Brother Orchid (Warner Bros.) (1940)

ADVANCE PERSONALITY STORIES Ann Sothern Plays Role Robinson Of ‘Brother Orchid's' Girl Back With Blonde Bombshell Is Featured With Edward G. Robinson in Strand Film Ten years ago a very, very young and very, very obscure lady named Harriet Lake was shown the gate—the back gate— out of the Warner Bros. studio. Just recently a beautiful creature named Ann Sothern was ceremoniously ushered into the carpeted entrance of the same lot, given the keys to one of the nicest dressing rooms, and signed to the lead opposite Edward G. Robinson in “Brother Orchid,” which opens at the Strand Theatre on Friday. The connection being, of course, that Miss Sothern was— not is—Harriet Lake. What happened in between might well serve as a primer to little girls who get big ideas during their first screen contract. These, according to Miss Sothern, are some of the things that happened to Miss Lake: Perfectly convinced that she was a dramatic actress, she found that her first part called for her to join a lot of other girls in a group scene. She had simply to look sweet and beautiful. She didn’t like the idea. In fact, she pulled a display of pyrotechnics that would do full justice to any Fourth of July celebration. That’s when the gate incident occurred. Demanding real acting, she was signed by another company. They handed her a few pages of script which called for her to make a breath-taking leap from a speeding car, and land in a deep gooey mud puddle. For another picture, she got some very juicy lines in an emotional sequence. But weeks later she went to a theatre and learned that though her voice had been recorded, she’d never been photographed. Her lines had _ been dubbed into a comedy short subject about dogs, and “she” was “Mrs. Dog.” Her dismay was complete when she had to pose in beaded skirts, bathing suits and other abbreviated costumes for the publicity department’s gag's. She posed, she says, against so many Christmas trees, Easter eggs, Valentine hearts and for other assorted events and holidays that the mere sight of a calendar still induces an allergic relapse. Still Ann Sothern 20; Mat 201—30c ANN SOTHERN But if such is the fire and brimstone test of Hollywood acting apprenticeship, she finally emerged from it successfully. Not as Harriet Lake, but as Ann Sothern. A rebel with soft, wavy blonde-hair, big blue wonderful eyes, and an exceedingly disconcerting figure. A rebel, but a nice rebel. When producers persisted in casting her in one straight romantic lead after another and she found that she still had little more to do than look sweet— even though she got paid handsomely and had her name in large-size type—she started crusading again. She turned down role after role, and her spirits began to dwindle in even ratio to her credit rating with a certain Mr. Morgenthau, who has something to do with the U. S. mint. But she held out for a dramatic opportunity. She won out in “Tradewinds” as Fredric March’s cuddly, nottoo-smart sweetheart. Since then she’s had one fat part (not literally true, of course) after another. She’s very happy about the whole thing. And _ she’s forgiven Harriet Lake. After all, she learned a lot from her. Head G-Man to Get "Little Caesar's’ Rod J. Edgar Hoover, who has taken the arms away from scores of dangerous underworld figures in real life, will soon be able to add the gat of cinematic Public Enemy No. 1, Little Caesar, to his collection of famous firearms. Edward G. Robinson, who will bow out of his gangster parts immediately after his current role in “Brother Orchid” for Warner Bros., has offered the G-man chief the gun he has used in all his racketeer parts, dating from “Little Caesar.” “Brother Orchid” is the film opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. The star was once offered $250 for the revolver by a wealthy fan in the midwest, but he refused the offer—with thanks. The Mob In "Brother Orchid’ Coming to the Strand “Little Caesar” is back in action again. This time, it’s as “Brother Orchid” that Edward G. Robinson is heading the mob. Adapted from the sensational Collier’s Magazine story by Richard Connell, “Brother Orchid,” which opens at the Strand Friday, is the hilarious story of an underworld big-shot who goes gunning for culture—a tailormade role for Robinson. Members of his ‘‘mob” include the girl friend, Flo, a hat check girl in a swank night spot. She took a good tip, and before long she owned the night club. Blonde Ann Sothern plays this role. Then there’s Jack Buck—no relation to Frank. Jack always brings them back dead. He is so adept at the double-cross that he is even suspicious of himself. Buck is played by that master of menace, Humphrey Bogart. Clarence (Ralph Bellamy) is a rancher from the wide open spaces, but he gets taken for rides so often that they’re thinking of saddling him. Willie the Knife, played by Allen Jenkins, is a cute little cut-up, with a very pointed sense of humor. Other members of the cast include Donald Crisp, Charles D. Brown, Cecil Kellaway, Morgan Conway, Richard Lane, Paul Guilfoyle, John Ridgely, Joseph Crehan, Wilfred Lucas, Tom Tyler, Dick Wessell, Granville Bates, and many others. Lloyd Bacon directed the production from the screen play by Earl Baldwin, based on the Richard Connell story. Ce a ee ee BOGEY'S GAT SOUGHT AS MEMENTO! HOLLYWOOD, CAL.—A new high in souvenir hunting was reached recently when a girl member in a party of sales convention delegates visiting the Warner Bros. lot attempted to filch, of all things, the revolver Humphrey Bogart carries in “Brother Orchid.” The actor had tossed the gun on one of the canvas back chairs between scenes, and when the next take was called it was nowhere to be found. An extra tipped off the assistant director, and he quietly called the young visitor aside. She admitted she’d surreptitiously “lifted” it with the idea of taking it home back east to boast of a “real souvenir” of Hollywood, and yielded it from her handbag. Bogart Can Be Good or Bad—As Script Demands Menace of 'Brother Orchid’ Can Always Be Sure of Job Because of Versatility Actors are known as people who never agree about anything, but if there is one exception to that rule Humphrey Bogart is the man. Robinson Wins Natl. Safety Council Prize To the man with whose name millions of Americans associate danger and evil-doing goes this year’s highest award for contributions to safety among pedestrians and motorists. So proud that he button-holed everybody on the “Brother Orchid” set to talk about it, Edward G. Robinson revealed that he had just been announced the winner of the National Safety Council’s prize for the most valuable individual contribution to traffic safety. Last year’s award went to Eddie Cantor. Edward G. Robinson’s special contribution to traffic safety was a series of radio dramatizations on how many accidents may be avoided by use of caution. ORCHIDS TO EDWARD G. ROBINSON Still BO Pub M ; Mat 206—30c Pretty Marilyn Merrick of the Warner Bros. studio, pins an orchid on Edward G. Robinson, who swings into action again as “Brother Orchid” in the new film coming to the Strand. [8] It is generally agreed that he is the one actor who can always be sure of a good job. The public may change its preferences from drawing room comedy ‘to blood-and-thunder, Injun-chasin’ drammer; one year it may burnish and brighten a hero’s halo for leading men who are suave and effete, the very next it may lead them to a fate crueler than death. But Bogart doesn’t have to worry. The theory Mat 106—15c 18 quite simt ple: He just doesn’t look like an actor. He doesn’t talk like an actor. He doesn’t even dress like an actor. When the casting director wants him to be bad, he can be very, very bad, as he is in “Brother Orchid,” the picture opening at the Strand Friday. And he can instantly shed his sneer and leer and be entirely acceptable in a sympathetic part, such as his current assignment as George Raft’s brother in “They Drive By Night,” Warner Bros.’ saga of the men who pilot the gargantuan trucks over the nation’s highways by dark. He isn’t a Boris Karloff in appearance, nor, will anyone insist, has the profile of a Barrymore. He’s just—well, just Humphrey Bogart. Trends in types don’t mean a thing to him. Bogart himself accepts all this with mixed feelings. He says: “You can imagine how I feel. Always being sure of a job would be pretty easy for any actor to take. But to get in a spot like that because I don’t like an actor makes it a little tough for me. “You see, all my life I’ve wanted to be an actor—and no wisecracks about it, either, pal. You might say I got into the business through the back door; I was a stagehand for William A. Brady and watching the players go out in front of the footlights performance after performance represented something of a dream world to me. Maybe I don’t look like the kind of guy who dreams, but I do. “When I got on the stage, I was happy about the whole thing. And now that I’m in Hollywood, I feel the same way. I like being an actor and I don’t want to be anything else. “Other actors become yachtsmen, or they own a big ranch with miles of orange trees. Or they have race horses. “That’s not for me. I never even owned a rowboat. All I know about horses I learned on a merry-go-round. “It’s like I tell my wife. Sometimes I think people just don’t understand me,” he says. Humphrey Bogar