WHO WILL SUCCEED VALENTINO?

Shannon News, 9 November 1926, Page 1

WHO WILL SUCCEED VALENTINO?

GREAT PICTURE ARTISTS. FAME MADE EAST. Rudolph Valentino’s death leaves a blank in the ranks of popular film stars which, however, one may speculate on the name of his successor, is actually unfillable. A screen idol is generally made by one picture, and since the picture-going public requires an attractive personality'much more than brilliant acting, his or her merit is by no means commensurate with the publicity accorded to it. . At least four names come to the mind immediately. Ricardo Cortez, Victor Varconi, a new arrival in America from Hungary, Ramon Novarro, whose latest picture, “The Midshipman,” proved . highly popular,' and whose name was made by his initial appearance in “The'Prisoner of'Zdnda,” and, finally, the English actor, Ivor Novello, whose apache role in an adaptation of “The Rat,” made him still more an idol of the women. Any or all of these might ■be said- to be capable of becoming ‘‘the Sheik lover,” but in fact they would all be entirely different in method; Navarro would always be Navarro and not a new Valentino, and the .same with the others. * liucky Hits. Names on the screen can be made, from a single appearance in a picture. (Adolphe Menjou’s success in "A Woman of Paris” is an excellent example of this), and a name that has not been before the public for a few months can be as easily forgotten. It may happen that , a part is eminently suitable to an artist who is being given a first chance, and a new 'phenomenon is promptly hailed in the screen heavens. Valentino was made by his part in ‘‘The Pour Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” just as! Betty Bronson was made by the screen,; version of “Peter Pan,” which part suited'ber .admirably; in other parts she has 1 not been successful,- but her name is accorded a publicity value for as long as shg, keeps before the public. ' \ Barrymore and Jannings. In John Barrymore we have a popular figure and a great artist combined; Barrymore is nob only' always Barrymore, but the character he is setting out to interpret. There ai;e very few artists of equal merit who have'attained equal popularity, since popularity is never measured by merit. His 1 performance in “Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Hyde” still remains one of the most notable in the short annals of film history. And then of course there Is Richard Barthlemess whose claims cannot be. overlooked. As a contrast We have a consummate actor like Emil Jannings who, while the pictures he appears in may. obtain popular applause, will never be a personal attraction or what one is forced to term “a box office attraction”, in himself. His latest, picture “Vaudeville,” is a fine piece of work, and while catering to him habitues’tastes, is also a remarkable example of brilliant acting and screen technique? which is full of promise for the' future of pictorial entertainment. 7 Cliavlie Chaplin.

Charles Chaplin, of course, still remains the most amazing ngure in the history of the screen. He was one of the first to realise that he was dealing with an entirely new medium, and has always worked along the lines of pictorial rather than sub-title expression. He is supreme, still in. his comedy, and, if he were allbwed, would probably excel equally as a producer and actor of melodrama. Coming "new comedians in Harry Langdon, who can quite fairly be termed a Grock of the screen, and Glen Tyron, whose first big picturej “White Sheep,” was one of the few genuine film bux’lesques, may conceivably be.classed near, but will never rival him.

Apart from the people wdio have appealed to the few by their brilliant acting abilities, such as Bernhard Goetzke, Werner Krauss, Paul Wegener, Koline, and, it must be confessed, a great number, of Continental artists than America or British, big personalities fall into recognised types. We have the gentlemanly and pleasing art of Ronald Oolman and the undeniably attractions of the daring George O’Brien, who scores to a great extent because he is more an English type, and a confirmed romanticist in his parts. Reginald Denny, too, is the ideal screen gentleman, and although at first restricted by the roles alloted to him, will one day be as household a name as Valentino. John . Gilbert, the hero of “The Big Parade,” is another extremely popular juvenile. Tom Mix still reigns supreme in the western drama, though closely run by Hoot Gibson, while the dare-devil feats of Richard Talmadge in extraordinary bad plots vote him the acknowledged favourite of “stunt” artists. Douglas Fairbanks is in a class by himself, and is either liked or disliked, according to taste; as an actor he is execrable, as an expression of virility and pose excellent. ’

Of the coming stars Victor' Mcßaglen, a* South African, who has recently gone to America, is likely to go far, while Norma Shearer and Dorothy Gish, who has dropped the annoying gestures inculcated by Griffiths in her first British picture, “Nfil Gwynn,” which was historically horrible, but showed both her possibilities and ,thp