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Show EHgjffei looking at - II II 1,1111 II II 111 npHAT man Laughton's here again. 1 Having just come through with one of those amazing character de-' lineations of his in "The Suspect,") the brash feller now moves into his swashbuckling armor once more. I We're going to see what I'm sure most of us have long yearned to see, and that's the character of Captain Bligh of the famous Bounty operat-j ing on the shady side of the law. For that, in a nutshell, is the es-' sence of Charles Laughton's role as Captain Kidd. He : i plays a hard, i rough, rugged, ob- scene man, an in- . i dividual of low . '"VvV ' birth who lives - i up to the very worst possible ex- ft'fl pectations. He is coarse,- vulgar and common, yet ?lfy f aspires to enter In mwJ Shest ranks Charles LaBghton of the British nobility. no-bility. He is obsequious to the point of utter disgust in the presence of his betters while plotting to stab them in the back which he accomplishes accom-plishes with the utmost glee and the foulest treachery. This story could have the modern setting of today, but this is Charlie's story, so let's get on with it! It's a Trade Secret What I want to know is, how does "Cuddles" Laughton do it? No use asking him. How does a fish swim, a bird fly? No star in pictures is tougher to interview than my friend Cuddles. He has a genius for throwing throw-ing an interviewer off balance with one shrewd crack brusquely tossed out. I know. He's tried it on me. It just happens that I swing a mean bludgeon myself. We get along, but beautifully. "You know, Hedda," he said to me when I asked him about his Captain Cap-tain Kidd role, "nothing so titivates the vanity of an actor as giving his versatility, a workout." And his voice trailed off in one of those droll, deep throated chuckles that can chill the spines of audiences. "I've always had the feeling," he went on, "that Captain Bligh was a piece of unfinished business. We left him in midair, so to speak. It's interesting in-teresting to speculate on what would have come off had Bligh been the one to desert the law instead of Christian. I have often said to myself, my-self, 'What a pirate Bligh would have beenl' A man of such tenacity, power, pow-er, "self-discipline, a real master of men, could have become king of all buccaneers. "You may imagine my pleasure, then, at having a role of exactly that flavor dropped into my lap. A Dream Come True "When Ben Bogeaus proposed that I play Captain Kidd for him, I said, 'Have you got a script?' Whereupon Where-upon he placed in my hands a literary lit-erary creation by Norman Reilly Raine which, in my opinion, is as fine a contribution to screen literature litera-ture as you'll uncover in a month's search. And of course I'd wanted all along to play Kidd. I suspect most of us, if we told the truth, would own to a suppressed libido where pirates are concerned." "Captain Kidd" promises to be something more than just another Laughton film. It's an outward manifestation of something that keeps stirring beneath the surface of tilings in Hollywood. I mean the constant and ceaseless upthrusting of new personalities, the struggle of talent to rise to the surface and above it. Even I was impressed by a remark re-mark Bogeaus made about Laughton. Laugh-ton. " 'Captain Kidd' was handed me," Bogeaus said, "by Rowland V. Lee, who has always yearned to direct it. Instantly I thought of 'Mutiny on the Bounty.' And what did I remember about it? Why, Laughton, as Bligh. It wasn't Clark Gable you remembered, remem-bered, or the others. It was Laughton. Laugh-ton. He dominated even the scenes where he didn't appear. I thought Laughton's other films 'Henry the Eight,' 'Ruggles of Red Gap,' 'The Beachcomber," etc.. You couldn't get away from it. I simply had to have Laughton." Chuck Laughton, who has faelers like a cat, is happy about "Captain Kidd." Incidentally, if it clicks, it's going to make Laughton a wad of money, 'cause he's got an interest in the profits. Just about everybody on the Kidd picture has a percentage percent-age deal. Other producers talk about such a plan. Arthur Lyons and David Loew have one up their sleeve. But Bogeaus is really doing it. I shall watch the future of this young man with much interest I don't know where he's going, but he's headed somewhere. Living and Learning One of our boys now in Germany sent me a clipping about Mickey Rooney from Belgium. "The fog came down. Where the fields were there was a great blankness, and a soldier in a jeep said, 1 want to get out of the army and go home to my wife as soon as this is over. But I pity the guy who doesn't see this for himself. Seeing the way these guys suffer makes me appreciate everything ev-erything I have I ' The private was Mickey Rooney, who's touring the combat zone in a three soldier Jeep. i t |
