Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

the trick by itself. Bette has SCREEN
died several times since, but never
so effectively as in Dark Victory"
That was brilliant passing-per-
haps the most effective the screen
has ever known. And it would
have won her an academy award
last March had it not been for the
unprecedented surprise triumph OF
Vivien Leigh in Gone With the
Wind"
Come to think of it, the big death
scene in "GWTW," that of Melanie
Wilkes, turned Olivia de Havilland
into a star of the first rank. Me-
lanie's death was no sudden affair,
but ran on and on, while one close
friend and relative after another
tiptoed into her chamber to listen
to a series of Last Words" Olivia
held the tragic suspense so well
that stardom was her immediate
| reward
Little Caesar" was the first of
the hoodlum epics and 1t introduced
to the screen Edward G. Robinson,
who is going great guns today.
The really big scene in Robinson's
opener was his death and the ia
nous line it brought forth: Mother
Of Mercy, is this the end of Rico!"
Robinson arose from that to be
hailed as a gangster Find
Propped up in bed, Charles Boyer
delivered a 6-minute death speech
IN III ~, ,
The fans loved every guttral word
of it.
An Unforgettable Moment.
Make-believe death winged Lew
Ayres and John Garfield to the
heights faster than any other
tragedy-marked players.
Unforgettable is the fadeout scene
of the first "Al Quiet on the West
ern Front" made in 1890. The
Armistice had been signed, but word
has not reached all sectors. A Ger
man youth, played by Ayres, raises
his head above the parapet and sees
butterfly floating within arms
length. He reaches out to clutch it.
The shrill whistle of a sniper's bull
let crackles through the still morn
| ing air. The muscles of the hand
contract and slowly withdrawn in
death. That scene made Ayres a
star.
John Garfield was an unknown
quantity when Warner Bros. sub
stituted him for another actor in
-Four Daughters" His death-bed
scene, following an automobile acct
dent, made hard-boiled audiences
weep. When the studio determined
to make q sequel, -Four Wives" the
writer's were ordered to bring the
popular Garfield back into action.
They did-in the form of a ghost.
This is the first instance on record
of an actor dying so brilliantly that
audiences insisted on an encore.
In case you've forgotten, Enrol
Flynn's first silent bow to fans that
have since elevated him to a place
among the first 10 money-making
stars was as a dead man. In THE
Case of the Curious Bride" only his
corpse" was seen-on a slab in the
morgue. But only once since-in
THE Charge Of the Light Brigade
has Flynn keeled over. The public
wants its Flynn alive.
Victor McLaglen was no more than
a bit player, and working infre-
quently, until in 1.-The Informer" he
brought that picture to boisterous
finish with his death scene in a
| church. Gary Cooper dates fame
and big money back to the time he
died in "Wings"-and if he had an
extra column to play with we might
detail the rise Of a dozen more stars
from the ashes of their effective
celluloid passings-on.
No wonder smart actors are con-
stantly bounding the writer's and
pleading: Haven't you got some
thing for me with a good death
scene?"
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