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Muni’s Screen Success Helps to Free Chain Gang Victim
By Marie Forgeron
THERE are Hollywood gangsters who, in the progress of the celluloid flicker, never see the inside of the prison gates. Their lives are snuffed out violently, or, in the telling of the story, they pass “off stage” never to reappear. Just as there are gangsters in real life who never see the inside of a penitentiary,
I am sorry to say. '
But Paul Muni’s lot seems to be composed of a series of events comprising getting caught or getting released from prison; that is, when he is not actually behind the bars.
There is naught, however, of the prison pallor about his youthful, ambitious face, — nor is there any shuffle or cadence to his step which might lead to the suspicion that he had a number rather than a name. All of his prison experiences have been on the stage and screen.
In fact, the stage role which secured, for him an attractive contract for the movies was “Four Walls,” a story of a young man recently released from prison who gets into bad company and is again sought by the police. “Four Walls” was produced by Sam Harris who also produced “We Americans,” both of which found Paul in the leading male role.
It was while viewing “Four Walls” that Winfield Sheehan, vice-president of Fox Films, made up his mind to secure the
young Jewish actor. His first film assignment was the lead in “The Valiant,” which was followed by “Seven Faces,” — then “Four Walls;” the latter from the stage play.
His greatest recent stage success was doubtless “Counsellor at Law,” a play which had to do with the machinery of justice and law.
Following his film success under the Fox banner, Howard Hughes, producer of the four million dollar picture “Hell’ s Angels’ ’ engaged the young man, after a nationwide search for the right character, to play the leading role in “Scarface: The Shame of a Nation.”
What Paul Muni did to that role is, to usethe vernacular of the street, nobody’s business! The picture was a financial and artistic success. From the time he first poked his nose into the “parlor, bedroom and bath” of the king gangster, -played by Osgood Perkins, and made eyes at “Poppy” ( Karen Morley), his fame was assured.
The by -play between the scantily clad, beautifully formed creature who sat dressing at the vanity while “Scarface” tried to attract her attention was one of the gem “spots” in the history of films. His ultimate triumph, still illiterate and getting tougher by the minute, is too well known to most of our readers to call for a description.
HOLLYWOOD MOVIES 13
PAUL, THE RIS.ONER