THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER
1959. 2
Fings Aint Wot They Used to Be for Mr. Norman
ĮREAKING. Into the
BRE
West End isn't any- thing, new for play- wright Frank Norman; he used to do that sort of thing in the days when he was practising as a part-time burglar.
Now that he has gone legit- mate And become an nuthor. one In imminent danger of being considered fashionable, Mr Norman Is able, to care the West End with the most legit- mato motives.
to house
Jis
He is looking for a theatre Aint Wot They Used to Be, musical, Fings
and If he is found in the W prea loitering with intent it is
the only with
Intention assembling a starry cast.
of
He has high hopes of receiv ing on a large scale in the near future, but only his proper per- centage of what the cus tomers pay in at the box office.
More money
Mr FHANK NORMAN, for merly of Pentonvlile And Wandsworth, now residea in
the
more salubrious and less hemmed-in area of Hampstead, and has abandoned crime for show blz.
"There's far more money in this writing lark," he confides, "than
there is In villainy. 'Course you got to work harder at 1."
Mr Irving Allen, of Warwick Films, who once told me that if he receives a llerate script he throws
the waste-paper basket, has been paying Mr Norman HK$4,000 a week to write a film called In the Nick.
ח! t!
Thomas
ˆisex EL21. E
★ LIME LIGHT
Whatever cire Mr Norman may have been accused of in bin time including burglary, receiving, false pretences literacy is one thing of which he is totally inno- cent. He hardly ever commits a grammatical sentence to paper tive than accurate. and his spelling is more Imagina-
Despite such apparent short- comings, his musical appears all set to become, if I may coin o phrase, an enormous smaal-and- grab. For Mr Norman writes with vividness and feeling and real insight; qualities more im- portant than the ability to spell
He came to meet me the other day in West End bar driving what he calls a "joke er”-d
Lagonda--and confessed he had
dreams of owning a tangerine- coloured Rolls-Royce with a pri vate swimming pool in the boot. He spoke nostalgically about his formative years In the nick,
"You meet such a marvellous class of people there," he said. "They're fantastically generous.**
No villainy
не doesn't
even bear any
grudge against the gang which attacked him with a razor in Jermyn Street, leaving a huge scar along the side of his tsee.
"If you move in that circle you got to expect that," he said. "I expect I'd ave done them is
*
--and a Japanese beauty becomes an Eskimo
To the intimidated Western male the Japanese girl, all submission and obedience, is a roman- tic mirage. Which accounts for the spate of films and plays about the Japanese.
A girl who has beneflied con- siderably from this trend is Yoko Tank-who War seen with Dirk Bogarde in The Wind Cannot Read.
To the gullible Tani
stood for
Eastern. •
Savage Tani
because I have been able to live in London,
"I do not want to make films there. In five months made three films and they wanted me West, Miss to do a fourth and some stage everything work as well. The Hfe of an
actress In Japan is a short wie," They have to work too hard.
AN
a
In hor latest film, Innocents, Miss appears Eskimo living In 1ociety which expects from woman even grostop obedience than do tho Japanese
Exported
1
She is married to a man who lends her to his friends with
⚫ as little concern as we hand out
cigarettes.
It is
"T also feel uncomfortable when I am working there. very formal. You are expected to bow to the directors and certain categories of actors. 1 do not like to make this sort of bom-bom all the time. And when I am just friendly and in- formal it makes
some of the others jealous.
"I like all this tradition_but
I do not want to take part in it myself."
they 'adn't have done" me first. Nudah, I don't bear them any grudge. What for?
"Basically, you got under- stand I'm not a ten-leaf (thief); I never done any villainy. never belted anyone what didn't belt me arst. I only got into it on account of my upbringing which I never 'ad, you know.
Resented
"I was what they call a pro- duct of the war, you know, a victim of my lack of environ- then, I was all alone in the world at 14 and these growers in
Soho is a much friendlier lot to
get
raff.
wiv than the rich rift
villainy done in Knightsbridge "I bet you there's as much
as what there is in Soho and people." not by as congenial a class of
Though his musical, Fings Aint Wot They Used to Bo- the Alm rights of which ho has sold for HK$80,000—deals with the less legitimate aspects of Soho trade, and his first flm script, in the Nick, draws on his experience "Inside," Mr Norman tends to resent ques- tions about his ilegal past.
"All this emphasis on the scar-facod ex-convict," he com- plained. "In this country they
*
don't take writers seriously. The Times is the only paper calls me Mr-I like that.
that
"In Paris they put out the red carpet for me--and I like it. I like it. They ask me about my writing there.
"In England you ask me about how I did my burglaries. Ад artist can't have по privacy here."
Dress sense FOUR own designed by Hai-
main have been imported, at a cost of about HK.FR2,000 Expresso Bouro. which is being for Yolande Donlan to wear in
made by Val Guest.
What will become of theso expensive outāts at the end of the film? "They will become the property of Val Guest Pro- ductions," I was told.
Thic should please Mise Donian, who happens to be Mrs Val Guest.
"There's
nothing
QUOTE: wrong with sex. A great love story is sex. But you don't have to take a woman's clothes off."-Samuel Goldwyn,
ANTHONY QUINN and YOKO TANI
Eskimo women are more submissive than Japanese,
having broken free from restric-
Now, does Miss Thorburn
IN
still look innocent?
TN the film business, in- boerned in a doubtful enantmercial proposition. The market for it, never groet, is rapidly dimininki- ing.
It has been Miss June Thorburn's misfortune to be stock with a face of un- trammelled purity. As -a result, she cast fairy riories like Tom Thumb or Gulliver's Travels, OF LI old-fashioned teenagers of the non-razor-carrying kidd, This is tough for a girl who wania to get on.
My picture (above) shows bow
she ut-deaure look when she tries.
сап
"I have a kind of Dorian Gray face, abo said woefully, "I can have the most terrible experiences and it just doesn't show.
"I had an awful marriage --dering which there was hardly a day I didn't cry ---- but none of that shows on my face. Is so Affenlt for producers. 10 give TIG romanilo roles. because ppposite mb every actor looks like a baby-snatcher. "Apart from fairy princesses pr Lolita, what parle are there for me? I'm 28 years old, with
| daughter of six, a broken
| marriago and a real fear of permanent-minded gentlé- men with marriage on their minds.
QUITE TOUGH
**I'x not demure, I'm quilo tough. I support my- self and my daughter and yet I still look like a damsel in distress."
Mina Thorburn is now taking determined steps to counter such unfortunate impressions,
.
She has acquired leopard-akin rug on which alie sprawls out
and pencilses sexy, sinful ex-
pressions.
And when a producer complained that she was Just'a fairy tale Tinness, Kho confronted him wearing a barem outfit, which she had hired. Such Initiative deserves to be rewarded.
-(London Express Servic®),
QUOTE
by Lord Attlee at the Library Association conference
Torquay:-
at
DEADING is a preparation for
I think for career will prosper REA Gill pick up quite
ve Eastern practices and is better if she doesn't let the Miss Tarl enjoys life og A enthusiastic about extending 'Western world realise it, cosmopolitan, She is proud of feminino rights.
Miss Tani herself is rather more Western than many Wes tern girls, She exported herself ---
nt an early age from Japan and has no intention of going back -except as a tourist.
"Not many actresses come from Japan," said Miss Tanl "because they do not have the
~(London Express Stretco).
GINA AS A WOMAN
INA LOLLOBRIGIDA will play a
woman of 80 in her next film-
sex appeal which is appreciated Lady L.
In the West. They are brought
up to be submissive and without She told me: "I am looking only part of
OF 80!
Monroe's
next
nim
It's
Miss the picture. "She o oharacter of their own. They forward to it very much. It will also be seen (in Bashbacks) appears to be a democratic vazia- do only what is considered will be the first time I have no a Parfalan prostitute and a flort on the same theme. the right thing to do.
done anything Nike it. I. will budding, anarchist. have to set very hard.
Short life
Tingling
Cummings
called The Bulionaire and shows: how a tycoon falls in' love with When they show a thriller, a showgirl. called The Tingler in England they propose to wire up some of when I went to Japan In
the cinema stafs to provide the customers with detifekal | shud- 1950 the Japanese journalista | decided I had bigger, bosoms will provide a wig and make up keeping them awake.
"The makeup department der An expensive way of than average Japanese girl my face to look old. They will They all wrote about this very almost put a masks on it." enthusiastically. Immediately alt thewolden, began to push up their boscate la madon themes,lood
This may be 'w hard seiing ar-
Variation
Constance plays the 'domineering, all-American... care In her new Bird Seat. She und Marilyn Monroe, it will be rein in a really tertii intendióról, cine, to Britain and parnän, el Chavan shade of his called The Ronde parformiance, an and she showgirl which showed wavjour Naturally," Miss Loffobrigida. how a prince fell in love with ** The girls thinic. I am swotle. I will be old sad doddining for showglich
Friends
"In Japan they » look upon very uneasy when I am there.
foreigner," Zam
| algument for Mi Lollobrigida........ but it will probably be a harder assignment for the make-up de«. partment.
a lot of odd knowledre frum 籍 good detective novel.
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