Blondes at Work (Warner Bros.) (1938)

(Opening Day) ‘BLONDES AT WORK’ NEW TORCHY BLANE OPENING AT STRAND “Torchy Blane,’ famous girl reporter character who has been made famous to the film fans by clever Glenda Farrell, will be seen again today on the sereen of the Strand Theatre. “Blondes at Work” is the title of this fourth adventure in the proposed series of six. Burly Barton MacLane again has the part of Torchy’s boy friend, Police Lieutenant Steve McBride. There’s a murder mystery and of course, Torchy is on the spot to scoop all the newspapers in town with the jury’s verdict. She manages to make her masculine competitors look pretty silly in the process, too. There’s a lot of fun and fast action; as well as Torchy’s famous brand of fast-talking, wisecracking dialogue. Maybe in the last of the series, Glenda and Barton may enter the state of matrimony but they don’t do it this time. As in the previous pictures, just as they are starting out to get the license, another big newspaper story pops up and she has to go and cover it and leave the detective flat. With the stars in this picture are a capable company including Tom Kennedy, Rosella Towne, Donald Briggs, Thomas E. Jackson, Kenneth Harlan and Betty Compson, onetime queen of the silent pictures. She is progressing nicely with her comeback in the talkies and is being given better and better parts. “Blondes at Work” was directed by Frank McDonald who also guided the making of the previous three “Torchys.” The sereen play this time was an original by Albert De Mond. BACHELOR BRIGGS HAS DIFFICULTIES Donald Briggs of the films doesn’t want to get married, he hasn’t anyone he’d care to marry, yet he feels he’ll have to take the fatal step or else pass out from exhaustion. The young Warner Bros. player, appearing in “Blondes at Work,” with Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane, at the Strand Theatre, is tall, dark and handsome—and an eligible bachelor. In addition, he’s intelligent, has a great personality and can wear clothes. Since, as in most towns, eligible bachelors are at a premium, in Hollywood Mr. Briggs is naturally swamped with invitations for every-" thing from teas to tennis. And since the invitations come from good friends who just can’t be disappointed, Mr. Briggs is kind of run ragged, to coin a phrase. He plays a good game of bridge, and not being attached to anyone, he’s a natural as a fourth whenever any group gets stuck. He’s included in every horseback riding party, tennis party, ping-pong party and cocktail party. He’s been bored through so many dinner parties, he feels like a professional after-dinner speaker. Briggs is in a bit of a quandary. It looks like he’ll have to get married, or else spend the rest of his days filling in at parties. ls Modern 'Little Eva’ Glenda Farrell, the actress, is working on plans for a new home in the San Fernando valley, near Hollywood. She has instructed her architect to design a modern version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin becaause she likes rusticity and more sentimentally, because her very first acting role (at the age of ten) was little Eva in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Page Four -— 2 = wae ee AL TORCHY ~ . BLANE _ OO a woe Or Mat 203—30c SHE ALWAYS GETS HER MAN — Glenda Farrell, as snappy, snoopy Torchy Blane and Barton MacLane as her detective boy friend, are back in their fourth adventure, "Blondes at Work," now showing at the Strand Theatre. Famous Hollywood Designer Forecasts Fashions Of 1938 By HELEN WALTER Howard Shoup, who designed the many dashing sports costumes Glenda Farrell wears in the Warner Bros. comedy “Blondes at Work,” maintains that the motion picture stylist must have a strain of the psychie in his make-up. Screen costumers must frequently design fashions six months in advance of a picture’s release. In the case of “Blondes at Work,” which opens Friday at the Strand Mat 105—15c GLENDA FARRELL — Ace portrayer of sob sisters has her breeziest comedy role in the Strand Theatre's new comedy feature, “Blondes at Work." Theatre, Shoup had sketches completed three weeks before the picture went into production because he wanted the wardrobe department to have plenty of time on detail. Foretelling fashions six months in advance entails almost an uncanny sense of what is going to happen next. The successful motion picture designer has that sense and couples -: it with good sound reasoning. Mr. Shoup knew that skirts in their upward movement had not yet quite hit the knee, and-.they would not grow an inch shorter. All of Glenda Farrell’s skirts in the picture are exactly fourteen inches from the floor. Slim skirts and off-the-face hats were only nosing into the fashion picture at the time Shoup did Glenda’s wardrobe, so he knew they would be at their peak six months hence. The same was true of collarless, buttonless coats, so he included two of these in Glenda’s collection of clothes. Since Glenda plays the role of “Torchy” Blane, newspaper reporter extraordinary, in “Blondes at Work,” her wardrobe is alternately sporty and tailored. One loosely knitted navy blue suit has extended shoulders (a line so flattering that Mr. Shoup declares it will never go out) and clever lifesaver buttons wound in matching yarn. With it she wears a navy velvet scarf and tricky matching hat. A smartly tailored dress is heavy black crepe with tiny self-covered buttons down the back. Black krimmer is used to border two front pockets just below the waistline and to outline the square shoulders and straight long sleeves. With this she wears a coat of black spongey wool which buttons down the front. A rough wool suit Miss Farrell wears in the picture has pouch pockets for novelty and a triangular paisley challis scarf for contrast. An unusual coat is a hip-length boxy reefer of heavy navy blue angora, so thick and soft it looks almost like a dyed fur. Mr. Shoup says that in doing clothes for a picture so many months in advance costume designers have found themselves close to one hundred percent right in predicting which way the mode will swing. There’s another element entering this business of style forecasting, too. More and more, the movie modes are influencing fashions both here and abroad, and very often the predictions of the eminent studio designers, such as Orry Kelly and Mr. Shoup really decree what is going to be worn by style-conscious women the world over. So widespread a “medium as the motion pictures is bound to have an enormous influence on such questions as the length of skirts and the height of hats. “Blondes at Work” is the fourth in the series of “Torchy Blane” adventures. Besides Miss Farrell, the cast includes Barton MacLane, Rosella Towne, Donald Briggs, Betty Compson and many others. . Frank McDonald directed. perce: “9 “4 “ADVENTURE > ~~ (Current) RAT-A-TAT TALK OF GLENDA FARRELL SETS MOVIE PACE One of the essentials of a good movie is pace. Call it pace, eall it speed, or action or movement—but whatever it is, directors inject it into every film to keep the audience awake and consistently interested in what’s happening on the screen. And that’s why Glenda Farrell is a director’s delight. She can deliver lines in a rat-atat-tat style that keeps the scenes alive, get dramatic inflections into the lines and be understood, all at the same time. Frank McDonald, director of the fourth in the series of popular Torchy Blane pictures, “Blondes at Work,’ which features Miss Farrell, feels that she is responsible. for a good measure of the success of the series. “Blondes at Work” is now showing at the Strand Theatre. “In the direction of these newspaper films,” says McDonald, “I’ve tried to keep them moving along at a rapid pace. I’ve tried to inject that newspaper-going-to-press feeling into them. And Glenda Farrell has helped a lot. Another actress in the role might slow up the action. But not Farrell. If anything, she speeded it up with her mile-a-minute gabbing.” It is most surprising that there are so few fast talkers among the femmes of Hollywood, since speed of delivery is so important in many roles. Miss Farrell stands head and shoulders above any of the other leading ladies in the machine gun style of delivery that has been popularized on the screen by such males as Lee Tracy, Pat O’Brien and Jimmie Dunn. Joan Blondell can hold her own as a speedy speaker, Patsy Kelly can spiel a series of adjectives in one breath and Connie Bennett can let loose with a long sentence in two seconds flat. But when it comes to telling the world via the silver screen and a director hasn’t much time to tell in —he’ll probably pick Glenda Farrell. GLENDA FARRELL IS NO. 1 BASEBALL FAN Traveling 6,000 miles in a day and a half just to see a world series baseball game probably makes Glenda Farrell, the film star, the No. 1 fan of all times. Ever since she left the New York stage, Glenda has tried to get back to see a world series game. But each year she found herself right in the middle of a picture during the series. This year she was making “Blondes At Work” at Warner Bros., the comedy now showing at the Strand Theatre. At a party one Saturday night, she was bemoaning her fate to Jimmy Harris, New York socialite. “Hey, wanna get to New York in time for the game tomorrow?” asked Harris. “I’m flying my plane back right after the party. Come along.” In less time than it takes to say “swell,” she rushed home, packed an overnight bag, met Harris at the airport, and zoomed off for New York. She arrived in ample time to see the Yankees win the series, had dinner with friends, then hopped the sleeper plane back to Hollywood. He's A Quick Sprouter Donald Briggs, appearing in Warner Bros.’ “Blondes at Work,” can raise a full grown moustache in a week, which is quite an asset to an actor when he’s called upon to portray a variety of roles. Briggs is now playing in “Blondes at Work” at the Strand Theatre.