Show L Legs g Prove as Important as Ability to Act By JOHN TODD 1 HOLLYWOOD INS INS INS-A A pair of pretty legs constitutes as valuable valuable able an asset to a screen en newcomer I as the ability to act or a photogenic photogenic photo photo- face Hollywood goes along proving this fact every week inthe in inthe inthe the year and this week the proof is furnished by a surprising newcomer newcomer new new- comer by name Helen Walker Now Miss Walker knew she could act before she hit Hollywood four years of stock company acting acting act act- ing and a hit performance in her first Broadway play Jason assured assured as as- I sated her of this She didn't know she was photogenic until Paramount Paramount Paramount Para Para- mount gave her a test and im imme immediately immediately e- e slid her into the feminine lead opposite Alan Ladd in Lucky Jordan for her first picture Pretty Legs Needed The year old beauty thought those two assets were all that was necessary for a movie career career- until she started work in Lucky Jordan That is when the need for pretty legs came in Miss Walker is by way of having quite lovely underpinnings but she had never made public use of them other than for walking purposes She didn't think she was the type to flash her legs around on the stage Well type has nothing to do with leg display on the screen in some instances There is such a athing athing athing thing as story plot and sometimes sometimes sometimes some some- times scenarists put a lot of dramatic dramatic dramatic dra dra- matic emphasis on a pair of feminine feminine femi femi- nine limbs as your Aunt Maggie chooses to call those things This was what happened to Helen Legs were mighty vital to the story and Paramount had not given her herthe herthe herthe the role without a study of her legs Needless to say Miss bliss Walker Walk Walk- er wouldn't be playing that leading leading leading lead lead- ing role had she lacked ached that valuable valuable able asset In this here story Lucky Jordan Jordan Jordan Jor Jor- dan legs swing the whole climax The plot gets around to a situation situation situation situa situa- tion where Alan Ladd and Helen are in a terrible fix They are captives of a band of foreign agents and have been informed that they are soon going to be liquidated Meanwhile a big lunk Junk of a fellow is guarding them with an automatic shotgun Nervously Helen twists in her chair and her skirts hit the knee mark She sees the lunk Junk is ogling her gams Flashing Ladd a signal signal signal sig sig- II nal she twists further elevates skirt even more until the silken display is so daring that the shot shott gun guy gazes longer at legs than at Ladd in his eye-darting eye dure dare Right then Ladd lets him have it grabs the gun and there develops what what fictionists call the turn of tables Writers also have havea a habit called planting a fact earlier So to emphasize the beauty of those legs when that beauty counts in the story they I slipped into an early scene in Lucky Jordan some action wherein Ladd sees Miss Walker I I straightening the top of her stock stock- ings That's when woman woman favor favor favoring I ing Ladd gets interested woman favor in this girl Amazing what scenarist scenarists scenarists' can do eh |