(3 of 3)
Robert Montgomery, who startled admirers of his customary flip performances last week by appearing as a pathological murderer in Night Must Fall (see p. 67). promptly stepped into the news in still another role—as president of Hollywood's Screen Actors' Guild, Inc. Rumors of stirring social consciousness among cinema stars, notably pert little Jimmy Cagney, have been emerging from Hollywood more & more frequently of late. Prime outward evidence is the 5,600-strong Guild, to which virtually all film actors and actresses belong. Last week's strike faced the Guild with its first big test of Labor solidarity. President Montgomery swiftly summoned his executive board, including First Vice President Cagney, Second Vice President Joan Crawford and Assistant Secretary Boris Karloff, who decided to postpone decision on a sympathetic strike until a mass meeting could be held, meantime left the question of passing through picket lines to individual decision. At the mass meeting, some 4,000 solemn-faced cinemactors voted to wait another week before deciding whether to exert their social consciousness to the full.