Evening star., 1944-08-20
HOLLYWOOD.

l AASAA9 VSOAs
You wouldn't have to guess twice
to forecast the condition of movie
box ofices II the screen suddenly
reverted to the old-fashioned type
of heroine such as Mary Pickford
and SO many others habitually por-
trayed in the years gone by.
Audiences once loved those sweet,
unspoiled and coy young things who
won their men by the conventional
standards, but it's cinch you
couldn't sell one of them to the fans
OF 1874. Today's public wants 'em
human-and II they're unlovely and
contemplate, that's all right, too.
All summed up, 1t may be said of
screen heroines generally, and with
figures (box ONCE Variety to back
1t up, that when they are good
they are apt to be very, very dull,
but when they are bad they are
terrific.
Goddard Was = Gamin.
This is the consensus of such
representative stars as Paulette
Goddard. Bette Davis, Barbara
Stanwyck. Ingrid Bergman and
Claudette Colbert, cleaned on "a
recent tour of the Hollywood beat.
Goddard reminded us it was the
role of a waif, a gamin, a girl of
the streets in Modern Times" that
set her on the road to stardom after
long and low-salaried stretch of
being nothing more than decorative
on the screen,
1T was Mildred in OF Human
Bonadge, made just 10 years ago,
that changed the whole course of
my Hfe," Bette Davis recalled. Il
was just about to 60 back East to
ushering in summer theater when
this role came along. Ever since
then have never been satisfied to
play good woman roles. Give me
the Sadie Thompson things, or the
woman In Somerset Maugham's The
Letter. and I'll know that my con-
tinued career on the screen is fair
ly safe"
Miss Goddard's current picture
at Paramount is Kitty" from
Rosamond Marshall's eyebrow lift
ing novel Of 1913. Kitty starts life
as q Cockney waif of the Hounds
ditch slums of London in 1880, and
climbs a ladder of men to ducal
estate and a fortune that today
would pay for minute and half
Of war. Except for couple of
mystery comedy roles, with Bob
Hope. Paulette has confined her
career almost exclusively to the
rough-and-tumble type of heroine.
Likes Her Present Role.
II love this Kitty part" is the
way Paulette feels about her. such
roles just seem to play naturally
I'm like all other actresses, I guess,
and all others Of my sex, for that
matter. We all dream of doing
things that would put us on the
front pages. Kitty was front page
girl If there ever was one"
Marlene Dietrich can trace her
success to such early roles, notable
among them The Blue Angel" and
Morocco" Gloria Swanson's Sadie
Thompson when Rain" was first
filmed in 1928 set her solidly on a
career that doomed for years.
The sweet and sticky type of
heroine did nothing for Claudette
Colbert, but she zoomed straight to
stardom when she undertook THE
Lie" and The Gilded Lily" two
titles that set her character right
in the channel that leads to sue
cess. And it was Poppaea, the
wanton wife of Nero in The Sign
of the Cross" that put her star back
in its place after it had skidded a
bit through an unfortunate series
of namby pamby. wishy washy
roles.
Same can be said of Ida Lupino,
who was reclaimed from oblivion by
the loyal girl of the shadows in
The Light That Failed" Starting
with that picture, Ida played a
long succession of unsympathetic
parts and the blacker the ladies
were at heart the better Ida and
the fans seemed to Like them. One,
in which she played cunning muir
deress, almost brought her an Aca-
DENY award.
Even Deanna Durbin Changes.
Little Ellen Drew, on the Para
mount lot for a couple of years.
suddenly sprang into prominence
by playing Huguette in If I Were