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Jean Arthur in “Cameo
Kirby”
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur - “The Plainsmen” - Directed by Cecil g DeMille
James Stewart and Jean Arthur - “You Can’t Take It
With You”.
Jean Arthur, Frankie Darrow, Toim Tyler in “The
Cowboy Cop”.
Jean
Arthur:
A
Pictorial
Interview
Arranged by Sheila Creef
“The most profitable screen heroine that a studio can
create... is a heroine whose beauty is so overwhelming
that it allows her own character never to come into play
and therefore never to be called in question. We do not
fret over the lack of social purpose, charity, humor, or
anything else in such perfections of the type as Greta
Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Marlene Dietrich. But nothing is
so irritating as the mildly pretty blonde whose beauty is
barely acceptable in the first few feet of film and who
subsequently has no other charm to offer. Those who fall
between these extremes are the majority of stars who
combine good looks and certain typical whimsicalities
or personal traits of humor, temper, sarcasm-- some
single quality that is entertaining because it is effective
to dramatize. Most movie-goers seem to prefer this
compromise formula as a steady diet, probably because
it offers superior beauty to any they are personally
familiar with, but is at the same time linked up- by the
chosen personality characteristic- with a life they
know. Thus Jean Arthur’s husky downrightness and
loyalty, Claudette Colbert’s tongue-in-cheek, Carole
Lombard’s air of honest- to- goodness exasperation.
Ginger Rogers’ natural acceptance of hard facts: these
are the individual characteristics of current favorites
who were all originally consigned to a career of solemn
prettiness.”
Alistair Cooke
Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, and Alan Ladd, - “Shane” - Directed by George
Stevens.