Kiki (United Artists) (1931)

PRESENTATION-STORY AND FEATURES n - ■ MARY PICKFORD’S LATEST PICTURE "KIKI” PACKED WITH LAUGHTER Sparkling Comedy Gives Famous Star the Madcap Type of Role That First Brought Her Fame Bringing to the screen a picture packed with laughter, love interest and droll situations, Mary Pickford’s latest United Artists feature, comes to the .Theatre..... "Kiki” was an international stage success and Miss Pickford has given to the role her own personality in a madcap characterization of the type that first brought her fame. It is a Sam Taylor production with Reginald Denny, himself a comedy drama star, playing the masculine lead, and with a splendid cast including Margaret Livingston, Joseph Cawthorn, Fred Walton, Phil Tead, Fred Warren and Edwin Maxwell in support. PICKFORD IN "KIKI” Roguish Character Appeals to "America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford decided to make ''Kiki” as her current picture because she felt that the trend of entertainment points definitely to comedy. After search for a suitable vehicle, the role of the gamin who aspires to be an actress and a heart- breaker was chosen. It is coming to the .Theatre on... with Reginald Denny in the masculine lead. It is a Sam Taylor production and the director who made two pictures for Miss Pickford—"My Best Girl” and "Co¬ quette”—and the Mary Pickford-Douglas Fairbanks co-starring vehicle, "The Tam¬ ing of the Shrew,” wrote the talking screen adaptation. MARY PICKFORD PLAYING ROGUISH ROLE PROVES MOST DELIGHTFUL COMEDIENNE America’s Best Loved Screen Star Charming in Role Which Reveals Characteristics Hitherto Suppressed A suppressed, a new, a roguish Mary Pickford comes to life in the title role of "Kiki” which opens.at the. theatre on. Kiki is the type of part Mary Pickford has always longed to play. Few people knew it. Only her most intimate friends were aware of the mischievous bent that urged the star to play the madcap, the harum-scarum rascal personified by Kiki. Millions remember and love her for the superb performances she gave in "Tess of the Storm Country,” "My Best Girl” and the exquisite little girl portrayals in an unbroken chain of successes that established her as "America’s Sweetheart.” Taylor, it will be remembered, directed Miss Pickford in "My Best Girl,” "Co¬ quette” and "Taming of the Shrew,” the last named having been the only picture in which Mary and Douglas Fairbanks co-starred. Taylor wrote the screen play as well as directing it. The settings of the story are in modern New York and were created by William Cameron Menzies, supervising art director at .the United j Artists studios in Hollywood. The back¬ grounds are of a romantic nature and provided a pictorial sphere for the work of Karl Struss, cameraman, who holds the first award from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. The story is that of a pretty, harum- scarum girl whose infatuation for a young man causes many ludicrous situations. "Victor Randall,” portrayed by Denny, has been divorced from his wife, "Paul¬ ette,” because he cannot stand her tem- permental outbursts. Paulette uses all her wiles in an effort to win him back, but "Kiki,” with a nature even more tem¬ pestuous than that of "Paulette,” fastens _ herself to "Randall” and will not be W pried loose. "Kiki’s” attempts to make "Randall” love her afford scenes of side-splitting comedy but there is pathos, too, in the seeming hopelessness of her efforts. Finally "Randall” decides that the divorce from "Paulette” was a blessing and that, being unable to get rid of the charming rowdy, "Kiki,” he might just as well give up and admit that he adores her. Hundreds of players were employed for some of the scenes and two huge stages at United Artists studios were devoted to the numerous settings. MARY PICKFORD WEARS "KIKI” BOB KIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKI JOSEPH M. SCHENCK presents MARY PICKFORD in SAM TAYLOR’S Production “KIKI” with Reginald Denny UNITED ARTISTS PICTURE Adapted and Directed by SAM TAYLOR Based on the play by DAVID BELASCO Assistant Director Assistant Dramatic Director WALTER MAYO EARLE BROWNE If you are bobbing this year consider the "Kiki” bob. It’s Mary Pickford’s idea of a new hair style. She and a score of pretty girls From the French by ANDRE PICARD Sound Recording FRANK GRENZBACH Photographed by KARL STRUSS Edited by ALLEN McNEIL Dances Staged by BUSBY BERKELEY Settings by WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES Jl/Lary Pickford in a scene ffomTiki" im th Reginald Derai) 16 —One Col. Scene {Mat .05c; Cut ,30c) use it in her new United Artists picture, "Kiki,” a Sam Taylor production coming to the.Theatre on. The "Kiki” bob is the last word in modern cropped hair fashions. } The hair is combed back over the forehead, is waved and made glossy, and is something like a tight curly pompa¬ dour, revealing the ears. Hollywood’s feminine population thinks the "Kiki” bob is stunning, and it appears likely that it will be the most popular bob of the year. Musical Director ALFRED NEWMAN Production Manager JAMES DENT THE CAST Kiki. Victor Randall Alfred Rapp .... Paulette Vaile Eddie ___ Bunson —. Dr. Smiley.. ..MARY PICKFORD .Reginald Denny .Joseph Cawthorn ..Margaret Livingston ..Phil Tead .-Fred Walton .Edwin Maxwell THE STORY OF "KIKI” "Kiki” is a pretty little madcap in the chorus of Victor Randall’s Broadway Revue. Her harum-scarum tactics are the despair of every¬ one connected with the show. She yearns to be a charmer and capture the heart of Randall. Her love for him is almost pathetic in its hopelessness. The star of the show is Paulette, a temperamental actress who had once been the wife of Randall. Her quarrelsome nature led to their divorce. Paulette is anxious to get him back. He still has a senti¬ mental soft spot in his heart for her, but is wary of getting tangled up again in matrimonial bickering. "Kiki” raises a row during the final rehearsal and is fired by the stage manager. She goes to Randall’s office to plead for her job. Randall has just had a professional quarrel with Paulette over her temperamental insistence that she sing a song the way she wants to —not as he wishes her to. Impatiently he tells “Kiki” she can have her job back—just to get rid of her. On the opening night "Kiki” gets involved in a series of comic difficulties on the stage that spoils Paulette’s role and nearly wrecks the show. Paulette accuses Randall of having purposely put "Kiki” up to it, just to embarrass her. They have a terrific quarrel and she leaves, threatening to quit the show. When she has gone "Kiki” slips remorsefully into Randall’s office and says she has been fired again. He is sarcastic and orders her to get out. Paulette comes back to make up with Randall. Randall orders "Kiki” to get out and stay out. As she is pulling on her gloves, looking rather pathetic, he takes his first good look at her and decides that she would be really pretty if properly dressed. Feeling depressed and lonesome, he impulsively decides to take her to his apartment. When they arrive he is still thinking of Paulette and "Kiki” is furious. When he attempts to make love to her she slaps his face and bolts herself in the bedroom. From then on she refuses to leave his apartment, taking charge of everything, ordering around Henry, the valet and destroying all the letters of Paulette, who has decided Randall is too good a meal ticket to let loose. Randall finds that he has a little French wildcat on his hands and that he can’t get rid of her. She is continually getting him into ludicrous situations. Her attempts to make him love her are pitiful but very exasperating. Finally a mutual friend patches things up between him and Paulette again and there is a possibility that they may re-marry. He finds out that "Kiki” has been destroying Paulette’s letters to him and has her almost forcibly ejected to make room for Paulette. On her way out of the lobby the forlorn "Kiki” sees Paulette waiting for Randall. In a burst of fury she threatens to kill Paulette unless the latter goes away and never sees Randall again. At the height of "Kiki’s” tempestuous scene Randall and several friends enter. "Kiki,” who has been only attempting to bluff Paulette, pretends to faint. She is carried back to Randall’s apartment where the house physi¬ cian, an elderly man with a strong scientific slant, decides she is in a cataleptic state and may remain in a condition of suspended anima¬ tion for a year or two. Paulette and Randall are terribly upset by this. The physician says it will be impossible to move "Kiki.” "Kiki” hears this gleefully. Paulette urges Randall to come with her and he is about to do so. But he finds "Kiki” suddenly interesting. She can’t talk back to him or quarrel as long as she is in the cataleptic state. And he knows in his heart that going back to Paulette will mean one fierce quarrel after another. He shudders at the knowledge. Paulette starts right in, realizing that Randall is paying too much attention to "Kiki.” She berates him soundly and then gives him an ultimatum. She will wait for him in the lobby for five minutes and then if he doesn’t join her it’s all over for good. As soon as Paulette is gone "Kiki” comes out of her faint. She kisses Randall and tells him she perpetrated the trick because she is so much in love with him—can’t live without him. The telephone rings. Paulette on the other end of the wire is raging. "Kiki” prevents Randall from talking by kissing him fiercely so that he can only sputter. Finally he hangs up on Paulette. He doesn’t know whether to be angry or delighted with the charming little rowdy and decides that he might as well give up in the face of such persistence and adore her. She sighs happily. She has finally got her man. But with talking pictures, Mary Pick¬ ford has undergone a metamorphosis. She has grown up. She’s a young woman who looks at things from the adult point of view. Her characters live for admira¬ tion, coquetry, romance. "Coquette” was the first of this new series. Here was the little innocent with the golden curls in an entirely different characterization. There was a pertness that was charming, a roguishness that was quite irresistible, and a flirtatious allure that at once made Miss Pickford one of the outstanding ro¬ mantic figures of the screen. "Kiki" is a combination of the new Mary Pickford and the one of the silent days. She is an adorable little spitfire, a creature of moods, caprices, emotions. There still remains the childhood de¬ pendence and trust, the elfin joy that char¬ acterizes the tiniest pleasure. Jl/Laru) Pickfordin a scene fom’XikrimthReginald Deraxj 14 —One Col. Scene (Mat .05c; Cut .30c) “Kiki” presents a Mary Pickford the public has never seen the critics aver. The picture was directed by pro¬ ducer Sam Taylor and is played by a well- known supporting cast including Regi¬ nald Denny, Joseph Cawthorn, Margaret Livingston, Phil Tead, Fred Walton and Edwin Maxwell. "DOUG” AND MARY IN CLOSE CO-OPERATION Doug and Mary paid daily "visits” to each other recently. When Fairbanks wasn’t making scenes for his own picture, "Reaching for the Moon,” with Bebe Daniels, at the United Artists studios, Hollywood, he spent his time with Miss Pickford on the sets of "Kiki,” her latest vehicle which comes to the. : ..Theatre. In her spare time Mary visited Doug¬ las’ sets. They film their pictures simul¬ taneously so they can travel in between times, the total thus far being six trips to Europe and one world tour. "Kiki” is a Sam Taylor production in which Reginald Denny plays opposite Miss Pickford. Menzies Art Director Modern New York settings and back¬ grounds were designed for Mary Pick¬ ford’s United Artists picture, "Kiki” now showing at the. Theatre. Studies for the elaborate sets were done by William Cameron Menzies, supervis¬ ing art director, recognized as the fore¬ most creator of artistic backgrounds in the film industry. Menzies has won highest honors for his settings for such pictures as "Bulldog Drummond” and "Thief of Bagdad.”