INTERVIEWS

Cinema heavens welcome Luise Rainer, newest star

Tomorrow is the 100th birthday of cinema icon, Luise Rainer, the recipient of two consecutive Academy Awards. She joins the ranks of entertainment centarians George Abbott (1887-1995), Bruce Bennett (1906-2007), Irving Berlin (1888-1989), Margaret Booth (1898-2002), George Burns (1896-1996), Claire Du Brey (1892-1993), Bob Hope (1903-2003), Dolores Hope (b. 1909), Barbara Kent (b. 1906), Carla Laemmle (b. 1909), Charles Lane (1905-2007), Francis Lederer (1899-2000), Florence Lee (1858-1962), Huey Long (1904-2009), Irving Rapper (1898-1999), Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), Hal Roach (1892-1992), Frederica Sagor Maas (b. 1900), Miriam Seegar (b. 1907), George Beverly Shea (b. 1909), Dorothy Stickney (1896-1998), Doris Eaton Travis (b. 1904), Senor Wences (1896-1999), Estelle Winwood (1883-1984), Dorothy Young (b. 1907), Adolph Zukor (1873-1976). Note: Dorothy Janis will turn 100 on February 19, 2010. The following is a Los Angeles Times story about Rainer’s film debut in Escapade, almost 75 years ago.

By Katherine T. Von Blon

Los Angeles Times

July 8, 1935

A lustrous and exciting personality flashes across the cinematic horizon in Luise Rainer, M-G-M’s Viennese prodigy, appearing opposite William Powell in Escapade at the Chinese and Loew’s State theaters.

There’s so much emotion and dynamic energy stored in the small compact body of this wistful little lady, that one could never hope to press it into mere words. She’s a series of contradictions, and as fluid as quicksilver. One moment she’s gay and the next she’s sunk in depths of despair.

Luise is terrified of strangers. She has just come from one of those imposing studio luncheons, given for visiting nabobs. She huddled in a corner of the divan, like a small frightened rabbit, and managed one of her sudden, ingratiating smiles. “Luise doesn’t understand the English very welll.” She has a habit of speaking of herself objectively.

This same elfin creature will hold the entire studio force at bay, when it comes to a question of her artistic integrity.

“When I say to them, ‘Luise cannot do it that way,’ it is because I do not feel it, and I never do anything I do not feel here.” Needless to say, Luise gets her way and by the same token, those in authority admit that she has a sixth sense and is invariably right. However, there have been some stormy scenes, ending with the volatile star taking French leave.

Luise thinks American men are enormously fascinating, but she doesnt’ know how to take them. “Your American men, they are most charming. They all walk on little pink clouds. They are so happy and carefree. But you do not know if they love you, or if they are just your friend. The men, they are more serious in Europe.”

Luise has a passion for music and Beethoven is one of her mightiest gods. She said: “I have just purchased a beautiful phonograph that plays the entire Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, without interruption. It is heavenly.”

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