Angels with Dirty Faces (Warner Bros.) (1938)

“ANGELS W es ITH DIRTY FACES” Features — Readers — Shorts ADVANCE PUBLICITY On The Kids SK ‘DEAD END" KIDS ON SET NO PICNI FOR ACE DIRECTOR “Fach Is An ‘Angle’,” Says Director Mike Curtiz “The ‘Dead End’ kids were loose again recently in the Warner Bros. studio. This time they were adding grey hairs to the head of Michael Curtiz, who was directing them in “‘Angels With Dirty Faces,” the melodrama starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien which is coming to the Strand Theatre. It isn’t that the six boys, discovered by Sidney Kingsley, the playwright, in professional schools, plumbing shops, radio broadcasting rooms and boys’ clubs are wild indians or hoodlums. They aren’t at all. On the contrary they are good-natured, well-meaning kids who have more than their share of high spirits. However, when you get six high-spirited kids. together on one small set, that is a few too many. That they aren’t the easiest actors in the world to handle is a truth you can’t dispute. William Wyler had his troubles with them in their first picture, “Dead End.” So did Lewis Seiler on *“Crime School.’ Then they became the charges of Mr. Curtiz, who despite 12 years in America, still finds some of the natives a little bewildering. Curtiz, however, really had a much easier time of it than did Wyler or Seiler. He can thank Jimmy Cagney for this. The boys, it appears, are worshippers of the red-headed star of “Angels With Dirty Faces.’ They wanted him to like them. They _ wanted him to admire them. And * have you believe. so they were on their good behavior. As a matter of fact, the boys — Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsley — have never been as bad as some writers about them would True, young Gorcey has had a habit of ig noring traffic tickets and recent ly spent five days in jail for his forgetfulness. But they have never been destructive or downright mean. Now and again they have played practical jokes on their fellow actors, but that’s about as far as they have gone. One thing you can’t dispute — they aren’t easy to direct. That’s because they have ideas of their own_about dialogue and story. They feel that they know, better than the director, how New York kids talk and act. The odd part about it is they do. Curtiz found that out the first day on “Angels With Dirty Faces.”’ As a result, the “Dead End” kids had a hand in the making of the scenes in which they appeared. Every one of their scenes bears the “Dead End” kids’ stamp, has something of each one of them in it. Before each scene, Curtiz, Cagney and the boys would go into a huddle. : ““Any ideas?” ask. ~The boys had plenty. So did Cagney. They would work out bits of business, add racy bits of dialogue, rehearse and re-rehearse and then take the scene. Curtiz would Cagney Imitator Finds Films Tough For four years, Frankie Burke, the red-haired James Cagney double from Brooklyn, looked forward to his first day’s work in pictures, Burke was given his screen chance in the Warner Bros. melodrama, “Angels With Dirty Faces," coming Friday to the Strand Theatre, because of his resemblance, in physique, speech and mannerisms, to Cagney. The youth played the part of Cagney in his ‘teens. He reported on his first day of work to a set representing a tenement street with William Tracey, who played Pat O’Brien as a boy. Director Michael Curtiz pointed to a board fence. “In this scene you are running away from the police,” the explained. “You, Mr. Tracey, get over the fence. The police catch Mr. Burke just as he gets half way over. They drag him off and he fights them, so they push him around.” They rehearsed the scene several times, then shot it. Curtiz filmed the scene from seven different angles and when it was done, Burke was a wreck. “And I thought this was a cinch,” he said as he limped off the studio set. director { Mat 401—60c ANGELS WITH (AND WITHOUT) DIRTY FACES. The "Dead End" kids pose as angels and as toughies in a series of "gag" pictures for Warner Bros. dramatic hit which opens (date) at the (name) theatre. Left to right, Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley. 2 ‘Dead End’ Kids Are “Angels With Dirty Faces” In Warner Bros. Dramatic Film Poolroom Sequence Finds Toughies So Adept With Cue Sticks That Technicalities and Dialogue Are Junked For That Scene-Thrilling Hit Coming To Strand There was a pool room on stage twenty-two at the Warner Bros. Studio which was built for ““Angels With Dirty Faces,”’ the James Cagney-Pat O’Brien co-starring picture which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. It was a fine, dingy place with the proper pool room atmosphere —an atmosphere that aroused a deep nostalgia in men who wasted much of their youth in pool halls. In years gone by, we wasted many precious hours knocking the balls around in various billiard parlors throughout the country. That’s why we dropped in one day to watch the ‘Dead End” kids shoot pool. We wish to report that they are excellent players, particularly Leo Gorcey, who handled his cue with consummate skill. He even gave pointers on the famous game to Sherry Shourds, the assistant director, who for the moment was acting as technical adviser. Eventually, Mr. Shourds resignedyand turned the job of telling the crowd of kids how to play pooljover to Gorcey. The scene in the pool room is an important one in the picture. The six boys, Gorcey, Billy Halop, Gabriel Dell, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley come into the place to spend the money that the gangster, played by James Cagney, has given them. Then the priest, Pat O’Brien, walks in and tries to lure them back to his gymnasium for a basketball game and they won't go. Oi ee Director Michael Curtiz, wearing a salmon pink sport shirt, was racking up the balls when we came in. ““We need a couple of lines of dialogue,’’ Curtiz said. ‘“‘Something to snap this Something funny. Pat comes in and goes to each of you boys and asks you to leave this place. We've got to figure out replies for you.” (All this was in Curtiz’s own peculiar dialect which is a cross between. English and Hungarian. Putting his actual speech on paper is beyond us.) “Tl got an idea,’’ Gorcey said. “When he asks me I can say “There ain’t no future in basketball.” How’s that>?”’ scene up.. Curtiz said. “I will give you two gold stars. You are now second from the bottom of my conduct list.” “That is fine,” Curtiz looked even more pleased when Halop, Hall, Punsley, Jordan and Dell pulled suitable dialogue out of the air. You could see that he trusted the boys’ judgment when it came to what kids say in pool rooms and such places. *“‘Let’s try it,’’ Curtiz said and stepped behind the camera. The lights went on. The six boys, all of whom wore suits that looked like saddle blankets, — and a dozen other kids, took their places around the green table. Gorcey picked up a cue, --chalked—itand= bént, over the | table. “The nine ball in the corner pocket,’ Gorcey said. “Five bucks he makes it,’ Punsley said, putting a bill on the edge. Another boy covered the bet. : The cue touched the cue ball, it spun across the felt, kissed the thirteen and the thirteen kissed the nine into the corner pocket. There was a stir at the doorway and O’Brien came in and made his way up to the table, frowning at the kids. One by one he asked them to go to the gymnasium with him and one by one they said the dialogue they had written for themselves only a moment before. O’Brien shrug| ged and started for the door. A young man stood in his way. “Take that pie in the sky stuff out of here,” the young man said. O’Brien hit him on the jaw and knocked him down. “Cut,” Director Curtiz said. “And print it.” The young man got up rubbing his jaw. “That is swell,”’ he said. “I would hate to take another one from O’Brien.” “We'll let him hit you again in the closeup,”’ Curtiz said. =} _ night before. Grappler Landsin Lap, | | ROMANCE SUDDENLY Bobby Jordan Nips Him Little Bobby Jordan, the innocent-eyed “Angel” of the "Dead End” kids, weighs 115 pounds with his clothes on. But he knows how to protect himself. He has to as a member of that gang. That’s why he knew exactly what to do when a 260-pound vrestler fell into his lap as he sat ringside at the wrestling bouts with the other kids during “time-off” in the filming of “Angels With | Dirty Faces.” Bobby promptly bit the behemoth. “He tasted kinda’ funny,” Bobby observed when the incident was over. _ a nee 3 WUC Oo en cae ‘Dead End’ers The six “‘Dead End” kids, who played in Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Angels With Dirty Faces,’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, found out only when the picture was near completion how Director Michael Curtiz knew where and how they were spending their evenings. Every morning since the picture had started Curtiz had been calling in the boys — Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell and Bobby Jordan — and telling them what they had done the If they had failed to go home, he had given them severe lectures. One morning, after several weeks of this, he lectured Bobby for having gone to the Rollerdrome. “What are you — a magician?’’ Bobby wanted to know. “After this I want you in bed every night by nine-thirty,’’ Curtiz continued. there, Ill know it.” “Yeah! How?’ they asked. “Because ever since production started I’ve had two detectives following you at night.” Mat 302—45c MICHAEL CURTIZ, whose most recent efforts include "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Four Daughters," directs Jimmy Cagney, Pat O'Brien and cops before taking the “last mile" scene, one of the most dramatic in "Angels With Dirty Faces," coming Friday to the Strand Theatre. ett SiN a “If you're not, HITS “DEAD END’ BOYS, ONE MARR Leo Gorcey Is First Benedict, Rest Of Gang Only Have ‘Girls’ The “Dead End” kids have finally turned their attentions to romance. At the Warner Bros. Studio, where the boys recently worked in “Angels With Dirty Faces,’ the melodrama co-starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, bets have mmagle.that one of the six would be married before ristmas. Leo Gorcey, the bidests had planned to be married this fall but the plans fell through. _“My girl couldn’t cook,” he said. ““And she wouldn’t learn.” A few weeks later’ came the word that Gorcey had wed. Billy Halop admits that he is very interested in Judy Garland. Gabriel Dell claims he is ‘“‘thatway’ about Alice Preston. Bernard Punsley says he is freelancing. He is considered out of the running, matrimonially speaking. He plans to be a doctor and in a year or so will enter college. Bobby Jordan has expressed a great enthusiasm for Bonita Granville. The romance has progressed no farther than a few turns together around a Hollywood roller-skating rink. Huntz Hall says that Helen Parish is his heart interest. He has also tried to win Miss Garland away from Halop. Pat O’Brien’s Father Finds Pat's Double It took Pat O’Brien’s father to find an actor to play Pat as a youth in Warner Bros.’ “Angels With Dirty Faces,’ the melodrama co-starring Pat and James ‘Cagney, which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday. The elder O’Brien discovered the actor, sought by studio talent scouts for weeks, on the set of ‘Brother Rat,’’ which was also being filmed at the time at the Warner Bros. Studio. He is William Tracey, 20, who looks sixteen and who played the part of Misto, the young recruit, in the latter picture. Pat’s father, William O’Brien, came out to the studio one day to watch his boy work. Because smoke was being used on the “Angels” set and it wasn’t a pleasant place to be, the father visited the “Brother Rat’’ company for awhile. He took one look at Tracey and announced that the youth was a dead-ringer for Pat when Pat was sixteen. Tracey was given the part. Tracey, who was born in Pittsburgh, is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his stage debut last year as a 16-year-old boy in “Hitch Your Wagon.” This spring he played Misto in the western. road unit of “Brother Rat.”” The studio signed him for the picture on the strength of the performance he gave at the Los Angeles showing. ~““Dead End” ‘DeadEnd ‘Kids MeetEquals In Basketball Game Smeared By Opponents Filming Sequence For **Angels With Dirty Faces’? — Coming to Strand Pat O’Brien, in a sweatshirt, sneakers and black clerical pants, spent half a week recently refereeing a basketball game at the Warner Bros. Studio. O’Brien hadn’t gone | athletic on his studio. It was merely one of the sequences in his latest picture ““‘Angels With Dirty Faces,’’ Warner Bros.’ powerful drama which will open in two days at the Strand Theatre with Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Cagney co-starred again. In the picture, O’Brien plays a priest who tries to teach slum boys to play with a basketball instead of with knives and guns. The slum boys in the film are the famous “Dead End”’ kids. The basketball game is one of the high points of “Angels With Dirty Faces.’ It took Director Curtiz more than three days to put it on celluloid. It almost put him in the hospital. It sent three of the “‘Dead End” kids to the studio infirmary. But for the reputations of the kids, the game would probably have been a tame affair. Since they came to Hollywood, the six boys — Billy Halop, Bernard Punsley, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Huntz Hall Fe have been publicized as pretty hard numbers. Their opponents in the game, five youngsters who belong to a church basketball team, knew the reputations of the *‘Dead End” kids and came pre pared for the worst. The church basketball boys, Bill Cohee, Lavel Lund, Norman Wallace, Gary Carthew and Gibby Mayer, weren't big fellows. Alongside the “Dead End” kids they looked pretty ~small and skinny. Director Curtiz shook his head. *‘Maybe they get hurt,” he said. “Those mad Russians’’— he always refers to the “Dead End” kids in this fashion — “‘will murder them.” “We'll be careful,” Billy Halop promised. “That’s right,” Curtiz said. “Be careful. Now in the scene you are supposed to make fouls — you are supposed to play it CA Fm ta = , “Mat 107—15¢ ANN SHERIDAN plays the lead fem inine role opposite Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien in "Angels With Dirty Faces," coming Friday to the Strand Theatre. “Dead End” Boys’ Ambitions Differ When Leo Gorcey, ex-plumber’s assistant, came to Hbollywood to play in ‘“‘Dead End,”’ he wanted to go back to plumbing. After a year and a half and several pictures, Gorcey has changed his mind. He wants to be a writer. Gorcey is the only one of the six ‘Dead End’ kids, now appearing in Warner Bros.’ “Angels With Dirty Faces’’ coming to the Strand Theatre, who has been bitten by the writing bug. Not all the boys want to be actors, however. Billy Halop says he expects to direct pictures some day. Gabriel Dell wants to act and direct. Huntz Hall wants to be a producer. He claims he knows more about picture making than most men in Hollywood right now. Bernard Punsley wants to be a doctor. Bobby Jordan hopes he can spend the rest of his life acting in the movies. They’re ‘‘Mad,”? Anyway Director Michael Curtiz, who made “Angels With Dirty Faces,”’ the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday, christened the six ““‘Dead End” kids “the mad Russians.” Curtiz tried to learn the names of the six boys — Leo Gorcey, Billy Halop, Bernard Punsley, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Huntz Hall — but finally gave up. So, when he wanted the boys, he simply yelled for “‘the mad Russians.” like football. Trip people and bang each other around. Only do it without hurting anyone.” “They don’t need to worry,” Huntz Hall said. ‘We'll try not to hurt them.” O’Brien took his place in the center of the court and blew his whistle. The two teams lined up, with Gabriel Dell out of it because only five boys could play on each side. Billy was center, opposing young Mr. Cohee. The ball was tossed and the game began. Young Mr. Gorcey, who was a plumber’s assistant before Sidney Kingsley discovered him and put him in “Dead End,” collided with young Mr. Mayer. Gibby Mayer got up. Grocey didn’t. He lay stretched out on the floor and Doc McWilliams, the studio first aid man, had to apply smelling salts. “Something hit me,’’ Leo said when he came to. “That was me,” said Gibby. “I didn’t mean to hit so hard.” Again the whistle blew. Again the boys began moving around the court, trying to put the ball in the basket. Mayer tried to _ take.the ball from Bobby Jordan and the two boys whacked their heads together. Bobby fell down. Gibby stood over him, looking concerned. McWilliams ran out with his smelling salts and re vived the fallen “‘Dead End” boy. The next victim was Billy Hal op. He ran afoul of Norman Wallace and came out second best. Punsley and Hall escaped with minor injuries. The five members of the church basketball team weren't scratched. They were knocked off their feet time and again, but always came up smiling. eater The second day, the same thing happened. The “Dead ~~ End” kids didn’t promise not to be rough that day. It was the other five boys who were lectured on roughness. But despite the warning, the “Dead End” kids got much the worst of it. They were glad enough when the sequence was finished and the five basketball players went their ways. But some of their toughness was gone — they were a pretty chastened lot. DIRECTOR GURTIZ TAKES A RIBBING ‘Dead End’ Kids Mimic His Famed Accent During Filming It's a good thing Director Michael Curtiz is a good-natured fellow. Otherwise, he might have become very irate over one prank played by the ““‘Dead End” boys during the filming of “Angels With Dirty Faces,”’ the Warner Bros. picture co-starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien which is coming to the Strand Theatre. Curtiz, one of the ablest directors in Hollywood, has one failing — after eleven years in America, he still has difficulty with the English language. His remarks like “bring on de empty horses’”’ and “one more rehearse” have become famous and there are wags on the lot who spend hours collecting “Curtizisms.” One day.the six boys — Billy Halop, Bernard Punsley, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell ‘and Huntz Hall — decided to get even with Curtiz for putting detectives on their trail during the filming of the picture. They had only one more scene to make — the scene in the basement hideout after they learn that their hero, James Cagney has died yellow. The scene is an intensely dramatic one. Curtiz had the boys rehearse it several times. They seemed to have it down to perfection so he ordered a “take.”” When the cameras started rolling, the boys went into their act. They played the scene using Curtiz’s dialect. Curtiz took it without saying a word. He let them finish the scene, then told the script to “print it.”’, thus causing the “‘Dead End” boys some very worried days, as a neat turning of the tables. 3