Evening star., 1934-01-02

VIII.
more of normal collegiate basis and
must have been much more fun for
all concerned.
High spots of last nights show
cramped somewhat by the limited
Belasco stage-included four excellent
singing LAOS who came out every now
and then in the manner of certain radio
celebrities; lady" by the name Of
AnaStaSia. who when she sang They
Always Weaken" proved herself" Git
was Mr.. A. MacD Wood more than
able to put song across; r. K Ritchie's S
Can 1 Make Noises ?"-and he can ;
H. T. Sears version of a Kentucky COL
onel, who was famous for not having
had any intelligence in his family for
200 years; the butler, PeeveS. who. as
played by M. l.. Wister. ditched the
third maid in favor of AnaStasia. and
G. p. Swift, who sang love songs to
w. H. Harrison whenever the oppor-
turity presented itself
The setting OF 'Fies':" was very at
tractive. the plot sor, hing about gold
in them thar hills. !ha music good
without being quite Up to Triangle
cahber-but the whole thing the kind
of show that you look forward to
seeing year after year with the same
particular pleasure.
THIS mornings surprise miSsive-an
interesting observation from Mrs.
Elizabeth Bates. who doesn't believe
that the films have a single actress who
is "superlatively beautiful"
She says: Il often wonder after at
tending the movies why the producers
openly boast that they do not have. nor
do they care to have. really beautiful
women in the pictures. Screen
actresses today are only fairly pretty
and many of the stars are positively
homely. Are there no really rare beau
ties in the world at the present time?
Are the producers unable to find them?
Or are the directors unmindful OF the
power and magnetism of sheer lowell
ness? The answer has been that rare
beauties seldom have accompanying in
telligence and personality. and conSe-
quently are unable to hold the interest
of an audience for any length of time
Lillian Russell and Maxine Elliot were
not great actresses Yet they gave a past
generation great deal OF pleasure.
Screen acting at any rate is no more
than the carrying out of explicit in
structionS from director, and does not
appear to require any very great amount
acting at the present time can be claSsed
great, and stars have no more dis
tncslon than the common garden va
riety Of individual you meet in the
street, will never give supreme pleasure
to lovers of art. Let us then have at
least one thing in the theater that is
really rare-one actress who is super
latiyely beautiful"
1T IS difficult to answer Mrs. Bates
since she has in most cases answered
herself. Having, however. on our Holly
wood pilgrimage. seen what seemed to
us to be a rare beauty on almost
every street corner, it is impossible for
US to agree that the players are
homely crew They are not. The
trouble Is that right now the camera
plays them mean little tricks which
portion. The chief portrait artist at
Paramount told us that Marlene
Dietrich was the most beautiful woman
he had ever seen in his life. If you
could have seen the stills he had
made of her you would believe him.
In the hurry and confusion and techni-
cal details involved in shooting of
picture the real beauty of a star is
often mislaid. This is bound to be the
case. however. until colored photo
graphy is perfected. and the audience
is allowed to see, for instance. the deep
blue eyes of an ELISA Landi, or the
milk-and- honey complexion of some Of
the other stars In most cases they
are far better looking In real life than
they are behind the lights
No beauties in Hollywood? The
trouble is that there are too MANY of
them. After awhile you begin to look
forward to bigger and better Polly
Morans.
A POLOGIES to Hardie Meakin for
continually referring to Flying
Down to Rio" as Rolling Down to Rio"
What with flying and rolling and Rio
and Dolores Del Rio all in the same
film. it was easy to go slightly ga-ga on
the matter. This doesn't mean, how
ever. that We didn't enjoy the film. We
did That "Cariocca" number Is still
hot before us. Very hot
THE Drama Guild has announced
that all manuscripts for its one
act play contest must be in the hands
of the Contest Committee by January
Is. The committee lives at $40 Rose
mary street Chevy Chase. Md.
Catherine the Valiant" will be pro-
duced next week, Tuesday and WedneS-
day evenings, by the Black Friars Guild
at ST. Dominic's Hall. SIS Sixth street
southwest. This is the play which has
been authored and directed by Moder-
ator Urban Nagle o. P. of this city.