3 on a Match (Warner Bros.) (1932)

FEATURE STORIES The Rebel Girl of Hollywood Ann Dvorak the New Bad Girl of the Screen Must Know “‘Why” Before She Does Anything Loves to Play “Bad Girl” Roles Because She Sympathizes With the Types —Likes Meaty Parts By ROSALIND SHEPARD She calls herself a rebel. She loves to play bad girls on the sereen. But her one pet peeve is women who don’t stop to think. That’s Ann Dvorak, the stun ning, exotic looking candidate for stardom at First National Studios. Reckless. Different. She is the new Bad Girl of the screen. hit SUUIIIAUIIIAIUUUUUUUUALUUUUUUUEL UU Ann Dvorak rill UNNULININVNLUIUGUUNUUOLUOTUUUALUVEUUOLLUOLLUOLUOCLUOLUOULUOAUUUSUOUUOLUEOLLURUUUULURUL Siiillilig SSUILILANLUI Ann Dvorak, one of the three popular feminine players being featured in the Becta ey Theatre’s new dramatic success, “Three On A Match.” Joan Blondell and Bette Davis portray the other female roles and Warren William will be seen as the male star. Mervyn LeRoy, one of Holltywood’s foremost directors, adds this as another on his long list of noteworthy directorial achievements. Out No.10 Cuti15e Mat de In eight pictures, Ann has had but one ‘‘nice’’? role. You can check them up yourself. First there was ‘*Scarface,’’ in which she was a little more chummy than she should have been with all kinds of people, mainly gangsters. ‘‘Sky Devils’’ followed. Maybe there was nothing wrong with her morals in that one—but she certainly showed plenty of lingerie. One “Nice”? Role in 8 Pictures In ‘‘The Crowd Roars,’’ her first at Warners’, she loved not wisely, but too well. ‘‘The Strange Love of Molly Louvain’? gave her just about all the main characteristics of the screen’s lighter ladies, and, although she got her man legally in ‘‘Love Is A Racket,’’ she had to camp in his apartment until he weakened. Reckless again in ‘‘Stranger In Town,’’ she married against her grandfather’s will, by eloping. Only in ‘‘Crooner,’’ was she the kind of a@ girl your grandmother would have approved of. And now, in ‘‘ Three On A Match,’’ eurrently—at: the. ..énn cs Theatre, she breaks her own records for: stepping high, wide and handsome. ‘‘From a penthouse to the repenthouse, without a detour,’’ would be a good slogan for Ann in this picture. Joan Blondell, long noted for her worldliness, appears a real homebody compared to the giddiness of Ann in this picture. Bette Davis is a demure, hard-working stenographer in the story. But why has this young actress, out of a whole townful of competent actresses, been picked to specialize in Page Twenty the type of role associated so closely with the primrose path? The fact that she is a dashing brunette can’t have anything to do with it. Norma Shearer, who started the fad for slipping off the straight and narrow, on the screen, has the medium coloring known as ‘‘brown ette.’’ Kay Francis, who has done her share of philandering, is darker than Ann—and Joan Blondell and Bette Davis, others who dabble in unconventionality, are pronounced blondes. Her age can be no consideration, for Ann is only nineteen. _ Background has no bearing on the case. Ann is neither foreign nor mysterious. Her real name is McKim, and she has lived right in Hollywood for years. Temperate in Private Life Finally, private life must be admitted to have nothing to do with it. Most of the screen’s gayest ladies have been devoted wives and mothers in real life. Ann is no exception. More sheltered than most, living quietly with her mother until her marriage, and now the happy bride of Leslie Fenton, no hint of gossip has ever touched Ann Dvorak. At this point, if the problem is to be solved at all, must be taken up the consideration of Ann’s real self. And it is here that the first glimmering of light begins to shine through the darkness. Ann has the independent spirit, the decisive. personality, of the girls she plays in Pictures. She is accustomed GB standing squarely" on her own vwo feet, and looking at life with a clear eye. That comes from earning her own way since she was fifteen. — Here, however, the resemblance between Ann Dvorak and her film roles ends. There is a au strain of idealism running through her makeup. Having a record of playing tipsy scenes in five of her eight pictures, Ann herself is extremely temperate. She shuns coffee, and only tea is served in her home. She doesn’t go out often in the evening, and keeps regular hours. Dvorak Supplies the Answer You don’t get very far here, if you wonder, as I did, why they chose Ann to play reckless girls on the screen. So I asked Ann herself. ‘“That’s easy,’’ she replied promptly. **T am a rebel. I sympathize with everyone of that type. And I like to play them on the screen.’’ **T also believe that audiences like them. You see, if they are reckless, unconventional, it’s more logical that things should happen to them. The perfectly nice, careful girls, who conform to set standards, stay at home and lead ordinary lives. And audiences don’t like to see people exactly like themselves on the screen—they want to be made to understand unusual people, see different walks of life, and, in a nutshell, to be taken out of -themselves.’’ Ann ealls herself a rebel, I found, because she refuses to accept ideas, eustoms and rules that come to her ready made. She-never takes orders without first finding out ‘‘ why??? Whether or not she continues to be the screen’s ‘‘most reckles lady’? is of little interest to her. All that she really demands is that she be given roles that allow her a chance to troupe —‘‘roles with some meat to them,’’ she calls them, and that she doesn’t get into a rut by being stamped as a specialist in just one type. Mervyn LeRoy directed ‘‘Three On A Match,’’ with a cast that includes, besides the above mentioned principals, Lyle Talbot, Gloria Shea, Grant Mitchell, Sheila Terry, Hale Hamilton and Buster Phelps. ‘‘Three On A Match’’ was taken from an original story by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright. Lucien Hubbard did the screen play. SPECIAL NEWSPAPER ART Also adaptable for lobby enlargement. Out No. 19 Cut 80c Mat 10c Warren William, who has Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and , Bette Davis as his leading ladies in “Three On A Match. ‘‘Hard Work—Not Pull—Brains For Filin Not Mere Beauty — Essen tials _ work, a o WI wernwe Joan Blondell Brands As “Bunk” Fable That Only Girls With Pull Can Succeed in Movies That only the favorites have any chance to make good in the movies is vigorously denied by Joan Blondell, piquant featured player in First National’s ‘‘Three On A Match,’’ which opens ...................... ai=the = 2s Theatre. Joan emphatically declares that any girl with passably good features, who has talent, can rise to success in Hollywood if she is persistent and works hard. That fable about Hollywood, of needing a ‘‘pull’’ with a director or being ‘‘sweet’’ to someone in power in order to get along, she stamps as an absolute fraud. “‘T know most of the girls who have made a success here,’’ she said, ‘fand the majority had neither pull nor friendships when they started. Of course they made lots of friends afterwards, but that naturally follows from association in work. They won their places by sheer determination to get ahead and sticking to it. Of course they had to have talent. That counts more than a pretty. face. Has Worked Hard “Tf any one thinks that making a success in the movies is a picnic, just let them try it,’’ said Joan. ‘I’ve worked harder than I ever did in my life. Playing the leading role in six pictures in five months is no school girl’s holiday. It means a grind in the studio from morning until night and studying scripts most of the evening. I burned more midnight oil than I ever did in school.’’ When asked why so many girls who have had small bits never seem to get anywhere, she answered readily enough: What They Lacked ‘‘Because they didn’t have the ability in some way or other. I do not mean that they necessarily were not intelligent, that they were not good-looking, that they couldn’t speak well, nor that they couldn’t act. They may have been proficient in one or more of these points, but they lacked something. In most cases it is in the character of the girl herself.’’ Discussing the relative value of beauty and brains,, Miss Blondell said laughingly: “‘Tf you are going to choose between the two, you better take the brains. I have known of many girls UII ay =Warren William: SIMI H UHH UUUHUUUUHUTUEUHIFUUELUELEUEELUUTUUH UIE = Warren William in “Three On A Match.” Out No.12 Outi15e Matic who made good without beauty, but none go very far without a fair amount of brains.’’ Joan Blondell, whose’ own success in motion pictures was made in less than a year, is one of three stellar leading ladies in ‘‘Three On A Match.’’ The others are Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis. The male lead is played by Warren William, and the supporting cast includes Lyle Talbot and Allen Jenkins,