Evening star., 1936-03-27

historical personages decades apart
and widely different in nature Is no
particular trick according to the jovial
star who has just completed Suffers
Gold" for Universal. All one has to
do is hew to the real man behind the
false whiskers and let the history
books fall where they may.
Arnold astonished interviewers on
the Suffers Gold" set by saying that
he does little or no research for his
famous historical roles, has no make
up secrets, bothers only slightly with
the history Of the films setting and
makes no attempt to reproduce the
speech Of the period. He ventured to
say that he could play 40 historical
roles in rs many consecutive pictures
without undue strain and stated that
the whole secret Of his art lay in nine
words he learned as boy Of Is with
the Ben Greet Players. These words
are Shakespeare's, "One touch Of ma
ture makes the whole world akin"
Audiences are interested In human
beings with feelings like their own"
said Arnold, "and history comes Sec
ond. When I prepare q historical
role, I forget the mans public life al
together at first and hunt for the hu-
man keynote, greed, weakness, cum
ming or whatever it may be. When
you hnd that, you can begin your act
ing Interpretation and it Is surprising
how parallel the basic lives Of your
characters win run. At first glance
Diamond jim and Sutter look
worlds apart till you find the touch
of nature that relates them; their
tragic personal lives. From that point
I found they had q lot in common.
Their lives even overlapped. For In.
stance, in l84s. when Sutter was
ruined, the Secretary of State, who
had charge of California Territory,
was James Buchanan, for whom Brady
was named when Buchanan ran for
President in 1856, the year Of Jims
birth. You know Brady's full name
was James Buchanan Brady"
Arnold leaves historical accuracy to
the studio research department. He
follows the script because he claims
an actor must play the authors idea
Of q part, not his own. He never
questions prop or costume. He flrst
memories the entire script. Then he
builds up a complete life for his man.
what he would eat and how. the
books he might read, how he would
carry his money, shake hands, lift .
pen or smoke-all valuable business"
to be worked into the part. He reads
the characters letters whenever he
can, claiming they reveal human ma
ture most unguardedly.
He got the key for his Sutter char
acterization from the last faded page
Of the generals original pen-written
diary, in which Sutter showed deep
insight into his own tragedy. Arnold
used pictures of Sutter for character
study. propping them before him on
his desk as he read the script and
matching the appearance of the man
against the dialogue for naturalness
and characterization.
When shooting began he insisted on
nightly conferences on group acting
with Binnie Barnes, Lee Tracy, Mon
tagu Love, Director James Cruze and
the chief supporting players.
He wears more makeup than usual
in Suffers Gold" which Is to be
shown at R-K-O Keith's Theater In
the near future. The script takes
Sutter from his arrival as q penniless
Swiss immigrant. his heyday as q
California land baron. the discovery
Of gold on his property, which ruined
him, 10 his final scene as an 82-year.
old petitioner at washington.