Submitted by
Neal Lofthouse
Moira Says Yes - At Last
Leading article
Picturegoer July 8th 1950
She's dancing in front of the cameras again.
No one who remembers - and who can forget? - her brilliant
performance in 'The Red Shoes', will wish anything but the best of
luck to Moira Shearer, who starts work on her new film, 'Tales of
Hofmann', this month.
Certainly we'll wish her more luck than she had with her only
picture to date. Although 'The Red Shoes' was a triumph for Moira it
had a sad-sweet tang.
Films of the classical ballet, declared Moira, could only prove
successful if a new and more subtle technique were adopted in making
them. And 'The Red Shoes', she complained, only scratched the surface
of ballet.
Consistantly she rejected the flood of screen offers that an
excited filmdom poured down on her. She was a dancer, she said, not an
actress. Before she accepted a part she must be certain it was the
right one.
The decision cost her thousands of pounds.
It cost her too, a certain amount of distress.
For a long spell, she says, she was almost afraid to pick up a
newspaper in case she found herself being taken to task for attacking
the film world's methods or refusing to make another picture.
Now she has said yes. The part - Olympia, the puppet doll - calls
for more dancing and less acting than in 'The Red Shoes', and
obviously, after such a long string of refusals, must be what she has
been waiting for.
It ought to be, and picturegoers will join whole-heartedly in
hoping that it will be, an unimpaired sucess for Moira Shearer. Yes
we're glad to see her back. She's a true artist, of the sort we really
need.
