Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-08-29
Upon Analysis,
Perhaps "Typing''
Is Desirable
By SheiIah Graham.
HOLLYWOOD

"I don't want to be typed"
Every actor and actress in the
business has used this phrase one
or more times during their work in
pictures. have usually agreed with
them, but now I'm wondering. Per-
haps it is better for the tnespian
who has been established in chr
tain type of role to repeat it, with
variations IN the manner of, say,
Claudette Colbert, who has more or
less played the same role in pictures
"a modern, gay or dramatic girl
for most of her time in Hollywood.
Usually when she strays from the
modern sphere, the result is bad-as
in Cecil B. de Miles Cleopatra.
Joan Fontaine has established
herself on the screen as the mega
tive" type of actress. Things happen
to her, she does not happen to them.
She has proved herself to be at her
best when keeping her face and
body still for the camera. AS Tessa
in THE Constant Nymph" Joan
dashed about like crazy in an effort
to prove she was a young, gangling
girl of around IA. 1t was dizzy
work watching Joan scamper up
mountains and up the stairs and
down the stairs and all over the
place. In my opinion, Joan's good
work in this picture was toward the
end of it when she was i'll and
unable to jump around. Alfred
Hitchcock, who directed Joan in Ter
two best pictures -"Rebecca" and
"Suspicion"-haS always insisted to
this reporter that the way to get a
good performance from Joan is to
make her underplay every emotion
she feels.
Miss RusselI's Jackpot.
RoSalind Russell is seeing the light
Of wisdom in her career. Before her
comedy hit in THE Women" Roz
was cast in serious straight love stuff
and was moderately popular AS a
connedienne Miss ussell hit the
jackpot of fame. eSo what hap
pened? She wanted 20 do serious
stuff again-a la Flight for Free
dom" Miss Russell is nobody's fool, |
and from now on will devote the |
major portion of her talents to
sophisticated comedy. Her next is
Ten Per Cent Woman" for Column
bia.
Bette Davis has perhaps overdone
the tragic heroine of the screen.
Moviegoers are tired of the troubles
to which she has been subjected in
her Is years Of film making. But l
still insist she should stay away
from comedy. She simply is not the
funny type, And if there has been
decline in Bette's film popularity,
it dates from that hideous little
comedy she cid with Jimmy Cagney
a few years ago.
Advice for Greer.
Whether Greer Carson likes it or
not. she is at her screen best as
sweet, understandable, sensible ma
tron-regardles of whether it is
young, middle-aged or elderly ma
iron. Greer, like the rest of them,
wants to do comedy. But she Is not
a good coincidence on the screen,
although, oddly enough, in the stage
tSlSIOI Va lNOGl SOW 1ollSlAt
at Eight Thirty" Greer played So
comedy as the wife of |
Brian Aherne, and was fine. But
the camera does things to Greer's
face and figure. No matter how
thin she gets in private life, the
result on the screen is matronly.
And that is what she does best, and
that is what she should stick, to-
Humphrey Bogart, who usually
plays a tough "dese-and- dose" char
acter on the screen, is smarter than
most of his fellow thespians. He
actually wants to continue in the
type of role that made him popular,
despite the efforts of his Warner
bosses to give him lovely ladies to
make screen love to.
Ronald Colman sometimes wears
different vintage of dress for his
screen roles. In his next, "Kismet,"
he plays a Persian But regardless
of what Ronnie wears, he is always
Mr.. Colman. He has, in short,
played the same character now for
20 years, and I hope he plays it
for the next 20 years. It's the part
he knows and plays best.
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