Evening star., 1933-07-31
Ethel Plans
A Return to
ThePictures
But" Says Miss Barry
more, Il Will Wait for
the Right Play"
GETS PRIVATE VIEW
OF "RASPUTIN" FILM
Star Has Never Seen the Pic
ture in Which She Played
Role of Czarina.
BY E. de S. MELCHER.

BY E. de S. MELCHER.
~ NE day this week Ethel Barry
more will see "Rasputin" for
the first time. Believe it or
~ not the ex-Czarina has never
seen her one and only talking
picture. Reversing the usual proce-
dare of stars, who, no sooner than
flm Is finished. run to see the first
preview, Miss Barrymore, cool, suave,
almost frightened at the prospect OF
watching herself, has at last expressed
a desire to see the great Barrymore
reunion in "Rasputin and the Empress"
The Warner Bros. have arranged
that she shall be given their small, prl-
vate screening room some day this
week, and there-alone, sequestered,
she will view her initial Metro Gold
wyn- Mayer picture. What will M-G-M
think when they hear that Warner
Bros. thus honorS rival starD
Talking about the film backstage at
the Earl, Miss Barrymore seemed shy
about it, as though she was still try
ing to make up her mind that she
really wanted to see it. Finally, when
Press Chief william Ewing asked her
II she would like to see it here in
Washington, she drew long breath.
smiled a kind of wistful smile, and
then said, in that slow, soft. vibrating
Barrymore voice: Yes, I think 1
should"
No, she wouldn't say why she hadn't
seen it before. She just hadn't, that's
all. Nor would she commit herself to
any future plans.
She did say, however, that she in
tends to make another film-not right
away, but "someday" Yes" she said
sitting in a camp chair back in the
wings of the theater. prior to her en-
trance in Mr. Barrie's ''Twelve-Pound
Look" Il shall do another film when
the right one comes along"
will it include other members OF
the Barrymore family?"
Il can't say
will it be on the order of 'Raspu-
tin'?"
II can't say"
will it be on the order of 'Raspu-
tin?'"
IT can't say"
Miss Barrymore is not an easy per-
son to interview. She smiles amiably
as she talks, she is most gracious, most
pleasing to look at, most charming.
But she is vague. She seems to be
fighting off any plain statement of fact.
We gathered, however, from few
minutes talk with her, that she is par
~
Colt, for doing so well last season in
Little OF Boy in New York, and
Ethel for accomplishing what she did
out with the st. Louis Municipal Light
Opera Co. before she had her re-
cent appendix operation she is
not too delighted with this vaudeville
tour; that she will not do it for more
than four or five weeks more; that she
thinks the play Washington saw as
'Encore' Is utterly delightful-a bril-
liant play 1--WE must have WINGED
present it in New York next
season; that she is fonder of the
stage than anything in this world; that
she will go to see THE Strangers Re-
turn" some morning, because she has
heard that Brother Lionel is SO splen-
did in it; that she doesn't like the
press that, when she sees "RaSputin"
for the first time she will see it quite
alone, and that the reason she hasn't
seen it (this is mere assumption) is
because she thinks that maybe she
wasn't very good in it, which is an
error.
But the future is a nebulous guam
tity for Miss Barrymore, except for
the fact she denied that she will never
do a Aim again. We told her of the
letter we had had asking her please
to turn again to the cinema. You
would be surprised" she said with that
slow, meditative smile of hers, "how
many thousands of letters I have had
on this very same subject. Tell them
tell them all-that 1 shall return some
day. Not soon-but someday.'
X
SCREEN and stage entertainments,
~ which should be set well up on the
weeks calendar include:
George Burns and Oracle Allen at
the Fox. This couple are the pleas
entest "nitwits" in the world. Their
act Is short, funny and funnier even
than that. Has any one been to see
them and not laughed? We should like
to have fsttcuffs with those who didn't.
Lionel Barrymore as Grandfather
Storr, Miriam Hopkins as his grand
daughter. and Franchot Tone as Guy
in that surprisingly effective film, The
Strangers Return at the Palcae.
Kay Francis making Mary Stevens,
M. D." most appealing character-in
spite of some over-thick drama
Ethel Barrymore. dressed as typist,
In her typist role in The Twelve
Pound Look''-and not as a prima
donna which any other star would
probably have done.
THE Worlds Greatest Thrills at
the Earle. This Is the Graham Me-
Nance film which you would, should
walk miles to see. Afterward you will
probably not be able to walk at all.
Those two cardboard Moonlight and
Pretzels" figures which Mr. Meakin
has planted in the lobby Of R-K-O
Keith's.
That demon juggler, Serge Flash, at
the Fox, who gets one of the biggest
hands of the year.
x X
TONIGHT is the night for local
thespians to get hot at the audi
tions at the Willard Washingtons
best will vie with each other to get
into the Loew-Fox revue. The time,
pm. The judges of merit-Gsne
Ford. Carter Barron and a sprinkling
Of drama sleuths.
Most farms are without water and
fiocks are dying off in the Bushman
Land district of Northwest Cape Prov
ince of Africa, where rain has not fallen
for more than two years