The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-26
In Hollywood
BY PAUL HARRISON
NEA Service Staff CORRESPONDENT

BY PAUL HARRISON
NEA Service Staff Correspondent
b.
CART is a star now-the top name
in High Sierra" and in a role or
iginally intended for Mister Paul
Mum. This is gratifying, but not
especially impressive to the per-
ennial gangster. He says, YOU'D
better look now if you want to see
me heading a cast. Next picture
I'll probably be stooging for Gag
ney or Robinson. The studio isn't
making any promises"
On the other hand, there are
many who predict and hope that
the able Bogart will stay right
up there as the new head man of
Warmers cops-and-robbers picture.
Jimmy Cagney is trying to pull
out of them; Edward Robinson is
expected to be busy with most Of
the weighty drama which MUM,
would have played if he hadn't
been fired for being so finicky;
and George Raft, already under
will not get many more chances to
exasperate his businesslike bosses.
Whether or not he remains a
star, Bogart isn't yearning espec-
tally for cinematic reform. He has
found that crime does pay, and
he has no plans for muscling in on
the rackets of the comedians or
the matinee idols. No matter that
he used to play comedy on the
Broadway stage; he'll always be
grateful to Stage Producer Arthur
Hopkins for popping him into the
role of the ruthless Duke Mantee
in "Petrified Forest"
But for that" said the actor,
It'd probably still be hanging,
around New York" The killer
characterization introduced him to
the screen when the play was
filmed, and he'd be glad to have as
good a part any day.
What he mostly wants, you see,
is a chance to do some acting.
Listen:
| about all I've ever objected to
around here was boredom. I kind
OF hated to take the money when
+ didn't have to concentrate to play
a scene, and when I could spend
every other day playing golf.
Until They Drive by Night
came along, l had about five pic.
lures in a row where I could have
read you off most of the dialog be-
fore l even saw a script. I woulc
tell by the names in the cast what
kind Of story it was. Sometimes
they'd make an oldie, or maybe
rehash two or three old ones into
a new me-. But to me it all seemed
like one long picture, with a few
different faces coming in now and
then"
I asked about High Sierra"
which really is a gangster film
even if it does sound like a west.
ern. It's garnished with sagebrush
because the leader and his hood.
lums decide to clean out an isolat.
ed, mlllionaire-in-fested resort no.
tel in the desert.
AS the last living alumnus OF
the Dllllnger mob, B ogart is
sprung from a penitentiary and
forced to engineer this piece of
banditry. He likes the role be-
cause there r conflicting sides
to the character; sometimes he's
a business-like killer and again
hes an ex-farm boy. with pastoral
instincts and a kindly attitude to-
ward animals and Ida Lupino. He
finally gets killed, of course, the
Hays office being implacable in
such matters. His dog betrays
him by going to his hiding place
on a mountainside.
There's only n nice person in
the whole story, and that's Henry
Travers," Bogart says. Even the
dog is a jinx. My part is sympa-
thetic only in showing how cir
cumstances force the guy back in
to his old business and finally
drive him to the mountain and his
death. Come to think of it, this is
an enlargement on the Petrified
Forest theme, only with a noun
tain providing the symbolism.
"Wel, I'm making some prog
ress, anyway: I get a half mil
lion dollars worth of loot in this
picture, and that's the biggest job
1 ever pulled. I guess it's even a
bigger haul than Cagney or Ro-
binson ever made"