Cinema... Snapshots

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21205, 30 August 1940, Page 4

Cinema... Snapshots

Stars’ Personal Preferences (From Picturegoer) “Between ourselves, what do you really think of Ginger Rogers?” “How does Gable behave when you interview him?” “Is James Cagney as rude off the screen as he is on?” “Can it be true that Jean Arthur resents playing opposite young screen partners?” “Is Shirley Temple a brat?” These and scores more accumulate in my mail. Many fans feel one can tell more through the post than through Picturegoer and Film Weekly • “’T ain’t so,” as Goldwyn might say. But, crystallising personal preferences forced upon me by experience and speaking strictly professionally, I list the following:— Easiest to Interview: Bette Davis, Clark Gable, James Cagney. Most Difficult to Interview: Joan Crawford, Myma Loy, Robert Taylor. Easiest to Approach: Anna Neagle, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell. Most Difficult to Approach: Margaret Sullavan, Nelson Eddy, Errol Flynn. " Most Friendly: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert. Most Unfriendly: Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Franchot Tone. Most Self-conscious: Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper, Fred McMurray. Least Self-conscious: Ronald Colman, Norma Shearer, Deanna Durbin. Most Outspoken: Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Maureen O’Hara (no men!). Most Cautious: Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, Bing Crosby (no women!). Most Humorous: Mae West, Thomas Mitchell, Ray Milland. Least Humorous: George Raft, Paul Muni, Jack Benny. Most Talkative: Basil Rathbone, Cary Grant,'Brian Aherne (all men and British tool). Least Talkative: Myma Loy, Ann Sheridan, Priscilla Lane (all women and “oomphy,” too!). This doesn’t mean I’ve nothing to say about the rest. But I need space to correct a few of Hollywood’s persistent publicity fibs. For instance:— Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire never have quarrelled. Garbo isn’t really nervous when she meets strangers; she’s intrigued. Jean Arthur didn’t protest against costarring with young William Holden; she was flattered. Errol Flyrm buys yachts and things but isn’t by any means a spendthrift. If he weren’t Irish they’d brand him Scotch. Shirley Temple isn’t brokenhearted about leaving films; she isn’t a dwarf; she,’s a natural little girl of twelve, not eleven. Paulette Goddard isn’t secretly married, nor is Bette Davis or Deanna Durbin, Booh by George Arliss 1 Mr Arliss says the great difficulty of his career has been to find the right story. He thinks that Hollywood spends a great deal of money for “ production value ” in films that the public cares for not at all as a (substitute for a good story. He enjoys film acting because there is no audience to make him uneasy; yet, he admits, it is from the reactions of the audience that the stage player learns his business. He has the warmest praise for the Hollywood executives, with their varied talents, and for the studio writers and technicians. Keen is his appreciation of the ability of the players who have worked with him, particularly Bette Davis. His description of the London premiere of “ Old English,” when the film was swamped by the preliminary added attractions, and the audience recovered from the numbness of boredom only when the sound apparatus went wrong and the players continued obviously to be away ahead of the words they were supposed to be speaking, is one of the many instances of Mr Arliss’ ability to enjoy a joke upon himself, in retrospect. On this occasion he walked out on bis own show. He draws piquant vignettes of his rhome life at St. Margaret’s Bay in England, where it is understood that he is not to interfere with the gardening. all because he once made some trifling mistakes while doing some weeding for Mrs Arliss. Busy Star Madeleine Carroll, co-starred with Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward in Edward Small’s “ My Son, My Son! ” is Hollywood’s busiest star, as a result of her determination to do everything in her power to aid in the relief of civilian war suffering in England and France. At the outbreak of hostilities, Miss Carroll turned over her chateau in the south of France for use of children removed from Paris and other big French cities. Since that time she has sponsored numerous benefits in Hollywood and Los Angeles and has supervised the sending of money to ► Europe for relief purposes. In between takes, she knits sweaters on the [ lot. FLASHES D ON AMECHE, Robert Lowry, Alan Curtis and George Ernest t will be the four sons in the picture I of that title. • » » * I r A LFRED BASSERMAN. 75-year-■‘old German refugee, who scored /a hit in “Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet,” I has been signed for an important : role in “Foreign Correspondent.”