Evening star., 1937-10-10

notable eXpOnentS of the art of love-
making as Robert Montgomery, Rob-
ert Taylor. Franchot Tone (the quiet
type), Herbert Marshall, Tyrone Pow
er, Gary Cooper. Frederic March,
Charles Boyer, Dick Powell and a
number of others who have made
hearts beat faster and wrists turn
limp. On the other hand, or prob
ably one should say, of the other SEX
We saw Joan Crawford, Maureen
OSullivan, Jose ephine Hutchinson,
Claudette Colbert, Frances Dee. An
1ta Louise, Alice Faye, Rosalind Rus
sell, etc.
In the course of virtually a whole
month of seeing movies made, we
saw only one pair of these famous
lovers and beloveds exchange the
slightest sign of affection. That pair.
silly though it sounds, were Miss
Crawford and Mr.. Tone. 1t was a
very Mr. and Mrs. peck on the cheek
ana had nothing to do with the pic
ture, The Bride Wore Red" The
kiss, delivered in a spirit of get-in-
e-and-fight-honey. was Miss
Crawford's reward for looking ex-
hausted in the middle of long in
terval of setting the stage for an
other scene. 1t didn't mean a thing
In the sense that movie kisses usually
mean thing. 1t was a private mat
ter between one of Hollywoods hap
PLY married couples and it would stav
t,VIyr 70 l.o+ yt l.
We have to report on even at this
late date.
MAYBE they were not kissing for
the press in August in Holly
wood. Maybe there was law against
1t or they were afraid of the flu"
Whatever it was, the laundries were
taking virtually no lipstick off the
handkerchiefs of Hollywood's greatest
lovers. And. correlatively. we we're
learning nothing at first hand con-
cerning an item which readers may
have had right to expect us to ex-
anime and report upon.
Such form of apparent remissness
has to be justified if a drama reporter
is to have his usual peaceful, innocent,
childlike sleep at night The justifica-
ton. when one goes looking for it,
really is not hard to find.
Hollywood really is not concerned
with romantic love these days. 1t has
not dropped love, to be sure. but it
mixes it up with a lot of other
things. 1t might work on these other
things for weeks between kisses. That
definitely is what happened in our
case.
1t is an absolute certainty that
March will kiss Franciska Gaal when
The Buccaneer" comes to a local
screen, but it will be incidental to the
point of virtual irrelevance And, in
weeks of catching that picture on the
fly, the only arms we ever saw Miss
Gaal in were those of Akin Tam
iroff. He was throwing her into a
dungeon at the time.
Boyer and Miss Colbert will be
loving couple in "Tovarich" when
Warmers release that picture. but they
won't be demonstrative one.
HOLLYWOOD simply has learned
that love is not all and has turned
Its mind to other things. One more
example is to be found, as We found
1t, in In Old Chicago" That picture
has Tyrone Power and Alice Faye,
than whom few pairs are more pro-
f1cient at hand-holding Zone means
professionally. of course). When we
caught our last glance at it, however,
Miss Faye was downtown somewhere
while Power was pumping water on
the flames of the burning city.
The new attitude is reflected in even
the press releases that come from the
studios. You would think romance
was completely dead the way the press
departments ignore the erstwhile i'm
portant subjects of how screen kisses
are made-and why. But, it really
isn't dead. 1t is just used in a broader
sense to cover these days adventure in
all its forms, not merely the boy
meets-girl experience.
Is that all right with you,
F COWLES STRICKLAND, the man
from up in the Ethan Frome coun-
try who is whipping the Civic Thea
ter's first production into shape for