Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

16 distance. They had timed it well, for as they floated ceiitly, with their enjjiiie now silent, they hc.'ird the drone of a plane, and presently the I'loiiiised seaplane alighted on the, water. 11 reeled by the rheerful young pilot, they quickly trausferrod to the comfortable cabin :ibaiidoninK the speedboat. Not till they weie cliinliiiig into th" dark, cloudy sky did they relax. But they had been flying only for a few miiude.'i when Tio, who had turned to' scan the sky behind them, growled : "Well, there's a Government plane right on our tail. Do you think we can beat it to the' border?" " I don't know," the young man shrugged. "Those are pretty fa?t babies." He was right. The puisuing plane—a two- seater fighter—was lapidly overhauling them. Now that they weie above the clouds they could .see the dim shape of the gunner, stand- ing up in his cockpit and swivelling his gun ' round. Tio snatched up a sub-machine-gun that was' lying in a rack and ijushed back the sliding, transparent cover of the cabin. Standing on bis seat, he steadied himself against the howl ing slipstream and brought the tommy-gun to hi,s shoulder just as the enemy gunner opened fiie. The seaplane pilot flew on calmly, keeping his course as the fighter sideslipped close up to him. The flrst bnist of bullets screamed near Tio's head and away into space. The second peppered the fabric behind the cabin. Theti the harsh rat-tat-tat of the tommy-gun broke out as the big Aiifiican drew a bead on the enemy. The gunner threw up his arms and eol lapsed, hanging limply over the edge of hi; cockpit. Tio swayed, gritting his teeth, foi one of thc^ dead maii'.s last shots had smashed itito his shoulder. He saw the enemy fighter bank, then swing roimd, diving at the sca- filane as the pilot tiied to bring his front ' guns to bear. Tio. ainiing carefully, pulled tlie trigger as the fighter came headlong at them. His stream of btillets smashed the propeller "to pieces and. screaming on. riddle<l the pilot, i Tlie plane's nose diopped. lu a spin, it went hurtling down towards the sea. Tio. with a sigh, sank down on his seat,, and Steve and Nedra were quick to plug his wound. The grip of the dictatorship had loosened as far as they were concerned. But next morning, when Steve was en- lliusiastically telling Nedra that Tio had ■ ordered another plane to take them to a sea- port where they could catch a boat to the' United States, the girl shook her head sadly., "Steve, I'm not going with you." she said quietly. "I can't, Steve! For a little while' I did dream of America—but now I'm awake again." "You don't know what you're saying," •Sieve said frantically. "What about Doctor Kiorimi ?" "Don't worry." She patted his arm. "He'l take me back. They need people badly who, are willing to fight. Listen to me, Steve. [ was a coward. 1 wanted to escape. How could I ever have peace of mind, knowing that I ran away? I miust, stay heic, Steve." He stared dully at the ground. "I guess I understand." Then he grippei !ier shoulders. "If yon ever feel your woi k' is fmished hero—we will be waiting for you." And ^vhell the three Americans took off ;i bifle latc'r. Nedia stood in the stubbly (ield with tears in her eyes, waving until the plain was no more than a tiny speck in the sky. Adapted from incidents in the RKO Radio picture, " Conspiracy," which has the following . cast: Allan Lane as Steve Kendall Linda Hayes as Nedra Rohert Barrat as Tio Charley Foy as Studs Lionel Royce as Inspector of Secret Police J. Farrell MacDonald as Captain of the Fal- con Lester Matthews as Gain Henry Brandon as Carlson William von Brincken as Wilson ('•(■l.ni.-ir.v imii, VMO. BOY'S CINEMA THE END OF THE TRAIL Darryl F. Zaiuiek. jjroduet ion chief of 20th Century Fox, announces that he will make iie'ct season a dramatic story of the evolution of Western films, to be called "The End of the Trail " and to be filmed in Technicolor. Tlie "Western " film is almost as oW as the cinema and the story will cover the early days of "horse-opera," the breath-taking serials, the exploits of Broncho Billy Anderson, and move down through the yeai-s to such lavish productions as "The Covered Wagon" and "The Big Trail." The leading character is to be a sort of composite of historic cowboy heroes—men like William S. Hart, Tom Mix and Billy Anderson. Milton Sperling is preparing the screen i)lay and Gene Markey has been appointed associate producer. 15,000 YEARS TO MAKE A PICTURE It took 15,000 years for "Gulliver's Tiavels " to be made into a feature-length cartoon for Paramount. Believe it or not, it's the truth. Dave Fleischer, who directed the film, and Max I'leiseher, who produced it. provide the figures establishing this remarkable fact. In the first place, the picture runs for a))[)roximately one hour. That is 3,600 seconds. A single, individual cartoon frame is on the .screen just one twenty-fourth of a second. In other words, twenty-four cartoons last just one second on the screen. Multiply that by 3,600 and you get 86,400 sparat'o lartoons. Now then, it takes nine weeks to make a single drawing. Nine weeks times 86,400 di-awings equals 777,600 frames—that equals 14.954 years ! But being modern miracle workers the brothers Fleischei' and their staff of 700 .•assistants and artists maiuiged to complete this stu|)endons job in eighteen monihs. During this time over 1,000,000 diawings were made, ranging from sketches to magnificent paintings used as backgrounds. More than twelve tons of |)aint were brushed on 500.000 ■elluloids and backgrounds which go to make up the 115,200 composite' scenes. A[)proxi- inately sixteen tons of drawing paper were used.' ■' (Julliver's Travels" was made in Miami, Florida, where Max Fleischer has his sliuiios. It was two years ago that Paramount suggested to Flei.scher that he should make this subject into a feature-length cartoon. He thought it over for six months, and then got to work. "Warm-ups"—meaning iireliminary story ronferences—for a new feature-length cartoon which, according to Fleischer, will follow "Gulliver's Travels" to the .screen, are now being held. Fleischer says plans for the new feature are not yet sufliciently definite to announce the subject or characters to be featured. SPEAKING OF OPERATIONS A am the tal vldie Collins, 20th Century-Fox eomediiin. ■ently made a rush journey to a Hollywood <pital to part with a troublesome appendix. motor hearse was pressed into service as an bnlance. ' Don't worry, Mr. C^ollins," said a sympa- 'tie attendant in the vehicle, "just i-elax." 'Thanks," .said ICddie. "Who are you—the •tor?" 'No." came the candid re))ly. "The under- :er." FILM STAR'S DRIVING FADS .Most of Hollywood's stars have some par- tiriilar fi'ti>h, superstition, or custom when riding in a motor-car. Gi-eta Garbo. for instance, always sits on the bark .seat on the side of her ear that is away oni the kerb. 'I'hus, when the car f)arks. there is more distance between her and any curious spectator. Wiien her car drives away from the es fresh or^Kd sI^PRly Every Tuesday Metro-Goldwyn-]\Iayer studios, if there liappens to be a crowd of "fans" at the gate. Miss Garbo crouches down out of sight. Incidentally, Miss (Jarbo often buys a bag of bananas and eats them in her car. She never eats them any- where else. Myrna Loy always insists on sitting on the liojht rear seat. This places her closest to the kerb when she leaves or enters her car. Joan Crawford's superstition is that seven is a lucky number for motoring, and she always arranges to get a licence plate with a seven on it. Robert Montgomery -won't ride in a car with the top up unless it is raining. He craves fresh air. S|)encer Tracy has a little medallion or luck emblem on the dashboard of his ward oft' accidents. On Lana Turner's bright red coupe, sr_ more vivid in hue than a fire engine, a small piece of wood is inlaid in the<door next to the steerino^ wheel. This is so she can " touch wood " in the car, otherwise of all-steel con- stru'tion. Jjionel Barrymore has his car arranged so that clutch, brakes and transmission are operated by hand levers, and the driver need never use his feet. The invention was born of an old knee injury that made operation of the brake inconvenient for him. Clark Gable used to seek small ear numbers, until he diseoveied that they were too easily remembered, with the result that crowds gathered about his parked ear. Now he gets the longest numbers. Director Clarence Brown has an aviation safety belt on the driver's seat of his car. "If I put on my Jirakes suddenly 1 can't go through the windshield," he laughs. Brown is an ardent aviator, and somehow the belt on the car gives him the same sense of security it does in his aeroplane. Mickey Rooney turns his car around, drives back a few streets, then lesumes his journey if a black cat happens to cross the street in front of him. He considers black cats un- lucky. • SUCH IS FAME Cecil B, DeMille was having a story con- ference cleauinjj up details of the script for his next film, "North West Mounted Police," on board his yacht off Catalina Island. Two swimmers became ambitious antl drew up alongside, pretty well winded. DeMille invited them on board for a rest. The opening conversation was vague, as it ii.^ually is when stiangers have to be polite to each other. Finally, one of the swinnners, a girl, said: "Do you live on the island?" "No," i-eplied DeMille. "Well, do you live on this boat, then?" The girl was curious. "I live in T.os .Angeles." .said the producer- director. ".My name is De^Iille." "Oh," exclaimed the girl, and you could tell she was still at sea. "De.Mille—DeMille." interrupted the boy swimmer, strugoling to remember. "Why, 1 think I've ])lave(l tennis with your brother, fiill." HENRY FONDA TO CO-STAR WITH ALICE FA YE llemy Konda has been assigned a co-starring role with Alice Kaye in Darryl F. Zanuek's production of "Lillian Russell," thi; story of America's famous actress which is soon to take the floor- at 20th Century-Fox studios. Alice Faye will j)lay the title role, one to give great scope to her strongly-developed dramatic abilities, and Henry Fonda will appear as the dashing and adventurous Alex inder \'oore. It will mark Fonda's return to real romantic drama after such character roles as he has played so finely in "^'oung Mr. Lincoln." "Drums Along the Mohawk." and in the recently completed "The (irapes of Wrath." Do your flim-fan friends read BOY'S CINEIVIA every week 7 Qet ttiem to order their copy from their paper shop