China Clipper (Warner Bros.) (1936)

ERSSam mame sa8Gangmasen saan gitestnent? = 55 08 SS 9 2 BR me oe RRISS Semis G8 RB 5B RR GR oan an ss om ak NEWS FEATURES sezeasrasage seamen aes g saguatusecdaunsatz: one Boe 8 3 aus era Snag gensee mee Pett btebat asbeas sethstgarstitteenssctstanss auges Su eHausnracerecsnscsae BB ELE oy, nea oe Ba Did] Re eee mae meee umagaeee Sass Beverly Roberts Wants To Be A Slinking Siren But Leading Woman In “China Clipper’ Is Doomed To Be A Heroine Around the First National lot they call her ‘ She’s just the type you would expect ‘ a . “77 9 some looking girl. ‘that whole to see indorsing Popped Branies or Super-Puffed Oats in the Sunday newspaper supplements. Her cheeks have natural color at all times and she is inclined to be a trifle plumpish when she is not working on a picture and disregards her regular diet for a while. She has an eternal bright smile and golden hair that is eut along the boyish line. No wonder they call her ‘wholesome. ’?’ And yet Beverly Roberts would rather be anything than wholesome. She gave her views on this subject during the filming of scenes for the First National air look in New York theatres and cabarets and in London and Parisian night clubs, I don’t know. But it has been the bane of my existence ever since! ’’ Beverly has tried all known methods of breaking away from her type. She has kept late hours at parties when not working on a sates caueanscncs® Pat O’Brien eaeuoae 5 ss suaceuasaaee ‘*The Green Pastures ’”’ Got O’Brien First Film Job Star Of “China Clipper”? Called To Hollywood When Almost Starved 29 The stage play of ‘“‘The Green Pastures’’ saved the life of an actor who is now working at the First National studios where Mare Connelly’s great hit was filmed. The actor is Pat O’Brien. He told the story for the first time on the set during the filming of the picture. One of those miniature life dramas of tangled fates O. Henry loved, it could only have happened where it did, on Broadway, New York. O’Brien had nothing to do with the picture, ‘‘The Green Pastures,’’ filmed with an all-colored cast, headed by Rex Ingram as ‘‘De Lawd.’’ In fact, while it was in the making the busy Irish star appeared in two or three other productions. concerned. The meeting left no impression on me; I don’t think we exchanged any more words than ‘ Hello.’ ‘‘Then my play closed, and things got tough. I was living in $7-a-week quarters and got behind on even that rent. Before long Nor had he anything to do with I was hungry. It was winter, cold ‘Her ‘*China. Clinver”’ ic ; A : ee ae Clipper ware picture. She has smoked countless the drama when it was playing and miserable, and not a spot in comes TO THE ....-.. ees eatre cigarettes and has avoided exerin New York. But because the a show for me. The great disOM eee ee eeeeeretreees . cise which might tend to bring appointment of apparent failure, Beverly, it seems, wants to be a slinking, snake-like siren so popular with movie audiences a decade or so ago. She wants to steal men away from other women, trifle with their affections, or ruin a kingdom or two by toying with its diplomats. Instead, she is always cast as the little girl from back home, with rosy cheeks and heart of 24karat who finally makes the leading man realize that virtue is its own reward. ‘And it’s all because I look so wholesome,’’ bewails Beverly. ‘‘Never in my life have I had a chance to acquire the meaning of that dreaded word. I have been cooped up in night clubs and in stuffy apartments all my life. How I got that ‘‘wholesome’’ out the bloom in her cheeks. The next morning she always wakes up refreshed and looking like the young ladies in the complexion advertisements. ‘*T guess I’ll just go on being wholesome,’’ she says, sadly. ‘<T’d like to trade places with some other actress who needs a little of it, though. And that’s a standing offer!’’ ‘¢China Clipper’’ is a smashing drama of intercontinental air service. Besides Miss Roberts, the cast includes Pat O’Brien, Ross Alexander, Humphrey Bogart, Marie Wilson and Henry B. Walthall. : The picture was directed by Raymond Enright from the screen play by Frank Wead. Slang Progresses In Film To Cover 10 Year Period Many Phrases Leom In Opening Of “China Clipper’ > Out Of Date At End Slane changes a lot over a period of ten years. Take it from the actors playing in the First National production, Star of last season’s smash air thriller, ‘‘ Ceiling Zero,’’ he’s back QL-UNE: ot ee Theatre in First National’s ‘‘China Clipper,’’ a heart-pounding drama that shows to what heroic heights man’s courage could soar. Beverly Roberts is his leading lady. Mat No. 108—10c Two Knockouts Feature Short Screen Battle Pat O’Brien and Humphrey Bogart share honors as being the headliners in one of the shortest, but fiercest screen fights in motion picture history. The fight was perfect because each man won. It was short because there were only two punches delivered during the whole affair. The ‘fight was filmed for a sequence in “China Clipper,” First National’s screen picturization of the establishing of the transPacific airline, which comes to thes. iia Theatre ON esos Before the was m h ‘‘China Clipper,’’ which comes to the .............0..0.0.Theatre id scene was made, there was much discussion between the Ol a en ed . ‘isis? aad aeatoe spaked The story of ‘China Clipper’’ bergh made his famous solo flight across the Atlantic. that time on, the picture traces the history of aviation through the years up until the present time of the world famous Clipper Ship. Just as time marches on, so does the accompanying slang of the day. The exclamation ‘‘ Hot Dog!’’ was entirely in order in 1926. It is now as obsolete as a hatpin in a lady’s budoir. You can say ‘‘Some fun, eh kid?’’? today, but you probably wouldn’t have said it in 1926. It hadn’t been discovered as a snappy retort in those days. Sorting out the right slang phrases for use by members of the cast of ‘‘China Clipper’’ was no easy matter. The stript writers and the dialogue director had to depend mostly on the memories of those around the set to supply the correct styles of slang in the right sequences of the picture. They found that ‘‘Whoopee,’’ an exclamation donating great joy, came along about 1928, as did ‘Hot Stuff’? as a term for a young lady with plenty of sex appeal. Both of these phrases have now passed more or less out of the limelight. A ‘‘Lounge Lizard’? was a pop Page Twenty-four begins at the time LindFrom ular slang synonym for a young man addicted to the ladies in 1926 and up to 1933. Equally popular as a similar term was “‘Drug Store Cowboy.’’ Such men are still around, but the terms have faded out of public speech. ‘¢Oh you kid,’’ the stock call of the boys who hung out in front | of the pool emporium, passed from the public tongue quite a bit before 1926. But in 1932 you could say ‘‘You wouldn’t kid me, would you?’’ It was quite the rage then. ‘‘Nuts’’ or ‘‘Nertz,’’ spell it any way you like, came into popularity as a big time slang expression about 1931. Yes, it’s used in ‘‘China Clhipper!’’ The picture is a thrilling romance of the air, packed with dynamic action. The cast includes Pat O’Brien, Beverly Roberts, Ross Alexander, Humphrey Bogart, Marie Wilson and Henry B. Walthall. Raymond Enright directed the production from the screen play by Frank Wead, Enright as to the best method of staging the affair. The script merely called for the fight to be filmed according to the discretion of the director. Tt was O’Brien who finally won them over to his idea of a good fight. “There’s nothing like one terrific punch from each man to begin and finish a fight,” said Pat. “This idea of knocking each other around and over tables for twenty minutes at a time is sensational enough, but it doesn’t ring true. Most real fights that I have seen ended with one or two good punches.” No one accused O’Brien of wanting to get out of some extra work, The actor has been in too many exciting screen battles during his career. When the scene began, Humphrey Bogart swung a blow at Pat and knocked him to the floor. Pat rubbed his chin, got up, and retaliated with a similar blow which knocked Bogart out. “China Clipper” is a thrilling romance of the air. There is a talented cast which, besides O’Brien and Bogart, includes Beverly Roberts, Ross Alexander, Marie Wilson, Henry B. Walthall, Joseph Crehan, Joseph King and Addison Richards. play happened to be showing directly across the street from the theatre in which Pat at the time was appearing in ‘‘The Up and Up,’’ the negro play had plenty to do with him. *“T’d landed on Broadway after a struggle that still wearies me when I think of it, and times of hunger that still quicken my appetite,’’ O’Brien explained. ‘““To my utter bewilderment, ‘However, our play seemed to be one night, my landlady told me doing all right and eritics liked there was a long distance call for me in it. I thought I was set. me from Hollywood. It was How ‘¢One night Lewis Milstone, the ard Hughes, the young millionaire film director, dropped in_backproducer, on the wire. He wanted stage. He’d caught our show pureme to come to Hollywood to play ly by chance, he said. It seemed ‘Hildy Johnson’ in ‘The Front he’d taken a party of movie folks Page.’ Lewis Milstone had _ reeto see ‘The Green Pastures’ across ommended me, purely as a result the street. Because Milestone had of taking his party to ‘The Green already seen that show twice, he Pastures,’ and to while away the was merely killing time at our play time, catching my show across the until his guests would come out. street.’’ ‘That was the end of that, so “The Front Page’’ was far as anything immediate was O’Brien’s first picture. after I thought I’d gotten somewhere at last, was pretty bitter. ‘“Tt looked to me like the end. No gun or pistol or poison, you understand, but just another actor found dead in a snowdrift struggling on foot back to his dingy quarters after the weary round looking for something.’’ Scanning The Skies Pat O’Brien, star of First National’s ‘‘China Clipper’’ and his leading lady, lovely "Beverly Roberts, look aloft in a scene from this famous drama now at the ....c..ck ee Theatre about America’s new monster monarch of the air that blazed a thundering trail of thrills across the Pacific Ocean. Mat No, 207—20e