British Intelligence (Warner Bros.) (1940)

PUBLICITY — FEATURES, THEATRE STORY, SHORTS Director of ‘British Intelligence’ Tells of Cutter-Director Feud A motion picture director has a big and complicated job, but he’s no hero to his cutter. Directors, to cutters—or, if you prefer, film editors — fall into three classes. They’re “rut ters,” “screwballs,”’ or ‘maestros.” Let Terry Morse, who directed “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. spy picture which is now playing at the Strand Theatre, elucidate. Terry knows whereof he speaks. A director now, he was a cutter not so long ago. The current film is his third, but already he has nailed down the job with a pair of fine early efforts. “The cutter thinks of directors as routine workers when they follow a dull and simple mechanical formula,’ Morse explains. “They take a long shot, move in for a medium shot, and then take close-ups of each important person in the scene, speaking all the lines he will speak while others in the scene reply from off-stage. Then the director runs a pencil across his script scene. It’s ‘in the can.’ “Actually, it is in the laps of his cutters. It is now their responsibility to select the best shots, and put them together most effectively. The result may be, despite their best efforts, pretty dull and mechanical. “The next type of director is the camera-angle-crazy type, or one who has some other hobby, usually imaginative enough but not often sound. He often leaves the poor cutter without the vital link he needs to connect sequences smoothly and give the whole thing meaning. “Finally, there’s the ‘maestro,’ beloved of cutters. Like the first-named type, he gives the film editors plenty of protection by making sure they have a variety of shots and angles covering each scene and situation. However, he doesn’t stop there. Always bearing the cutter’s needs in mind as well as all the other manifold problems of direction, he shoots from the rafters, from moving camera cranes, out of windows, from under charging horses’ hooves — imaginatively daring but always intelligent, wellthought-out schemes.” “British Intelligence,” accord ing to Morse, offers plenty of each kind. LOVELY SPY Margaret Lindsay, beauti ful cinema star, plays the role of a woman spy in "British Intelligence,” Warner Bros. timely film now playing at the Strand. Mat 206—30c ‘Hollywood Horribles’ Pain Movie Colony | By MARGARET LINDSAY (Miss Lindsay is co-featured with Boris Karloff in “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. melodrama of World War espionage which is scheduled to open today at the Strand Theatre.) Did you ever hear of the Hollywood Horribles? Well, you’re about to in the nature of a clinical report. I’m setting it down for the good of my own soul as much as anything else. After all I live and work in this town. Its exaggerated values are familiar to me. I know they are inevitable in a place where so much money can be made so quickly. Motion picture careers run to extremes. You either ride the crest of the wave or you’re bogged down entirely. While on top the profits and praise are excessive, intoxicating. Alcoholic intoxication leads to delirium tremens. The Hollywood Horribles are like that. They come from success intoxication. The symptoms are easy and painful to recognize. The first and most reliable is to find yourself believing your own publicity. Actors and actresses are fond of pretending they consider publicity a necessary evil. Actually none of us really Boris Karloff Is Rich Photographic Subject The face of Boris Karloff in make-up worn for the Warner Bros. film, “British Intelligence,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, was so attractive to photographers, for character studies, that the studio camera club requested the star to pose for members in a private gallery. Karloff complied. Some sixteen _lensers, amateur and professional, participated. In this picture he wore far less than the usual amount of character make-up. About the only typically Karloff touch was an odd scar on one side of his face. Don’t Say ‘‘Petunia’’! Bruce Lester, handsome Britisher who played opposite Margaret Lindsay in Warner Bros.’ “British Intelligence,” now running at the Strand Theatre, nearly had a fist fight on his hands the other night because he called the girl he was escorting by a pet name, “Petunia.” A tough-looking bozo at La Maze in Hollywood thought the name was intended—sarcastically—for him. Page Ten Margaret Lindsay Has Practical Exercises Margaret Lindsay, who recently completed “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. picture opening next Friday at the Strand Theatre, leads such a busy life that she can’t allow herself time for useless calisthenics, so all her exercises are constructive. She brushes her hair with exceptional vigor to develop her shoulders and gives herself biweekly pedicures for waistline bends. She practices the piano and typewriter to keep her hands flexible and graceful and gives her body oil rub-downs mainly for the twists and turns the exercise gives her. Fair Exchange Margaret Lindsay swapped help with school subjects for help in learning her dialogue for “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday. And she combined that, automatically, with a certain amount of drama _ instruction for her home-work colleagues —her sisters. The family lives together now in Beverly Hills. thinks it is evil at all unless it doesn’t suit us. It is pleasant to read things about oneself. I don’t intend to suggest that Hollywood publicity isn’t based on truth. But a great deal of it is sugar-coated truth. Screen players are salable goods just as toothpaste or canned beans. Companies with beans to sell naturally advertise their own particular brand as_ superior. It only becomes horrible when the player himself succumbs, when he loses the ability to keep a few decent reservations in his own mind about the quality of his appearance and talent. Beauty is such a fleeting condition and talent always can be equalled. Sometimes a swimming pool is a symptom. That’s when it represents a mode of living beyond income justification. If the superior feeling gets the better of one, there’s a strong temptation to give that fine person a sumptuous setting no matter what the cost. Let the future take care of itself without annuities. The present must be filled with lavish estates, motor cars, furs and jewels. A victim of the Hollywood Horribles shows off at every opportunity. Perhaps the worst symptom of the disease is the disposition to give what is quaintly called the “brush-off” to people who knew you when. Of course there are many regular, fine, pleasant people in pictures and the great majority of the people I know here are as genuine and considerate as any others, anywhere in the world. But the Horribles make the most noise and the most show in Hollywood and many people mistake their attitude for the attitude of the whole film colony. Oh, the Horribles are horrible, all right, and I hope and pray that recognition of them may help me escape. This story may not be perfect (neither is my typing), but I think it is the truth. Strand to Present ‘British Intelligence’ Timely Spy Story In keeping with its longestablished policy of bringing its patrons the timeliest films possible, the Strand Theatre is playing “British Intelligence” this week. Produced by Warner Bros., the picture tells the true inside story behind England’s famous spy-catchers, the British Intelligence Service. A film of this type is especially interesting in these days because of the wide-spread publicity attached to the Intelligence Departments of various belligerent nations. The story concerns itself with the efforts of the British Intelligence to ascertain the whereabouts of German spies operating right in the heart of London itself. Boris Karloff plays the role of a master spy and acts it to perfection. His performance is such a deceptive one that when his true affiliation is revealed at the climax of the production, not a member of the preview audience had even guessed at his nationality. Margaret Lindsay appears as a beautiful member of one of the country’s Intelligence Departments, but we'll not tell which one for fear of spoiling the suspense of the Strand feature. The high spot of the picture occurs when the city of London is bombed from the air. None of the air raid details are omitted and the screen shows raid-alarms, bomb-proof _ shelters, terror-stricken citizens and all the other thrilling details attached to an exciting scene of this sort. Directed by Terry Morse, “British Intelligence” hits a new high in achieving the maximum in timely interest. G-Man Meets Spy Margaret Lindsay and Leon G. Turrou, the G-Man who uncovered the Nazi spy ring in America, went out together “socially” recently, but it wasn’t romance. Turrou was _ helping Miss Lindsay study the fine art of espionage and was having her meet the right people to help that study along, in preparation for her part as an international spy in “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. picture opening next Friday at the Strand Theatre. BORIS KARLOFF Mat 106—15c MASTER SPY AT WORK . . . Boris Karloff, minus his horror make-up, is prying into British Cabinet secrets in this tense scene from "British Intelligence," now appearing at the Strand Theatre. The theatre management announces it booked the picture as the result of a recent poll conducted among its patrons on a list of timely subject films to be shown here. Boris Karloff Doesn't Give Kids Bad Dreams Boris Karloff’s once-burdened conscience rests easier now, he confided to eye-appealing Margaret Lindsay on the set of their Warner Bros. picture, “British Intelligence,” which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday. A fan club took a vote on reactions of some 5000 members, more or less, concerning the effect on minds of children, grown folks and grand-parents of his horror roles. Thanks to the fact that he always manages to put little touches of sympathy-provoking acting in them — some gesture such as his kindness to a small child in one of them — he doesn’t, it seems, give the youngsters bad dreams. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ When Margaret Lindsay and Boris Karloff looked one day into the same dressing table mirror at the same time on the set of “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. picture now playing at the Strand Theatre, Karloff, the screen’s number one horror man, modestly muttered: “Beauty and the beast!” Styles Not Changed, Says Miss Lindsay Margaret Lindsay wore a World-War vintage hat she was using in “British Intelligence,” while she was at luncheon one day, and a friend who stopped by the star’s table went into raptures over it. When at last she said, “Where did you buy it, Margaret — do you suppose I could get one like it?” Miss Lindsay suddenly realized the girl thought it was a modern chapeau! “British Intelligence,” a Warner Bros. spy melodrama in which Boris Karloff is co-featured with Miss Lindsay, opens next Friday at the Strand. Actress Wins Chance Maris Wrixon, new film beauty who appears with Margaret Lindsay and Boris Karloff in Warner Bros.’ “British Intelligence,” which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday, gets a chance rarely won by a newcomer. Her role gives her the most difficult acting assignment ever handed a _ young actress. Like Bette Davis in the latter part of “Juarez,” Miss Wrixon plays the part of a woman who has gone insane.