One Hollywood

FEATURES Amusements-Radio Part Five F Music—Art—Books 9 Part 5—-8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 26, 1937. PAGE F—1 “Snow White” Is Heralded The of Goes In for > Queen Taps Spectacle Comes Now a Dissenter As Picture to Make In the Annual Parade Movies Genuine Art Of “10»Best” Polls Agnostics Capitulate Before Disney. ^ With Some Observations 'About National’s Leading Lady Known This Yearly Business of To Washington Society. Awarding Palms. By Jay Carmody. By Douglas W. Churchill. night some months when the ago, night breathed coldly on the HOLLYWOOD. hills the Hollywood (advt.), conversation drifted around to the sub- OEL! Noel! At tbla glad Christmas time when every one else is gay of ONEject the movies as an art. "Ha,” said the possessor of one of the and forgiving And trying to lead a life free from acrimony for at least film colony’s highest intelligence quotients, "all you have to do to N a few dAgs, this department has withdrawn from the throng around realise the movies are not an art is to see some old pictures. Art is. timeless, the wassail bowl and retired to a corner to do a little disagreeing. For but movies so are definitely of their period their life is as short as this. Bea- this is the season when the "bests” are selected. A thousand groups and ■on’s hats—women’s hats, of course.”" individuals will name the “best” picture, the "best” performances, the "best” As for carrying the same meaning from one generation to another, as direction and the like. The academy will hold a *10,000 banquet to unveil A great opera, a ballet, a play or a painting, it takes just one such picture as its opinions; the Screen Actors' Guild will do Its log-rolling and bestow the those being shown so popularly in Washington Film Society programs to make 1937 palm on its favorite member; the New York film critics who, irked at the man's point clear. The man, incidentally, was Delmer Daves, a screen Hollywood’s popularity contests, make their own nominations for immortality, writer whose genius had netted him enough to become a studious cosmopolite, will make some suggestions; columnists, fan magazines, radio commentators— An authority on a great many things other than the mechanics of film-drama every one who can get any one else to listen—will deposit a few laurels here writing. and there. Most will be orthodox selections; the choices made outside of In making his statement, however, Mr. Daves seems to have reckoned Hollywood will be honest and thoughtful but, for the most part, they will 1 lean toward Without an enterprise that was being pushed in Hollywood the very night the conventional. This which has been of his speech. The enterprise in question was the production of the first full- department described as having the weazened soul of an old order-buster length animated feature by the Walt Disney studios, "Snow White and the does not wish to quarrel with others. It merely wishes to point out to those who Seven Dwarfs.” The genius of Disney, three years and $1,600,000 were the name Greta Garbo’s work in "Camille” that her performance is identical with basic elements which went into the creation of the picture. It was released that of every other picture she has made and that if is to be in Hollywood last week and the gigantic repercussion of its first showing indi- recognition given the maxim that practice makes perfect, then by all means she should be honored. It cates quite emphatically that an imperishable triumph of the movies as an desires to observe that the work in the early reels of Paul Muni’s Art has been achieved. The complete capitulation of the. most stubborn and "Emile Zola” was identical with that in the first half of his "Good Earth” agnostic critics, plus recognition of Disney’s power to work miracles, makes and that if any medals are to be pinned on him, it should be for his role of the whole thing believable, even before one has seen the picture. Wang. It believes it was a little thoughtless of Metro not to have in "Good The Disney technique medium makes the predictions of imperishability in telephones Earth” so that Luise Rainer would have a some perfect score in rerendering her “Great scene this case plausible. His Snow White will be just Snow White, not rep- Ziegfeld" In every picture she has made. resentation of the character of an actress’ named Mary Smith, who was born Every one, of course, judges the screen his own In Illinois, who got a lot of publicity when she was named for the part, and by standards. Although the more mature minded may accept such a statement with an whom you might remember as having played many other roles if you were element of it is true skepticism, that there are millions in America who lead two lives_ so see the picture again in 1987. She will be the Snow White of the Grimm a drums in own .. mile-a-minute then Eleanor Powell dances one the most their and the character lives never will Pown siries °J taps, twirling through cellophane hoops, of of their favorite stars and of the two the brothers and of universal childhood. She will be that always, and numbers her career thrilling of in this spectacular moment from M-G-M’s in which she co-stars with Nelson Eddu. The is “Rosalie," imaginative life the more real, the more vivid. It is a She be anything "else. So will the dwarfs and the fierce huntsman and the picture is at Loew s Palace. reaction that ac- counts for the fantastic success of the medium. To the bangtailed buck and the other characters in what seems to be the movies’ followers of Robert Taylor, a performance—any performance—of that ’miracle for Christmas 1937! sterling trouper is regarded as a work of art. They would probably tell you that "This Is nor else really will see the film as a My Affair” as Washington, anywhere perhaps, not only worth sitting through, which is a It has been set for release for 25, when Hollywood’s and grave question to others, but it Christmas present. general February Tops Flops should win one of the little brass Oscars the puts out. it will come to Keith's to take up tenancy for as long as there are children, academy Worshipers of Joan Crawford would insist that "The Bride Wore Red" was a better And adults with childlike hearts, to keep it there. “Tovarich” picture Of Given than "Birth of a Nation.” It is 1937 reported that there are people around the land who * thought that Marion Davies in "pRETTY Lillian Emerson will make her first professional appearance in "Ever Since Eve" was outstanding, Is but the studio has experienced some in Washington tomorrow night at the National in "Spring Thaw.” But by Coining Once-O ver difficulty locating them. no means her first personal appearance. Miss Emerson wandered prominently WHAT is “best” and what through the social life of the National Capital for years before the stage laid go is not is purely a matter of opinion. View- claim to her beauty and her talent In fact, Washington and Baltimore used And It Is Dared ing the screen solely as a medium of entertainment, this to lay a sort of joint claim to Miss Emerson. Even now, she still remains Heffernan Chooses department experiences considerable in the goddaughter of Mrs. Lawrence Townsend. To the difficulty finding a "best.” While it may not Surpass have Miss of Mr. Mrs. Neil Davis he Bests and Worsts excelled in all departments, "Make Emerson, daughter and Emerson, the Way for Tomorrow” might easily be named as former president of the Atlantic Coast Line, was born in Fayetteville, N. C„ Stage Version. one of the truly distinguished films of the In year. Putting it on made her bow at Marlborogh House, Canada, as a dancer when she was 4 years Hollywood. another basis, and it is really the one that impells our old, was introduced to in New later was at the Court reactions, on leaving society York, presented Mac Arthur. the theater it By Harry seems to have given more for Of St. James, and is a prominent member of the Junior League. By Harold Heffernan. the money than any other HEN Hollywood made "Stage Others gave more spectacle and But, socially active as she has been, she also has found time to appear HOLLYWOOD. higher paid actors but none equaled it in Door” into a motion pic- in an sum- honesty, rich human qualities or valid to even dozen Broadway productions. ture it there are oc- days more before the drama. It is that element of proved toat validity In "Spring Thaw,” a comedy by Clare Kummer, Miss Emerson will play casions when the cinema marizing season gets out ■ ol Prompts me to nominate Beulah Bondi as*the * outstanding performer of Roland Young, who once more is leaving the movies to lay his heart so there** still time to 1937. opposite can improve upon the stage. Now, hand, Certainly none of the glamour children and talent at the feet of his first love, the theater. Few have made sneak under the wire with a ppproached her. persons if you have kept your ear to the SIX w*tb the “be*ts" <H®cult to more round between Hollywood and New York than Mr.

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