Evening star., 1939-04-02
There's Ever
Reason Why
Stars Slip
Lack of Confidence
One Thing That
Downs Them
By Sheilah Graham.
Bv SheiIah Graham.
HOLLYWOOD,


"she is good actress, but she
lacks presence" The speaker-an
important producer. The actress
referred to-Franciska Gaal. The
statement-a reply to my query,
why doesn't Hollywood give Miss
Gaal a real opportunity"
In each of her three Hollywood
pictures, Franciska proved an ex-
cellent actress and comedienne, but
mentioned for this or that i'm
portant "A" role, she is dismissed
as lacking presence" True, she
cannot be much more in height
than five feet, but, though Mary
Pickford and Janet Gaynor are
even shorter. tina. didn't crimp their
careers. There must be something
else lacking in Miss Gaal. something
that up till now has denied her the
great success that should be hers
by rigth of her acting ability.
Reviewing the cases of all eX-
cellent emoterS who have had their
chance and failed to make 100 per
cent good with the American public,
and of the once popular stars who
have slipped. I have come to the
conclusion there is always fool
proof reason why.
Miss Gaals barrier to complete
fan appreciation is, in my opinion.
her speaking voice-allied to lack
of presence. She sings her words,
rather than speaks them. and. while
this is charming for some roles, it
certainly limits them.
Buddy Ebsen, time and time again,
is hailed as future screen star
but he never gets beyond the third
or fourth featured role. Why? Is
it his drawl? His face? His gang
ling figure? Will Rogers had a
drawing voice and it didn't hurt
him any. And he wasn't exactly
good looking either, but that didn't
stop him. Gary Cooper and Jimmy
Stewart are even more gangling
than Ebsen, but they got there just
the same.
So why not Buddy? He made the
fatal mistake of getting typed as
an unimportant personality. And I
don't think the Buddy" part of
his named helped either. Buddy
is usually cast as 'buddy'-the
friend of the hero, and, for some
Hollywood reason, the film Buddy"
gets only the lean pickings of the
picture.
My advice to Mr.. Ebsen is to go
back to the stage and play a dra-
matte role He has been offered the
Sam Houston part in Edwin Justus
Mayors forthcoming Broadway play.
And If he is wise he will grab it
that is. If he wants to occupy his
rightfui front-ranking Aim place.
fell pretty hard for Lee Bowman
In Having Wonderful Time" but
was completely cured after seeing
him In Love Affair" In both pic
lures he played the unsuccessful
lover. But in the first he was
gay, charming and amusing; in the
second somber. dull and depressing
OF course, his lines were different in
both pictures, but that wasn't the
main reason why most of his his
tronics in Love Affair" expired on
the cutting room floor.
You may laugh at this, but I
think Bowman's new mustache is
the villain of the piece-and the
career-stopper for Mr. Bowman.
While mustache has vitalized the
personalities of Enrol Flynn, Ronald
Colman, Clark Gable-and Hitler
1t has done exactly the opposite for
Bowman. 1t has made him appear
meek, tepid. dashless and monde
script. Which is not exactly the stuff
of which stars are made.
Olivia De Havilland started her
Hollywood career with successful
bang in Captain Blood She was
hailed everywhere as new and
bright star. After two years some
of the brightness has departed from
her personality. Olivia will be the
first to agree with me that her ca
reer has taken a downward dip
but she blames the recent roles
given her by Warmers. But why has
she been given those roles? You
don't find Warmers giving giggling
parts to Bette Davis. Olivia has be-
come too "girly-girly" in her movie
characterizations. She is sincere
enough, but her acting has lost some
OF its early rich luster. 1 think
marriage would improve Olivia's ca
reer. 1t might give her the breadth
of emotion that is now lacking.
Recently I discussed with James
Cagney why certain stars who used
to give excellent performances sud-
denly became bad. I was referring
to Nancy Carroll, once in the $4,000
weekly class and now lucky to get
"bit" roles. They lose confidence,
said Cagney, land that's half OF
being a film star"
Copyright, 1889, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. 1nc)