MERLE OBERON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 4

MERLE OBERON

CONFOUNDS THE PROPHETS. She was born in Tasmania. Her real name is Estelle Thompson, She is, as yet, unmarried. She became a star in exotic, slant-eyed roles, but has recently been transmuted into a modern natural actress. Her name is Merle Oberon. One writer says that she will be better known as Cathy Earnshaw in' “Wuthering Heights.” Miss Oberon no longer tries to follow the "development” of her own career. After "The Private Life of Henry VIII,” in which she played the pathetic Anne Boleyn, it was predicted that she had a “future” in sentimental, appealing roles. When she appeared as a Japanese in “Thunder in the East,” it was suggested that she would replace Myrna Loy as the Oriental siren of the screen. Then came “The Private Life of Don Juan” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” and critics came forth with further prophecies. With “Folies Bergere” they changed

their tune. Merle Oberon would be the Theda Bara of today.

However, Samuel Goldwyn put her into “The Dark Angel” in a sympathetic, modern part, and pressed home the advantage in such films as “These Three,” "Beloved Enemy” and "The Cowboy and the Lady.” Merle Oberon finally emerged as an American lass. Her professional career seemed at last to have settled on a fixed course. Writers remarked at length on her "retyping,” but Samuel Goldwyn again upset the applecart when he cast her as Cathv in "Wuthering Heights." and plunged her back into the early nineteenth century in a highly dramatic and emotional role. Gone is the modern sophistication and the American accent.