Evening star., 1937-09-05

JOYS OF contact WIN q living duQlellCc
and that his most consoling dream was
of triumphant return to the Broad
way stage. in, of course, a vehicle
worthy of him. 1t happened. however,
that a dream was just what the whole
idea turned out to be. The swimming
pools were too comfortable, the lux
uries of Hollywood home too entic-
ing and the fame of Hollywood
career too hypnotic to allow the
glamour boys and girls to take a
chance on the joys and sorrows of
frugal Manhattan existence. Cali
fornia, for all it's defects, was safety
and luxury and Broadway was hard,
grim road, wherein the rewards, while
pleasant, were far less tangible. It
was plea that was pretty convincing
and, although we sneered at the
players a little for their romantic
whimsies about dear old New York,
we were not unimpressed by their
realistic logic.
It can hardly be said at the mo-
ment that complete change has been
made in the souls and spirits of the
cinema luminaries. Greta Garbo,
Joan Crawford, Shirley Temple and
Robert Taylor are hardly trampling
over each other in their ecstatic de-
termination to get to Broadway before
all the good parts are snatched up.
There is no immediate danger that
the film producers are going to start
hof ho &c rchhiv,y
them of all the acting talent that they
have so labodously brought together
1t does happen, however, that at last
sizable number of Hollywoods dis
tinguished citizenry have decided to
stop talking about their longing for a
something about it for a change They
are hardy pioneers, following in the
bold footsteps of such valiant trail
blazers as Margaret SULLIVAN and
Katharine Hepburn, and I can only
hope that they will achieve, every one
nation merits. No one will expect them
to change the entire course Of the
drama, but unquestionably they will
help to restore color and interest to a
medium that is in need of such quail
ties and seems on the verge of getting
them. It is my guess that they are
being as wise as they are courageous.
SOMEHOW or other, after seeing two
such triumphant pictures as Dead
End" and "Vogues of 1888" am even
less bothered than I was before about
the peril that the cinema offers to the
stage. Both of them have their merits,
and both of them will make additional
fortunes for their producers, but there
Is something about them that proves
with some conclusiveness that the
screen, despite all of its tremendous
nerits-I tried to point them out dur
ing my IL years as film critic, and ]
certainly do not intend to 60 back on
them now-still is pretty feeble imi-
tation of the theater when it attempts
% enter the field Of its ancient STEP
srother, the stage. When 1t stays in
- ewn field, which is that of broad
and sweeping narratives Of somewhat
epic quality, or Of Ernst Lubitsch's
witty. epigramatic pantomimes it Is
brilliant and exciting medium. AT
least the first part Of my statement is
stirringly confirmed by the dramatic
effectiveness Of THE Spanish Earth,
the eloquent documentary film paean
to the justice of the loyalist cause in
Spain made by Joris Ivens and Ernest
Hemingway. Here Is q work which
sticks to It's own fields, avoids stage OF
studio as it would plague and trt-
umphs by its very honesty and sim.
plicity. But when the films try some
thing which the stage has done or car