Captured! (Warner Bros.) (1933)

CURRENT FEATURES Screen Acting as Exciting as War, Says Leslie Howard Noted English Star of ‘‘Captured” Has Tried Both And Is Therefore a Competent Judge KING an actor is the most exciting business in the world— except going to war. Leslie Howard—warrior at a time when every able-bodied Englishman was in the world war, and brilliantly successful actor ever since—is responsible for that statement. Unorthodx as it may appear to some, even those who are startled by it are not likely to question Howard’s qualifications to speak on both lines of human endeavor. He stills looks every inch a soldier in the British captain’s uniform he wears throughout the Warner Bros. production, ‘‘ Captured! ’’ which opens at the Theatre on Geese te asthe Face So smartly soldierlike in his appearance that it is difficult for one to believe that fifteen years have elapsed since he was mustered out of service. Perhaps it is the quiet alertness of Leslie Howard’s manner, a concealed agility of mind and body that is ready to function whenever any emergency, however sudden, requires it, that gives him the air of being ‘‘on duty’’ when he’s engaged in the making of ‘a picture. Perhaps, too, fifteen years of ‘‘campaigning’’ as an actor during some of the stormiest, as well as some of the most prosperous years the stage and screen have seen, have taught him that peace has its victories, no less than war. ‘‘T can’t think of anything more ‘exciting than trying to be an actor,’’ he remarked as he watched some of ___is fellow-players go through a seene in rehearsal under the keen eye of Director Roy Del Ruth. ‘‘And 1 can’t imagine anything more hazardous than attempting to be a successful one. Not even war is any more 80. _“*To be sure, your life isn’t in yeopardy, but everything else you are and have is, every time you open in =ssemnew show. And that’s the stimulat ing part of it. You never know whether the critics and the public, between them, are going to leave enough of you to be identified, or whether you’re going to be hailed as the new sensation of the season.’’ | Bank Clerk Before War | Before the war, had been a_ bank ‘already become dull and irksome when the LEuropean conflagration came along to provide a welcome escape for restless youngsters. Howard got into the fracas with enthusiasm, and came out of it with a distinct antipathy to anything like the drab and humdrum routine of business. Having escaped from the battlefields with his life, he had no desire to be bored to death peacefully. During his school and college days, he had dabbled with typical undergraduate earnestness in amateur theatricals. At that time he had not taken himself seriously as an actor. Nor, apparently, had anyone else. Now, however, the stage made a definite appeal to him. In the life behind the footlights, in the exacting requirements of an art in which he felt a new, mature interest stirring within him, he saw the refuge from the miserable restlessness that afflicted so many of his comrades. It was the only form of activity that elated him. In a world where so many things that human beings do had come to seem insignificant and unimportant, the stage was emphatically worth while. He felt as if he could count for something there. Presently Leslie Howard became a familiar figure in the theatrical agencies of the London West End. His first experience came with a _ provincial company playing ‘‘Peg O’ My Heart.’’ Leslie’s role was one of the least. But it was a beginning. Gradually other more important parts came his way. There were setbacks, disappointments, periods of uneventful waiting mingled with spurts of success. Finally the definite personality and ability that Leslie Howard had always possessed brought him its le young Howard clerk. It had gitimate reward. By the time he came to America, he was an accepted figure on the London stage. ‘“Topsy-Turvy’’ and ‘‘Mr, Pim Passes By’’ served as his introduction to New Pork theatre-goers, and they found the quiet, bland, smiling self-possession of Mr. Howard novel and invigorating. They liked him equally in ‘‘The Truth About Blayd’s,’’?’ from the pen of A. A. Milne. When, a few seasons later, he appeared with Cyril Maude in Frederick Lonsdale’s ‘‘Aren’t We All?’’ it seemed as if New Yorkers would never tire of going to the show. It ran well into the second season and Howard’s reputation was secure. Followed such signal successes as ‘“The Green Hat,’’ ‘* The Romantic Age,’’ ‘*Outward Bound,’’ ‘‘Her Cardboard Lover,’’ ‘‘Escape’’ and ‘“Berkeley Square. ’’ By the time the _popularity of ‘Outward Bound’’ became an acknowledged fact, the motion picture studios began to discover Leslie Howard. Warner Bros.-First National Studios bought the rights to the play, and engaged Howard to repeat the role he had made famous on the stage. Any continuity of appearance behind the footlights was impossible for the brilliant British actor from that time on. The studios clamored for him with an insistence not to be denied. In such productions as ‘‘A Free Soul,’’? ‘‘Five and Ten,’ “‘Animal Kingdom,’’ ‘‘Smilin’ Through,’’ ‘‘Devotion’’ and ‘‘Se erets,’’ he has added to his following with each succeeding picture. As Captain Allison in ‘‘ Captured! ’’ a tremendous drama laid in the German prison camps during the war, Leslie Howard shares leading honors with Paul Lukas and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The picture is based upon Sir Philip Gibbs’ famous novel, ‘“Fellow Prisoners.’’ Other important members of the exceptionally large cast are Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hohl, Robert Barrat, Frank Reicher, Joyce Coad, John Bleifer, Philip Faversham, William Le Maire, J. Carroll Naish and Reginald Pasch. Roy Del Ruth directed the production. FASCINATING ENGLISH STAR uoSLit HOWARD, popular young idol of stage and screen, plays his most powerful role as a British Victoria Cross officer in “Captured” which will open at the Cut No.15 Cut 30c Theatre on Mat 10¢ U. S. Supplied 9 Bombing Planes Used in ‘Captured!’ Army Pilots Guided the Ships For Climactic Sequence in Leslie Howard’s Movie Drama EADEN-GRAY skiesand a raw April wind, blowing stiffly from the Pacific, could not lesson the vivid realism of the spectacle at the big Metropolitan airport during the making of ‘‘Captured!’’ the Warner Bros. drama of the German prison camps, during the war, now at the Theatre, whén hundreds of allied prisoners swarmed in an irresistible flood over the field, stormed the big bombing planes of the Boches, and made their triumphant escape into the west. It was the climax of a drama that, in its earlier sequences, was already crammed with powerful action. Nine giant United States army bombers had flown in at dawn from March Field, seventy miles away, to take part in the big spectacle, by Special arrangement with «government authorities. Nothing could have been more stirring than the sight of the nine huge ships, at rest in front of the big hangers, their enormous ochrecolored wings like those of birds poised for instant flight. 5 Camera Crews Used | A score of huge searchlight ares played upon them from outside the camera lines. Five camera crews at different vantage points made ready to record the capture of the planes from every angle. Some were set up on the ground. Others flanked the big ships, training down upon the scene from high parallels. A hundred yards away, two hundred or more players, in the motley uniforms of the different allied forces, waited in a packed throng, with clubs, and stones, in hand, to go into action. At_.the microphone of a loud speaker, the assistant director was giving final instructions to his farflung lines of players scattered across the field. Beneath and around the planes, forty or fifty other men, in the uniform of German aviators and mechanics, waited for the onslaught of the escaped prisoners. Tirelessly hurrying from one camera to another, Director Roy Del Ruth scanned every angle through the finder himself before giving the final orders to his assistants. “Start your propellers!” came the booming command from the loud speaker. An answering roar from eighteen motors drowned out every other sound. The din swelled to an ominous symphony. Del Ruth raised his hand, and the slate boys ran out in front of the cameras, holding up their boards for the beginning of the take. In another second they were scurrying to cover, as a shot from a sideline pistol rang out—the only sound that could be heard above the roar of the aeroplane motor chorus—and the human flood surged over the field. In the twinkling of an eye a score of hand-to-hand combats were in progress in the shadow of the big planes. The gray blue of the poilus contrasted vividly with the khaki of the British prisoners and the olive drab of the Americans, sharply set off against the sombre uniforms of the Boches. Under the low-ceilinged clouds that cast an ashen light over the field, the scene looked like a conception by Dore. The nearer the men approached the planes, the more they mingled with them, the more insignificant they appeared. It seemed like a swarm of pygmies overwhelming a group of giants, an army of Lilliputians capturing nine Gullivers of wood and metal. In the cockpit of the planes, invisible to everyone, crouched the real masters of the monarchs of the air—the army daredevils to whom these roaring monsters were mere playthings. As the survivors of the terrific battle swarmed up into the planes, and each of the nine air cruisers was loaded to capacity, they soared into the air one by one—an overwhelming climax to a stirring scene. | Not a War Film | = That was the of, their sear day’s shooting—the making of the master scene. The following hours ~ were spent in repeating details of the action at close range, until every important phase of the entire se quence had been photographed. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in the drama of “Captured!” the ringleader and engineer of the escape from the prison camp, led the charge of the escaped men upon the airdrome. Doug. Junior shares the principal honors of the picture with Leslie Howard, who has the role of Captain Allison, Fairbanks’ college chum and closest friend. Other important members of the large and talented cast of players are Paul Lukas, Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hohl, Robert Barrat, John Bleifer, Frank Reicher, Joyce Coad, J. Carroll Naish and Reginald Pasch. “Captured!” is based upon Sir Philip Bibbs’ famous novel, “Fellow Prisoners” and was adapted for the screen by Edward Chodorov. While practically all the action takes place in a German prison camp, it is not strictly a war picture. It is rather a most unusually stirring story of two close friends who loved the same girl. True Spirit of Potsdam Is Captured for Screen Drama How, and Why, the Authentic Flavor of Prussian Militarism Was Injected Into Warner Bros. “Captured !”’ All things come to Hollywood sooner or later—even the spirit of Potsdam. That spirit, which seems to conjure up the ghosts of Frederick the Great, Steuben, Moltke and all the other drillmasters of the Fatherland, made its appearance at the Warner studios recently during the filming of “Captured!” in which Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. will be seen in the two principal roles. Most of the scenes of “Captured!” which is now being shown at the Theatre, and which is based on the story by Sir Philip Gibbs, the eminent English publicist and erstwhile war correspondent, are laid in a German prison camp during the late unpleasantness. The Messrs. Howard and Fairbanks both are cast as English officers who find themselves in this not very happy environment. With the praiseworthy desire to be accurate in all things which is characteristic of Hollywood nowadays, the studios looked about for an expert on the details of German military procedure as it existed when the “Kaiser’s coolies” were fighting against a world in arms. Naturally they found their expert, for Hollywood contains all the elements of omniscience. In this case the Man Who Knew was Curt Rehfeld, who is a German by birth and a former soldier of the Reich. Years ago he assisted D. W. Griffith in a similar capacity when “Hearts of the World” was in the making. Rehfeld’s hobby is Prussian military history. Roy Del Ruth, who was directing “Captured!” made Rehfeld an assistant director. Promptly he put the German extra players who were to play the prison guards under military discipline. Daily they went through a manual of arms that would have done credit to Jomini or Clausewitz. The Rehfeld regime was goodnatured but inexorable in its insistence on precision. Some of the extras had served in the German Army during the war, and they grinned reminiscently as MRehfeld’s commands, barked out in the most authentic manner, rang across Sound Stage No. 1, where the prison camp was built. In addition to his labors with the extras Rehfeld went over the script of the screen-play very carefully for errors of speech or action, and coached Paul Lukas, Frank Reicher, Robert Barrat and others who played German officers, in every phase of military procedure affecting ‘the parts that they had to portray. In particular there is a court-martial scene on whose accuracy he prides himself, now that it is finished. “Captured!” is coming to Broadway soon. It has a predominantly masculine cast, but there is a heroine in the person of Margaret Lindsay and another girl played by Joyce Coad. Philip Faversham, son of William Faversham, is one of the captured English prisoners of the story. Page Seven