Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

18 coupling between them, crouched down, and snapped off a shot. His enemy pumped bullets at him as he ducked. Then there was a lull. Barney guessed the other was reloading. He seized his chance, hauling himself over the edge of the wagon and creeping along inside it. Next time Larkin's man popped up he got a terrific shock. His wrist was seized, and he was jerked over the edge of the car, right over Barney's head, to land on his back with a bone-shaking thud. A blow from Barney's fist put him out. Meanwhile, individual gun fights and hand-to-hand battles were taking place all along the trail. Having disposed of his first enemy, Barney ran along the cat- walk, firing as he swayed on his dangerous perch. A bullet whistled .past his ear, and he dropped flat and opened fire. The man who had potted at him threw up his arms and hurtled from his position between two cars, to crash on the rocky ground at the side of the track. Battered by the angry Flying M cow- boys, bandit after bandit was hurled from the speeding train. The track was strewn with them. In the driver's cab Larkin was surprised and disarmed. Knowing his men now had the train under their control, Barney made for the box-car. He glanced in through the skylight, and his jaw set grimly. Next moment he had swung himself through and drop.ped inside. With a scared glance Whitlock ran immediately to the door at the rear and unlocked it. Barney caught him, whirled him round and knocked him right on to the plat- form at the back with a punch on the jaw. Whitlock came back, clinging to him. and dragging him out. For one wild moment Barney swayed on the edge, with Whitlock's foot pushing at him. With a mighty effort he swung himself back, knocked Whitlock's feet from under him, and hurled him bodily back into the car. Scrambling to his feet, the crook was just in time to get another punch on the jaw which sent him grovelling on the floor. Bai'ney hauled hmi to his feet and handed him over to Whopper, who had just dropped through. "We got them all, Barney," Whopper shouted. "Here's another one for you! Put him on the cattle train." "It'll be a pleasure," Whopper crowed, and dragged Whitlock away. Shortly the train was at peace. Some- where ahead Ray and the boys were sing- ing. Barney was sitting on the platform with Helen when she leaned across and kissed him on the cheek. Barney grinned. The Lewis Packing Company had been sa\'ed, and the racketeers of the range had been absolutely wiped out. By permission of RKO Radio Pictures, Ltd., based on the film "Racketeers of the Range," which has the following cast: BOY'S CINEMA George O'Brien Chill Wills Marjorie Reynolds Gay Seabrook Robert Fiske John Dilson Monte Montague Bud Osborne Ben Corbett Ray Whitley Cactus Mack as Barney O'Dell as Whopper Hatch as Helen Lewis as Penny Jones as Roger Whitlock as Benson as Joe Lnrkin as Hank as Dutch as Ray as Flash REMEMBER! To get your copy of BOY'S CINEMA every week you MUST place a regular order with your newsagent, otherwise he won't be able to supply you. ASTA—A DOC WITH A SENSE OF HUMOUR From one trick to a Bernhardt reper- toire and a fortune is a capsule descrip- tion of Asta. perhaps not the most aristocratic, but certainly the most famous and valuable dog in motion pictures to-day. Seven years ago, this thirty-two-pound wire-haired terrier, whose quizzical per- sonality has become known the world over for his performances in the "Thin Man" pictures, had just one accomplishment. He answered to his name. Nowadays Asta has a repertoii'e of fif- teen stunls, and not one of them is a physical trick, such as trained motion-pic- ture animals used to perform. Asta doesn't jump through hooos or over fences. He wouldn't be any good at running twenty miles to bring the cavalry and rescue a covered-wagon train from the American Indians. He doesn't like running, anyway, according to East, his owner. His value lies in the fact that his stunts are emotional. They come close to being as good histrionics as a director can get from a human actor. He yawns, looks lonesome or happv, surprised, fearful, angr.\—a repertoire that a two-legged star might easily envy. At one time or anotiier in "Thin Man " pictures, Asta has had to express virtually every emotion that writers can think up for their characters. In the first ■Thin Man " picture he was called on to portray three distinct emo- tional reactions. Nobodv who saw the picture will forget the scene in which Asta dives imder a bed in a fearful panic when a gangster takes a pot-shot at Nick Charles, his screen master. When the rumpus is over. Asta pokes his head out from under the counterpane in a shamed fashion, and. seemg that his retreat hasn't been noticed in the excitement, he pops out and stalks around proudly, as though he. and he alone, had put the would-be killer to flight. ■ That was acting, pure and simple." ex- plains East, "because I have yet to find anything that Asta is really afraid of." "We picked him as an actor," East recalls, "before he was six months old, our main reason being that he had a per- fect motion-picture eye." Asta. of course, had to show other qualities in order to be chosen for an act- ing career. Even as a puppy he was tractable and adaptable and had courage and tenacity, four traits as valuable to men and women who want to succeed in pictures as they are to an ambitious dog. Above all. Asta had. and still has, a sense of humour. No human actor can look any more droll or self-satisfied than Asta when he has pulled a successful joke, as he does in his current picture. "Another Thin Man." He is called on to create an uproar among several squads of police, a bevy of special of[icei"s and a few investigators from the District Attorney's office, by run- ning off with a murder knife in his teeth and dodging the whole lot of them for a couple of minutes on the back lot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Asta carried out the assignment to the letter, and. when the scene was over, sat down and cocked his perfect picture eyes at the winded actors in an unmistakably sardonic fashion. It is that quizzical quality which has set Asta apart from and above motion-picture dogs of the past, has earned a small for- tune for his owner, and has made him the only American dog who has ever been brought to England to make a picture. TICKLISH CORPSE ^very Tuesday reared In front of the camera. Randolph Scott and Cesar Romero alighted from the top of the coach and pulled the limp body of the riddled stagecoach drivi^r from inside it. But suddenly the "corpse" began to twitch, then to giggle, and then guffaw. With a sheepish grin on his face, lie stood up and addressed Scott and Romero ; ■'Say, fellahs, cut it out! When vou carry me from the coach, don't grab me by the ribs. I'm ticklish!" HARPO MARX TO VISIT THE MAN WHO HELPED MAKE HIM FAMOUS Mr. Goorki of New York is going tn have a visitor. In fact, for the first time, he will meet socially the man he helped to make famous—Harpo Marx. When the mute member of the mad Marxes was a little boy, he always used to stop in front of Davidson's Cigar Store in one of New York's poorer districts. la the window sat Goorki, rolling cigars. But it wasn't the cigar-rolling that fascinated young Harpo; it was the faces made bv Goorki as he struggled with unruly tobacco-leaves. Harpo started to imitate those faces, and one day the cigar-maker caught him at it. From then on. Harpo didn't stop in front of the windows anv more. But neither did he forget the faces. One evening, twenty years ago, the comedian was making a stage appearance with his brothers, and everything they did fell flat At last, in desoeration, Harpo started making ' Goorki" faces at the audience. It was a sensation, and the faces Irave remained an integral part of his act ever since. Now. having comoleted his work in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Marx Bros, at the Circus," Harpo is going to make a trip to New York. And one of the prin- cipal reasons for the trip will be to see Mr. Goorki. Harpo would like to thank him. He would also like to know if Goorki still makes faces, and if he has anv new ones. STUDIO BECOMES A ZOO Novenilicr lltli, lOm. On the set of "Frontier Marshal." at 20th Century-Fox. Allan Dwan was direct- ing a furious scene. Dust flew as a stagecoach careered down the main street of Tombstone. Arizona, and the horses Paramomit. one of the larger Hollywood film factories, has ceased to be a studio, and has now become a zoo! Everywhere you look there are animals Everything, from cows to ostriches, is find- ing work in pictures these days. "Dr. Cyclops" has alligators, chickens, cats, a dog. and horses. "Diamonds Are Dangerous" has the customary dog, and a half-dozen ostriches. The stoiT takes place in South Africa, where ostrich-racing is popular, A huge bear was taken all the way from Chicago for a part in "Untamed." with Ray Milland and Patricia Morison, and two more were sent up from the zoo at San Diego. Dorothy Lamour is working with a chimpanzee again in "Typhoon," along with assorted tropical fauna. Fi'ed MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck are not troubled with wild animals in "Remember the Night," but they do have trouble with a herd of cows. Director Mitchell Leisen had trouble, too, outside the script, with the bovines bellowing at odd moments. Anna May Wong and J. Carrol Naish toiled with a a tiger in "Island of Lost Men," and a hundred or so dogs worked in "Death of a Champion." which has to do with dog shows. A couple of water buffalo showed up with Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurrav and Allan Jones in "Honeymoon in Bali," and camels have their innings in "The Light That Failed," not to mention o Scotty dog that follows Ronald Colman around. All in all, the studio gates are giving a pretty good imitation of Noah's Ark each morning as the animals come filing In, not only two bv two, but in herds and swarms.