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