1961-04-29 — Page 21

For a pioneer Hollywood plundered, praise comes gold-plated

STAN LAUSSTICA, BENEKOSAKO

by PETER EVANS

New York.

THE orchestra began playing the jerky, curiously catchy cuckoo song that was once a signature tune and the lights went low and the applause was thunderous and long.

Instead Stan Laurel "the akinny one" of the Laurel and Hardy team-sat in his small Sanla Monica home by 20 ocean and watched it on TV.

The pleturen

a

+

But nobody appeared on the.

RTCW WDISe and empty lage to take the bow. by 1943 and an unfunny comedy

For the

McCale "Jitterbugs" man all Hollywood called

"I now seemed certain was honoring the other night wrote:

Ole that the with a speclat Orear was tou to Stan and

were attempting audios sick to be there,

deliberate freeze-out....allow ing the artistle level of the aims

and lower....* to sink lower Stan asked bitterly: "What was there for us to do but get out? We had no say in those films and it sure looked it. We had made too many flims in our wn way for us to keep taking health, must have been touched anything like that, so we gave up the ghost. It was sickening." 'We cried'

His famous emply grin, now set in a face full of age and no

with frony po he listened to the accolades.

The special Oscur was for "creative pioneering in the Beld of cinema comedy."

Emotion

Here was Hollywood with overdreased emotion and gold-plated statue-cash value HK$360-acclaiming Laurel and Hardy, 10 years after their last

dim.

And here was Hollywood praising the talents of two men it had once plundered.

The story of how Hollywood ruthlessly ruined them for a fast buck is told for the first limo in a new book just out in New York called "Mr. Laurel and Mr Hardy," by John McCabe.

Their

decline and fall began 1941 when M.G.M. and Twentieth-Century Fox, two of America's biggest studios, signed them for a series of films which, too late, Stan and Olle learned were planned as cheap-budget "qutelle" pictures exploiting their cure-re box-oMee appeal, For the first time in their career Churel and Hardy had no say in production.

Yet the world never stopped Both loving the innocent pair. Churchi and Stalin, for relaxation between the stresses of plotting

war. were fond of acreening their films.

On their way to England for a music-hall tour in 1952 Laurel and Hardy docked at Cobh, in Ireland, and hundreds of people swarmed down to the docis.

"The love and affection we found that day was unbe- llevable,

something And that I Cin never

happened forget. All the church Sells in Cobh started to ring out our theme song and Babe looked at me and we cried," said Stan.

in

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1961.

Roderick Mann Röd

Can Mr Finch afford

to go on waiting?

his Chelsea house, Mr Poter Finch was thoughtfully sipping champagne. He looked tanned and fit; a very different man from the one I last saw two months ago. Then, aftor six months of frustrating inactivity on Cleopatra ho was as near to a vous breakdown as he is ever likely to get.

Hs nerves were raw. He locked worn out. Indeed, had the film gone ahead at that tane, It is questionable whether Mr Finch would have got through it without cracking up.

I SAID I'D DO CAESAR. BUT NOW...I JUST DON'T KNOW'

ner-

an over Cleopatra. It looks as if

But the film was postponed and Mr Finch

A dangerous gamble for took off for

he knows that, however brilliant month in Jamaica-to begin the actor to take. Especially when Hollywood just isn't for me

to normalcy, far s Chasar, Cleopatra must climb back

inevitably wind up as Elizabeth months from the insistent jangling the 'phone which-for

Taylor's picture, on end-und brought only news of sickness, changes, delays, and luy-os,

What happens now?

Wasted

more

once again into

of

"I don't know," Finch sold,

"I just don't know.

"But I don't regret having worked there. You have to go to estabilih there if you want

kind! of International And they've always reputation. been very kind to me.

any

Isolated

You see, I promised Liz I'd do it with her. I'm not legally bound, or anything of that mort. Just morelly with home from Jamaica, to collect

But you're

ing too.

with Cleopatra ir it goes ahead "There's another later this summer to plunge Next year I'm going to play Ken Cromwell for this if-fated Oliver

directed me in epic-but this time with his Hughes, who initial enthusiasm gone and the Oscar Wilde. And I don't want ever present fear that catus to get the reputation for play trophe may again be just around it too many great men.

Handful the corner?

"I went there

my way

Finch and wiło -----

Liz. No one else.

Oscar Wilde Con Mr Finch afford

to right. Some of the enthusiasm's an award which

won. They gave me a great he gone. time? Can

Isolated quite often does it with his eyes tino. Bui I still felt

wide open." waste

all over gala afford to start

-will I saw Trevor Howard. He was at the dinner too, and INCENTIVE we fell on each other with great THE brown-skinned cries.

beautics of Tahiti "A TV cameraman 5100d

but Troy havo two main faults, it ap- there filming us, was so busy cursing and blind pears: ing because he was happy to see me that at the end the cameraman said: Thank you- but I can't use a single foot of that. Sonicone might be able to lip-read"

Cleopatra

wasted eight months of Finch's career right at the time when he was the most sought-after netor in the country.

Johnnie bad rocketeri prestige

new heights

him. But he was not available. fael is that And the hard it Peter

honours his Finch promise to Elizabeth Taylor to make Cleopatra with her, he will not be available for many,

Oscar Wilde and No Love for his

"After all-Wilde, Caesor, ang Cromwell; that's quite a hand-

all Maybe, after

the rul. shambles, I should forget about Caesar, I don't know. I'll have to wait and see: I'll have lo play it by ear."

1. They have very bad teeth; 2. They are lazy, and reluct ant to work..

When the Ajutiny on the Bounty unit were out there filming crowd scenes they found He chuckled and finished is that very often the girls didn't bother to turn up. So they des drink.

"I got some good notices out vised a cunning plan, there for my Alms tuo.

They appealed Ont

to the girls' ail those read: 'Peter Fuch is the most

slob to personable

hit the taking part in the lm a com screen since Humphrey Bogart. plete set of false teeth.

vanity by promising Then Producers were clamouring for

After their smash success Britain that year their popu- arily was soaring again at the it came with box office, but sudden sickness.

Stan had a stroise. offle-his friends always called Babe suffered heart him attack. He died on August 7, 1857.

a

That ends the history of Laurel and Hardy," cald Stan and wept.

many months to London Express Seruice).

come.

HANKEY-THE POWERFUL IDEAS MAN WHO

WAR

LORD

HAD THE

EAR OF BRITAIN'S

The supreme

boy backroom

THE SUPREME COMMAND.

1914-1918, By Lord Han-

koy. Allen and Unwin, 2

vols. £4 45.

by George

pleting a long

have

He gazed into his champagne, "Funny," he said, "Ametlean always been plctures unlucky for me. First there was Walk, when Vivien Elephant

Le had a breakdown. Then Rachci Cade-which horror. And now all the trouble

was

LEADERS

THE OTHER NEW BOOKS IN BRIEF

memo

argument for convoys,""

a

Gifted

:.

Apart from being a personable slob, Mr Finch is also one of the most genuinely gifted people In the profession.

paints,

He

And to ensure that they re- ported for work the following

zpit day the

manager made their turn in their teeth each night before leaving the set. IN A HURRY

DINED with Mr Cary

writes acts, and directs, all with I Grant and his actress

equal sensitivity.

And the success of his half- hour short The Day, which he made and directed. on the island of Ibiza last year, has encour- nged him to go into production for himself, Recently ho started drawing up plans for is Arst Independent venture. There will be no more hanging around; no more waiting.

wife Betsy Drake, the ether night before they returned to Hollywood.

Miss Drake was in a hurry to get back.

For a new film? No. A new play? No.

A student of astronomy, she wanted to get back to the telescope which Mr Grant gave But the question still un- her for her last birthday. answered is this:

When Cleopatra finnily rolls, will he be playing Caesar?

At this moment no one knows. Not even Peter Finch,

THE SLEEPER

"When the next man gees into orbit," she said, "I wont to be there watching."

UOTE—from Mr Jerry Lewis, the comedian:- Business is so bad in

ACTOR Robert Mitchum Hollywood that the other

frequently accused

night when I phoned a of drifting through pictures the last show went on they local theatre to ask when

with his Byca half-closed,

said:

though he were on the "With things the way!

Vergo of sleep.

they are, this could be I is a cruel canard, says a friend who visited him on the it set of The Grass is Greener,

O FELIX FRANKFURTER REMINISCES. Hartan D. Phillips. Seeker, 253. Justice Frankfurter's progress, from Viennese Immigrant at 12 10 "Actually," Bays this man, Judge of the Supreme Court of j "when Mitcham does élecp he the United States, with illumina-

antion on the way on the pre-war

political scene. A book-long

I would be wrong, however, tape-recorded interview stimu-

το είναι the unpression that lating and diverting.

Lord Hankey's book is a mere

THE background boys Malcolm Thomson exercise in vanity.

THI

✔ THE

CHINA BIRD, David In a long passage at the end, R. BacGregor. Chatto, 425, have their revenges.

after assigning due praise to Patchwork reconstruction of the They work in darkness. So his

lesser figures, he history of the China tea clippers empire spread, His Asquith and

that the Their names

war of of the 19th century and in par- are often comunlitees multiplied, The concludes scarcely known

Secretariat of today, 1914-18 was, after all, won by ticular the redoubtable Captain to the Cabinet

Klick. Somehow the full drama Lloyd Georrë, unobtrusive and strategically

is lacking, and the book makes public. Although their well-placed at the heart of

As he darts from the car of heavy weather for the general influence is great, the government, la essentially the

one important Minister to die-render. One for the enthusiast. offspring of his mind. It was

tate

a hurried (but lengthy) glory of their labours not the only one.

memorandum to mother, as he

→ CROMWELL'S MASTER belongs to others.

The war of 1914-1918 was his presides over a key committee

STY. D. L. Habman, Chap. time of real greatness, and, look while wondering how he

it, Lord Hankey best persunde some indignant man and Hall, 218. Flattering back on fade many causes for discreet warlord that what looks like dis- portrait of the corruptible John self-applause.

missal is in fact promotion-one Thurloe, leading figure of the Croinwellian Establishment, gebs the impression of very While he disclaims credit for active spider at the centre of a

who, apart from other interents, actually launched the vast and glistening web.

ran the secret service like s having Lord Hankey is the supreme

proto-type of M.I.5. The climate example of the backroom boy idea of tanks, this is only

of the time rather than the in- in government. As an officer in through an excess of modesty.

dividual comes through. the Royal Marines, he became If he were to put forward the secretary to the Committee of claim, he would quote he does quote-Colonel Swinton's letter Imperial Defence in the years of November 11, 1914: before the 1914-10 war,

If they feel any resentment about this and they usually do -they have one method of DRSunging it: they write their memoirs.

APPALLED

The casual methods by which British government was carried

On

FLUSTERED

con

SVENGALI

SHYLOCK TO

Edgar Rosen-

entertaining piere of

one occasion, indeed, FROM Hankey's activities got him into "I put your idea before the trouble when Lord Fisher was berg, Peter Owen. 47. Volumin- Chief Engineer... this me he resigning from the Admiralty on ous, for purely tractive purposes, or account of his quarrel will scholarship on the Jew in Eng- for bursting in against positions Churchill, as suggested by you."

lish iteraturo. Shylock, Fagin, | Riah, Svengalf and many others Hankey persundled him to go to are present. Professor Rosen-

reasons Scotland, "away from journalis-berg's

for so joining on at the highest levels appalled As early 23 April 1910,

tie Influences. I undertook to them are tendentious and gun- him. Ha at himselt to reduce Hankey was advocating the use

this with square an "grasshoppers,” all to proper bureaucratie order. of aircraft

the Prime powder for many an argument. armoured, flying low end attack- flustered and irritable, sold that Mluister Asquith? But Asquilh, He made himself indispensable ing heavy guns with bombs. to Balfour, Asquith and Lloyd

Fisher ought to be shot for leay- THE DATTLE OF MATA- PAN. 8. W. C. Pack, Inte- George in turn. He

One of his most useful Liens ing his post. was an

ford, 218. The last simp-up.bat- adopt at smoothing ruffled camo to him ons Sunday in

Diligent feathers.

ireless, February 1917, when the U-boat

a useful leship action fought by the is described Bnd dmudrisman who also had the Royal Navy Kto wap skilful at anding war was at its direst:

art of making her greeted into the pattern of healing formulas. He was "Ied a brain wave, so ran able to his superiors Honkey Mediterranean war by an eye- witness, Another eye-witness busy go-between, a licensed and down to. Walton Heaths in the receives high preferment. His was, of course, the young Prince loyal servant who kept his afternoon to formulate my ideas back, ponderous an Intelcate, Philip. masters informed of events and to Lloyd George, who was very will have interest for the keeneri persons.

Interested. Z Aat vp late com- students of the period.

-(London Espress Kervice)..

the

JOLLYWOOD definition of a psychiatrist:-

Page: 13

the former actress Yolando Turner "Someone who watches boy is b-looking Kenneth everyone else when Brigitte More is 47 this year. At Bardot walks into a room.' this rate, hoʻll look OYON Grant youngor than Cary whon he reaches Mr Grant's prosent 57.

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