Evening star., 1937-03-28

Il still are a great many picture
stamp of 1887 upon them. In some OF
acting by women. If any of them e,
as OIan in The Good Earth" she'
will be pretty certain to capture the
years highest acting honors. 1t is
impossible to conceive that the 1885
prize winner can be worse than second
In the competition during the current
II months.
1t is magnificent performance
that Miss Rainer has given in the
M-G-M epic built around Pearl Bucks
novel of Chinese life In a picture
which finds her coprize winner of last
year, Paul MUM, doing one of his
greatest bits of screen work, Miss
Rainer easily carries off the acting
honors.
A plain, simple woman, she is sup
posed to be as OBan. The beauty of
the part she plays is the beauty of
simplicity. 1t is played with a sure
ness that never Wavers and which
ends up as magnificent accomplish
ment in the art of repression. 1t is
the task of the woman who plays
OLan in the perturbation of Mrs.
Bucks work to register the deepest of
emotion without resort to any of the
standard expressions gestures or in
flections by which actresses accom-
plish this end She may weep, but
noiselessly; she may suffer heart
break, but it shall be registered in the
most unaccented of terms. It is the
Chinese Woman's way. Through the
centuries she has been taught to feel
without revealing her feelings with
anything like the emphasis which the
Occident associates with the express
sion of emotion There is something
magnificent in the manner in which
Miss Rainer keeps the faith with the
women of China.
OUCH is the power of her work in
the long film that one scarcely
can believe she has but 80 brief
speeches to make. These speeches are
fabricated of the simplest words in the
language. There is no poetry in her
lines. Yet the manner in which they
are spoken by this woman of mighty
works and few words gives them a
potency beyond the most winged words
with which so many lesser actresses
are endowed.
When she wrote this epic of the soil
which did more to make China COM
prehensible to the Western mind than
any book of the century. Mrs. Buck
might well have envisaged Miss Rainer
in the part Certainly it is impossible
to conceive that any one could have
brought to it deeper understanding
than the plain little Viennese who
set so high standard for herself and
others Of Hollywood's better artists
when she interpreted the role of Anna
Held in THE Great Ziegfeld."
NO MATTER how much one may
lean toward the legitimate stage.
and that seems to be the fashion OF
many in spite of the enormous artistic
and technical progress of the film
makers, it has to be admitted that
Hollywood can do great many things
to enhance the luster of certain
players.
Take, for instance, the case of Miss
Katharine Hepburn. Miss Hepburn's
voice Is by no means a conspicuous
weakness as it is handled by the me-
chanical devices which produce the
art of Hollywood. That much is evi-
dent In Quality Street." now fitting
across the screen at R-K-O Keiths.
It Is a performance without vocal de-
ficiencies. That, however is great
deal more than can be said for her
stage portrayal of Jane Eyre" at the
National last week. II was her voice
definitely.
In a chat about the difference be-
tween film and stage technique, she
denied that she missed any of the
mechanical appurtenances of the for
mer when making living theater ap-
pearance. She may not have missed
them indeed, but certain of those
who have heard her in both mediums
were less disposed to dismiss the sound
machines SO lightly
A FTER three days Of scrutinizing
the work of Fernand Gravel in
1.-The King and the Chorus Girl"
Washington seems OF have come to the
highly valid conclusion that the
youthful continental star is just what
the American movie has needed. That
he will be near the top of the femi-
nine fans lists of favorites with a
couple of more pictures is one of the
surest bets of the entertainment
world of the moment. Elan vitale with
European spice is the particular as