The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 47

ji jr i i i mmi i i THEHTER GOSSIP Glamour You Can Cultivate, But There's No Substitute or Ability PAGE 3 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1940 PART III I didn't need Sue Van Horn's charming 01 CALLED 5h ICllCI IU I CI 111 IU UC Uiai lb CIO ciuuwu. I did a story on Marjorie Rambeau. Mar- jorie's been knocking against my brain cells 1 rJ I i 1 I i- V' iimiiin iniii.i.iiiinfc i Newcomers Promise French Approach to Old Problem of Trite Films By Edwin Schallert She may prove to be one of the very special "finds" in the movies of the past few years. I'm talking about Ellen Drew, who has a peculiarly arresting quality on the screen, and yet somehow just misses the flash and the flair which halt and hold the fullest popular attention. She's probably an actress in the developing stage though not, at present, in realization.

She's getting the "breaks" though. Lately observed at the preview in "Christmas in July," wherein she had a tour de force emotional scene, she becomes the feminine luminary de luxe in "Reaching for the Sun," William Wellman's (producer-director, who spells forthcoming contribution to important cinema events. Joel McCrea has the male lead, and he is NOD By Philip K. Scheuer for a long time. But before I go into what I think about her, this is what Miss Van Horn says: "Now I haven't quarreled with you when you raised a temperature over some beautiful star playing a dramatic scene, but Marjorie Rambeau has accomplished that feat so many times, and she's much too good to be wasted in a secondary part which contains no dynamics.

Still, she can take one and carve out for her customers an unforgettable characterization. In 'Twenty Mule Team' and 'Primrose Path' on a double bill, it was enormously interesting to see her as Josie in one and Mamie in the other. Her etchings were done with such deft strokes Hitler's war queered three of Rene Clair's productions one, two, three, just like that. All three were started, none finished. So Clair, who was France's first great director of sound films, decided, the time had come to clear out.

He arrived in Hollywood, via Lisbon and Manhattan, last fortnight. Youngish-appearing though in his early 40's, medium-tall, quick-mannered, with dark brown eyes, drawn features and slick black hair, Rene Clair speaks MARJORIE RAMBEAU Praised for her fine work, she's an actress who never has been afraid to face the problems of life. ELLEN DREW While she has not yet won most perfect poise in her portrayals, she demonstrates exceptional promise. ways of making the same point." The stage made Hollywood lazy. Retrenchment is the best thing that could happen for creative with a typical accent but confi dent phrasing.

Reserved in his reaping acclaim because of "For- Correspondent" in discussion of the war, he de-jwork, he said, adding, "it is good clares that France fought the; that Hollywood has not so much eign that they were as sharply con-i trasted as a strong, lone pine them, modestly said "les." Then jmore complete and better round-; have shown themselves to be art ihe asked her to read a scene, and a flamboyant hibiscus. The verdict was "not enough ex "Her acting consistently overshadows that of so many of i I I ied out in its narrative. There jnkely to rivet interest on their So the Drew hour strikes very. should have been a topper fori tho rt, jfavorably from a tactical point! the climax. The film would heJhue cosen of view, for being matched withjhave been comparable with the (ew llk Krnst Another star who is clicking hril-j famous Frank Capra features in Frank Capra and a liantly inevitably helps to lendjthe most complete wav.

Whati0113'" roterie in tne Past- these critics' pets." plague, laid low by scurvy, agonized by dysentery. For thousands of square miles there was no doctor. The expedition was a dismal and ironic flop. The sourdoughs of Alaska looked with scorn and distrust upon a woman doctor. The expensive medical equipment might as well have been left at home.

Men died when good fight do not, money as before." In boom times yet but that only no one was concerned with turn-historical perspective will showing out good pictures; they all what really happened. He served cleaned up, good or bad. This with the Red Cross in the World was. one of two reasons he avoid-War No. 1 but never got into thisjed the West Coast (he attended one.

the "Ghost" premiere in New Clair was in England filmingjYork in 1936.) The other was J. B. Priestley's "Wonder that in France top directors like perience." She didn't get the part; yet she'd been under contract to that studio for two years, but how was he to know? He was too busy counting his $5000 weekly salary, no doubt. Her contention is, and so is mine, that movies need more gala atmosphere to an engage-! "Christmas in lark-s uiisn't an easy conquest incidental. ly.

Style is the thing that is re ment. naught to.crv about; but that! I Miss Drew Mas first made very lack provokes thought ini Iknown in an important way to; pondering a new and very prom-j mature, experienced players in i the serum that would have saved movie followers through "Singiising career of a very versatile; You Sinners" and as the French'new creator of movie entertain-! roles they understand. their lives was close at hand. But they'd be derned if they'd Prove the Point listen to any fool woman doctor They Never Knew Take the success of Harry Davenport in "You Can't Take It With You," the enthusiasm over Albert Basserman, star of the German stage, when he first So Marjorie in Alaska was disguised as a boy at 8 years; went quired, and there are many makers of pictures, superior and competent, who under studio sys terns do not get the chance to exert this prerogative. But regardless of that, it is the director of the picture, year in and year out, plus perhaps a few very smart studio executives, who most speed the screen on its course.

'Quiet, Slated for Biltmore Bow The world premiere of "Quiet, Please!" at the Biltmore Theater will be staged on Monday night, Oct. 14. "Quiet, Please!" a rollicking comedy about Hollywood, is to i 1 harpooning with the sailors, took ment. Valuable Note The amateur note in anything is often exceedingly valuable, and too rarely finds its way into pictures. After all, there is something thereof in our most successful stage show around these parts, namely "Meet the People." The theatrical business becomes appallingly routined in the devices that it uses in variously modified forms to entertain its clientele.

Too often can you suspect in advance just what is go trips for more than a week with waif Huguette in "If I Were King." Some of the pictures since then have meant less, until "Christmas in July." Both in "If I Were King" and this more recent exhibit there is evidence of a fault to be attributed to the feminine star-that of trying too hard for an effect. She misses by just that much, for the outcome is mechanical. Even her big emotional episode in "Christmas in July" lacked positive fire, despite it had all the other paraphernalia. With his realistic slant on picture-making Wellman is very likely to bring out the latent appeared in "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic them.

She could skin a seal and salt down the meat. She had to Bullet," and the unusual feat of Florence Bates, who made her Now, those are strong words. I wish I'd thought of them. And, after that rave, I'll go into her history a bit. Stage Star Won Out The famous Broadway stage beauty is having the time of her life jn "East of the River." As Mama Ravioli, she plays a warm, voluble, tongue-twisting Italian restaurant keeper in New York's lower East Side.

Judie Anderson, Beulah Bondl and half a dozen others were tested, but Marjorie is Mama Ravioli. With gray hair and lined face (mks to Perc Westmore instead of Nature,) she looks old enough to be John Garfield's mother, which she is in this picture, A few w-eeks ago Marjorie completed "Tugboat Annie Sails Again" and played the lusty part that made Marie Dressier famous but with a magnificent difference Annie is a new person, an Irishwoman this time, with the light o' battle for the fun of it in her eyes. She went on location to San Diego for the film, took over the wheel of a tug-, boat, threw heavy hawsers wear boys' clothes. It would have been pretty tough on little Marjorie if those gliys had ever found out she was a girl! She was a leading woman when she was 12, having got on the stage more or less acciden ing to mature almost every foot scintillations that, this vonnsr ar.if the way, tress undoubtedly nossesses. So! Examples of the moment are be presented by Jesse L.

Lasky then it will be doubly the Drevjthe afun pictures, westerns, TO-md produced by Henry Duffy. first picture and scored a hit when she was past 50. Then there's the third, or maybe it's the sixth, rediscovery of John Rarrymore. There was Marie Dressier herself. She was the only one of this list who was actually down and out before she discovered that movie stardom begins after 50.

"Youth and beauty are wonderful and belong in every picture," Marjorie says. "But you generally find you need some older, seasoned players around people who have lived to make the story hang together. They're convincing, that's all. Too often, glamour isn't." said a hour. i the fiim the same route, failing to draw on deeper wells of inspiration.

Another Triumph "Christmas in July," as I have capital it is interesting to know that F. Hugh Herbert and Hans Kraly, two of the outstanding scenario writers in the business, are the authors. 'Stagecoach, among the pic- pointed out ere this, re-proves, tures of that sort which havp is. the fact that Preston Sturges has! sued during the past few years, much to offer as the builder andjpieased because it offered 'more deviser of motion pictures. There! novelty.

It wasn't the most pop- tally in San Francisco. At 22 she played "Camille" from one end of the Pacific Coast to the other and got away with it. She used to drag the death scene out for hours. The miners in the audiences loved it. Boy, that was acting! The more they wept, the harder she acted.

She died, coughed, revived, died, coughed and died. The company manager used to hover in the wings calling in an urgent stage whisper, "For Pete's sake, Marjorie, hurry up get dead. The company wants its dinner." But she never died in less than 20 minutes. Later she became one of Broadway's brightest stars. Her great successes are remembered by an enormous, faithful following because she not only played them on Broadway but toured every a jcouj nu une uuuu uidi Luers uiar teature of tne Drocession.

1 adequately the scope of his efforts. For he can function as producer, director and writer if need be. He can act a scene or I'll grant, but it is, perhaps, the best remembered of the classy western and outdoor productions. The majority of these have 'RANGERS OF FORTUNE' This is the picture, featuring Gilbert Roland, Fred MacMurray and Albert Dekker, at the Paramount tomorrow. It is a lusty-gusty "western." -A too, if necessary gained a stuffiness in settings ItWIlt IMUI when Chamberlain went to Mu -mm iei aiurges, since ne wrote; and embellishments; but lack "Strictly Dishonorable" as a something of tne true primal has been a peculiar phenomenon; rigors and vigors that appertain, in the theater and in the studio! world.

He has gone quite aRising Powers gamut of good, bad and indif- ferent: vet he has a uemarkahlp Directors with as much per- nich. Result was the sudden withdrawal of funds by Clair's Julien Duvivier (nbw here also,) Jean Renoir, Jacques Feyder and himself were their own bosses 'carte blanche and no associate producers to get in their hair. A backers, and "Wonder Hero" was and even, one might sav, crude! sonality as Alfred Hitchcock and Sturges in their recent pictures experimental power. About "The Great McGinty," nous la liberte! Born Rene Chomette, Clair quit i for L'Intransigeant (Paris) to become an assistant director at 24. A year later he directed "Paris Qui Dort," a silent; but it remained for the talkies to put him across.

In 01' town in the country. Families who never saw New York or Hollywood knew Marjorie Rambeau as well as they now know Kit Cornell and Helen Hayes. Try to Equal This Her big successes included "Cheating Cheaters," "The Goldfish," "I'll Be Hanged If I Do," "Eyes of Youth," "Where Poppies Bloom," "Antonia" and a long list of plays that pack 100 lines in "Who's' Who in the The for example, there was a vigorous amateurishness of the best order, which endowed that film with bold originality. Most producers and directors would have shied completely away from the cutback method of storytelling. But Sturges ap Companion Featura Lew AYRES Rita JOHNSON- Hollywood at last, he is anxious to start all over on one of those three interrupted pictures of his; afterward perhaps he will go home.

peared to employ it without a LlM NOLAK Tiriii GIET Lmi ERROL Hit PENDLETOI LAST TIMS TODAY "ARGENTINE NIGHTS1 Ritz Bros. Andrews Sisters Stage MERRY MACS Extra "I Wont a Divorce1 JOAN BIONDELL DICK POWEU A Mlra-GoJdwyB-Mvi Plelur 1M quaver, and actually derived a new effect from the dynamic manner in which he used it. ater." His picture "Christmas in Marjorie tried retiring; briefly, nine years ago when she married July," I felt, could have been Frank Gudger, formerly a Samuel JAMES Goldwyn vice-president. They 1 One Way to Make an Angeleno See Redl Afterthoughts of a trip north: The contrast of high places, from the top of incredible Moro Rock, perhaps 7000 feet sheerly up in Sequoia National Park, to the Sky Room of the Mark Hopkins Hotel above San Francisco in mid-evening A city that still STEWART id tim for tomoftcc wit ROSALIND left high and dry. Later, in France, he tried again with "Air Pur," a whimsical tale of Paris children on their first excursion to the country.

Hitler invaded Belgium and Clair's staff joined the army. His assistant director was killed on the eighth day. Clair had prepared a third script, "Gayety Street," when what he calls the Battle of Paris occurred. His 1 1 a a Charles Spaak, returned to Belgium (and prison) and "Gayety Street" became nothing but an ironic phrase on the tongue. With his wife and child, Clair fled.

Says It With Camera; Less Cash, More Art Rene Clair's most illustrious works were "Sous les Toits de Paris," "Le Million," "A Nous la Liberte," "14 Juillet" and, in English, "The Ghost Goes West," with Robert Donat. His farces, Gallic and hence indescribably gay yet liltingly sad, not only pointed a new, economical use of the audible medium, but caused a virtual renaissance in French production. Clair's comedies were more popular In America, even, than at home partly because they were easily understandable to anyone and partly because they contrasted so sharply with our own then static talkies. Their creator still favors saying what he has to say with. the camera; he has no objection to dialogue as such, but he disapproves of its use "when there are 10 better went to live near the famous George Vanderbilt place in Bilt-more, N.C., and still maintain a large house there.

But with all respect to the polite Southern ladies of the exclusive country club set, Marjorie discovered that I RUSSELL majoring servant problems and two-forcing bids was tepid after 18 years' trouping. "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" This timely show, starring Joel McCrea and Laraine Day, will have its premiere at Four Star Wednesday. Glamour will be there. excels Los Angeles on two counts: well-dressed women and, restaurant for restaurant, the quality of the food. The contrasts are not as marked as formerly, but they exist; The reasons, as deduced after a terrific expenditure of gray matter: (1) The dolce-far-niente atmosphere of semitropic Southern California has made its women slack-happy; (2) being an industrial seaport, San Francisco has attracted a larger foreign She returned to Hollywood.

For the sake of her husband, a squire at heart, they bought a ranch in the valley, populated it with 5000 full-blooded Plymouth Rocks. They feed their fowl spe 'SERVICE WITH 3 THE COLORS' around the endurpd the rough fare of seamen. The re writer, "is just a tight skin, At the turn of this century GENEVIEVE TOBIN if. CHARLIE RUGGLES urn mi cu ci mm lOIIISC IMVMi Imrhl Pirl-Or toM HIKWIT loomu HISHllSMTr suits are extraordinary, cial vitamins, and all the eggs are bought by the local hospitals can't get enough them. ja woman doctor, rare in those days, set out from San Fran- Her recent pictures, "Ready For Love," "The Rains Came," Turn to Tage 4, Column 1 THUZISDAYI which they cut out every one of her comedy scenes.

"Primrose 1 ITJPEUSOII sr" Marjorie, who blandly admits to 48 shucks," says she, "I was on the stage so long most people think I'm has launched a new career for herself and stardom all over again. What a sense of humor this gal has. When some years ago she was asked by a top producer at a major studio (who had never heard of her) if she'd been on the stage, Marjorie, who has been a star more years than there are months with R's in Path" and "Twenty-Mule Team" TIB" started her toward the top again. dened with hundreds of vials of serum, clinical apparatus, test tubes, forceps, a "heart-warming ambition to do good and an 8-year-old daughter with laughing blue eyes and yellow hair. She was Dr.

L. B. Rambeau, Mar-jorie's mother. The idea was to set up a hospital and clinic for Eskimos and traders, who were stricken by Now "Tugboat Annie. Sails Again" and "East of the River" will put her not on, but over the top.

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