Is there any difference, on ge or creen, between a hero and a vill n an ideal villain turn into an ideal hero by sheer virtue of make-up or production? Something of the sort has happened in the case of William Powell, who, at one time, was public enemy Number One and the deadliest and most implacable member of the worst gangs in New York and Chicago, One cannot say exactly that Mr. Powell has become a hero although he is now almost always on the side of virtue. There exists a lurking wish that he had remained a villain. His twisted smile and weary eyes, suggesting many feverish nights, seem to be more suited to the underworld than the politer circles which he now usually affects.
Is similar change about to take place in the career of Humphrey Bogart? Mr. Bogart made a sudden and almost unenviable reputation in "The Petrified Forest" as a "killer" of the worst type, Impressionable persons were supposed to shudder at the sight of him and Boris Karloff was regarded in comparison as mere food for babes, It appeared that Bogart must remain-an unspeakable scoundrel and in "Dead End" he shows nothing of any kind of virtue.
But there are indications that redemption may await him as it awaited Edward G. Robinson as well as Willian Powell. In the recent "Stand In," Mr. Bogart, although drunk, is virtuous to the backbone and out against at kinds of crookedness, It is now rumoured that his producers wish to make the fullest possible use of his reputation and acting ability by turning him into a good man.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.