Evening star., 1943-04-18
They Found He Could Be Sinister
So MIR. Rathbone, Capable and Willing,
Has Been Sinister Ever Since
Bv Kate Holiday.
HOLLYWOOD.

Basil Rathbone has been accused
of being ham. He isn't.
Rathbone is-shall we say?-a
man of parts. One of his parts is
that of motion picture actor AS a
colleague put it, 'he stays in char
acter until you know him. Then he
Is like an old shoe"
A portion of the Rathbone role
Is involved with the fact that he
(and more particularly his wife)
believes he was born too late He
feels that he does not look we'll in
modern dress. He is blissful when
a script calls for costumes, prefer
ably doublet and hose that give
him the chance to get away from
Goth century clothes and into silks
and satins. c'Theyree wonderful for
the ego!")
They also afford him the oppor-
tunity to be unrestrainedly f1amboy-
ant personally, to act. And Rath-
bone would rather act than eat.
He AYERS, and with sincerity, that
he did not come to Hollywood for
the money involved-though it has
been useful-but because he be-
lieved pictures would give him a
wider range of roles than the stage.
For the first six or seven months
he was right. Then some one found
out that Rathbone could be sinister.
He has been sinister ever since.
He has much to say about Williams
and the playing of them. In the
first place, he dislikes that partic-
ular villain" He would rather talk
about men who disrupt the normal
course of events" And, according
to him, there are villains and viii
lians. There are rats like Karenin
In anna Karenina," and there are
those which one must play with
ones cheek distended by ones
tongue. There is also Sherlock
Holmes, not william, true, but
sinister.
He does lots of the tongue-in-
cheek kind. He admits it. Too
many. He'd like to be nice for
change.
Man Who Loves Dress.
Offscreen, Rathbone bewails the
fact that he can't wear the Sloppy
comfortable" styles Hollywood
sdores. (Still silks and satins, see?)
If he wears tweeds they must be in
high state of press. His trousers
must have knife-edge perfection
The Norfolk hunting jacket he wore
when he talked was a masterpiece
of belts, suede pads and pleats.
He was a symphony
He carries himself as if he eX-
pected the bystanders to break into
spontaneous applause. His head is
high. His spine is straight. His
gestures are perfect.
All this was drilled into him long
ago by the Englishmen who taught
him to act.
Those were the days when the
Nould-be Thespians' reading of lines
was a secondary matter. Fencing.
the gavotte. how to kneel, how to sit,
how to do the ballet. came first.
Rathbone and his crew were
taught that their bodies are part
of the entertainment. Their hands
came into play. Their eyes and
shoulders worked. 1t was only later
that the theater was led by Leslie
Howard, principally, into its present
field day Of underplaying. A field
day. incidentally, which conceded
perfectly with the demand of the
motion picture camera.
Let's get back to the "old shoe"
his colleague mentioned. The man
was right When YOU talk to Rath-
bone for while, he forgets COM
partively speaking that he's an
actor. He speaks rapidly, leaves
sentences unfinished, shutters a bit.
He doffs the toga.
He and his wife are noted for
lavish entertaining. Before the war
the line. We're going to have 600
or 100 of our most intimate friends
in to dinner" was no gag, in their
case. They did.
I asked Basil if he really likes to
give big parties
II loathe it," he answered, fer
vently. When I'm upstairs and hear
the sounds of people arriving, I feel
Ill. I think, Well, here we go!' Co
ing downstairs is harder than a first
night
He says the answer is that, while