Daughters Courageous (Warner Bros.) (1939)

CURRENT PUBLICITY for “DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS” Mat 209—30ce Jeffrey Lynn and Priscilla Lane ride the ups and downs of romance in "Daughters Courageous,’ the Strand's current screen hit. HOW BOY LOSES GIRL! In a scene of “Daughters Courageous,”’ the Warner Bros. domestic comedy which is now showing at the Strand Theatre, Jeffrey Lynn gives a good demonstration of how boy loses girl. Jeff is a young playwright who has been having second act trouble. Priscilla Lane is the half-worshipful little blonde who thinks him a genius. Jeff gets Priscilla alone in the garden, and says, “Listen. I’m going to tell you something. Hear me clear through, please. Don’t interrupt—not once.” Priscilla, her eyes large, listens: “This isn’t easy to say. I love you. The things no one else sees in you will always be vivid to me. The way you smile at me without anyone in the room being aware of it, just you and I. The way you can pour your soul out without saying a word. I, who can’t remember the day of the week, will never forget the smallest detail of your face, the position of the tiniest freckle—now, you know the way I feel, you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to say anything. I’ve only told you this because in a little while, I’m going away. And the knowledge of how much 1 love you is something I want you to share.” As Jeff’s voice dies away, it is plain that Pat is deeply affected. She says, in a low voice, “Why Johnny (Jeff’s name in his role is Johnny Heming)—so help me —I’m touched.” At this, Lynn perks up and asks, “Are you really?” Then he takes out a notebook, writes in it with a pencil, and comments, “Well, I guess it?! play. That’s just what the sec ond act needs. You don’t mind if I use that ‘So help me, I’m touched.’ It’s just the right answer for Mary to make in the play. You see, Mary isn’t quite bright, and—” But Priscilla has already torn the page into pieces. Keeping Family Peace Easy For McHugh As a young father, who is interested in the problem of all young fathers, Frank McHugh feels it is his duty to let the rest of them into the secret of handling the kids while their mother is away on a vacation. McHugh’s system is simple. When Peter, 9, gets to demanding a bicycle, and Susan, 6, clamors for a pony, and Michael, 3, sa thinks life would be incomplete without an airdale dog, Frank always suggests walking down to the corner £) O7mesaxms 1c) e cream cone. It almost always works. And when it doesn’t, Frank has an ace up his sleeve. He takes the youngsters on a trip to the zoo. It’s guaranteed to work, the actor asserts with any set of youngsters. All else the father needs do is lay off work while his wife is out of town, which is what Frank did for several weeks after finishing his role in “Daughters Courageous.” FRANK McHUGH (Mat 103—15c) ES Mat 202—30c ALL WRAPPED UP in flowers and femmes! Frank McHugh and Lola and Rose mary Lane, in a scene from “Daughters Courageous,’ currently at the Strand. Jeffrey Lynn Gets New Warner Contract A new term contract has been awarded to Jeffrey Lynn, personable young Warner Bros. leading man, according to a dispatch from the Burbank, Calif., studios, on the basis of his excellent performance in “Yes, My Darling Daughter” and “Daughters Courageous,” which is now showing at the Strand. Lynn has a featured role in the latter production, in which Priscilla Lane, John Garfield, Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Rosemary Lane, Gale Page, Frank McHugh and Lola Lane play principal roles. Currently, Lynn is at work in ‘Career Man,” with Joel McCrea, at the Burbank studios. Claude Rains Had A Week To Turn From Hero To Bum One week after Claude Rains was a hero and a patriot he became a scalawag and a spendthrift, albeit a likeable one. And the latter role was the most enjoyable he has had since he entered motion pictures in 1933, he says. As a hero, Rains played Haym Salomon, the man who helped finance George Washington’s ragged Continentals thru their darkest days. Salomon is the central character in the four-reel Warner Bros. Technicolor film, ‘‘Sons of Liberty.’ As a séalawag, Rains played Jim Masters in “““Daughters Courageous, ’? the Warner Bros. domestic comedy currently showing at the Strand Theatre. He is the husband who walked out on Fay Bainter years ago, and who easually returns to his wife and their four children in an attempt to blarney his way back into the family circle. CLAUDE RAINS (Mat 110—15c) “*T’m a bum in this role, but a charming bum at that,’’ Rains explains. ‘‘Even though the story tells you that Jim Masters has been everywhere he oughtn’t, and done everything he shouldn’t. Fay Bainter and the four children, and even the audience itself, for that matter, can’t help having a certain liking for the irresponsible fellow. He never pretends to be other than he really is, you see, and that is very disarming.’’ According to the actor, his Jim Masters is one of the most believable characters he ever had to play, and he also thinks that ‘““there is a little bit of admiration for the irresponsible fellow in every one of us. He sometimes does what we all would relish doing, if we just didn’t see so clearly the consequences that would follow.’? The role of Haym Salomon, the well-to-do Philadelphian who advanced everything he had because he believed so utterly in the cause of liberty, is one which really stirs Rains. As compared with his professional — and somewhat detached — admiration for Jim Masters, the happy-go-lucky ne’er do well, Rains has a more personal feeling about Haym Salomon. ‘¢Every actor likes to play a heroic part now and then,’’ he explains, ‘‘but my feeling toward Haym Salomon was deeper than that. The story of his contribution toward the cause of freedom and tolerance is especially timely. It can warm the hearts of all Americans, and may lend an inspiration to other countries.’’ [10] She’s A Good Girl But Priscilla Got Spanked Anyway It had been a long time since Priscilla Lane had had a spanking. Last year, she got one from Wayne Morris in “Love, .Honor and Behave,” but that was more in the nature of a love spat. Her mother, Mrs. Cora Lane, stoutly denied that Priscilla had ever been spanked at home. “She was,’ her mother insisted, “a very good child, even though she was something of a tomboy.” Be that as it may, at the ripe old age of twenty, she received a good sound spanking from the capable hand of May Robson. The occasion was a scene for “Daughters Courageous,” the exceedingly homey and _ delightful comedy which is showing at the Strand. It all happened like this. Priscilla, as “Buff” Masters, youngest of the four daughters in the film family, comes sliding down the bannister just as May, in the role of privileged old family servant comes to the foot of the stairs to call Buff’s mother and tell her that she has a caller. As the scene was outlined in the script, May was only supposed to mutter something to her about “won’t you ever grow up*” But when the scene was rehearsed, the timing was such that Priscilla hadn’t had time to get off the bannister before May got to the stairs. Not being one to suppress her impulses, Miss Robson delivered a fairly sound slap on the most spankable portion of Priscilla’s anatomy. A general roar of laughter went up on the set. Director Michael Curtiz looked about at the assembled cast and technical erew. “It’s funny, no?” he inquired quite seriously. “It’s funny, yes,” they assured him, “Good—we leave it in!” Although the scene is one of the most amusing in “Daughters Courageous,” and will probably be laughed at from here to Timbuctoo, it is doubtful whether anyone will enjoy it quite so hugely as two of the spectators on the set did. They are Priscilla’s sisters, Rosemary and Lola, who are featured with her in “Daughters Courageous.” Mat 206—30ce Not Really Shy — He’s Only Acting Dick Foran’s vivid red hair, his boisterous laugh, and powerful frame have always inspired the film directors with ideas. Half of the directors for whom Dick does film roles, want him to ride a cowpony hell for leather, shoot six guns, and sing songs of the range in his reverberating baritone. The other half of Dick’s director friends accept the big boy’s bulging bulk as a_ challenge. These are the directors who see the sardonic twist that can be gained by making Dick seem bashful and incoherent. These are the men like Michael Curtiz, who presented Dick as a shy young florist in last year’s Warner ba ose.” hutsty, “Four Daughters.” Recently Director Curtiz called Foran back from a lucrative personal appearance tour to appear before the camera again as an example of what the jittery young man ¢an really be like when he falls in love. There probably never has been a more lovelorn, or irresolute young swain than Foran—the erstwhile all conquering buckaroo—in his new role in “Daughters Courageous,’ now at the Strand. For in this picture, he is unable to make up his mind which of two sisters he is most in love with, and his indecision leads to all kinds of complications. In his private life he’s tough, he’s rough, and he talks loud and decisively. So it must be Dick’s own acting ability that makes him bashful and tremulous as a lover upon the sereen. DICK FORAN (Mat 113—15c) Mat 212—30e FAMILY CONFERENCE — (Left to right) Gale Page, Priscilla Lane, Fay Bainter, Rosemary and Lola Lene, and May Robson in a homey get-together in "Daughters Courageous,’ which is now showing at the Strand Theatre.