Evening star., 1938-05-25

zee. At least he was not around either
giving no recognition to the legitimate
theater these days.
One Of the major reasons for wait
ing through the shooting Of the scene
in which the audience, looking liter
ally at a camera and nothing else,
goes through the emotions of Witness
ing great drama, Is that one hopes
to see Andrea Leeds. Miss Leeds, who
is on her way to stardom unless Holly
wood is cockeyed, is missing. She is
not working at that particular mo-
ment, has nothing to do all day. in
fact, so she does not even come to
the studio.
As a substitute for not seeing Miss
Leeds. whom we shall see or bust,
people around the set start telling US
about her.
She's bright" one informant says.
You'll like her. She wants to be q
writer, you know"
We thought that wasn't very bright,
but did not say SO since every one
was being 50 kind in promising us
Miss Leeds the very next time we came
to Universal.
Another thing one hears between
takes, which seem to 60 on forever, is
that this picture is going to increase
the stature Of both Bergen and Nc
Carthy. The premise upon which the
ir d jvactnol ~
doing bit parts, sketchy characteriza-
tions. as they did in "Goldwyn Fol-
lies," they are important persons all
the way through Letter Of Introduce
ton"
witnessing the stature of those two
being increased ought to be something
to see. And something for Universal
to make money on!
CTRAY SHOTS: Biggest excitement
~ around the lot of United Artists,
which has been idle for nearly seven
months, is the return there of Merle
Oberon Miss Oberon, who is
getting ready for a picture, "Grau-
stark" We think, is posing for still
photographs :. She wishes she did
not have to pose for still photographs
because she would rather "reun" with
old friends And meet new people
But the camera Is inexorable {. /.
So Miss Oberon, who is making Gold
wyn happy by being thinner and
more beautiful than ever. sits patiently
on dias alternately registering wist-
fulness, vivacity, and all the other
emotions the cameraman can think OF
AS a compensation for finding
Miss Oberon so busy, one is promised
tea COR something) at her house within
a few days >. And the likelihood that
Norma Shearer will be there :. So one
goes over to the set of "Algiers." which
Walter Wanger is just completing :. {.
First person one sees is John Conway,
director, who is supposed to look more
like an officer of the Buckingham
Palace guard than any one else in the
world He has one Of the most
alert, intelligent expressions we have
seen out here, If that conveys any
thing. Moreover, his nose is bent
sideways and he talks practically bril-
liantly even when he is rushing
through luncheon to get back to work
-. On the set of "Algiers" one learns
that the Algerians have no such thing
as carefully laid out real estate plots.
If one Algerian decides to build .
house in what would be another's
i,, fhnro ie
nothing to prevent it. That is the way
the fascinating set on which the pic
ture is being shot is constructed {.
1t is supposed to be dirty street,
very dirty. The janitor crew did not
know that recently and swept it clean
one morning before any one got there.
1t was so un-Algerian looking that
Mr.. Conway nearly blew up. Instead,
he just ordered the street Uttered up
again so it would not be such a dis
credit to the Algerian street cleaning
department The swarthy looking
actor IN dark blue who limps onto the
set just as one is leaving it turns out
to be Charles Boyer . One pauses
long enough to learn that Mr.. Boyer
is limping as q result of some liga-
ments which got twisted in the
peculiar arrangement of Algerian
streets. He has only a few more
scenes to make and thinks that the
limp won't interfere with making
them Working in the picture is
Hedy Lamar, who used to be Hedy
Kessler and who came to this country
because of her excellent work in
"Ecstacy" No one is allowed to men
tion that fact in the promotion of
"Algiers," however, for the Hays Office
has forbidden that kind Of exploitation.