Chain Lightning (Warner Bros.) (1950)

“Chain Lightning” 10 HUMPHREY BOGART co-stars with Eleanor Parker in Warner Bros.’ “Chain Lightning," drama of the jet planes. Still HB-395 Mat 722-2D Whorf Proves Versatile The multi-talented Richard Whorf says that he’s really an awful ham. “Tf I weren’t,” he declared, “T’d be happy just directing other hams, but every so often I can’t restrain myself any longer and I’ve got to get in front of a camera.” This is quite a treat for followers of the picture drama who know a good actor when they see one, but something of a trying experience for Whorf’s co-actors, who discover that his great vitality and blithe spirit are exhausting off screen and plain old scene-stealing on screen. Whorf is acting again for the first time in many months at Warner Bros., where he is giving Humphrey Bogart some stiff competition in “Chain Lightning,’’ which comes to the............ Theatre on ......... Not so long ago, he was producing, directing and starring in a New York stage version of “Richard III,” and a few months before that, he was directing a film at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In between times, he designs stage scenery and is a painter of more than passing merit. Along with Bogart, Whorf is faced with some wise veterans of the stage and screen in the presence of Raymond Massey and Morris Ankrum. They are a stimulating challenge to Whorf, who functions best when he has competition. When asked about future plans he said, “Well, I’m going to New York to see about taking out a roadshow company of ‘Richard III.’ I’m also scheduled for a television show, and I want to run over to Italy to make a picture. I’ve got a good offer for a lead opposite a beautiful film star, and then I may do the Martha Raye musical show which opens on Broadway later.” “Busy little man” was the only comment Bogart could muster up in answer to those plans. ELEANOR PARKER feigns disinterest as Humphrey Bogart receives instructions for testing the jet plane in ‘Chain Lightning,’ Warner Bros.’ action drama due See eee atithee =. Still 722-8 up 2c Theatre. Mat 722-2B THE SCREEN’S FIRST STORY of the JET PLANES (LEAD STORY) ) ‘Chain Lightning’ In, Has Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart, one of the most popular action stars in the Hollywood firmament, comes COM cette: Theatre audiences Of ease in the made-to-order, right up-to-the-minute action story of the year—Warner Bros.’ “Chain Lightning.” A powerful yarn using jetpropelled planes as a background, “Chain Lightning” shows Bogart as a test pilot for the hot jobs and marks the first feature picture of such proportions to let the public in on the latest thing in aviation. Providing the love interest is the beautiful Eleanor Parker who made such a hit in “The Voice of the Turtle” two years ago, then calmly took off for Europe for one year and then took another year to have a baby, while the fan clubs and fans howled for more of La Parker. Miss Parker early in the story plays a Red Cross girl in Eng land who meets the intrepid Army pilot played by Bogart. When after the war his talents are needed to test the fastest type of fighter plane devised by man, it is she who brings Bogey back to his first love — and how he flies them provides for some of the greatest film action ever seen, according to advanee reports. In such a story, the talents of Humphrey Bogart whose fans know him as a rough (but they love it) handler of women as well as men or machines, are ready-made and “Chain Lightning” has been spared nothing by Warner Bros. to make it one of the top action stories of the year. Two top stage performers fill feature roles in “Chain Lightning’ — Raymond Massey and Richard Whorf, with Stuart Heisler directing, local fans are headed for a strong evening’s entertainment. BEING NEW POP MAKES BOGART WARY OF COLDS Recently on the set of Warner Bros.’ new air-minded wmelodrama, “Chain Lightning,” Humphrey Bogart kept a first aid man standing by with a spray gun filled with some concoction presumed to be good for a sore throat and threatening cold. Bogart, ordinarily an especially healthy individual, had never been known to capitulate so completely to the mere threat of the sniffles. Those who worked with Bogey on the set of “Chain Lightning” understood, however. He didn’t want to take the cold, or the sniffles or the sore throat home to little Stephen Humphrey Bogart, his quite new son and heir. So all day Bogey was doused with medicines. Next day, reporting at a later hour than usual because of a late call, he was, quite obviously, no better. His nose was threatening to run, his voice was husky and his throat was still sore. And Bogart was most unhappy. “My wife won’t let me near the little rascal,” he gloomed to Raymond Massey and Richard Whorf on the set. “You’d think I had smallpox or something. But I suppose she’s right. How long does a Spring cold last, anyhow?” To which question Humphrey Bogart received half a dozen different answers, none of which seemed to make him any more contented with his state. In “Chain Lightning” which comes:to the .20.....0...4.3. screen CO ee oS oe oe , Bogey plays a rugged jet plane test pilot. Massey Monopoly Raymond Massey made a quick trip to New York recently to help his wife, Dorothy, move into the Lawrence Tibbett house in Connecticut which the Masseys recently bought. The Connecticut house is the fourth home for the Masseys. They own a house on East 80th, New York; one in Beverly Hills and one in Florida. HUMPHREY BOGART Still HB-372 Mat 722-1C Jet Kicks Like Mule, Says Bogey Humphrey Bogart, involved with a “detachable, jet-propelled pod” in Warner Bros.’ “Chain Lightning,” the picture in which he plays the role of a jet pilot, told reporters that he is not as inexperienced in such matters as is generally supposed. When Bogart came to Hollywood to try his luck in motion pictures the first time, he was put on a horse and told to ride out of the scene. The horse started and then stopped, but Bogart kept on going, into the bushes. He dusted himself off and caught the next train back to New York and his customary stage work. It was several years before he tried his luck again. “Leaving an apparently firm foundation such as a horse, unexpectedly and suddenly, is a nerve shattering business,” Bogart explains. “The ‘pod,’ so called in ‘Chain Lightning,’ would be even more so. I don’t know how fast that horse that tossed me was going but it must have been considerably less than eleven hundred miles an hour. “That’s the calculated speed of the plane when the ‘pod’ is released.”