Evening star., 1941-08-15

Rainer wanted to do. If we woulc
please to carry her mattress out into
the sun, she would lie on her mat.
tress and rest, and we could talk
forever. We couldn't, of course, be-
cause Miss Rainer had to GO back
shortly for rehearsal. She feels sc
deeply, in such energetic superla-
tives, that you are carried right
along. That undoubtedly is as il
should be, considering the color we
expect in our actresses. And the
color they expect us to find in them
elods that we are.
For the pleasure and profit Gn the
form of a column of talking to Miss
Rainer, we pleased to carry her mat
tress into the SUM- Miss Rainer
made herself uncomfortable-she
seems always to be making herself
uncomfortable even during a sun
bath interview-and we talked.
; Naturally the first thing to talk
about with Miss Rainer these days
is the role of Maria in For Whom
the Bell Tolls" Although she has
been out of the movies for three
years, a considerable section of the
public which broods upon such
things has concluded that Miss
Rainer is the girl for Maria, or that
Maria is the girl for Miss Rainer.
Even though there are all sorts of
countermovementS involving this or
that other actress for Maria, Miss
Rainers is sturdy thing that is not
without its promise.
2 1t is surprising to her, and enor-
mouSly delightful. Miss Rainer has
q tragic sense of life, one gathers,
and it is pleasant to have it upset.
1t gives her a feeling that a warm
wind sometimes blows through the
cosmic chill and she is happy inside,
where happiness begins with people
of her type.
I Would she like the part of Maria?
That would be Heaven. 1t is a role
of which any actress might dream
forever and never find. She would
cut her hair to the scalp as Maria's s
was cut in Hemingway's dramatic
account of liberty's ravagement in
Spain. She would do anything to
get the part, anything short of
stopping being LuiSe Rainer.
Miss Rainer wants to return to
pictures. She likes the bigness of
opportunity they offer. She doesn't
think the opportunity is often real
lied. Her instant readiness always
to say so created a general ana deep
impression that for all her doll like
size-she always looks a little bit
more like an atom being broken
down by some strange fate machine
she is far removed from docile.
Whatever the most, how do you say
1t, antonym, for "docile" is, Miss
Rainer is indubitably it.
She sincerely wishes she and Hol-
lywood were more amiable, under
stood each other better.
But we don't" she says. '"They
always have an unf1attering i'm
preston of me. I used to be diff
cult. Now I'm arty I'm always
something wrong, If its only cute -
AS Miss Rainer says it, "cute" is
one of her most fighting words. She
will put up vigorous scrap, too
about those allegations of difficult
and artiness. 1t is better to be on her
side in a way. You wish Hollywood
were more so. Their mutual antip-
athy seems to have profited nobody
anything, including the customers
After all, actresses who win two
Academy awards in such varied roles
as Anna Held in THE Great Zeig-
field" and Olan in 1.-The Good
Earth" really have something. What
If they are firebrands? Especially
what II they are If you're not the
guy who gets burned, but merely a
critic 5000 miles east of Holly
wood?)s
Miss Rainer is by no means single
srninded on her future. The stage
lean hire her just as quickly, if not
more so, than the movies. She is
like every other actress, from the
most awkward and forlorn amateur
to the Cornells and Hayes's, in that
she is looking for the right part
That is why she is here in Dennis
resting on a mattress in the sun
waiting for the next rehearsal OF