Evening star., 1939-01-19

done over. AS all her fans know,
she has been the cinema's most
enchanting hoyden. She was ever
the mink, the lacquered lady who
could slap, or be slapped, by Fred
ric March with an air of such COM
plete tom -boyishness that not even
the Victorians in the audience we're
shocked. 1t was a manner and
method of which Miss Lombard was
the ultimate mistress.
But, like nearly everything else in
the world, there is an end to even
that. Miss Lombard got sick of be-
Ing pretty punching bag, spouting
brittle noises. She was, she insisted,
an actress and they had better do
something about giving her a script
to prove it.
And do you know what the result
of that is going to be? Well, we will
tell you. The catch line in the
advertising of Miss Lombard's next
picture gives it all away in two
words:
"Carole Cries"
Not since the billboards blazed
away at the emotions of the Ameri-
can picture fans with the words
"Garbo Talks" has there been any,
thing like it. That Miss Lombard
would cry in way is even more
startling. Much as Miss Garbo's
reticence was advertised, there were
few people who did not know that
she could talk if only script writers
could think of satisfactory words for
her to say But Lombard lamenting
1--WE like ALTERATION. too; that just
did not seem to be in the cards. Her
screen character always has carried
virtually profound implications of a
lack of tear ducts. Tenderness, visit
fulness, sensitiveness have been as
alien to her as to- say, Boris Karloff
although in a different way, of
course.
They only seemed so, however,
because Miss Lombard never had
screen drama like Made For Each
Other" The chap over whom Carole
cries for the first time, professionally
we mean. not knowing anything
about her private life save what we
read in Sheilah Graham, is James
Stewart.
Mr.. Stewart, in being cried over,
IS remaining in character. He has
had considerable practice in wistful-
ness, lostness and fineness. He has
been cried over by some of Holly
woods finest actresses in the last IL
months. Margaret Sullivan cried
over him in "Shopworn Angel" and
Jean Arthur's heart was heavy about
him during many a foot of You
Can't Take 1t With You
Now it is Miss Lombard's turn.
And somehow there is something
much more piquant about the pros
pect than if it were any one else.
If we have sounded as if we thought
otherwise, it is just so much flgura-
tive whistling-to keep from crying
over the fsct that even Carqle cries.
Her laughter was SO lovely and so
infectious that it seemed one of the
things beyond the Lincolnian lament,
this too shall pass"
There is a great deal of precedent
on stage and screen at the moment
to justify the assumption that Miss
Lombard's tears shall be terribly
touching. The way actors are STEP
ping out of their familiar roles into
others that are just the reverse is
truly caution-or something.
There is Eddie Bowling, for ex-
ample. An old song and dance man,
who was standout among old song
and dance men, Mr.. Bowling turned
to threnodic role in Here Come
the Clowns and demonstrated that
he was tragedian who could make
the New York critics compare his
performance with that of Raymond
Massey in ABE Lincoln in Illinois"
And, even before the wonder of the
Bowling shift had died along comes