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Show lilj Looking at H 0 L LYti 0 0 D UOLLYWOOD, the tjwn that's made "colossal," "gigantic," : and ' "stupendous" the keynotes ol the movies, likes nothing better than giving the fans their money's worth. Where the stage supplies a line ol 20 girls in a musical, the movies (bless 'em) give us 200. Such prodigality pays off and always has. That's one reason studios do things in a big way. Some of the boys recently sat down and figured that the fans who pay to see Fred MacMurray or Bette Davis in a picture would be twice as eaeer to see their favor- ites if said favorites favor-ites were to do J two roles in the s same film instead of the customary single stint. Two for the price of I I one is the bait f held out these j I days. Imagine how the bobby- Gene Kelly soxers would queue up if a marquee were to read: "Tonight: 2 Frank Sinatras 2"! The dual role (one star playing two parts in the same movie) is back in vogue with a bang. Actors are delighted and why not? since this means twice as many closeups. But camera men and technicians are cussin' right out loud, for making mak-ing a pair of actors sprout where there should be one is a tricky and tedious job. It was bad enough in days of silent movies to match such action, but with dialogue the problem prob-lem takes on the tone of a Russian trying to translate a speech done In Chinese. It's an Epidemic Over at Mutual, Fred MacMurray Is playing twin brothers in the comedy com-edy "Pardon My Past," on which Leslie Fenton serves as both producer pro-ducer and director. This comedy has Fred playing two distinct characters, charac-ters, one comedy, the other a heavy. When I asked Fred how he liked being be-ing a split personality he quipped back at me with: "Don't forget, Hedda, it isn't every man who gets a chance to shake hands with himself. him-self. And it isn't every man who gets the chance of being his own rival ri-val for the affections of pretty Marguerite Mar-guerite Chapman." Over at Warners', Bette Davis is having herself an emotional daisy day as two girls one good, t'other bad in "A Stolen Life." Bette's a triple-threat gal on this. She's also producing it. Bette about emotes herself to pieces when she plays a single role, so you can Imagine what this is doing to her. Cornel Wilde of "A Song to Remember" Re-member" is also hitting the dual role trail in "A Thousand and One Nights," a technicolor extravaganza of old Bagdad. AI Green, director, had his hands full on this one, for not only does Cornel do a dual stint but Dennis Hoey works in double exposure throughout the story, impersonating im-personating an eastern potentate and his wicked twin brother, Hajji. Kay Rennahan, camera man, told me he went berserk trying to keep the characters straight on the film. In "Scared Stiff," which comes from Ptne-Thomas, Lucien Little-field Little-field also plays two parts, eccentric twin brothers, who get mixed up in the theft of a jewel-studded chess set, of all things! Danny Kaye in "Wonder Man" plays identical twins, too. The Hard Way On the stage a few plays have had a star play two separate and distinct parts in the same show. This causes the actor or actress to make quick costume, changes just oft the stage and switch wigs as quickly as possible. But it really takes a movie camera to present anything as boisterous and blatant as Betty Button singing a duet with herself in:"Here Come the Waves" or Gene Kelly's, startling alter ego routine in which he serves as his own dancing partner In "Cover Girl." - , The dual role, however, is as old as the moving picture itself. 'Way back in the days of short-reelers technicians discovered how to make half a film, take a scene, then wind back and expose the - other half which had remained, unexposed. Crude double exposure was thus obtained, ob-tained, but it was a far cry from such dmooth achievements as having hav-ing Fred MacMurray hand himself a letter in "Pardon My Past" or Cornel Wilde's duel with himself in "A Thousand and One Nights." The stars enjoy the glory of a showy dual assignment. No, they don't get twice their salary, but the extra footage, applause and glory make up for the lack of bulge in their bank accounts. " A Great Opportunity We'll see if our big boys in the studios can take it. They're getting overseas shots like mad. Two top men from each studio have been invited in-vited by the government to go over. Idea is for them to be shown the horrors of Naziism, Fascism, concentration con-centration camps, torture chambers, so that from now on they can keep this in mind when planning pictures. Hordes of slaves from many countries coun-tries must be reeducated. Pictures . will teach them the meaning of freedom. |