Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1940)

Don, Alice and Ty setups — sometimes Don and Alice against Ty or Ty and Alice against Don, or Alice against the two of them — and the fun never ceased. It raged during the making of "In Old Chicago" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band." It was all childish but that very factor delighted them. Alice planted garlic in Ty's dressing room but he, getting a whiff of it as he was walking that way with her, pushed Alice in the room first, locked her in and left her to nearly smother. Another occasion was the day that Don was to die in "In Old Chicago." Alice and Ty sent him dead flowers all day long, to get him in the mood. He returned that compliment by sending Alice a necklace made of empty gin bottles when she had to do her hysterical lost-in-the-fire scene. When Ty had to do his big regeneration scene, they prepared him for it by planting a pail of garbage in his car. (You may have gathered the idea that they'd discovered Mr. Power doesn't care for unpleasant odors.) In case you think all this is pretty juvenile, remember that despite their always inventing telephones, or writing Stephen Foster's songs, or building the Suez Canal or trying to stop on screen the French Revolution, Ty and Alice are still in their twenties, and Don not long out of HINT from HOLLYWOOD! geraldine Fitzgerald, featured in Warner Bros, picture "WE shall meet again"— with make-up by Perc Westmore. Your Best Beauty Moments Can Last All Day! WESTMORE FOUNDATION cream instantly gives that smooth, velvety, alluring look . . . lasts all day! Created by Hollywood's famous make-up men, the Westmores. Now at a store near you ... in four youthful, glowing tones with powder to blend. Large size, each 50<*. At variety stores, 25?. send for Perc Westmore's Make-Up Guide — has measuring wheel to tell you your face type. Gives make-up rules used by the Hollywood star of your type. If not on sale near you. send 25c1 to House of Westmore, Inc., Dept. E-4, 730 Fifth Ave., N. Y. C. ^VESTMORIk HOLLYWOOD (Continued jrom page 15) them, and if your work forces you to take everything seriously all the while, you've got to relax somewhere. Not that they always goofed around. They waited to see one another mornings with their eyes sparkling with mischief. But if they had to they could see deeper into one another's feelings. There was the day when Alice was playing in "Sally, Irene and Mary" and Don was making "Happy Landing." Don walked on her set, just to call. Alice was feeling miserable. She is a truly nervous girl and she drives herself too hard, but this day she was too pale. Don said, "Alice, you're sick." "Oh, no, I'm not," retorted Alice. "I've just got a lousy cold and I'm tired. Don't worry about me." Don did, however, and Don is always a man of action. He went to the telephone and told his doctor to come out and check up on Alice. The doctor took one look and ordered her to bed. She was straight on the edge of pneumonia and without such prompt action she might well have died. Underneath all this clambake, however, they are serious about their work, so the one thing they do seriously together is discuss roles and how to play them Tyrone, the most talented, knits his handsome brows and suggests they play such and such a scene this way. Don and Alice listen respectfully. Alice, the magical song plugger, tells Don she'd sell the tune in such a manner and he gives it a try. Then they go into the scene and all three try to steal it. Love had its effect on them, too. Don was the old rock in that department, of course, but the other two were always bringing him the sad news about each romantic upset they would go through. The Ameche, as a matter of fact, is a rabid matchmaker, so he was forever trying to push the two of them into marriages that he was persuaded would be as happy as his own. Thus he was very much among those present, beaming like a sunset, when Alice and Tony Martin did finally, after their many quarrels, unite, and he was the joyous best man at the Power-Annabella nuptials. But what Hollywood is waiting for is the day when the first Power or the first Faye-Martin heir arrives. For just as much as Don slaved to get his pals married, just so much double he wants them to know parenthood. When that day comes, Twentieth Century-Fox, if it's smart, will padlock the whole studio. If they don't, Don will probably burn up the executive building for the sheer joy of it, and Alice and Ty will wreck the rest of the joint just to get even. Shadow Stage I TAKE THIS WOMAN-M-G-M IT is not surprising that Metro shelved this picture months ago as hopeless; the wonder is that the piece was ever finished and offered the public. With any other stars it would be simply another second-rate film. But as Hedy Lamarr's first offering after the not-too-successful "Lady of the Tropics," and with Spencer Tracy cast in a waste role, the whole thing is cause for bewilderment. If you would take "The Citadel" and change the background to New York, you'd have the basic story — that of a doctor who works for the poor, accepts a swank practice in order to give his wife more luxury, and finally regains his professional integrity. This is all mixed up with the slowly told account of a neurotic woman's efforts to forget a great first love by marrying the kindly physician. Oh well, Tracy plays the doctor, Hedy the woman, and Verree Teasdale contributes the only brightness with her fast portrayal and blue cracks. * THE BAKER'S WIFE-Marcel Pagnol HERE is a worthy successor to the French "Harvest." Once more, Monsieur Pagnol has used his beloved Provence countryside and a group of gifted character actors to produce a delightfully entertaining film. It is hard to believe that the picture is not actually a piece of every day French village life — so true to type are those who make up the cast. The distinguished French comedian, Raimu, is the rotund baker whose pretty wife, Ginette Leclerc, causes a village scandal by running off with a handsome shepherd, Charles Moulin. The resultant uproar is not so much due to moral transgression, as to the fact that worthy baker cannot concen (Continued jrom page 69) trate on baking his delicious bread while his wife is gone. So the hungry citizens rally to the betrayed husband's aid to devise a plan of getting his wife back. The village priest, the marquis, the schoolmaster, the town gossip all have a hand in it — and there is a happy solution. Highlighted by the English subtitles of John Erskine, the sly humor of the film is memorable; and the photography is outstanding. HE MARRIED HIS WIFE-20th Century-Fox IT took four screen writers, including John O'Hara, rewriting from an original by two other authors, to turn out this strange and fearful story of the madmad-fun school. Quantities of people, including Joel McCrea and Nancy Kelly, ride around in fabulous custom-built cars, and week-end at the country estate of Mary Boland, vaguest of all vague matrons. Joel has been divorced by Nancy because of his penchant for buying race horses which don't win, and tries to marry her off to an old school friend to get out of the $1500 per month alimony. The friend, Lyle Talbot, is only too willing but Nancy takes up with a Latin charmer, Cesar Romero. This rouses Joel's latent jealousy, with gay results. Miss Kelly, cast as a cynical divorcee, mugs somewhat but looks attractive, despite her hats; the McCrea plugs along and loses scene after scene to Romero, who gags a character obviously overdrawn. Boland is wonderful. Everyone has just pots of money and is neurotic as anything — the wonderful thing is, this film, calculated to send every Liberal in America into hysterics, was made by the same company who simultaneously produced "The Grapes of Wrath." What balance, what relief, if the two should happen to play on the same bill! THE LION HAS WINGS-Korda-U.A. OOON after the start of the second World War, Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson and sundry other patriotic Britishers offered their services to make this war-time propaganda picture. And well done propaganda it is, too. Handled in the March of Time style, with Lowell Thomas as narrator, the film's purpose is to assure jittery English subjects that the Royal Air Force has the Nazi air menace well in hand. There is a fine re-enactment of the Kiel Canal raid by British air men; also an imaginary attempt by the Germans to bomb London that is easily' repelled by Britain's defense units. This portion of the picture seemed to be wishful thinking on the part of the producers, but, even so, the glimpse of England's preparedness should make all Englishmen sleep easier at night. Don't expect to see much of the stars — their roles are minor compared to those of man's latest gifts to Mars — the modern bomber and pursuit plane. THE LONE WOLF STRIKES-Columbia THERE'S a girl in trouble and Warren William, whose feelings about the law are not always so friendly, turns detective to help her out. A string of pearls is involved, a man is murdered, and the usual comic-strip chases and near-escapes build to the finish you expect. William is the same old smoothie, and he has Joan Perry to work with. THE SAINT'S DOUBLE TROUBLE— RKO-Radio lOU get three murders in this and George Sanders, playing that modern Robin Hood, the Saint, in a dual role. You see the Saint discovers there's another man, a murderous diamond smug 94 PHOTOPLAY