Imperial Valley press., 1937-01-03

several weeks studio grind, but l generally go
to New York. catch up on the shows and enjoy
the luxury of retiring late without worrying
about arising for an early call the set
| am writing this while resting up from the
very arduous role l play in You Only Live
Once" We worked in rain and wind and every
kind of storm right in the studio and I'll take
the real elements if it comes to choice. Those
Hollywood experts who specialize in artificial
storms have my admiration, but they surely
seem to take keen delight in going nature
one better.
They pour rain on you from above and from
all sides, lashing it in your face with the aid
of wind machines and other devices. Before the
cameras start rolling they douse you with
buckets of water to get you in the mood-and
add ice if they want you to shiver. I had to
change clothes many times day while we were
making these sequences. Directors like Fritz
Lang go the limit to insure realistic effects on
the screen, fact first discovered in Fury"
For instance, If you're supposed to be exhausted
and out of breath in a closeup. he makes you
run up and down the set until you really are
before he shoots the scene. He has a knack
of getting the players in the mood he wants
them whether it's gay serious.
Another director / am looking forward to
working with is Anatole Litvak who will do
"Wuthering Heights for Walter Wanger. Mr..
Litvak has directed a number of fine pictures
Bronte story. Charles Boyer and are to play
the characters of Heathcliff and Katherine Earn
shaw in the perturbation of the English novel
which Ben Hecht and Charles Macarthur are
adapting
1t was my privilege to visit the Bronte coun-
try around Haworth while | was in England
last summer. I tramped the Yorkshire moors,
inspected the parsonage. inn, old houses and
other spots identified in the story, and absorbed
all the atmosphere" I could. I have read or
am reading everything available by and about
the Brontes. The Katherine Earnshaw of
"Wuthering Heights" is one of the most inter-
esting women In all fiction and hope can do
justice to her.
I ALSO am thrilled over the prospect of doing
| a picture with Mr.. Boyer. who is great
actor and a grand person. While we were COM
pleting "You Only Live Once" his new picture,
History Is Made At Night" was getting under
way at the United Artists studios, and I played
hooky from our set couple of times and
watched him and Jean Arthur dance the tango
In cafe scene. He is amazingly versatile. He
was monk in his co-starring vehicle with Mar
ene Dietrich, he's gay Partisan in History
Is Made At Night" and in the Bronte story he'll
play gypsy.
Mr. Boyer and his wife, Pat Paterson, man.
age to get away from Hollywood for a few
months each year.
among normal people when he's not working In
pictures.
Actors aren't normal people," he laughs IF
we were, we wouldn't be actors"
Those are my sentiments. too.
or course, we mean that the Kaleidoscope
whirlgig In the land of make-b believe isn't con-
ducive to what the world at large regards as
normal living It's practically impossible to
play anything with assurance your plans will
be carried out-even your eating and sleeping.
When you're making picture your day starts
early and lasts as long as the company decides
to work Sometimes you work all night and
meet yourself reporting for duty the next morn
ing.