Black Legion (Warner Bros.) (1937)

“BLACK LEGION’ PUBLICITY Bogart’s °“‘C.M.A.’’ Helps Him Portray Good Scenes Star of “Black Legion” Film Places Himself in Correct Mental Attitude Although it may take only half a minute to shoot the scene, it always takes Humphrey Bogart, screen star, ten minutes to get into what he ealls his ‘‘Correct Mental Atti tude.’’ Bogart, who has the leading role in Warner Bros. exciting melodrama ‘‘Black Legion’’ at the.............. Theatre, devised his mental contortion idea while working on the New York stage. When he came to Hollywood to play the part of the ruthless killer, “Duke Mantee” in “The Petrified Forest,” he brought it along with him. It remains with him today now that he has signed a long term contract to remain in the film city. “A mental attitude actly a mood,” explains Bogart. “The usual formula for getting into a mood runs into the physieal. Some actors, called to play the part of a hard-boiled army officer, spend their spare moments tearing up and down the set and striking at other actors with imaginary words. Others, asked to play a_ tear-jerking, sympathetic scene, get ready for it by pulling their own hair until their ocular ducts let loose with a goodly supply of genuine tears. “My mental formula is a little different. I merely sit and think. What do I think of? Well, that I won’t say. I have my own private channels of thought direction when it comes to thinking out an attitude for a forthcoming scene. All I ask is ten minutes of relaxation in my chair and V’ll be ready to do a scene. “There’s no secret about how it is done. Any actor or actress can do it. It’s just a matter of thinking it out for yourself. There is no reason on earth for becoming a virtual raving maniaec before the camera. turns. Think it out for yourself and then get in there and play the part!” “Black Legion” is a daring and thrilling melodrama based upon the actual operations of the secret, hooded, night-riding order which terrorized Michigan recently, and whose leaders were condemned to life imprisonment. The cast ineludes, besides Bogart, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Helen Flint, Joseph Sawyer, Dickie Jones and others. Archie Mayo directed the picture from a sereen play by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines, made from Robert Lord’s original story. isn’t ex Firemen Man Hose As Picture Is Made Four fire-engine companies —one on each side of the structure—stood by ready for action when a house was burned, purposely, for a scene in “Black Legion,” a Warner Bros. melodrama recently completed. It stood on a ranch near the studio, and after a long, rainless summer the nearby vegetation was dry as tinder. A spark might have started a disastrous fire sweeping across the Hollywood hills. The hosemen had wet down all the surrounding territory, but they were still taking no chances. “Black Legion,” based on the Michigan hooded order, comes to the ——------—----- Page Twelve Auction Brings Bargain to Foran, Film Star Dick Foran, Warner’ Bros. player, bought a begrimed old Mexican saddle at auction for $11, and found after cleaning it that it had about $30 worth of silver mountings hidden by the dirt of years. Foran has one of the leading parts in “Black Legion,” thrilling melodrama dealing with that hooded order, now de SEER Theatre. notorious showing at the Their Password—A Curse! Meeting in a deserted wood, these black robed killers, whose bloody code was “Talk and Die,” plot to spill the blood of 1000 loyal Americans in “Black Legion,” Warner Bros. picture starring Humphrey Bogart, which comes to the_.....Theatre on___.. Mat No. 202—20c Screen Director Sheds 55 Pounds Guiding Picture Movie Director Archie Mayo weighs 55 pounds less than he did last summer. He shed the avoirdupois with no effect except better general health, an absence of mid-afternoon fatigue, and a natural pride of accomplishment. For men whose wives are be .ginning to call attention to their belt lines, he tells how he did it, as well as why. “It was when I was directing ‘Black Legion’ for Warner Bros. that I started to worry about it. The picture was difficult and required long hours of work. At the end of a day, I was more tired than I should have been. The reason was the extra weight I was carrying.” “Black Legion,” to which Mayo referred, is a melodrama that will come to the OS ‘HhGatlee ON... 1 ete “T weighed myself the day I finished shooting on ‘Black Legion,’ and tipped the scales at 195, which is about right for my height, 6 feet. “My main exercise was swimming. This I supplemented with a series of simple exercises for the abdominal muscles. About once a week, I had a body massage. All of this helped, but a good strict diet is what did the work.” “Black Legion” is a daring and thrilling melodrama based upon the actual operations of the secret, hooded, night-riding order. The cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, and others. Stressing Film Technique Bunk, Bogart Believes So far as the actor is concerned, stressing screen technique is the bunk, in the emphatie opinion of Humphrey Bogart, ex-Broadway star and now featured player in Warner Bros.’ “Black Legion,” which comes to CHORE Sa eens Theatre: On: 5. sere “A player can either act or he can’t,” said Bogart, “whether he is on a stage or facing a camera. If there’s any difference in technique involved, it’s in the camera. That’s why the screen is a director’s medium and not the actors’.” “On the stage nothing can save a bad performance. On the screen a good director like Archie Mayo knows a_ thousand elever ways to do it. “For instance, two people have a long sustained scene on the stage. They save it from monotony and sustain interest by changes of pace, vocal light and shade, carefully caleulated timing. If they fail the scene is flat. “On the screen, the same general effects are created by camera movement, manipulation of light and timed cutting. “That’s where screen technique is found. Right in the use of the camera. The only acting technique is to know how to act, whether in front of a camera or an auditorium.” “Black Legion” is a daring and thrilling melodrama based upon the actual operations of the secret, hooded, night-riding order. News Events Filmed For ‘Black Legion’’ Picture Dramatic Truths of Hooded Night Riders’ Cruelties Shown in Thrilling Movie While there was plenty of precedent at their own studios for a picture directly from front pages of newspapers, Warner Brothers have never before tackled so immediately current a topic as ‘‘Black Legion, | REE aes Theatre on ’? which comes to the A few months ago, American newspaper readers were horrified at published accounts of so-called ‘‘Black Legion”’ activities in Michigan. The story broke when a young mechanie was taken out by a group of masked men and cruelly flogged, then shot, because of an allegation that he had beaten his wife. After his death, it was proved that the unfortunate victim was a kindly man whose wife denied vehemently he was ever anything but gentle and considerate. According to a later confession made by a captured Legionnaire, he had taken part in the ruthless killing of another victim because he was a Negro. Further developments brought out that the deluded members of the “Black Legion” had been led to believe themselves patriots fighting for the rights of true Americans and that religious prejudice and racial hate served the cause of justice. In numerous instances, they took the law in their own hands but always hiding in cowardly fashion behind masks and hoods. They invariably outnumbered their victims and always struck in the dark. Finally trapped by the police, their cloak of patriotism was stripped away and found to cover nothing more noble than puny jealousies and resentments against their victims on whom they had inflicted horrible punishments. The dramatic details of this story from real life form the basis of the film, “Black Legion.” The result is said to be a powerful indictment of secret organizations of the kind that undermine Americanism. The cast is headed by Humphrey Bogart, whose portrayal of Duke Mantee in “Petrified Forest” was so widely acclaimed. Others are Dick Foran, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Alonzo Price, Ann Sheridan. Black Legion Hits Again Girl With Three Irish Names Has Played 73 Parts If there’s any doubt as to where the bright crown of red hair and flashing blue eyes came from, the name of Erin O’BrienMoore settles it. Irish ancestry and nothing else but. The part of a factory worker’s wife in Warner Bros.’ production of “Black Legion,” Which comes £0 ‘the... .:.....: TROAGTOCOR. .... 204002005 , is her seventy-third acting role; her tenth in pictures. Among her notable stage engagements were “The Music Master,” which like “Street Scene” and “Yoshe Kalb,” she played both in New York and London; “Lally” with Claude Rains; “Men Must Fight,” with Douglas Montgomery; “Riddle Me This,” with Frank Craven; “Merrily We Roll Along” and many others. The first of her family to be born outside of Ireland, Miss O’Brien-Moore first saw the light of day in Los Angeles, but moved to Arizona where her father became publisher of the Tueson Citizen, and then to West Vir ginia when he acquired the Charlestown Gazette. She is a niece of Ainsworth O’Brien Moore, noted Professor of Greek and Latin at Yale University. “Black Legion” is a daring and thrilling melodrama based upon the actual operations of the secret, hooded, night-riding order which terrorized Michigan recently. The cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, and others. (Left to right) Humphrey Bogart, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Dickie Jones, Ann Sheridan, and Dick Foran as victims of a black-hooded band of assassins, in Warner Bros.’ “Black Legion,” now playing Ci SF 1 RE CONES oS pec: ss. ae Theatre. Mat No. 204—20c