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Show rtfCj Looking at I H 0 L L Y W 0 0 D I '"pHAT wisecrack about "the high er they fly the farther they fall" must have been made with motion mo-tion picture stars in mind. For it requires a miracle of sorts to bring back a star who has once slipped at box office. With this in mind, chalk 1945 down as the year of miracles the year in which more comebacks will be successfully suc-cessfully made and attempted than any other in motion picture history. There are Joan Blondell and . James Dunn in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." to be- gin with, . with Jimmy staging that most difficult of all comebacks, a star role on the very lot which nine years ago I s '- j Joan Blondell counted him among its brightest bright-est box office successes. suc-cesses. Both Joan and Jimmy hold long - term con-Jimmy con-Jimmy Dunn tracts at Twentieth Twenti-eth Century-Fox since executives chalked off their excellent ex-cellent performances, Joan as Aunt Sissy, and Jimmy as Johnny Nolan, the famous singing waiter of Betty Smith's novel. Joan Blondell was to a certain extent responsible'for her exile from the screen. She was tired of playing play-ing an endless succession of animated, animat-ed, gum-chewing typists, alternating alternat-ing with wisecracking blonde showgirls. show-girls. Then, too, her husband, Dick Powell, was trying to get away from singing parts and into real acting ones. But the producers didn't seem to want him in either during this period. So Joan, not wanting to embarrass him, stopped taking parts when he couldn't get any. Leave of Absence Joan toured our army camps for 13 months went into remote posts as far north as Labrador and gave homesick boys of her rich, vibrant personality. She followed this with an uninterrupted go of over two years on Broadway. The new Blondell Blon-dell proves that she can be something some-thing more than a big-hearted baggage bag-gage with a head of gold. Director Elia Kazan tells me she gives some gradations in her performance of Aunt Sissy that bode well for future efforts. Jimmy Dunn never actually left the screen or the stage. But for nine years since 1931, when he played "Bad Girl" he appeared in minor movies of a type that didn't reach audiences that knew him as a star. And when casting time for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" filled his agent with enthusiastic ambitions, Jimmy said: "Skip it. You're wasting wast-ing your time. I used to be a big star on that lot they'd never let me do it." Darryl Zanuck was determined deter-mined the screen Johnny would live up to the singing waiter of the book. So he ordered every possible applicant appli-cant tested until the perfect person showed up. The perfect person turned out to be Ex-Twentieth Star James Dunn. Frank Confession Few actors are as frank as Jimmy Jim-my in talking of the things which helped him to lose out in his profession. pro-fession. "I began watching the money clauses in my contracts, Hedda, instead of reading the scripts carefully," he said with commendable commend-able frankness. "So I got the dough, but I began to slip at the box office." of-fice." Jimmy Durante's comeback in all the mediums night clubs, radio, motion pictures notably "Music for Millions," with Margaret O'Brien, is one of the bright spots of the year just past. This year Joan Crawford, after many hesitations, ruminations and consultations, will essay her screen comeback in "Mildred Pierce," a red-blooded story by James M. Cain. These are some of the comebacks that enter the mind at the moment Not all attempts to resume a star status, sometimes lightly laid aside, are successful. I'm thinking now of the many times Gloria Swanson was scheduled for a big comeback which never came off. Buster Kea-ton Kea-ton never got back where he once had been. Ramon Novarro's frequent fre-quent attempts 'to star were failures, fail-ures, once his lucky period had passed. Yes, a comeback is a sort of minor miracle in the entertainment world, but it can happen. Smart Thinking Frank Sinatra tells me, rain or shine, he's going overseas to entertain enter-tain our fellows in June. He has turned down several pictures that were unsuitable. He's looking for something with human interest. When I reminded him Bing Crosby was 13 years getting "Going My Way." he replied. "Well, why not copy Bing and say I'm going his way too? I'd like to." . . . "Roaring "Roar-ing Waters" highlights the Shasta jam and will co-star Bill Gargan and Kobert Lowery. |