Brother Rat (Warner Bros.) (1938)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY Mat 212—30c¢ THAT LANE GIRL'S HERE AGAIN—Blonde and blithesome Priscilla Lane is the sweetheart of V.M.I. in "Brother Rat," the strictly-for-laughs comedy, based on the recent Broadway hit, and coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Priscilla Lane Has Quick Rise to Fame and Fortune Just about a year ago Priscilla Lane, the youngest of five Mullican sisters, formerly of Indianola, Iowa, made her first bow on the screen. She was a tap dancer and she sang a few songs and was cute and pretty, just as she had been during several years of stage and radio work with Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians., Priscilla was 14 when Waring heard her sing with her sister Rosemary in the offices of a New York music publishing firm and offered them both a job. She is 21 now and during the past year has cut her wisdom teeth, physically as well as professionally. After her first screen appearance as a dancer in “Varsity Show,” for which she went to Hollywood with Waring’s band, Warner Bros. signed both Rosemary and Priscilla to long term contracts. Priscilla has progressed to comedy leads and, more recently, to straight dramatic roles. Her work in the picture “Four Daughters” is her best to date and critics all over the world have hailed her as a full fledged star on the basis of her work in it. She has gone from “taps to tears” in one short year. The tears have been seen recently in the picture “Four Daughters” in which two other Lane girls and an outsider, Gale Page, play the title roles with her. The tears were real. Priscilla “talks herself into them.” Perhaps she remembers some childhood tragedy, such as the burial of her favorite cat or of the sad plight of Little Eva in the tent showing of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in Indianola. In any event the tears come and that is no small accomplishment in any actress. Even more difficult was the situation she faced in her latest picture, “Brother Rat,’”’ soon to show at the Strand Theatre. In that she plays the romantic lead opposite Wayne Morris, the young man she once seemed destined to marry. There were many love scenes, long and involved ones that required many kisses and much apparently honest lovemaking. People on the set, watching the girl and the boy in those scenes, thought that a reconciliation might result. They didn't know that Priscilla was only proving —to herself as well as to the others—what a good trouper she could be. Priscilla is the baby Lane, the blonde Lane and the battling Lane when her usual cheerful calm is too much ruffled. She lives with her mother — who has taken the name of Lane also — and Rosemary in a house surrounded by a white fence which she helped to paint. Her father, formerly a dentist in Indianola, died within the year that Priscilla made her bid for fame. To a great extent Priscilla has trained herself since coming to Hollywood, fitting herself for dramatic roles by a close study of others on the screen. “As soon as I got over the first excitement of Hollywood I realized that to stay here one really has to work. “T want to stay. I’m working.” With young love out of the way, temporarily at least, Priscilla seems destined to out-distance all her sisters in her screen career. But she still finds time to enjoy life, to raise cats and rabbits and tomatoes. She eats what she pleases, never worrying about diets or stomach-aches. She is a healthy young animal who scarcely knows what it is to be sick or tired. She makes screen love like a veteran. She rides a horse like a professional cowgirl. She cooks just as one would expect, which is very badly. She’ll make a fine and talented wife for someone, some day, but just now she is more interested in her carrer. No one can blame her. It’s one of the most promising in Hollywood. Trained On Air Exemplifying the importance which radio has achieved as a training school for screen talent, three former favorites of the air lanes are appearing together in the cast of Warner’ Bros.’ “Brother Rat,” the comedy which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. They’re Priscilla Lane, who has the romantic lead opposite Wayne Morris in the picture, Johnnie “Scat” Davis, Ronald Reagan and Eddie Albert. "TWAS JUST A HOLLYWOOD HOAX For ten terrible minutes recently, Priscilla Lane was afraid she’d poisoned Wayne Morris, Director William Keighley and other members of Warner Bros. “Brother Rat” company. This is the comedy that opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. Miss Lane brought an angel food cake to the set. She baked it herself on a dare and it was her very first effort. It looked good and she was proud of it. Morris ate a large slice. So did Keighley and Ronald Reagan. Five minutes later, they were writhing in agony. So well did they play their roles that Miss Lane was frantically urging the assistant director to call a doctor before she discovered that she had been made the victim of an elaborate hoax. Mat 107—15c THE PRANKS ARE COMING — and (top to bottom) Wayne Morris, Priscilla Lane and Johnny Davis are the guys and gal who bring them in "Brother Rat,'' the love and laugh hit coming to the Strand Friday. Love, Love And Love Three romantic teams, instead of the customary one, provide the love interest in the Warner Bros. comedy, “Brother Rat,” which comes to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Wayne Morris and Priscilla Lane, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman and Eddie Albert and Jane Bryan are the picture’s triple heart threat. Morris and Miss Lane comprise the number one team but they get keen competition from the other two combinations. The Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Va., is the locale of the triple romance. Has Lucky Bean Eddie Albert, who is playing his original Broadway stage role in Warner Bros. “Brother Rat,” wears his hair cut short in Dutch pompadour style. Everyone in the cast rubs his head for luck. The show opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. (12) Wayne Morris Has His Own Plan for Social Security Wayne Morris of the films is just entering the third year phase of a five-year plan. Morris evolved the rough outlines of the plan immediately after he was first signed to a screen acting contract by Warner Bros. He has since filled in the details, realized some of the objectives, and decided definitely upon the remaining goals. In its original form, the plan called for attainment of reasonable financial security, steady progress as an actor, and a long range program of preparation for the future. At the end of two years, Wayne finds his financial program ahead of expectations. He has just paid off one $10,000 annuity and is carrying four more of equal value. Before he decided to become an actor, Morris did considerable haphazard adventuring and dabbled in a wide variety of activities. He served a hitch on an ocean liner as a waiter. He worked as forest ranger, ice man and apple picker. He also took intensive courses at a Citizen’s Military Camp from which he emerged with a second lieutenant’s commission in the reserve but with no hankering for an active army career. That aimless knocking about taught him the need of objective planning. At 20, he wanted to settle on a profession and prepare himself for it. He was still groping a bit when he began to study at the Pasadena Community School of the Theatre. After he had got a taste of acting he knew where he meant his future to lie. And when the road to opportunity in pictures opened with the Warner Bros. contract, he charted his course with all the care that an engineer employs in surveying a highway. For example, he wanted that role of the young fighter in “Kid Galahad” as he had never before coveted anything. He took boxing lessons from professionals and haunted sets where more experienced players were working, studying their acting technique. When he was given the minor role of a fighter in another picture he strained every nerve to make a good impression. Maybe it would lead to the big chance in “Kid Galahad.” It did. Morris wanted his present role of Billy Randolph in “Brother Rat” just as badly. He brushed up on his military technique, because Billy Randolph is a Virginia Military Institute cadet. He also got a copy of the play and studied Billy Randolph until he knew him better than a roommate could. Then he asked for the part, and got it. He will be seen in it at the Strand Theatre next Friday. Because he masks his seriousness with an ever ready smile and the exhuberant enthusiasm of youth it isn’t apparent to the casual observer. First impressions of the lad are apt to be that of a big, good-looking, happy kid who gets such a kick out of today that he couldn’t spare a thought for tomorrow. The happy kid impression is correct. But Morris is also a kid who knows where he is going and how to get there. > Military Advice Acting on assignment of Major General Charles E. Kilbourne, Superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, First Lieutenant Frank McCarthy served as technical advisor for the Warner Bros. production of “Brother Rat.” This romantic comedy, featuring a cast headed by Wayne Morris and Priscilla Lane, deals with cadet life at the famed Southern military school. It opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. McCarthy, was a graduate of V.M.I.in 1933. Mat 203—30c HE'S A BROTHER RAT NOW—Wayne Morris, Hollywood's one-man success story, is a one-man army in “Brother Rat,'' the military school comedy that had Broadway in stitches for two years, coming to the Strand on Friday.