The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 40

v. LITERARY SECTION. THE AGE. SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 27.

1037. Fay Compton's 1 Busy Stage Life. STUDIO FLASHES The Art of Acting. OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, whose next film Is It's Love I'm After, in which she co-stars with Leslie How. ard.

Is one of J'V YY rj Vi ft If f'zZ If Wi. VICTORIA REGINA has brought to Melbourne one of the great actresses of the English theatre. To hear Miss Fay Compton discussing her work and the art of acting is to appreciate the "trouper" in her, and to get a true impression of what the life of the theatre, involves in stsadv work. When you thrill to the character she presents of Queen Victoria, gay and sad, you do not realise that this is "the most tiring role" she has ever played in her life. "It is not so much the acting as the changing," she changing make-up, clothes, wigs, ear-rings and shoes all in minutes.

We are rshearsing the Noel Coward plays we will probably rehearse them for weeks. I finish at 6 p.m., have a bath and a mear1, come straight back to the theatre, and make-up for the show at night. On Sunday I rested, washed my own hair because there wasn't a chance for me to get down to a hairdresser got into bed at 7 and studied lines until 11. Call it a day It was in the play of that title that the actress worked in London last for 21 months. But she tires of long runs.

'Three months is pleasant," she says. Mary Rose ran for just over a year, so did Secrets, the Rudolf Besier-May Edginton play written for her. But she left the cast of Autumn Crocus in its ninth month to play Dick Whittington for three months, resuming her role of the. School Teacher for two months on the road. In Dick Whittington she changed her clothes eight times sang eight songs and danced six numbers.

Phew Fay Compton lives for her art and what an actress THE captain of a ship is its supreme Mmmandnr. hut his chief OH gincer is a power to be reckoned with. The same thing is true of a motion picture. The director is In supreme command. But the cameraman is his "engineer." Columbia's Counsel for Crime was directed John Brahm, German director, fresh from film laurels scored in England by his modern version of Broken Blossoms.

Henry Olio Kreger Preullch was chosen as the photographer. Team work i by Brahm and Preullch and the co-operation of Otto Kruger, Douglass Montgomery, Nana Bryant and Jacqueline Wells is said to have achieved success with this picture. The supporting cast includes Thurston Hall, Stanley Fields, Gene Morgan, Marc Lawrence and Guy Usher. OONJA HENIK, with Girl In a Million, defeated in spectacular fashion a "jinx which Hollywood bad long associated with the efforts of athletes to break into motion pictures. In the minds of film producers, the names of Jack Dempscy, Max Baer and Bill Tilden, to mention a i2w, re- Sonja Heme cur as examples of what happens when a sports leader seeks a film career.

But Sonja Heme is both artist and athlete. It appeared unreasonable to her that she should be Judged by the record of athletes. True, she was a world champion in figure skating, but she had carefully trained In the art of the dance, which has produced so many great actresses. It was with a background of experience as a ballot dancer that Sonja Henie perfected the intricate ice routines. Miss Henle's method of convincing the film people was typical of her talents at showmanship.

Hiring an exhibition hall in Los Angeles, she put on a show that delighted a capacity audience with her grace and charm. Her second film for 20th Century Fox, Thin Ice, will be the Christmas attraction at the Regent Theatre. A LL the youngsters know Jean Rogers, and they have converted thousands of adults to the fascination of the cinema: Jean (she was Eleanor Love-gren as a schoolgirl in Massachusetts) is en outdoors girl of 21 years, and became Buster Crahbc's leading lady in Universale Flash Gordon serial. During the making of Stormy she fell in the Jean Rogers path of a herd of stampeding cattle, but was rescued by a cowboy. At 17 she had won a beauty competition, and she made her feature picture debut in Conflict with John Wayne.

Jean Rogers is due for better things in film roles, and Universal is seeing to it that she gets the opportunity she has earned. IPitWji i mints JL.Ai I Hollvwood's stars who leads a "wild" lite. For instance, every Sunday afternoon Olivia and her sister, Joan Fontaine, who will fnn again shortly at the Regent Theatre with PT'. ton Faster in You Can't Beat Olivia de Havllland Love, go to Griffith Park, Just outside Hollywood, ride on the merry-go-round and look at the animals in the zoo. Olivia eschews parties.

She maintains that late nights are no good for work next day, and her career is the most important thing to her at present. "B.fAUBICE charac-tcr actor, who will be seen in Thin Ice, was born in Vllan, Russia, In 1884. He came to America when he was a year old. At 17 Cass Joined a repertory company touring in the South, and made his first stago appearance in Ingomar, the Barbarian. The company became stranded in North Carolina, but Maurice Cass returned to Broadway, where he remained for thirty years.

In addition to Maurice Cass Shakespeare, he has appeared in a number of Theatre Guild productions, Including Coesar and Cleopatra, and the modern version of The Taming of the Shrew, with Basil Sidney and Mary Ellis to the cast. Cass went to Hollywood in 1035. But in 1021 he enjoyed the distinction of appearing in the first public demonstration of talking pictures. This took place at the Rlvoll Theatre, New York, when Lee de Forest, Inventor of the Phono-film, exhibited a subject consisting of Cass explaining the method of producing talking pictures. -O- jpi ONFERENCES on the production of Alexander's Ragtime Bond are taking place between Irving Berlin, who has been engaged on the musical preparation of the film for months, and Darryl Za-nuck, of 20th Century Fox.

The scheme of this musical Is to trace the colorful career of the composer, spanning a period of more than 25 years from jazz to Tyrone Power fiwlngtlme. An estimate of the cost is one million Alice Faye, Tyrone Power and Don Ameche will play three starring roles in the film and the cast will Include other popular personalities of screen, stage and radio. One of the greatest. Wo shall see. GETTING 1860 garments by 1937 methods, RKO Radio had twelve pairs of old-fashioned tights rushed across the continent by air mall for wearing by buxom chorus girls in the Toast of New York, starring Arnold, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakle and Cary Grant.

il ether plays. I let myself go in this clramatio picture of vaudeville life. It these Coward plays succeed we will put on Ways and Means, The Astonished Heart, and Fumed Oak. I play the wife in The Astonished Heart, and Piggle in Hands Across the Sea." listen to their own voices. Charles Laughton is a fine example of the actor who thinks his lines as he speaks them, ose of the lips is another rule in good acting.

You cannot get proper diction unless you use your lips in physical expression. What is wrong with so many modern players They do not use the muscles of their lips. Every singer sings to us with every part of his mouth. Acting is both mental and physical. An example? Actually I have a far moro difficult voice to produce than many other people.

But it is the trained use of my mouth, and especially the lips, that enables me to make myself audible in all parts of the theatre." IT Is Bhe who counsels players to think their parts rather than act them. Asked what she thought of the much-abused art of emotional acting. Miss Compton said the whole thing should be technically and mechanically studied first. Emotional expression came next. "Of course, the difficulty with emotional acting is that the average person is self-conscious more than nervous, and apt to let himself go.

I saw a lovely bit of emotional acting In the film Lost Horizon by Isabel Jewell, as Gloria. It was sincere, and that, to my mind, is the main thing in acting whatever part you are playing. You must never be self-conscious. If you 1 1, 17 i i it 77 1 7 mi; 1 II mi H7. ft flit ACTOR, ONCE DIRECTOR-LIONEL BARRYMORE are self-conscious your audience Is bound to be self-conscious with you, and that Is fatal.

"It is not enough to be able to turn on the waterworks, as the phrase goes. That is a knack that any actress should have. It is one of the easiest things to do. I used to do it at school to make the girls laugh. But to have tears running down your face is not acting to touch an audience.

What is golmr to touch them is to have the tears In your voice. It does not matter whether you don't shed a tear at all, as long as the feeling is there. "Control is all Important. While your the first time. He wanted a person, sitting on the floor singing to Miss Chattcrton, to arise while singing.

The engineers said the singer would get too near the "mike." "Put it on line and haul It aloft when he gets up," suggested Barry-more. "If it works, all right, and if not, you can blame me." It worked, and microphones started moving. When he directed The Rogue Song, the first singing picture in color, with Lawrence Tibbett, a certain actor continually forgot his lines. But Barry-more was patience itself. Finally he went into the sound-proof booth, raised his voice and shouted the annoyance out of his system; then he went back, urbane as ever, and perfected the scene.

He would strive never to let his players know he was annoyed lest nervousness mar their performance. This was something fhat, as a director, he had learned from acting. Lionel Barrymore has no grand ideas about theatrical tradition. "I guess I'm an actor because my father was. It came easiest," he says.

"If the family had been engineers I'd probably have been an engineer. I "BABY" STARS lib OF 1938 5f I Mary Maguire (Australia) and WC Jane Bryan (U.S.A.) 19 years, jrT selected by leading directors of major film studos among Va thirteen "Baby" Stars of 1938. AX I I Finally, Miss Compton was reminded of her counsel to think rather than act a character. "My father taught me that," she says. "I was always taught to think first and act next on the stage.

The slogan of our school in London is The Thought Behind the Words." Young players too readily let themselves speak lines, without thinking at all of what they are saying. Often they like to Latest Film liJl III Harriet Hoctor Poses FAY COMPTON (Victoria) and ANN COD-RINGTON (Duchess of Sutherland in beauti-tiful The Rose and the Thorn scene of VICTORIA REGINA. will be found in Noel. Coward's play Hands Across the Sea, which, with the tragic melodrama Still Life, and the burlesque Red Peppers, will make up our next programme. Red Peppers picks me up after the tension of the When It was Indicated to Miss Fy Compton this week that Melbourne Is actually experiencing a boom In stage shows just now, she said simply: "I don't understand that." It must certainly' be difficult for anyone acquainted with tlio traditional theatre In London and New York to understand that the stare In Australia bad become moribund.

But the tldo seems to be turning. Victoria Reglna, Balalaika and two variety shows have stimulated Interest In an Institution which no civilisation can afford to let die. Now that the cinema Is commanding the attention of greater players In fewer pictures, the way should be clear to, induce them to spend some of their leisure In visits to this country to recuperate in vital stage performances. Errol Flyntfs )' I -f1' S5 JT I -w. "I Don't -it face is streaming with tears, your audience may remain unmoved.

In the first place you must control your audience, which is difficult enough, in all conscience. Supposing you have a pretty dull seme to play and this happens in every play and the audience gets restless, or you think they are getting restless, you must have enough command to rouse them to renewed interest. "But sincerity is the quality in acting I would hammer at most. Attack, and that misused gift of timing, follow closely. When to say the line, how long to pause.

That is the art of timing. You have to give the cue to someone else, so that they can get their laugh. How Important is timing PLAYS AND PLAYERS NOW and again Oregan McMahon departs from his practice of presenting only amateurs in his repertory plays. The Gregan McMahon Players' season will open at the Comedy Theatre to-night with John Galsworthy's last play, A Man's House. The second play, to be given on Saturday next, December 4, should be the surprise comedy of the season.

The Man Who Ate the Pope-mack, by W. J. Turner. In the revival of Bird in Hand, on December II, three professional actors will take part. Mr.

McMahon will play Thomas Greenleaf, Leonard Stephens is cast as Mr. Blanquet, and Field Fisher as Mr. Godolphin, K.C., the role played by Kay Souper in the original production at the old Palace Theatre. SAM COHEN will fill the role of Mr. Hatherllng-Carter in The Charlady and the Angel, one of the four one-act plays Included in Terence Crisp's season of provocative plays, to be stnged.

at St. Chad's tor three nights from Saturday next. Mr. Cohen took the part of Prince Ernest in Woman Proposes, the first of the Vic- torla Rcglna series played In Australia early this year. He may also be remembered for his characterisation of the father in the Newspaper Readers' sketch, which was one of the most amusing items In the University revue, Rhodes to Olory.

ifjLLA PRICE, who gave an Interest-Jibing performance in the Mclboumo Little Theatre's recent production of Budge, Budge Not, will take the part of Ruby Jenkyn in Illusions, This play of office life Is calculated to be one of the highlights of Terence Crisp's season of provocatlvp plays, to be staged at St. Chad's, South Yarra, on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday next. THE monthly meeting of the Un-nmA PlavAra tnlll hm IibM a. tl. studio, St.

Peter's, Albert-street, tomorrow evening, when Call It A Day, the comedy by O. L. Anthony (Dodl Smith) will be read, under the direction of Mrs. Male Hoban. fZ 'J I fy -izi-y fc- fki IV I 1 I I iL Ld JOHN BARRYMORE, who is cast in Maytlme, with Jeanette Mac-donald and Nelson Eddy.

HE has written stories, composed songs, painted pictures and made etchings, but nothing helped Lionel Barrymore'a acting as much as directing plays and pictures. "By directing I could watch and profit by other actors' mistakes, as well as their good points," said Mr. Barry-more. "I used to try and Imagine myself in the same role. I'd watch how someone did the scene, then decide how I would hav dons it.

Comparing the two methods, I would often hit upon the smoother way of playing the role. By doing this I helped the play or picture I was directing, as well as ad-, vanccd my education as an actor." The character actor paused to light his perpetual cigarette. He smokes a special brand of tobacco, which, unlike most cljarettes; goes out every time he stops inhaling. A "book" of matches almost lasts through one of them. "I guess that about answers the question of whether directing pictures has helped mo as an actor," ha went on "Of course, it helped.

Everything an actor does with a considered purpose is useful. I think studying art has helped me. I think a knowledge of music has helped. And learning some of the problems of the fellow behind the camera certainly has helped. Directing, if it has done nothing else, enabled me to realise what the other fellow's troubles are.

Every now and then I wonder if wouldn't like to go back to it. Then, when I see a director grabbing a sandwich on the set' at lunch time so that he can dash in and see 'rushes' before work begins on the set again, or when occasionally I disturb him burning the midnight oil so as to lay out the work on the stage or the next day, I say to myself that listing is pretty soft in comparison, and I'd better not go around acklng for trouble." Barrymore wouldn't have foregone his experience, however. It was when talking pictures first came In that he decided he'd like to try direction. He thought he saw a "slant" that other directors, in the sudden stampede toward stago technique and away from picture technique, had missed. His first big feature was Madame with Ruth Chatterton.

It was In this picture that a microphone was moved for LIONEL BARRYMORE, whose next film, for release after Christmas, will be CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS. 1 4 I i 3 1 I 7. 4 VV- I I 'n I I 1 5 7 iiy I i A Castle In Death Valley Those who sought vainly for gold in Death Valley floundered amidst real riches and never knew It. They had no eyes lor the ashen earth about them tremendous borax deposits that proved to bo worth millions. Universal' Going Places films' the last of the famous 30-mule teams hauling out borax.

The original discoverer of the dcnoelts' sold his claim for 4000, The hottest spot In the United States and one with the grimmest history Is Death Valley, California. It was In 1840 that Death Valley was a shortcut to the gold- mines for prospectors and a shorler-cut to death for the many who went mad, erased with heat and thirst in the blistering valley. 1 Utterly fantastic is "Death Valley" Scotty, who has a 400,000 castle in the middle of the valley, Wis yams of fabulous wealth In rich strikes, and yet has sever been vento'take an ounce of gold from the region. He enjoys riding in special trains, has a partner In Chicago who Is as mysterious as he, and drowses In Death Valley, enjoying the stir he has created with hit odd lite. tried to stop acting and study art.

I found artists didn't cat regularly." His brother, John, believes otherwise. He declares Lionel is the best actor in the world. So does Ethel Barry-more. Once John bet Charlie Dorian, Clarence Brown's assistant, that Lionel would "steal" a certain scene from him in Night Flight. Lionel didn't know about the wager until hi saw John gleefully coUeolIng the money.

Lionel has gained a certain perspective of a picture as a whole, which he subordinates- to his idea of an Individual scene. He learns not only the cnaracte he Is to play, but the entire story, and everything every other character means, "A play consists," he says, "of Interesting people saying Interesting things. A single actor can't 'register unless he is perfect part of the machinery as a whole." This Is another of the secrets directing taught him. Would It be a bad guess to visualise Lionel Barrymore finishing his career as a director KAY FRANCIS, with ERROL FLYNN, stars of ANOTHER DAWN, Warner film, which wtll be the next feature t. the PLAZA THEATRE.

Another impression of HARRIET HOCTOR, the classical danseuse, who will appear in 'the Fred Astalre-ainger. Sogers film, SHALL WB DANCE due at the Regent Theatre,.