Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-26
Friendships and pull"
Passed Up by Directors
The Player Must Have Certain Ability Be Espe'
cially Fitted for Role-The Life of Stock"
Actor or ACKNOWLEDGMENT Exploitation.
By Mollie Merrick.

and given an excellent part. She now
Is q free-lance player with plenty OF
opportunity to do the type thing for
which she is eminently fitted.
Stock players have a great advantage
in the beginning. Most lots use them
for Photographic exploitation. Sea-
soned players object to the continuous
publicity departments. There is the
great mass Of fan magazines to be fed
pictorially. A star with a day free
doesn't want to be called back to the
lot to make Fourth Of July layout,
let US say.
Can you picture Norma Shearer with
q day idle, posing in little black satin
shorts astride giant f1recracker, or
holding an arnful of Easter lilies for
the Easter edition of the Sunday
papers?
Anita Page has been largely pub
licized throughout the world by this
means. Far more than through the
parts she has had in pictures, although
a certain type thing fits her perfectly
and she has given some very satisfying
performances in her medium.
The director who casts on friendship
soon finds himself in need of friends
The oldtirne spirit of camaraderie is
passing from motion pictures because
of this very thing. The reports going
through the colony Of the "caginess"
OF this or that one, are due to the
fact that directors, themselves travel
ing on very thin ice in these days of
money stringency and producer doubt,
do not want to be put on the spot
With players they have known for years
and liked. and who have obsessions to
play certain roles.
More and more casting directors are
drawing into themselves and taking to
the yacht or the hideaway house at
the beach, where he will be free from
embarrassing suggestions and obvious
hints.
If the picture of the future is cast
out OF q stern desire to give the best
that money can buy, we have some
thing to look forward to in picture
making so far as actors and actresses
are concerned. The Hollywood woods
are full OF good ones and more and
more their worth Is being evaluated
correctly by producers.
Roland Young, an actor Of quality in
the legitimate, is slowly finding himself
in pictures. His unfailing success in
small parts-his unfagaing ability to
pick up the moment with a subtlv-
turned phrase or a perfect bit of suave
pantomime, has made him a tremen-
uOuS asset III taking pictures. SO sure
his worth that it has escaped the OBJ
vious director or producer accustomed
to the high-powered and infinitely more
crude methods of yesterdays Hollywood.
Elizabeth Patterson is another player
for whom I predict a great career in
pictures. When Ernest Lubitsch chose
her for the lady-in-waiting in 1.-The
Smiling Lieutenant" he contributed to
picture which will be famous for its
technique and tricks far more than for
its story-a fawlesS hit Of comedy
first saw Elizabeth Patterson in New
York in The Solid South" the play
which gave Richard Bennett tand the
Bennett curtain speech) to the public
in an excellent Characterization. Her
name went up in electrics alongside of
Benefits because this actor-erratic
and maddening at times, but always an
excellent actor-realized that she was as
much a contribution to the performance
as he. She has been in Hollywood but
a short time, but each performance she
gives is done with that unfailing power
to stress the little characteristics which
make Of her studies In human nature q
very rare art.
With the coming gesture in casting,
the rating of the talkie must needs 60
UP, no matter where the market goes.
(copyrieht, 1881. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, 1ncO