IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 25

IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE

Bluebeard And His Eighth Wife

Flave No Retation to Life But Are Very Funny — | While They Last....

HOUSANDS of people, I imagine, will view the prosaic process of buying a suit of pyjamas in an entirely new light after seeing "Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife." As treated by Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert in this Paramount film, pyjama-purchasing is much more than just handing «a few shillings gcross a counter and receiving in return the wherewithal to combine decency with warmth. It becomes a daring, intimate adventure, a prelude to provocative romance. For Mr. Cooper-an American millionaire in Paris-does not want a full suit of pyjamas. He wants only the coat. Ninety per cent. of the male population of the world, he propounds to the scandalised shop assistant, do not sleep in pyjama suits. Only the eoats. It’s not the question of saving money that is worrying lim-it’s the principle of the thing. The coat-or nothing. Or rather, it’s no sale. All Over The Shop IIIS shop assistant cannot take the responsibility for this revolutionary proposition. He must climb long flights of stairs to appropriate music, pass down innumerable corridors, open and shut a great number of doors, and finally lay the problem before the assisiant-manager. And the assistant-manager must ¢limb more

stairs aecomanied by music. traverse more corridors, open and shut

more doors, and bring the matter before the general manager, The general manager in turn will have to ask the chairman of directors. At length, the result of all this stairclimbing to music, corridor walking, and door-opening will be made known to Mr. Cooper, the customer. It will be unfavourable. "We cannot sell only the coats of pyjamas," the skop assistant will say. "No never. That would he Communism !" At this stage, Miss Claudette Colbert must appeay tc break the deadlock. She will buy the pants that Mr. Cooper spurns. Not for herself, of course, but for someone as yet unnamed. That will be Intriguing. ‘Then she and Mr. Cooper must haggle over the amount cach is to pay, and the relative worth of coats and pants. And then they must go into a corner for Mr. Cooper to try on pyjama coats and be told that he is a "stripey type."

The Lubitsech Touch Y now, if you have any knowledge of motion pictures at all, you will surely have guessed who directed "Bluebeard’s Highth Wife.’ Ernst Lubitseck, of course! Who else could handle such a piquant situation with such Gallic wit? Who else is so fond or making film stars walk up stairs, down passages, and through doors, all to music? If this does not constitute the whole celebrated Lubitsch "touch" it is certainly a major part of it; and should Mr. Lubitsck be unlucky when his time comes to be translated to another sphere, it wouldn’t surprise .me if he is punished by being made. to walk the infernal corridors thr angh all eternity. (Continned on next page."

Yet only those, picture-goers who prefer the old-fashioned ‘uighkt-shirt as tuuch as they prefer a less sophisticated style of comedy will fail to find the opening pyjama episode of "Blue--beard" vastly stimulating. Not till much later did I notice the Lubitsch touch becoming a trifle heavy, a little too familiar, Aft the outset there was the promise

of a farce as brilliantly amusing as’ "The Awful Truth." It might have kept that promise if it had not lacked the vital spark of humanity Much-Married GARY ‘COOPER is a most. improbable "person in "Bluebeard’s WHighth Wife"’-an American Midas, who be

lieves in marriage so strongly that he hasn’t been single for six months since he left college, and is already paying alimony to six wives (and has buried another) when he sets out to add Claudette Colbert to his collection. Miss Colbert herself is almost equally improbable, as the saucy, shrewd French girl who will not just he

hought, but will teach her uxorious husband a lesson, by making it a marriage in name only-till the finn: scene. No intelligent audience objects to improbability so long as it is consis tent, and so long as it has even the slightest relation to real life. Let the characters carry on as erazily as they like, provided they are faithful-after their fashion-to the standards of behaviour they have adopted at the heginning. They can exaggerate — the truth for all they are worth, but there must be some truth to start with. On the other hand, once Iet the Improbable become the Impossible, and the very necessary illusion of plausibility is at once shattered. The thing thereafter is just a puppet-show which may entertain with its superticial cleverness for a time, bur is soon for gotten, A Worldly Mr. Deeds Puls excursion into the metaphysics of the cinema may seem unnecessary; but I haye a feeling that it reaches to the yery foundations of suceessful comedy productiou. [t explains why such comic -films as "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,’ "The Awful Truth," "Stand-in," and "Theodora Goés Wild." are head and shoulders :-above the rest. It-is the reason also why Bluebeard Cooper, although a great improvement on Gary Polo, does not live in the same street, or the same neighbourhood, with the Gary Cooper who went to town. flowever, apart from the fact that vou could believe in Mr. Deeds where you ean’t believe in the modern Bluebeard, the characters aren't altogether unlike, It is almost as if Mr. Deeds, having learned Big Business methods,

had gone to- spend hig millions on. the Riviera. His droll outlook on life has not altered much. And the actor: himself, though looking older‘ and «more worldly (as befits a man who-has éxperienced matrimony -eight times ) has very mich the same whimsical setise.of comedy, the same sure technique that, marks him as a. great. artist, . ,

Piquant Colbert IKEWISH, the piquant Frenchiness of Claudette Colbert has seldom been seen to better advantage. She is softly feminine when the mood. demands it, provocative and tigerish Bt. other momests, In the supporting cast (which includes also David, Niven, Warren" Hymer, Elerman Bing and Franklin Pangborn), Edward Horton is the Only one who seemed to me to be overwhelmed by the surrounding talent. He’ is the impecunious father of Claudette (and the recipient of the pyjama pants, in case you’ve been wondering). Ag I hinted before, it was only toward the end that Ernst Lubitsch ¥ave me the imvression of laying on the absurdity too thickly, so that the characters became artificial and the comedy hegan to miss fire. Up till then, "Blneheard’s Eighth Wife’ was a play of a hundred and one delights, as Gary and Claudette lashed each other with dowble-edged wisecracks, as they set ingenious traps for one another, and vallivanted up and down the luxurious Liubitsech corridors. {"Bluebeard’s Highth Wife." Paramount. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. Kirst release: Auckland and Wellington, June 24.] Light Romance In The Dark ae Boles Is Better T last they seem to have discovered what to do with John Boles. In "Romance in the Dark,’ Paramount have made him play the role of a conceited singer; and since Nature appeals to have done most of the work already, it wasn't particularly hard for Boles to make his performance moderately convincing. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed him better than I haye for ages, although what someone has described as his "air of conscious carnality"’ is still a trifte overpowering in the love scenes. Fortunately, John Boles is almost the least reason for seeing "Romance in the Dark." The real stars are Gladys Swarthout, John Barrymore, and a most amusing little foreigner named Fritz Feld, Gorgeous Creature T beats me why picturegoers don't get more excited about Miss Swarthout. She’s my idea of what a cinemi songbird really should be like-a gorgeous creature who's as good to look upon as she is to hear. She also knows

nn aa aal aa alalala aaa alas aaa aalalaala aia something about acting. You could wrap up Grace Moore, Jeanette MacDonald, and Lily Pons in cellophane and hand them to me all together on a golden platter and I’d still wanr Gladys Swarthout, Prohably one of the reasons why she has neyer created more stir is that she has been unfortunate in her choice of leading men. She had Boles with her for her debut in "Rose of the Rancho," and then Jan Kiepura almost shouted his tonsils out opposife her in "Give Us This Night." Now it’s Boles again And they've never given her enough light and eatehy music to sing, That’s the trouble again in "Romance in the Dark'’-althongh, mind you, her oneratic excerpts are something to sing about. * Typical Barrymore TS the wicked gleam in John Barrymore's eye, however, that lights up "Romance in the Dark.’ Whenever he waiks on the screen, he's the centre of attention in his typical Barrymore role of a bad old man whose chief interest in life-much more important than his job of operatic impressario-is depriving Mr. Boles of his girl friends. With what grace and subtlety he does it! I will say this for Mr. Boles (he’s known us Kovach, an eminent Hungarian haritone)--he does seem to know his limitations as a lady-killer: and so. in an endeavour to divert the hungry Barrymore eye from the Countess Moniea (Claire Dodd), he takes Gladys Swarthonr ont of her maid's costume and rigs her ont as a Persian princess and lays her Iuseiously at the Barrymore feet. Miss Swarthout, you see, is really a not-so-sinple-minded country girl who bas come to Budapest from the village eboir in search of operatic fame, and fiuding the direct approach rather difficult, has Slipped in by the servants’ entranee, Even Kovach, with his appraising gaze fixed on the Countess, ean spare a glance for the comely lass in the maid’s cap and apron who sings

grand opera while she dusts the draw-ing-room. ‘Thus the maid becomes the mysterious Persian princess with the golden voice, whose duty it is to occupy Barrymore while Boles (or rather, Koyach) carries on with Countess Monica, Confession NoOpopy. 1 should imagine, will be in the dark about the rest of the roinance. Obviously Boles, having hand ed the heroine over to Barrymore, must come fo realise where his heart really lies and strive to win her back and make amends. Obviously, also. {here must be the hig stage finale where the heroine will confess to the audience that she is not a Persian princess but just a local girl trying to make good; and the audience (in ua hig-hearted Hungarisn way) will acvlaim her for herself alone, while the contrite Boles ‘will clasp her in his wrms and. protest his passion in ringing tones, what time the heroine gazehappily down’ his throat. It’s a pity that the last part of- tke: dJm is all so obyious, because the rest 0° it honestly has a very subtle and chucklesome air of polite musical philandering. 1 enjoyed it immensely but perhaps you had better take fully into accent my confessed admiration for Glorious Gladys. ["Romance in the Dark," Paramount. Directed by H. C. Potter, starring Gladys Swarthout, John Boles, John Barrymore. Just released. ] Dog’s Meat AN interesting sidelighr on rhe hard- * ships some actors go through in the service of art is revealed hy thé "Los Angeles Times’ in this paraeraph :--- "Errol Flynn stuffed pieces of meat into his ears to get a small dog to leap up and lick his face in a film seene for Warners."

New Medium Found For Cartoons | Animated Dolls . A NEW personality has arisen in the film world who may in time become almost as famous as Walt Disney himself. He is George Pal, a Wungarian, who has developed a technique of cartoon-production, using animated «dolls instead of drawings, which give his pictures a three-dimensional quality. Dolls and models have fairly often been used in cartoons before, but what makes this new development really significant is that the animation of. Pal’s dolis is well-nigh perfect; ever treir facial expressions are alive with movement. The result is thar the dolls dance, "ing, fight, and make love like human beings, but with a delightfully comic quality that no ordinary human figure could equal. I have seen one of Pal’s puppet-car-toons in colour. It is an advertising film made for Philips Lamps and entitled "Philips Broadcast, 1988." Yet it is not an advertisement in the ordinary sense of the word, except insofar as anything so delightfully novel and entertaining much be excellent publicity for the firm that sponsors it. Hollywood Contract © achieve his unique -eftects in "Philips Broadcast, 1938," George Pal had to make and colour over 3000 separate dolls, since to give them their lifelike movements and their cute facial expressions needed something like 28 different figures for each: movement or change of position. In the final scene alone, 363 dolls had to be arranged and photographed in exact sequence and in synchronisation with the music of Ambrose and his orchestra. . George Pal was formerly head ‘of the

UPA Trick Photo Department, and for @ time kad his own trick film studio in Berlin. But his: Philips film was produced in Holland, and is so revolutionary in character and so full of entertainment that he was immediately engaged for a long-term contract with a Hollywood studio. Small Pictures }opw ARD SMALL, who, as vice president of Reliance Pictures, made several successes, including "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Last of the Mohicans" for United Artists’ release a few seasons back, hag organised a new producing unit, Edward Small Productions, which will release through V.A. Small’s contract with United Artists is for three years, and calls for not less than six pictures a year, Annonncement of his production lineup is expected soon. Too Long? Oe A READER has written to say that "he agrees with recent remarks in ‘he "Record" about the undue length of some picturas produced these days. "AS you say, some pictures deserve their length, and, for instance, I would quote ‘The Lost Horizon.’ 1 am look-

ing forward to seeing it again, despite the fact that it is approximately 11,000 feet long. On the other hand, some pietures would be better if cut to 6500 or 7000 feet," he writes, and instances "Anthony Adverse’ and "Charge of the Light Brigade" as films that were over-long.

"T think that nearly all the theatregoing public will agree that a good hour for ‘shorts’ and a ‘big picture’ of about 7000 feet is more appreciated than a long film without supports, no matter how good that film may be." concludes the letter. J wonder. ...