A Dispatch from Reuters (Warner Bros.) (1940)

DISPATCHES... (REUTERS—ADVANCE FEATURE Man Who Made News Is Hero of New Strand Film ‘A Dispatch From Reuter’s’ Opens Friday “The man who made news” well could be the title of “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” which is Edward G. Robinson’s new starring picture for Warner Bros., opening on Friday at the Strand Theatre. It is the story of Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the present official British international news agency, which still bears his name. “According to a Reuter’s (British) news dispatch” is a phrase familiar to every newspaper reader, the world over. Because of the nature of the story, and the nature of the man who lived it less than a century ago, it is one of the fastest moving screen plays Robinson ever has done, he says. The character, he adds, is most fascinating. “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” covers the period between 1833 and 1865, jumps from Aachen to Brussels to Paris to London to Crookshaven to New York to Washington, D.C. and back to London again, and _ presents many characters who not only recorded history but made it. Louis Napoleon. Abraham Lincoln. Delane, famed editor of the great London Times. A dozen others. Robinson had to turn pigeon fancier for many of his early scenes. Reuter first established a carrier pigeon post between Aachen and Brussels, two points then not yet connected by the Mat 103—15c¢ EDW. G. ROBINSON as _ Julius Reuter, the man who "made the world a little smaller’ by founding the first world-wide telegraphic news service. "A Dispatch From Reuter's" will be at the Strand on Friday. new system of telegraphic communication via wire. Reuter operated his pigeon post only a few years, then had to abandon it in favor of a telegraphic news and market report service. This he established by a dramatic and imaginative gesture. He tied up the English Channel cable by personal lease, then arranged to supply all London papers, free, a word by word transcript of one of Napoleon’s speeches as the leader of the third empire delivered it in Paris. Thus “according to a Reuter’s News Service dispatch” got its start in public print. Reuter many times was in danger of failure, harrassed by rivals, once accused of fraud; this when he was hours ahead in London with news of Lincoln’s assassination on the other side of the Atlantic. This word caused panic in the London stock market. Because Reuter’s dispatch was first believed, then doubted, there was rioting during which his life was threatened and Parliament called for an official investigation and trial. Besides Robinson, the notable cast includes Edna Best, Eddie Albert, Albert Basserman, Gene Lockhart, Otto Kruger, Nigel Bruce, Montagu Love and James Stephenson. William Dieterle directed from the screen play by Milton Krims. (REUTER’S—ROBINSON FEATURE ~~ ‘That Guy’ Robinson Is His Own Severest Critic ‘Little Caesar’ Tough on Robinson, Actor Edward G. Robinson has a rather peculiar name for himself. It’s This Guy. Or That Guy, according to the required grammatical useage. This Guy (or That Guy) is always Little Caesar, no matter his name, age, nationality, function in life, philosophy, or accomplishment. He will sit in a projection room, watching intently the rushes of some previous day’s filming, and keep up a crackling flow of comment on what he sees. As he talks he jabs home his points with either or both of his elbows. All studio co-workers know this habit. They try their hardest to sit as far away from Eddie as possible. But sometimes one or two of them get stuck, have to sit right next to him. This is very hard indeed on arms and ribs. Many a cutter or director has had black and blue bruises to prove it. “That Guy’s pretty good, ain’t he?” Robinson will demand, snarling the query out of the corner of his mouth around the moist end of the inevitable cigar. “Yes, sir. He’s pretty good at that love stuff. Makes you believe it, don’t he? Look at the way he gives that dame the eye.” “That dame” probably is the lovely Edna Best, as fresh and pretty and ladylike as someone right out of a Renoir garden Mat 201—30c PIGEON POST—Eddie Albert, Edna Best and “Lenchen,"' the wonder pigeon in a scene from "A Dispatch From Reuter's,"" which shows the early beginnings of the world's first great news service. Film opens Friday at the Strand. Lincoln Assassination Shown in Strand Film The men who shoot Lincoln ought to form a club. There are a number of them to be found in Hollywood and their ranks have just received a new addition. He is Frank McGrath, who fired the lethal shot into the back of the emancipator’s head. That shot put a nation into mourning, ended the career of the greatest American and gave Julius Reuter his first news ‘‘scoop,” establishing the news service that still bears his name. It is all being dramatized now by Edward G. Robinson and company in “A Dispatch From Reuter’s,” currently showing at the Strand. Thus Frank McGrath has joined the group of screen bit players who have shot Lincoln at various times in various pictures for varying amounts. Edna Best Makes Faces—All Pretty If a beautiful woman makes faces at you on a Hollywood sound stage don’t be either alarmed or intrigued. Edna Best, leading lady in Warner’s “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” for Edward G. Robinson, always makes faces before she starts a scene. Otherwise, she says, she can’t manage a natural smile or a true expression of alarm when one of these is needed in a picture. Miss Best is a very beautiful woman and her smile is lovely, even in the opinion of the hardto-please cameraman. But its natural quality is the result of well exercised smiling muscles, Miss Best thinks, and she exercises them before every take by wiggling her jaw, puffing her cheeks, and twitching her nose. Bronze Book Marks Dieterle’s Decade A bronze-bound book throughout the rest of his lifetime will remind film director William Dieterle of his first 10 years in Holly wood. The Warner Bros. picture maker was presented the unique volume on the day that he completed his newest picture, “A Dispatch From Reuter’s.” The front and back covers of the book are solid bronze plates. On the front is engraved: “Reuters’ news agency has it from a most reliable source (a line from the picture) that William Dieterle is celebrating his tenth successful year with Warner Bros. It also comes from good authority that the crew of ‘A Dispatch From _ Reuter’s’ wishes him many more years of contentment, success and happiness.” The date 1940 ends it. party. The scene that draws Robinson’s running fire of Little Caesar comment is one he and Miss Best share in “A Dispatch From Reuter’s”’; a scene in which he as Julius Reuter, founder of the first great news service, asks her to be his wife. Actually it’s a very tender love scene, beautifully photographed, quietly and expertly directed b William Dieterle. ; But to Robinson, the critic of his own work, it’s “Love stuff.” And he’s “Giving that dame the eye.” Psychologists probably would have no trouble explaining that trait in Robinson. They’d have a trick name for it. The folk out at Warner Bros. studio figure it as a sort of modesty; a very unactorish trait in Robinson that makes him deprecate his own true talents. Those are the only times he talks that way. Unless he’s in the midst of another Little Caesar role. Then, watching his own performance, it’s customary to hear him say: “Yah, That Guy’s nothin’ but a sissy. He ain’t really tough. Stick a lighted cigar in his eye and he’d probably blink. That Guy’s nothin’ but a phoney actor.” “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” is scheduled to have its first local showing Friday at the Strand Theatre. William Dieterle directed the production. Mat 104—30c EDNA BEST portrays Mrs. Reuter, wife and loving helpmate of the founder of the great news service, in “A Dispatch From Reuter's." Edward G. Robinson plays Reuter in the film coming to the Strand. Younger Generation Shows Its Colors The effect of modern civilization on its youngest generation came to the startled notice of William Dieterle while directing a scene with Edward G. Robinson and a half dozen or so little boys, all under ten, for a scene of “A Dispatch From Reuter’s.” The scene shows Robinson as Julius Reuter trying to establish public interest in his carrier pigeon post. The lads are a juvenile mob, yapping at him in boyhood fashion. “Now boys, you must yell at him ‘Fool. Fool. Pigeon Fool’,” Dieterle instructed them. He started the scene, then stopped it. One of -the youngsters, screaming at the top of his voice, was shouting “Stool pigeon. Stool pigeon.”