Evening star., 1934-02-26

away is question. however, as
sketched briefly by him last night
this death scene will be well written
and we'll spoken, and we hope (since
the play is so much play of himself)
that it will not permanently tempt
him to give up the ghost.
WHEN an actor writes a play
that's news. But when the
same actor writes a play about the
flms-thats even better news. No
varros many years of stout service
with M-G-M are sometimes reflected
il his play, and his many little hopes
and fears are pictured with both wit
and sensitiveness. The only fault we
thought We found last night was that
the electricians and stage hands
talked too brightly
Not at all said Mr.. Novarro, "if
you knew them as 1 do you would
agree. l think, that they are very in
telligent and often very amusing
and more than once have been forced
into the acting game because they
"SIO tOO SOO- ~ OS hCpl Out.
AS in the studios these wise crack
ing gents set the stage for Novarro'S
first act in a scene called The Re-
Take" which should particularly
amuSe struck audiences. From
there on he tracesSwhat he calls "the
thousand lives" OF an actor. showing
that the films aren't all beer and
skittleS. and that it is often Just as
we'll to be on the outside as otherwise
Through the weave of his pattern
he has stressed, not so much the cold
white glare of the studios. the super
f1Cial gloss and the hectic strain of
temperament, but rather the idealistic
side of both the have-beenS and the
might -have-beenS. and the small, in
innate sorrows that few suspect and
many have. He has not stripped
the studios bare, as in broadway
or "Burlesque," and his action is
not so violent as to make audiences
alternately hot and cold. But you
suspect now and again that he would
like to reveal much that he doesn't
and that if the cinema isn't turned
inside out he would occasionally per-
hapS like to do so.
WE DO not know just how happy
or unhappy Mr. Novarro has
been in his screen work, but we Sus-
pect, from few of the more sensi-
tive lines in his play, that he has
reached some kind of a crossroad. and
that from now on he will devote more
time to his music and to the stage
than to the screen. 1t seems as if
suddenly he has come upon a new
'metier" which pleaseS him with that
innate joy that comes to a child when
he finds that he has grown as much
as he has set himself to grow during
a given year. When Novarro speaks
of writing and acting on the stage,
he does SO with a fresh enthusiasm
and a warmth that suggests that the
exploration of the new is dearer to
him than the return to the old. 1t
is not hard to see that his trip to
South America. for instance, in the
near future. and the possible playing
of his play at the Old Vic in London
are beacons in the path of his career
JOY and anticipation--mor so than to
that day when he must return to
Hollywood and succumb once again
to the blur of the lights and the
/ monotonous grind and clicking of the
camera.
Not that Novarro speaks diSparag-
ingly of his film days-which have
been long and honorable. He will
tell you with gusto of events of the
past and will not stall even when
people are brave enough to ask him
DO you like Garbo?"-and he does.
But there seems to be a definite call
out of an until now unknown wilder
ness which is leading him on into a
new field of endeavor, and one which
/ has all the earmarks of being some
thing fairly permanent with him
There may be one or two more PA
/ gan Love Songs" Most of them, we
believe, however, will be on the stage