Show m me aca op looking at 0 on COME SOME stars who ascended into the 0 cinematic heavens years ago and whose ability is so solid they ve remained at the top are now taken for granted by most of us we begin maligning mali gning them just because been around so long we point up jokes at them since their names are household institutions we forget their achievements all too charles Charies laughton quickly and lie in wait for them to do a bad job so we can take pot shots A I 1 detect this symptom in many of charles Laugh tons admirers and enemies charles hollywoods Holly woods paunchy genius of character portrayals tray als believes in mixing his offerings fe rings he wont take the easy way of establishing one great character and then playing it for the rest of his life in different settings and plots he keeps searching for new stories different characters and putting all his energy into s sincere in portrayals of these runs the gamut remember sign of the cross he played nero whose only whim was the death warrant of hundreds then there was henry the eighth the most dominating old roue who ever swept a camera off its feet a and nd ruggles of red gap the gen clemans tl emans gentleman who did the most inspiring rendition ot of the gettysburg address ever heard since the emancipator himself uttered the immortal words whether laughton will be a big hit in the Cant erville ghost or not remains to be seen but I 1 do know hes put his all into it and hes honest enough to say cant be stopped orson welles been with us as long as charley laughton but for a young man of 29 summers hes made theatrical history when he first arrived he was the butt of jokes but the critical part of the town stopped laughing after citizen kane H he had something in that that received praise from all over except the orson welles minor portion of the press which might have been prejudiced against him orson discovered a whole new slough of actors and actresses which he brought out bodily from the mer ury theater the magnificent abersons which he directed was another film okayed oklyed by the critics in store for orson nobody tenors not even himself As an actor hes hurting his career by making radical speeches youve got to decide whether you want to be in politics or be an actor slow but sure climb walter widgeons Pid geons another chos been around a long time he also went back to broadway to find a second career but theres no chance of shoving walter around he and greer garson have been teamed so often become our top male and female combination we dont have to pause over bill bil powell he goes from one part to another with the greatest of ease and not until he appeared in heavenly body did I 1 ever believe that powell could be unfunny like old man river weve called bing crosby everything except actor now after running him down critics have come out unanimously in proclaiming bing not only a fine actor but many even went so far as to say bing could uld have done going my way without a song for the well known groaner he could ask for no greater praise boris karloff is our greatest bogeyman As Franken steins monster he rose from the grave more times than you have fingers on two hands he wait here for us to shove him around he took himself to broadway and started pushing people in arsenic and old lace and made a fortune so dont mind it too much when we ourselves begin treating some of our stars as though they were footballs remember member Be it if we love them and think they had what it takes wed ignore them completely and what would happen then if they see their names in print |