Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 58

7 urn moQut a Tala Birell, Exotic Menace of the Screen, Turns Out to Be Just a Nice Girl Doing a Good job of Acting SCREEN RADIO WEEKLY A mil 'v? A- -l A ilk rtl servative and conventional than their i 4 I Vs By Lyle Rook American sisters. "The women of Vienna; about whom so much' romantic fiction has been written and who are supposed to be always ENTLE reader, step and be so gay ana enervescent, are in disillusioned. s. quite sober and ooisedi I have just been interviewing a glam- "But, "Too' orous, exotic foreign film star. And as many men praised the great charm a result I'm about to become "eligible; for 6i Viennese women, all Viennese women, membership in a club of those: writers fpf it to be just an illusion.

How do" Mw It $mtl i v' rf Fr fit wno spena ineir time oeounKinK parKwn you account tor. that? a-aa Africa nd givingnhe real low-down, "Ah, that is quite simple," she laughed. South Sea Island, paradises, And when she laughs she crinkles her fsn'f nose distractingly. "When a wdrnan goes' out with a man in Vienna she devotes all her attention, her interest to him. She makes him feel that tonight he is the most important man in her life.

Around him everything centers, for the moment at least. She mite exotic and doesn't even like the word glamour. Lft me present Tala Birell. Tala Birell is the luscious Viennese actress who has just finished an im- portant role in "Let's Live Tonight," with. Lilian Harvey and Tullio Carminati, for Columbia.

She is the same Birell, mind you, who was brought over from Europe several years ago by Universal. A fanfare, of publicity trumpets announced her coming. She was hailed as one of the most beauT tiful women in the world (which, incidentally, she is). She was ballyhooed as the gal to make Garbo go back-to-hp tall timber from which those Swedish matches are made. Every' magazine carried her picture.

All which added up to' nothing. There were plenty, of pictures of Tala in the magazines But none on moving picture screens. Instead, there was a maddening scarcity of parts for this lovely person the press agents raved about. She found out what many other picture people have found out that the best way to be "discovered" iri Hollywood is to go away rotr Hollywood. She went to New York.

"She had been a popular star in Vienna. She would try her luck on the a American stage, FlRST she was in a play that-failed to get past the try-it-on-the-dog test. Then. Broadway Saw her in a successful mysHry play. At- the conclusion of its run, GoliJnjiic signed her.

Gilbert Miller wanted her for an- other part with Walter Connelly and Er-. Jill nest Truax, but apparently Columbi. II YTT 7 talked faster. So she came back to Hollywood. Well, vent to see her believing that exotic business mvself.

Whv not? She 1 1 plays the "glamorous feminine menace" onnosite Mr. Carminati in "Let's Live jWT lis1 'xir' (a i 2fjr 7A does not flirt with other men or try to attract their attention. She strives to please her escort, not impress him. And a good listener is! "And," she finished, "you krtow- men." ISS BIRELL a reputation for being very well dressed and for invariably choosing the style best suited to her tall type. So I brought up the subject of clothes.

"1 have to fight elaboration in my picture wardrobes," she said. "There, is something about my face which makes them want to dress me in the most exaggerated costumes, "Simplicity should be the keynote of any woman's wardrobe, in my opinion. It is in Europe. There the smart tries never to be conspicuous. She rarely has many dresses at one time, but she does insist that they b'e of good quality." Tala Birell's beauty gives the effect of complete naturalness, something else which is not according to the accepted Tontgbir" which is described as a musical romance of the Riviera, Monte Carlo and a yacht in the Mediterranean.

There is allure in the very sound of her name. The camera gives her beauty the quality of orchids. I could see her dancing on 'a terrace to the rippling loveliness of a Strauss waltz with moonlight glinting her. sinuous skirts. In such a mood I approached the apartment house where she lives.

And just arotmerth, corner a group of the natives were pitching horseshoes. Hardly the appropriate introduction to a visit to a siren. Two minutes later the mood was further shattered by Miss Birell herself. She has a firm, friendly handclasp and the, room was flooded with sunlight. No subtle, theatrical effects of lighting' or decoration.

Just a pleasant room. Did trail a slinky hostess gown and loll on silken cushions? She -wore a casual knitted blouse and a 4 A 1 i tl Above it Tala BirtU, th exotic charmer of the screen, the perioniRca-tion of the overworked word "glamour." At left ie Tala Birell at the it a healthy, modern young woman who it a good actrett, but who confine her acting to picture t. stanaaras tor aangetoustemate. plaid sport, skirt and she sat erect and vet at ease in her well-bred amny She has long eyes and high cheek Junior Leaguer, smoking a cigaret. bones-that makes faint, fascinating hollows beneath them.

Her hair is light LAUGHED wearg it waved back loosely from her presently over my expectation that she might be rather like something out of is low and charming, She has an interesting theory about the reason why European women often Jiave more attractive voices than American women. She thinks the numerous languages an educated, girl on the Continent is obliged to study toiake for greater flexibility and 11 modulation in her speech, As for the glamour she is credited with, well "What js this glamour, anyway?" she said. "I hear the word so much and I don't know what it means, do vou?" "I still feel, though, that the fate of many a play is decided by what Mrs. Critic gave Mr. Critic for dinner." Then, abruptly, she changed the subject.

A. "Do you know," she mused, "there is much less ambition in Europe. Here it is so how do you say it climbs so high there is never any end. "In Europe an actress is content with success in one place. Sbe marries there, more often than, not, and has her home there.

She is perfectly happy to be a queen where she is known and loved, and does not long t'go to Berlin or Paris where she would', be a nobody." ISS BIRELL speaks with the faintest accent. Her voice Elinor Glyn. "Probably because I am Viennese with a dash of Polish," she suggested. "It is so natural to think that anything or anyone foreign must be utterly different from what one has known. I remember in Vienna before I had ever been to America at all and I knew I was to meet an American I expected her to be a most romantic figure, just because she lace.

ihe uses little make-up and that bit cleverly. No violent gasb of blood red mouth across a dead whiteoface for this foreign enchantress. I vow to you that the most conservative minister in the old Lome town would entirely approve of the way she grooms her beauty. Miss Birell loves theater. "Before I left New York in she said, wanted to see as many plays as possible? so I went to five in succession.

And at that point I learned to sympathize with the critic. By the fifth play I was so fed up I couldn't stand any more, in spite of my profession. So when you see her "menacing" away for dear life in her next picture, do not be deceived, just remember to admire her all the more because you know she is a consummate actress. The real Tala is a grand person, a reallv nice eirl. was American.

"As a matter of fact, European women, even actresses, are ordinarily more con-.