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Show k Fame a Handicap A" Come-Bach at Seven k Gang 0. K's Marlene By Virginia Vale IF THE public likes Lon Chaney Jr. in "Of Micd and Men" he's going to be one of the happiest young men in Hollywood. For he's severely handicapped in trying try-ing to carve a career for himself. him-self. As the son of a famous father he is expected to be better than average; what would be success for somebody some-body else is just a passing grade for him. He tried out for the lead in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and didn't realize how lucky he was not to get It until he saw a revival of the film recently. "It made me realize re-alize more sharply than ever how good my father was," he remarked. "And what a tough time anybody will have trying to live up to the part Anything I might have done would have been a pale carbon copy." Yet he had the courage to ; ( - i : V J X I ' x : LON CHANEY JR. try to get that role, which many people consider one of the greatest screen performances his father ever gave. Lon Jr. is hoping that, as "Lennie" m "Of Mice and Men," he can take a long stride forward on the path that leads to success as great as his father's. Hollywood was all interest when Lillian Gish began making tests for "Triumph Over Pain" the prospect of her being co-starred in it with Ronald Colman made the town's older inhabitants look way back to the days when Lillian went to Italy to screen "The White Sister," with a young English actor who'd appeared ap-peared only on the stage booked to be her leading man. That engagement put Ronald Colman Col-man into the movies to stay, but Lillian abandoned the screen for the stage a few years later, and now a whole new generation of movie goers will have to get acquainted ac-quainted with her if she returns to it. Baby LeRoy, at the ripe old age of seven, is staging a comeback. (He used to be the infant who nearly drove W. C. Fields mad, remember?) remem-ber?) He's Lonnie LeRoy now, and will make his return in "The Biscuit Bis-cuit Eater," a story about a bird dog and two small boys. Part of the picture will be made at the bird dog trials in Georgia. . tK Charlie Chaplin's long-awaited satire on dictators doesn't sound so awfully subtle, if it's really true that in the picture two of them are known as "Adenoid Hinkly" and "Gasolini." But, subtle or not, it's sure to be funny. It looks as if Marlene Dietrich has decided to be herself; she stays around when she's not in front of the cameras, in "Destry Rides Again," instead of retiring to her dressing room, and the rest of the cast has decided that she's really regular. In the course of the picture she has a battle with one of the other girls, which makes one wonder if that fight between Paulette Goddard and Rosalind Russell in "The Women" Wom-en" has started a cycle. Remember Remem-ber what happened when Jimmy Cagney squashed a grapefruit in a girl's face! The popular program for Alec Templeton, the blind pianist, is heard on Monday nights over NBC. After running for years as a play and then being made into a picture, "Abie's Irish Rose" may land on the air as a serial, where it will probably run on forever and ever. In some of those serials practically nothing happens, because so much of the time is taken up by the announcer, an-nouncer, trying to whip up interest in what may take place the next day. At that rate, "Abie's Irish Rose" could run forever. ODDS AVD EDS Norma Shearer eives one of the best performances of her career in "The B" omen" a pic-mre pic-mre that everybody should enjoy . . . oe I'enner has a really funny picture in "The Day the Bookies Wept" . . . Ann Sheridan is making a personal appearance tour . . . Monogram, not to be outdone by Metro's all-female cast in "The If omen," employs an all-male all-male cast in "Mutiny in the Big House," the story of a prison riot. 'Released by Western Newspaper Union- |