HIS NEW ROLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 300, 10 March 1928, Page 25

HIS NEW ROLE

Douglas Fairbanks Is Now A “Gaucho”

Douglas Fairbanks, xohose fame I is world wide, and whose riches ran \ into millions, takes his time of late gears in making his pictures j uses care in selecting the stories, and works slowly to insure the finest results. Mis latest picture, “The Gaucho,” takes him to the Argentine, and so into new environment, for he has not before used South America as a background for his athletic prowess. The fact of his taking that new land has already caused a numbe- * pictures to be made, hurried things, with the Southern Hemisphere as their locale. Fairbanks has held his popularity against* all comers, and he was one of the first great stars of the screen, belonging to the period when he, Mary Pickford. Charlie Chaplin and ID. W. Griffith were the idols of the fans, proved by Miss Bickford’s “My Best Girl,” Chaplin’s “The Circus,” and Griffith’s latest picture, “Drums of Love,” which, just released in New York, has made a sensation. Since Fairbanks has begun to take infinite pains with the output of his studio, his principal pictures have been "Robin Hood,” “The Thief of Bagdad,” “Don Q., Son of Zorro,” “The Black Pirate.” a picture entirely in colour, and “The Three Musketeers,” in which his D’Artagnan was a delicious performance.

Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, a freak can make them as a freak has made others in the films, but this particular bunk artist has made all the fake Spanish princesses, French dukes and Russian counts look like a bunch of small-time glove salesmen, writes a correspondent. The big noise all started with the arrival of a tragedienne from New York. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t, for Hollywood is too busy to investigate all these claims. Suffice to say. she put it over very well, what with the exotic mask she made of her face with slickly dressed black cascading tresses, heavily made up lips and chalk-white face. Writer of Interviews She could read palms, and the character readings she gave to some prominent film executives were like nobody's business. A halting, creamy Russian acent made it all very exciting and flattering. She consented to work as an extra “just to get acquainted weeth feelms,” and obtained screen tests at several large studios. De Mille, always on the lookout for the unusual, gave her a test. Things were booming along. Then Olga, as she may be called, decided to promote herself by obtaining a position as writer of interviews on a Hollywood publication. This gave her entree everywhere, and she took it, whether officials were in conference or not. The exotic spell was potent, and movie men with salaries at thousands weekly paused to hearken to Olga. Soon Olga rented a suite of offices at the; Tec-Art studios, with a publicity staff, private secretary and facilities for making film tests. She was a producer, with a United Artists release, so she said. Casting for pictures began, and many famous ones, out of work because of recent shutdowns at several studios, came and took film tests. Casting Fop Pictures Olga looked like a heaven-sent gift for a lot of out-of-work folks. She would say sweetly to this star or that. “I’m planning on you for my fourth picture,” as she did to Kenneth Harlan, among others. Then one morning recently two sturdy men came to her exclusive apartment hotel. By evening Olga was only a memory to Hollywood, and Hollywood to Olga. She had been taken back to the local hospital lor the insane.