Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1936)
1 Vi Looking 'em Over WITH GAIL GARDNER Five Star Motion Picture Editor Richard Oix RICHARD DIX'S new starring picture, "Mother Lode," is another story which deals with the frenzied, colorful life in the California of 1860's. This film drama was photographed in the pic turesque Kern River Valley, in the region of Kern ville, which marks the southernmost tip of the Mother Lode. There were, in fact, still traces of the fabulous ' ' 1 days recalled in the picture in Kernville at the time Dix and his company enacted their scenes. "Depression miners" now take from 50 cents to $5 worth of yellow dust from the gravel beds and holes which once left thou- sands of dollars worth of yellow dust in sluice boxes, rockers and pans. Andy Clyde, who portrays Dix's partner in a "strike" on the Mother Lode, found himself pan ning for the sake of the camera not a hundred yards away from men who are today making a living after the primi tive fashion of the placer miners of 1860. THE magic of motion picture cameramen, com bined with the fact that California's topography offers bits of landscape that duplicate any part of the world, has made it possible for an amazing variety of screen dramas to be filmed without leav ing the state. Therefore, it is of little wonder that most studios include from one to three out door sagas on their yearly sched ules. This week we have a number of exceptionally fine photoplays which use colorful backgrounds with telling effect The first, "Men Without Love," f ,A X5 is a gripping drama of primitive life on the desert, authored ori ginally by Peter B. Kyne. The tale is that of three bad men who find a dying woman and her baby on the desert and who, one by one, sacrifice their lives to bring the child to civilization and safety. Chester Morris plays '"Bob,"- leader of the out laws, a hard-boiled killer, who is the last to lay down his life for the safety of the mite of humanity he and his two cohorts set out to save. Lewis Stone is "Doc," second of the bandits, and Walter Brennan is "Gus," who lends comedy to the trio. Morris gives a virile, convincing performance and his scene with Irene Hervey, in which he de liberately kills the girl's love for him, is one of the dramatic highlights of a thrilling story. Stone plays with sincerity the dominant role as the oldest of tho outlaws. Miss Hervey is charm ing, while Robert Livingston is successful as a young bank clerk in love with her. "fMRL WHO CAME BACK" is a crook melo V37 drama of the Lady Rallies brand, with the timeworn formula of the girl who associated with crooks, but who desires to go straight. Shirley Grey is the girl who restores stolen jewelry and finds love as a secretary in the office of a banker. Although determined to live an hon est life, Shirley is under the pressure of her former associates. She clears herself by confessing her identity and leads the police to the hideout of gangsters, who have cracked a bank and ore hold ing the man she loves as a hostage. The ending is obvious. Sidney Blackmer is deft and capable as the banker-lover and Noel Madison PACE FOUR A m Irene Hervey -i Inrilvldual a young lady as you'll find anywhere is Margaret Sullavan, whose refusal to conform to accepted Hollywood traditions Is pretty upsetting to studio bosses. Margaret, shown as her own natural self in the leu piioio, is now making a film in which she plays opposite her ex-husband, Henry Fonda, shown in his home In the right photo. The center panel shows Miss Sullavan and Fonda In a scene from the production. Margaret Sullavan Still a Problem; Won't Conform to Hollywood Ideas) Spurns Private Dining Room for Public Counter; Won't Pose for Stills and Goes Out With Henry Fonda, Her Ex-Husband, Who Thinks She Should Have Better Roles! By Donna Risher ALONG with the usual conjecture over the se clusive Garbo and the taciturn Hepburn, Hollywood is speculating these days whether Mar garet Sullavan, the firebrand of the picture colony, can be tamed. Will Margaret, the query goes, eventually be brought to do the things the cinema capital ex pects of its movie actresses, or will the former Broadway star reserve the right to her indepen dence to the last? To date, Margaret, the former wife of Henry Fonda, after three years in moviedom. insists upon being her unusual, extraordinary self. Conform to the demands laid down for movie stars of the first magnitude, she will not. She blankly refuses to be catalogued and pigeon-holed like the rest of her screen sisters. Miss Sullavan has let it be known, in fact, that the whole thing gives her a pain in the neck. The young lady's conduct is en livening if not conformitive. A HIGH-SALARIED star, she Donna Risher at first confounded her em ployers daily because she preferred to sit with the "grips" and "props" in the public lunch room at the studio.where she could hear the men talk about the fights and the wrestling matches. All the time she should, in the accepted sense, have been in her rightful seat in the private dining-room reserved for celebrities. Another idiosyncrasy attributed to Margaret is that although she depends upon the picture busi ness for a living, she hates to have her picture taken. Her steadfast refusal to sit for publicity "stills" keeps her home studio in a dither and her press agents in a huff. Recently la Sullavan, who in real life is Mrs. William Wyler, wife of the director, shot Holly wood eyebrows up another notch when she ap peared at a preview of "Rose Marie" on the arm of her ex-husband, Fonda, thus making a field day for the news cameramen. "p UGGED individualism," her friends call it, but x workers in an adjoining studio are grateful, they declare, to discover that Margaret's non-con- offers a sure characterization as the gang leader SOMETIMES the script writers work overtime and give the customer more for his money than he really cares to take. Such is the case in "It Had to Happen," featur ing Rosalind Russell and George Raft in a mixture of many things. The pair dashes through six reels of action concerning a millionaire heiress, two im migrant lads, a mayor, a mistress, a dishonest banker, a district attorney, a grand jury, a red flag, a horse race, a judge and a marriage, with Raft coming out on top with the girl. Miss Russell is fair to look upon. Raft is his own suave self, carrying out his assignment with sin cerity, albeit ; he deserves a better one. formitive spirit finds no response whatever in her ex-spouse, Henry. A comparative newcomer to the screen, and one of the brightest stars on the horizon, Fonda is, by his cheerful asquiescence to form, endearing him self to everybody in the business. Exceedingly popular with all classes at the studio, from the important executives to the office boys, Fonda makes and keeps friendships. At present he and Margaret are co-starred in a picture called "The Moon's Our Home." In this opus, Margaret plays the part of a temperamental movie star, and in one of the sequences is required to break up furniture and to throw things. THE fury of the "business" demanded was almost too much for the temperamental Margaret. "Do you really expect me to break this stuff?" she inquired of the director, as she looked around the set at the expensive bric-a-brac. "Go ahead, go ahead," he returned. "You know how it's done." Fonda standing nearby, looked on and smiled. To all appearances, the two are enjoying their work together, after their professional and mar ital separation. They are good friends and, according to Fonda, they have appeared together in so many plays in the past that their reunion here in Hollywood seems "like old times." "Personally," Fonda confided to an interviewer, "I don't think they have given Miss Sullavan any picture role yet as big as she is capable of play ing." And that, coming from an ex-husband, is a very gallant thing to say. If icsr ill 'r lifr.,..: mere ts noming itke having run wltn your work. Sally Ellers plays her mirror-back, while Pinky Tomlln plays his guitar between scenes for a Universal picture. From the Studios and Social Centers of Hollywood by J ane I "'1 Irving Berlin IRVING BERLIN, that sentimental, human chap with the amazing versatility, was honored re cently by the song-writing world in Hollywood, because through all the cycles and changes of song. Berlin still leads the parade. For 25 years now the little fellow, once styled "the king of ragtime, has been right out in front. He is still set ting the pace with seven new tunes for "Follow the Fleet." The author of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "All Alone," and "When I Leave the World Be hind," Berlin has given the nation more songs to sing than any other composer. He certainly rated the flowery speeches and the seven-course dinner they tendered him. THE Mae West stories will not die. ilollywood is as full of them today as it was the first week la belle West arrived. The latest concerns' Mae while doing a romantic scene with Victor McLag len in a sequence of her current picture. McLaglen. presumably under great emotional stress, seized the star and crushed her to him before the camera. After the "business' was over Mae started to repair her damaged coiffure, caught her breath and exclaimed: "You're no erl paintin', Vic, but you're a fasci natin' monster." , ' W 'HEN, Harold Lloyd appeared at the studio wearing a raincoat buttoned to his ears, Lionel Stander inquired: "Why the raincoat?" "This is just my regular coat," explained Lloyd. "Oh, and what do you wear when it rains?" "I've got an old cloth coat I wear in wet weather," the come dian replied. Stander let it go at that. 'l pu6,H Auii; LOMBARD, canine l . "(I " aristocrat of Hollywood, is kl Y. Eoinff to eet his chance in nin- tures. Pushface is a full-fledged member of the Lombard familv. being the personal pet of Actress Carole Lombard. He got his chance when Director Walter Lang needed a little Pekinese for "background," and Pushface was accepted. QTHEL MERMAN has all the girls a dither. Ethel t has, without a doubt, one of the most gorgeous evening gowns yet seen in the cinema capital. It is ot yellow cniflon with a long, cir cular skirt. The bodice is draped with a low decolletage in the back. There are some interesting shoul der decorations of large diamond cut topaz stones, flanked by deep yelow paradise feathers . . . and that, my dears, comes under the heading of "pretty classy." IT took Edgar A. Guest 30 years I to get a diploma from a Detroit high school. Eddie went to work , i c "KC lu ana aid nt com- Ethel Merman plete his studies, but 30 years hm"ntSCWI,hn0r:d him With an honorar fTini versa! " C ' Jack Oakie declares he's not in love but ii he isnt he s fooling the ladv. for he ruU in a good many phone calls to her during the day . Jr Carole Lombard
