Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

Barbara Stanwyck takes another crack at comedy in "The Mad Miss Manton" and it's the gals who hold the center of the stage in the scene on the opposite page. But in "Dawn Patrol" (above), that tense World War drama, there's nary a woman (except a lovely visitor) to distract Messrs. Crisp, Rathbone, Flynn and Niven ruDios '"•'Ot, * of $fc irrive. Opposite him, Basil Rathbone stands ike a tall, dark icicle. They're both in officers' aniforms. It's inside the flyers' barracks and what we witness is a battle of masculine wills. When Errol starts to wiggle his jaw muscles :ast enough, Director Edmund Goulding yells 'Action!" "Dawn Patrol" is tense, terrific drama about a squadron of flyers in the World War. One by 3ne they wing away, clear-eyed, joking, to their deaths in the dawn. The one who suffers most jis sensitive flight-leader Flynn. It's a rendezivous-with-death thing, and powerful. But no love. David Niven, Barry Fitzgerald and Donald Crisp are sitting around waiting their turn at the lens. A tall, handsome kid stands near by. iHe's Rodion Rathbone, Basil's son, in his first Ipart, his first picture with his dad. He'll call himself John Rodion on the screen, he tells us. We're about to leave when somebody behind us says hello — and in a feminine voice! It's not right! We whirl around and see Olivia de Havilland, with one of those awful peasant-washerwoman scarfs around her pretty head. "You're out of bounds," we tell her. "No women allowed." "I know," she smiles, "but I'm not working today and I just had to come see Basil. We haven't had a good visit since 'Robin Hood'." In ' less time than you can say "Robin Hood," Basil, ! Errol, Barry, Donald, Edmund Goulding and all !the booted and khakied males are flocking around her like bees around a blossom. Men without women — yeah! Just wait till one shows I up! We find ourself shoved over into an arc > light. "Why don't you go see my picture?" smiles I Livy sweetly. "It's on Stage Nine." "Might just as well," we growl. So we do. It's "Wings of the Navy" and again we see it's tailored for males. Olivia, it's true, is in the picture, but she just trips through looking sweet and pretty and worried about the whole thing, while George Brent, John Payne and the U. S. Navy work out the drama. COLUMBIA always has one big picture on the fire. This month it's "Girls' School" with Anne Shirley, Nan Grey, Margaret Tallichet, Kenny Howell (the "Jones Family" boy), Noah Beery, Jr. and such a roundup of young Hollywood hopefuls as you've never seen. Ralph Bellamy and Gloria Holden are the main grownups. Ralph tells us about the picture and from what we gather it's another one of those repeater plots. "Girls' School" isn't too far away from "Girls' Dormitory" — except that it's laid in America and it hasn't Simone Simon. The whole story of "Girls' School" takes place in one day. Nan Grey, a wealthy little sophisticated snob, gets herself in a jam with her beau. Anne Shirley, a poorish, scholarly monitor tells on her. Nan's anger, Anne's remorse and involved consequences of this simple situation affect the whole school, parents and faculty. Columbia raked Hollywood to cast "Girls' School." Hundreds of young girls were tested for coveted parts. One, Jean Lucius, was yanked right off a stool at the drugstore on Columbia's Gower and Sunset corner and given a job, to become the latest Cinderella girl in town. "Stablemates" is the first M-G-M set we head for, because we want to see that lovable elephant, Wally Beery, back again after too long a time traveling over the world with daughter Carol Ann. Wally is teaming for the first time with Mickey Rooney, a little pal who's just as mighty an acting atom as Wally's old side-kick, Jackie Cooper, if you ask us. "Stablemates," in fact, recalls that unforgettable pair at once, because if they needed another title they could just call it " 'The Champ' at the Racetrack," and they wouldn't be far off. It has the same heavy tug at the tear ducts. The same big erring-boob-little-worshippingguy partnership. Wally's a discredited horse doctor and race-track stumblebum. The law's after him for performing an illegal operation. Mickey's a stableboy. Adversity brings the two together; luck gives them a sick horse. Wally makes the horse well. The horse wins the big race; Wally, discovered, goes to jail; Mickey goes on to school and the finer things. Get it? The scene we watch calls for Wally and Mickey to hop in an old Model-T Ford and chug off the stage. Wally takes off his specs. They crank the thing, quivering like a plate of jello, and Mickey and Beery hop in. "Okay," yells Sam Wood, "let 'er go!" Cameras roll and Wally pushes in the pedal. But instead of going forward, the jaloppi roars back past us, scattering grips and props and extras and ripping the pins out from under a backdrop which crashes down on the bucking lizzie and its startled crew. Nobody's seriously hurt. Only Wally, looking like a naughty schoolboy, stands scratching his head. "Gosh!" he murmurs, "I guess I forgot which one to push — those darn things always did fool me." Mickey looks supremely disgusted. And we look for the door. LlSTEN, Darling," is our next stop. Again the kiddies run the show. Freddie Bartholomew, Judy Garland and little Scotty Beckett plah their widowed mother's romance in this one, a la the "Three Smart Girls" idea. Mary Astor's the mother, about to marry miserly Gene Lockhart. The kids no like Gene. So they kidnap Mary in a trailer and set about finding a more ideal foster pop, who turns out to be Walter Pidgeon. It's mostly comedy but with a sprinkling of tears, and, of course, some songs for Judy. We break in on one of the songs, "Ten Pins in the Sky," as Judy does it with Scotty Beckett in her arms. She's already recorded the melody, but now she sings it again with a silent camera and unless you listen pretty close you can't tell which is Judy and which is the record. Throughout the number rain patters on the trailer window and dazzling flashes of manmade lightning blind the whole set. While the rain pours and the lightning" flashes, Judy warbles. The take is perfect. And then, out of the shadows, a big black dog who looks like a Shetland pony bounds up on the set with a happy "woof!" and starts to lick Judy's face. 51