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Show Looking at Ihollywogd SOME stars, who ascended into the cinematic heavens years ago and whose ability is so solid they've remained re-mained at the top, are now taken for granted by most of us. We begin j JZ7'"'"'' maligning them yfc Zj - just because i they've been I around so long J l-J We point up jofc es r7 A f'fi at them, since V their names are l A household institu- ? j ir-,? tlons. We forget If Ay$' 2 their achieve- ments all too Charles Laughton quickly and lie in wait for them to do a bad Job so we can take pot shots. I detect this symptom in many of Charles Laughton's admirers and enemies. Charles, Hollywood's paunchy genius of character portrayals, por-trayals, believes in "mixing his offerings." of-ferings." He won't take the easy way of establishing one great character char-acter 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 sincere sin-cere 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, and "Ruggles of Red Gap," the gentleman's gen-tleman's gentleman who did the most Inspiring rendition of the Gettysburg Get-tysburg address ever heard since the Emancipator himself uttered the immortal words. Whether Laughton will be a big hit in the "Canterville Ghost" or not remains to be seen, but I do know he's put his all into it, and he's honest hon-est enough to say. Can't Be Stopped Orson Welles hasn't been with us as long as Charley Laughton, but for a young man of 29 summers he's made theatrical history. When he first arrived he ''y was the butt of everybody's jokes I , part of the town w stPPed laughing x2 ,V after "Citizen l p?J. Kane." He had ti4 &A something in that Ai'y'y that received . ;J - .. 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 Mercury Mer-cury theater. "The Magnificent Ambersons," which he directed, was another film okayed by the critics. What's in store for Orson nobody knows not even himself. As an actor ac-tor he's hurting his career by making mak-ing radical speeches! You've got to decide whether you want to be in politics or be an actor. Slow but Sure Climb Walter Pidgeon's another who's been around a long time. He also went back to Broadway to find a second career, but there's no chance of shoving Walter around. He and Greer Garson have been teamed so often they've become our top male and female combination. We don't have to pause over Bill Powell. He goes from one part to another with the greatest, of ease, and not until he appeared in "Heavenly "Heav-enly Body" did I ever believe that Powell could be unfunny. Like Old Man River We've called Bing Crosby everything every-thing except actor. Now, after running run-ning 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 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 Frankenstein's monster mon-ster he rose from the grave more times than you have fingers on two hands. He didn't wait here for us to shove him around: he look himself him-self to Broadway and started pushing push-ing people in "Arsenic and Old Lace." and made a fortune. So don't mind it too much when we ourselves begin treating some of our stars as though they were footballs. Remember, if we didn't love them and think they had what it takes we'd ignore them completely, complete-ly, and what would happen then I? they didn't see their names in print? Sfar Under Observation Smart woman that Rose Franken! Martha Scott, who will play in "Soldier's Wife." has been a house guest of Rose, and a lot of Martha's characteristics, which Rose has learned since they've been together so much, will be incorporated in tha play. One of them is her habits in dressing and undressing. The first thing Martha puts on is a hat, and it's the last thing she takes off. Even after she's in her nightgown she haa her hat on. |
