Air Force (Warner Bros.) (1943)

BRIEF PLAYER BIOGS e PRODUCTION FEATURES Howard Hawks Needs 100 Days To Depiet 30 It took Howard Hawks, the fast-working Hollywood film producer, 100 days behind a camera to reproduce 30 days of shooting with real bullets by U necle Sam’s fighting fliers and the result will be shown on the screen in an hour and a half. Thereis really nothing anachronistic about it. Sk ely. Mat 107—15 Force,” openey 6 ing Friday at John Garfield the Strand Theatre, Warner Bros. reenacted the drama of the war in the Pacific during the month dating from December 7. A camera takes only 60 seconds, of course, to expose film which has a running time of one minute. But it requires a day or more of preparation and rehearsal by Hawks and his cast and crew before he could “roll “em.” To illustrate, flip the pages somewhere in the middle of the script—to the scenes at Manila. The crew of the bomber, “Mary Ann,” has been harrassed halfway across the Pacific to neardestruction and death. By sheer luck a landing is effected, and the crew try desperately to make repairs under fire. Big Scenes Finished The big scenes all have been completed on a location at Tampa, Florida, and took five weeks. Now the company is back at the Warner studio for close-ups. A typical nine o’clock call for John Garfield, Gig Young, Harry Carey, George Tobias and the other principals requires them to be in their dressing rooms a full hour earlier. They change into their uniforms, now dirty and in shreds from the beating they have taken at Hickam Field and at Wake Island, and the makeup men carefully replace the grime and grease accumulated by their bodies, In the meanwhile, on the set, Hawks has supervised a crew of 100, representing experts in 17 different highly skilled crafts, in adjusting the cross-section of the plane cockpit for the current sequence. Cinematographer James Wong Howe then sets up some 80-odd lights, ranging from high-intensity sun-ares down to “baby spots.” It all takes time. It took the Japs approximately 32 years of planning, conniving and scheming for their stab in the back at Pearl Harbor. It took five months after December 7 for Uncle. Sam to deal his first big telling blow against the Japs in the Coral Sea. And it is taking Howard Hawks 100 days simply to tell what happened in the prelude to that turn of the tide to Victory. Local sect transcriptions byworidefamed commentators. Still Service! Stills available on most of the scene cuts on the publicity pages in _ this campaign plan. Price: 10c each. Order by still number indicated under each cut, from Campaign Plan Editor, 321 West 44 Street, New York City. If. still number is not given, photo is not available because the cut was made from a special retouch or a composite. (*Asterisk denotes still is available at local Vitagraph Exchanges.) Predicts Future For Gary Cooper Harry Carey, veteran actor currently featured in Warner Bros.’ saga of the skies, “Air Force,” now playing at the Strand Theatre, tells this O’Henry-ish tale of 1943: In 1923 Joseph Harris, who played with Carey on the Broadway stage in ‘Montana” in 1906, came to visit him. At the time Carey, his wife, Ollie, and John Ford, the director, were living in a threeroom shack at the screen actor’s Newhall ranch, and Harris moved in with them. He became a “heavy” in the silents, and then gave up his carrer to spend his time permanently working on the ranch. He became pretty much a hermit except for the Careys and the hired help around the place, and, in fact, years passed between his visits even as far as the town of Newhill. But last week Harry and Ollie brought Harris, now 75, into Hollywood and he went to his first show in 11 years. When he came back, he said: “Say, you know that tall young fellow that came out to the ranch last summer to shoot quail? The fellow I said was so handy with a gun? I didn’t know he was an actor. I just saw him. That boy’s got a great future.” The movie Joseph Harris saw was Gary Cooper in “Sergeant Work.2 Flying Fortress Crew Still AF 16*; Mat 201—30c John Garfield, George Tobias and Harry Carey are shown in their roles as members of the crew of the “Mary Ann,” Flying Fortress whose exploits in the war of the Pacific are told in “Air Force,” the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. John Ridgely Uses Good Luck Charm The break John Ridgely, young Warner Bros. contract player, got in “Air Force,” the Strand Theatre’s current attraction, pleased him little more than it did Bette Davis. There’s a story behind Bette’s elation. Six months ago John got his first sizable break at Warners in “The Man Who Came To Dinner,” in which Bette was starred. The two became friendly at that time and Bette, as a friend of the Ridgely household, gave John’s new baby, John, Jr., a tiny doll to cement the friendship. The script of “Air Force” called for John, a pilot, to keep a good luck doll on the instrument panel of his Flying Fortress at all times. When John left for Tampa, Fla., with the big “Air Force” troupe to go on location, with him went Bette’s good luck, doll, which had been borrowed from John, Jr. ‘Air Foree’ Cast Pledged to Secrecy A director and 10 of his principal players recently took the most dramatic oath ever administered in the history of motion pictures. The eleven men, all connected with Warner Bros.’ “Air Force,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, were sworn to asolute and duration secrecy concerning any official information they may have learned during its production. The oath, administered by government agents, takes on added importance because of the strategic military spots to which the large “Air Force” troupe travelled. Those taking the oath were Director Howard Hawks and the following members of his cast— John Garfield, Gig Young, George Tobias, John Ridgely, James Brown, Charles Drake, Ray Montgomery, Harry Carey, Arthur Kennedy, Ward Wood and Faye Emerson. James Brown Wins Fair Lady (a B-17) in Film If the man who wins the leading lady in a screen drama must, of necessity, be called the romantic lead in that picture, then James Brown is IT in Warner Bros.’ most important wartime production, “Air Force,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. The real leading lady of “Air Force” is a Boeing Flying Fortress named, affectionately, “Mary Ann.” True to Hollywood form in filming romances, James Brown, a pursuit pilot, has nothing to do with Mary throughout the first few reels of the picture. He learns to love her, however, before the story is finished, to love her just as much as John Garfield, Harry Carey, Gig Young, John Ridgely and others of her fighting crew love her. In the final reel Brown flies away with “Mary Ann.” Everybody, including his rivals, are happy about it. In fact they are even aboard. Real romance with real girls is suggested in the story but the true love story is that between the big bomb carrier and the men who fly, fight and navigate her. ‘Air Force’ Harry Carey’s 367th Film When you start counting your motion pictures in the hundreds, then you enjoy the right to be compared with him. But it’s only when your total comes to 267 that you’ve tied Harry Carey, veteran character actor, currently appearing in the Warner Bros. picture, “Air Force,” which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. Carey’s professional career represents 34 years in show business, beginning with one-reelers he made on Staten Island, N.Y., way back in the old nickelodeon days. Brief Biogs of the Featured Players JOHN GARFIELD: Born in New York’s lower East Side . . . attended Angelo Patri’s school where he became interested in dramatics . . . studied drama under Ouspenskaya... acted in road company of ‘‘Counsellor at Law,” and later in New York with Paul Muni. . . finally played in Broadway hit, “Having Wonderful Time” which led to Hollywood offers . . . made such pictures as “Four Daughters,”’ ‘““They Made Me a Criminal,”’ ““Dangerously They Live,” ete. ee ROR se HARRY CAREY: Has been a _ prominent figure in motion pictures for more than 35 years... born in New York . . . educated at New York University ... has appeared in 367 motion pictures ... among them “Danger Patrol,”? “The Port Of Missing Girls,” “Kid Galahad,”’ “Gateway,” ““Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”... lives on a huge ranch and makes a good living from the soil. . . his great ambition is to add more acres so that his children will never have to make a living from anything but the land. GIG YOUNG: Stardom came to him with dizzying rapidity with the release of ‘The © Gay Sisters” . . . audience comment made him a star .. . assumed present name from character he played in that picture . . . appeared first in technicolor short, ‘Here Comes The Cavalry”? . . . then “Dive Bomber,” “‘Navy Blues,” “One Foot In Heaven,” “The Male Animal,” “Captains Of The Clouds,” “They Died With Their Boots On.” * * * * GEORGE TOBIAS: One of Hollywood’s ablest character actors ... first stage role in “Hairy Ape”... went to Belfast, Ireland, to absorb necessary atmosphere and worked way across as stoker on freighter . . . when playing a miner in “The Fool” he visited mines in Pennsylvania and hobnobbed with miners ... worked in carbarn in New York . . . has played more than 14 nationalities | on screen, among them Russians, Greeks, Italians ... appeared in “Strawberry Blonde,” “Sergeant York,” ‘Wings For The Eagle” and many other films.