As the Earth Turns (Warner Bros.) (1934)

| Waaaline Srories Production of *‘As Earth Turns’’ Delights Author Gladys Hasty Carroll Watched Work On Her Best Seller At Warner Bros. Studios HEN Gladys Hasty Carroll began to distill her lifelong knowledge of New England life and New England country folk into the pages of her first novel, “‘As The Earth Turns,’’ she had no idea that her book would become a best-seller, that Warner Bros. picture studio would buy it for the sereen—and least of all, that she would be watching her own characters come to life, walk and talk before her eyes under the incandescent lights of a modern sound stage. If a soothsayer had predicted to Mrs. Carroll that all these things would happen to her as a result of her writing “As the Earth Turns,’ which comes to the Theatre on Reiman deena eie < , the low-voiced, brown-haired Maine girl would probably have opened her eyes in amazement, and then dismissed the prophecy as a piece of stereotyped fortune-telling. Yet all three of these things did happen, and in less than a year after “As the Earth Turns” made its appearance in the bookstores. Within a few weeks after its publication, the book leaped to the lead of the bestselling column and remained a pacemaker for an amazing period. On the heels of its literary success, came its purchase by Warner Brothers, whose keen-witted story scouts grasped the pictorial possibilities of this quietly different narrative: of the lives of a few Maine farming families. And finally—taking her courage firmly in. both hands, but feeling very much like the fly who walked into -the spider’s parlor, or like Jack scaling the beanstalk ‘to the land of . the Giants for the first time—she decided ‘to go to Hollywood and find out for herself how many of the rumors she had heard, about what happens to an author’s story in a motion picture studio, were true. The production heads of the studio invited her to be their guests on the lot as long as she was in California. Alfred E. Green, veteran director of scores of successful pictures, made her completely at home from the moment of her first timid entrance to the stage where one of the big snow-covered New England farms had been counterfeited with startling realism. Mrs. Carroll went right through the routine of production with the company. Her mornings and afternoons she spent on the sets, she went out to location with the troupe. She lunched with the players, talked with Jean Muir in her dressing-room, and saw the rushes of the scenes she had watched being made, in the projection room every evening, with Green and the company. What impressed Mrs. Carroll most was the respect that everyone had shown for the details of her story, and the faithfulness with which every character in “As the Earth Turns” had been cast. “T can’t express my satisfaction with the accuracy of the casting of ‘As the Earth Turns,’ she said, after she had begun to feel somewhat oriented in her strange environment, “better Jean Muir Thinks Role In ‘*As Earth Turns’ ° Her Best Prefers Her Characterization In This Picture To Any Other In The World sas | world.’’ would rather have done it than any picture in the In her characteristic downright fashion, Jean Muir had this to say about ‘‘As The Earth Turns,’’ the Warner Bros. film adapted from Gladys Hasty Carroll’s best-selling novel of the same title, which comes to the Theatre on When first the story was purchased by Warner Bros., another actress under contract to the studio was considered for the leading role. Jean, a novice where Hollywood was concerned, and even now but a few months away from Broadway and the stage, had had no hope of receiving this. acting “plum” of the season. She had enthused about the novel. It was “grand story—and a marvelous part,” she had said. As she says now, she would have “simply whooped with joy” if she had known there was a chance of its coming her way. When it did, she couldn’t believe heraluick.c. 0" Jean’s family (her full name is really Jean Muir Fullarton) had lived in New England. That gave this story of family life in Maine an added allure for the young actress. And the role of Jen, heroine of the story, seems to her to combine all the more enviable American qualities — hardiness, tolerance of others’ weaknesses, a pioneer stoicism under pressure which, she thinks, still distinguishes true Americans, whether they live in Maine or California. : “Jen is a girl I can admire enormously,” says Jean. “And, heaven knows, it’s.rarely enough Page Thirty that happens in assignments nowadays—either on the stage or in pictures. But she is marvelous. What I wanted to do was make her seem so to everybody else, to prove that I did understand her. She could be almost a classic figure. I’m proud I had the chance. I hope I’ve done well by it.” Gladys Hasty Carroll, Maine native and author of the book from which the film was made, visited Hollywood during the shooting of the picture. She had several long talks with Jean on the set. She, at least, feels that Jean has “done well” by her Jen. She has been enormously enthusiastic about the performance turned in by this new newcomer and has prophesied great things to come for her. Others in the cast include Donald Woods, Russell Hardie, Emily Lowry, Arthur Hohl, Dorothy Peterson, David Landau, Clara Blandick and William Janney. Alfred E. Green directed the picture from the screen play by Ernest Pascal. than by saying that I couldn’t have picked more perfect types for every person in the story if T had been consulted on the casting myself. “Another thing that has fairly taken my breath away,” she went on, “is the extraordinary ability of the technical force of a studio like Warners to create such settings as they have given my story. Al Green asked Mrs. Carroll one day, how she came to write “As The Earth Turns.” “Tt was a story I have wanted to write for years,’ she said quite simply. “I finally reached the point where I felt I was ready to put it into words, and I wrote it; that is really all I can say. I tried to reproduce the lives of the Maine farmers with whom I had lived from childhood, as they really were, their habits of thought, their points of view —everything that makes the ‘way-down-easterner’ the interesting and significant person that he is.” “As The Earth Turns” is an epic of American life and has been given a strong screen dramatization by Ernest Pascal, himself an author of note. In the cast, besides Jean Muir, are Donald Woods, Russell Hardie, Emily Lowry, Arthur Hohl, Dorothy Peterson, David Landau, and William Janney. Lovers At a Lakeside 5 caaaadgatnadintanstatcadetctatadenmtnnatanatemtmanceasate | When the cares of day are over, youth finds time for romance. William Janney and Dorothy Appleby in a scene from Warner’s “As The Earth Turns.” Others in the cast of this picture of New England include Jean Muir, Donald Woods, and Emily Lowry. Mat No. 44—20¢ Jean Muir Is Adjudged To Have Perfect Camera Face Photographers Say Features of Star In “As The Earth Turns’’ Best Ever O look in the mirror. Turn on the bright light. Ex amine your face. Examine it impersonally for once, without mental reservations. Is one eye higher in your head than the other? Not many people have eyes which exactly match. Jean Muir has two eyes which are exactly alike. Look at your nose. Doesn’t it swerve, ever so slightly, to the right or to the left? Haven’t you more face on one side of it than on the other? Jean Muir’s nose divides her face exactly in the middle. Look at your mouth. Does it have a Barthelmess twist on one end? Is the curve of the lower lip even all the way across? Chances are it isn’t. But Jean Muir’s is! Look at your chin. Is the middle of your chin directly. below the end of your nose and right in line with the middle of your mouth? ~ Probably not. Most chins waggle a bit to one side or another. Jean Muir’s chin is perfectly matched with both nose and mouth. © : Look at your cheeks. Isn’t one cheek bone higher than the other? Certainly. It’s like that with almost everybody—almost everybody except Jean Muir— who has a perfect “camera face.” Now turn half way around. Look at your profile. Uneven, isn’t it? Not much continuity of line. Now turn quickly and look at the other side. Like two different persons, isn’t it? Be honest with yourself. Be honest with both halves. Even John Barrymore says one side of his face looks like a sweet potato! On a Wintry Afternoon David Landau is taking the kids for a sleigh ride in this scene from “As The Earth Turns,” Warner Bros. filmization of the year’s best-selling novel by Gladys Hasty Carroll. Mat. No. 483—20c But with Jean Muir it’s different. She’s as alike on two sides as it’s humanly possible to be. Now turn your back to the mirror and take a hand mirror so you can see the back of your head. Bumpy, isn’t it. And look at your ears. One sticks out further than the other. It’s two to one that is true. And one ear hangs lower on the head than the other. Not much. By fixing your hair, ever so. slightly, you can hide the fact altogether. Jean Muir’s ears are absolutely on the level. “Not,” explains Sid Hickox, ace cameraman on the Warner Bros. studio lot where Jean Muir works, “that this means that Miss Muir is either the greatest beauty in the world or the best actress. It merely means that she has a perfect camera face. “She has no bad angles. Almost everybody else, working in j ” . pictures, has. Jean herself, didn’t know about her face until she heard about her exceptional regularity from the cameramen who worked with her in “As The Earth Turns,” the Warner Bros. picture which comes to the ................. . Theatre, ONS eens oe eemiee “T’ve always thought of it as just another face,” she says. “I never thought that the face made much difference with an actress, so long as it wasn’t positively ugly. There are other things so much more important.” But nothing is more important to a cameraman and nothing is more important to a picture than the camera. And Jean is practically camera proof. No lights to fix, to take out shadows, to reduce bumps, to _ straighten crooked noses and twisted smiles. “You can just stand Jean Muir up in front of the camera and shoot,” says Hickox. “If everybody was like her half the cameramen in Hollywood would be out of work. Knowing what to do with light and shadow—to make perfection out of imperfect faces—that’s the cameraman’s biggest job. If everybody was like Jean Muir anybody could photograph a picture.” In her current picture “As The Earth Turns,’ based on Gladys Hasty Carroll’s best-selling novel, Miss Muir plays the role of an _ efficient farmer’s daughter who loves the soil and has a broad view of life. Others in the cast include Donald Woods, Russell Hardie, Emily Lowry, Arthur Hohl and Dorothy Peterson. Alfred E. Green directed the picture.