly be We did this—elimination of diapartially~with “The Informer have done it an even greater | with “The Hurricane,” which just completed for Samuel Nichols, the has worked on both and “The Hurrihas always felt with or the moving cam- » story of huis far more any words

Mote

enters

ve Dudley 0 nformer’

“The Hurricane,’ more what I mean by a| picture rather than a pic- | dialogue. It has dialogue! rally, which chart the d dialogue scenes throughout film, but to the camera main task of unfolding

CaSe

TO 101

| Storms Tell the Story, ldwyn agreed that Nichols and ell our story with the ele-S—-with the wind and the air the water, with billowing sails ling waves, roaring gales—and | people facing these elements, | talking them. We rely

Tn a

about

upon moving bodies, crashing build. |

Ings, acllo motion, p il CULIV . Cid 8 n, me people in active | farence situallon

In ed to make not =a

other words, we have a vital motion picture written play transformed

onto celluloid.

in a minimum degree, but I guess it |

is there. Theé picture itself was an experiment, and I thank the Warne: Bros. for the great freedom they

granted in the makin, of the film.| stad,

Its com- picture industm

Changes &

are

due in the motion from the director's

| | | {

| tinues,

{don't want this to happen,

William Dieterle Story or routs Pasteur,’ na I saying write history, then Hollywood rewri

“The Life pictures.) that men and nations tes it. Ever since the

NPT

orney

kers turned to historical subjects they have been accused of adulterating truth with :

large doses of

lon only the polite and printable com-

| through the guild.

Silent Day, Says John Ford

§ (standpoint. With the coming of

sound the “committee method,” so | called, came Into being. Previously the method of making pictures had been the “combination method" the producer, the writer and the director. And the director started | on the idea with the writer and followed through until it was completed on the screen. | My complaint as to the “ocommittee method” is that no one man's idea is carried through in entirety. The picture, by necessity, becomes a composite work. If books were written under the “committee method,” I'll venture to say that they would not maintain their clear flow of story Directors Organize. Through the Directors’ Guild we hope to eliminate the “committee method.” We feel that the guild fills a very great need. The producers have associations; every other division of the industry is organized; |

{ why not us?

The Directors’ Guild is a very open organization. Every one who has directed or who hopes to direct motion pictures can gain admission. | We are taking in assistant directors, | for instance. | We feel that, through the guild, we can work in closer harmony with the producers. Thus by direct eonwe hope we can eliminate many of the petty annoyances and difficultics that arise through the |

“committee method” of picture mak. |

Protection of Newcomers, We also hope to maintain our position and prestige as directors | In this respect the guild will be primarily helpful | to the newer and younger directors. | As & matter of fact the only thing we are asking is the protection of the younger directors. i The young fellows who have been coming up have been “whipped around” a bit. If this tendency conthe newer generation of directors will be relegated to something of the position of stage manager with a road show. And we

Specifically, we hope eventually to do something constructive about the astociate producer. In so many he is not producer, direccutter nor writer and becomes only a sort of “military policeman.” When the associate producer is not properly qualified and operates only as “middleman” between the pro- | ducer and the director, it is exactly | as if one were driving an automo- | bile with two steering wheels,

cases

tor,

Mme. Flagstad Will Be Heard In "Big Broadcast of 1938"

Richard Wagner was an irascible gentleman who had a magnificent | capacity for disregarding the comtorts of everyone except himself, and he apparently derived a sort of sadistic pleasure from inflicting musical hardships upon the unfortunate men and women who were destined | to sing In his music dramas. The rest’ js that the great Wagnerian singers constitute an extremely hardy and an extremely limited race. Yet there is woman singing today whom no Wagnerian enthusiast would hesitate to name along with Materna, Lili Lehmann, Olive Fremstad, Nordica Emma Eames and the few others who made history at the Metropolitan and the Pestspielhaus in Bayreuth. She is,

of course, Kirsten Flagthe

| ago inspired the critics to predict a

| ‘Tristan und Isolde” or the “Ring.” Now motion picture audiences are to |

one

whose New York debut a few years

revival of interest in Wagnerian music throughout the country. This prediction has been justified over and over again by the crowds that attend every symphonic program which includes selections from

| be given the opportunity to see and hear Madame Flagstad for the first time. Her debut comes this fall in Para- | mount's “Big Broadcast of 1938’

rR na OR NA ON RA IN

Barbara Stanwyck stars in the RKO Radio film |

"Breakfast for Two."

Lyric Grace Moore will play opposite Melvyn Douglas in

which also brings W. C. Fields back

| to the screen after a prolonged ab- |

| sence due to illness. Madame Flagstad 1s doing a scene from “Die Walkuere,” the second opera in the tetrology of the “Ring.” Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the former impresario of the Metropolitan, and Artur Bodansky, conductor, gave Madame Flagstad an audition in a little hotel at St. Moritz in July,

Norwegian Bruennhilde | 1934, on the urgent recommendation | co

I'l Take Romance."

a's approaching picture,

few days after arriving here she made her debut—as Sieglinde in the

of the late Otto Kahn, They were | impressed, but they were not swept off their feet. They doubted whether | same opera from which a scene will | her ~oice could fill the tremendous be seen in the motion picture. And amphitheater of the opera house in | if there was anyone in the Metro-

| New York, but they decided to take politan that afternoon who did not | a chance. realize that he was present at an

Madame Flagstad sailed for this unforgettable debut, he thust have

untry in February, 1935, and a (been both deaf and blind.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 183, 193%

That's a sarong Frances Farmer is wearing in the Paramount picture, "Ebb Tide," which will bring her together with Oscar Homolka, celebrated European actsr. Pat Paterson (above) enjoys

a holiday at Palm Springs after Wanger's "52nd Street."

completing her role in Walter

Jimmy Durante Sigma Psi

After a Day

| & Comedian Turns

in College On His Poisonality

¥ And Robert Taylor Goes to Europe

By Jimmy "Schnozzle" Durante,

: Star of Columbia's “Follies of 1938.” Well, folks, here I am back in Hollywood. And what do I find? They fit me out in a skull cap and a sweater and

send me to college,

| | | | | |

: What can a guy like me learn at colleg I ask you? I can already speak Algebra as good as anyone. | All the stars came down to the train when 1 blew in.

a an

Extras See Big Preview on Coast

Cinema Club Girls Are Guests of "Stage Door"

Hollywood has a theatrical boards ing house called the Cinama Club, presided over by Ma Smythe, » motherly woman, She rules with » kindly sway over a brood of twenty girls who have come from every | part of the country, with but a sin gle thought-you guessed [t--movie | stardom. [ It's a typlesr! boarding house. For eleven dollars a week your screefs {struck girl gets her bed and board, [She associates with other Holly- | wood-mad girls. She gets free of | charge the zage advice of Ma, who { knows all the answers about getting | from under and on top The Cinema Club is run in dignte fled fashion by this ex-vaudeville trouper who, growing too old and heavy for the hard theatrical life, took to boarding house management because it enabled her to amsociate, if indirectly, with footlights and grease paint, Bound for Special Preview, Ma isn't often dictatorial with her “girls.” But one recent evening at 6:30 she summoned her charges to ah early dinner and told them, bee tween gulps of lamb stew, that they were bound for a special preview, The girls — Blondes, brunettes and | redheads—whooped their delight. It wasn't often that they had enough spare cash to attend a major pree view,

| There was Garbo, Grace Moore, Claudette Colbert, Irene| They didn't have to ask what

{Dunne and a lot of {80 I turned on the poisonality, And what d'va think happened? All the | girls picked up their bags and got on another.train headin’ for New | York. That Kinda got me to won(derin’. Maybe it was another con. [spiracy. I bet they was just jealous {of my romantic career in Europe. | Did ya hear about how I had all the [colleens of Ireland and the belles of (Scotland under my thumb? | When I went down on Hollywood Blvd. everybody was talkin’ about | Robert Taylor. So wha’ do I do? I check up on him, that's what. And who is Taylor? He's a nobody. He's got the women hypnotized into thinkin’ he's a great lover. Baw! Wait till Durante does his stuff again, Taylor will wish he was back at Pomona College. Proves His Superiority. Here's somethin’ else that proves (my superforily, I went through Pomona College ih one day. What about Taylor? It takes him four years. I had to go to Pomona for my first scene in “College Follies of 1938.” Gee, what a cinch! right through the college and comes out a member in good standing of | Sigma Psi. What a life! What a life! Makes me feel like I wa. a kid

again—back in the Bowery fish]

market. | Did I ever tell you about Gertrude Niesen? She's in the picture, too. Gosh, but she's nuts about me. I think she's a nice gal, too. They all get serious about me, though. So what are ya goin’ to do? When 1 first walks on the set Al Rogell comes up to me. He's the director. He says to me, “Jimmy, take that cigar out of your mouth, College boys don't smoke cigars.” 8o {I ups and tells Rogell somethin’, I

I just walks |

says, ‘That aint a stogie, that's nose! Boy, that stopped him! | Who d'va think 1s the Dean of the college? ' Raymond Walburn, Can ya take {t? He and Charles Star. rett are palsy walsys in the picture. [Starrett and Joan Perry do a love | scene, But wait till you see Durante (I'm the real love interest. I put one on with Gertrude Niesen that will | make your head swim. When the gals find out I'm the chief ove interest in the picture, what do they do? They comes up and slaps me on the back and says, “What casting! What casting! You'll be a star overnight.” Some flattery, huh? | A Spanish Fandango, The other day 1 sat down next to Chaz Chase who eats stuff. The first thing I knew 1 lost my shirt What do 1 do? I looks around quick like and there goes my shirt down Chase's guzzler. Johnny Green and his band boys were missin’ a pair of castanels the other day I didn’ tell anybody, but if there wasn't a Spanish fandango going on in Chase's stomach, my hame ain’i | Taviar—I meah Durante Everybody's having a big time out here in Hollywood College. Some of emi never saw the inside of a feollege before. But not Durante. |T'm matriculated at Pomona, It's a good thing I got back when |T did. The women out here were gettin’ lonesome. When I was in {Europe 1 keeps getting telegrams from the stars. What did they say? They said we want Durante. So what do I do? I hops a boat for Hollywood. As soon as I get here what does Taylor do? He goes to Purope. Taylor knows when he's licked. As soon as He hears about Durante, the great lover, he skips | town. Is he mortified!

| ploture it was, for Ma Smythe cone tinued speaking after a moment, | “It's ealled ‘Stage Door,” she said, [“It's about stage-struck girls like you who live in a New York boarde ing house and hope they'll become great stage stars, You'll know those girls,” she concluded. What Ma Smythe didn’t tell her screen-struck girls was that Gregory La Cava, who directed RKO Radio's picturization of “Stage Door,” the George 8. Kaufman-Edna Ferber Broadway success, had two girls spotted in the Cinema Club for weeks taking down conversations of the club girls for dialogue in “Stage Door.” She wanted to let the girls | see that for themselves, | The Clhema Club girls saw thelr favorite stars, some not five feet away. They thrilled at the thought that some day they, too, might be the cynosure of all eyes as they awaited the preview showing of one of their

" Irae

A Living Document,

To a decalent salvo of hande clapping “Stage Door” was flashed on the screen—and (or the next hour and a half the Cinema Club girls of Hollywood almost forgot to breathe as they watched the story of “Stage Door” unfold-—watched the hopes and aspirations of a group of girls ambitious for stage careers eat ham-on-rye and dream of the units of success. Ma Smythe was right in taking her “girls” to see “Stage Door.” She knew it was a living document df the theater, vibrant and honest,

‘Stage Door” ended and the Cinema Club girls left the theater deep in thought. They had seen themselves on the screen, by proxy of Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Gall Patrick, Andrea Leeds and the rest of the feminine playe ers in the picture. They had seen life, as they knew it to be.