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

DISPATCHES .... (REUTER’S—HOLDOVER 2nd Week at Strand For ‘Reuter’s’ Film The Strand Theatre management announces that “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” will be held over for a second week. The Edward G. Robinson starring film has attracted record crowds at every performance since its opening on Friday, and the management has arranged to give the picture additional playing time. “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” which has been enthusiastically described by local critics as the year’s biggest news story of the sereen has an arresting list of supporting players which includes Edna Best as Reuter’s wife, Eddie Albert, as his best friend, Albert Basserman, Gene Lockhart, Otto Kruger, Nigel Bruce, Montagu Love, James Stephenson, Walter Kingsford, David Bruce, Dickie Moore, Billy Dawson, Richard Nichols and Lunisden Hare and many others. William Dieterle directed the production and Milton Krims wrote the screen play from a story by Valentine Williams and Wolfgang Wilhelm. Strand Holds Over Edw. G. Robinson Film Since its opening last week, Warner Bros.’ “A Dispatch From Reuter’s,” the new Edward G. Robinson starring film, has played to capacity houses at all performances with the Standing Room Only sign in prominent and constant display at the Strand Theatre. The management claims that the picture has broken all attendance records. In view of this fact, it will be held over for a second week. The picture which is as exciting as the latest news has an brilliant supporting cast including Edna Best, Eddie Albert, Albert Basserman, Gene Lockhart and many others. Milton Krims adapted the Valentine Williams Wolfgang Wilhelm story for the screen. “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” was directed by William Dieterle. Albert Basserman Is Happy Refugee Hollywood continues to amaze 73-year-old Albert Basserman but it doesn’t baffle him. The great European actor who after his performance in “Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet’ established with the government his right to a place in the world in which to live in peace is now taking music lessons, the first he ever had in his long life. He sings in his current picture, “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” in which Edward G. Robinson is starred. The song he sings is an ancient folk ballad of the teamsters. Eddie Albert Will Record En Route Eddie Albert, now in Warner Bros. “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” with Edward G. Robinson, plans a unique vacation. He is having installed in a station wagon a small portable sound recording equipment and will tour the west and southwest, making records of folk songs and cowboy ballads wherever he finds native talent. Mat 217—30c ALBERT BASSERMAN—Sensational screen "find'' of the year is this elderly refugee actor who is shown (center) as he appears in real life. (Top left) His first role as Dr. Koch, in "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet'' (Top right) In "Foreign Correspondent" (Lower right) In "Knute Rockne-All American" and (Lower left) Latest and finest of his roles is in "A Dispatch From Reuter's, now showing at the Strand. (REUTER’S—FEATURE Director William Dieterle Is Hollywood Dynamo Newest Film Is“ Dispatch From Reuter’s” William Dieterle is a big man —six feet four inches tall, wears a size 11-D shoe and has a physique to match—and it’s just as well. Otherwise he would tear himself to pieces before a picture he is directing was half finished. Newest film to have the benefit of his directorial guidance is “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” currently showing at the Strand. During the preparation and shooting of a scene he is a crystallized bundle of concentration. While the camera is grinding, his face and arms are going through every gesture with each actor. If someone does something wrong, he is apt to explode like a voleano and call down maledictions on the head of the person at fault. In another moment, he is kind and considerate to the very person he has just let loose the vials of his wrath upon, patiently explaining again just the effect he wants to get. His explosiveness never offends anyone who has worked for him in more than one scene as they realize the terrific strain the man works under and his emotional outbursts are directed more at himself than at anyone else. If a person fails in a scene, he blames himself for not directing them properly or rehearsing sufficiently for them to be letter perfect. There is an esprit de corps among members of his immediate staff that cannot be matched among any similar group in Hollywood. To them, he is almost god-like and they love him like a brother, a feeling that he reciprocates. Once a scene is finished and a set-up is being changed, you might see Dieterle wrestling with an electrician or chasing him from one end of the stage to another. Such fun and horse play is a natural relief for his nerves which are strained to the utmost during the shooting of a scene. He considers his crew and himself are one big family engaged in making a motion picture. There are times for hard work and times for play. In times of work he insists on strict attention for the best interest of the picture. In times of play he doesn’t mind if his crew plays a joke on him. The crew who worked with him on Warner Bros. production of “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” is the same that has been with him for years. He won’t work without them. Tree, Spare That Movie Woodsman! While on location at Arrowhead to shoot special scenes for “A Dispatch From Reuter’s” an extra’s bungling attempt to right a wrong ruined a take but caused the company an hilarious interlude. Don Siegal, in charge of shooting the scenes which were to show how the first telegraph lines were built in Germany, explained the situation to the extra who was to fell a tree so that it would fall in a certain direction for the benefit of the camera. The camera began “rolling” and the man began chopping away when, to his horror, he saw that the tree was going to fall in the opposite direction from the one defined. Instead of letting it fall the man excitedly ran around the tree and tried to hold it up, injecting an unconscious note of comedy that sent the company into hysterics. (REUTER’S—CURRENT News Service Gives Title to ‘Reuter’s’ From “M,” the shortest motion picture title, to “Across The World With Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson,” which if not the longest is near there, feature film titles have given producers and sales executives much pause for thought. Warner Bros. had one thrust at them however for the new Edward G. Robinson starring picture. Inasmuch as it is the dramatic story of Paul Julius Reuter and his successful struggle to found the world’s first great international news gathering agency they have gone to the newspapers themselves for a name. The picture’s title is “A Dispatch From Reuter’s.” It is this phrase or a variation that is used by every American newspaper or press association to credit the origin of every Reuter’s item picked up and printed. Since last spring there have been many of them, for Reuter’s is still the official British news agency, covers all of Europe and South America as well. James Wong Howe Is Camera Ace James Wong Howe can photograph a plain white wall and get a picture that will have any dramatic, tragic or other emotional quality you may name. He has just finished photographing Edward G. Robinson’s new starring picture for Warner Bros., “A Dispatch From Reuter’s.” It is the story of how Paul Julius Reuter founded the great British news gathering service that still bears his name; the first such service to operate. It requires somewhat different handling from his last previous picture, which was “Torrid Zone.” “In that I went after effects of brilliant tropical sunlight and the deep, cool blackness of jungle nights,” Howe explains. “For ‘A Dispatch From Reuter’s’, much of which takes place in London, Paris and New York, I maintain the key of the temperate zone but handle each setting a bit differently. Paris, at least as I remember it and I guess the weather has not changed, requires the feeling and appearance of plenty of light and air. London is a grey city, even when the sun shines. And so it goes.” And because “so it goes” with Jimmy, his camera is as important as any actor on a motion picture set. ATAHT Child Actor Cast in ‘Reuter’s’ It is axiomatic in Hollywood that no adult actor or actress, no matter how talented, stands a chance in a scene with either a baby or a dog. That truth was proved again in “All This and Heaven Too.” The stealer of scenes in that story was a four-year-old baby named Richard Nichols. It was Richard’s first screen role but certainly not his last. He already is appearing in his second picture, the new Edward G. Robinson biographical drama, “A Dispatch From Reuter’s,” currently showing at the Strand. And he’s stealing scenes right and left from the rest of the cast. Nobody seems to mind, however, it’s expected of him. 13