Each Dawn I Die (Warner Bros.) (1939)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY —"“EACH DAWN I DIE” Cagney Has No Double For Dangerous Scenes In “Each Dawn I Die’ Prison riots are a pretty grim business, even in the movies, where the convicts are paid to revolt and, theoretically at least, are under perfect control. They’re dangerous, and even in the movies it’s only by the grace of extraordinary precautions that broken bones and eracked skul's are avoided. Recently the order went out from the ‘‘front office’’ at the Warner Bros. Studio to make the prison break in ‘‘Each Dawn IL Die,’’ the James Cagney-George Raft co-starring picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday, the riot of all movie riots. William Keighley, the director, passed the word along to his assistants and Mat 105—1l15e James Cagney they began to prepare for a Roman holiday. Beh} They engaged machine gun, rifle and pistol sharpshooters. They had clubs, crowbars, baling hooks and canes manufactured in wholesale lots. They also had the heavy oaken doors of the solitary cells in their main prison set mined with dynamite caps and _ electrically wired for timed explosions. The first five or six hours of a film riot are the worst, any veteran in the business will testify. At the end of that time, the rioters will have most of the excess enthusiasm beaten out of their systems. Being conscientious performers and ever mindful of their pay checks, they ’ll still give full measure. But they ’re not likely to slip in extra punches after the be 1 has rung, or go ahead and smash the whole set when the scene calls only for a wall to be caved in. Keighley started his riot in the twine mill set of the picture’s four stage prison. Stanley Ridges, one of the convicts, touched off the fireworks by crowning John Wray, a guard, with a baling hook, then applying the coup de grace with the same weapon in close-up. Cagney followed this sortie by knocking out Maxie Rosenbloom, the former world’s lght heavyweight champion, with a sneaker punch, and securely handeuffing him to keep him out of trouble. For flash shots of the corridor charge, stunt men in guard uniforms were stationed in the iron gallery 15 feet above floor level. They were armed with rifles, loaded with blanks and returned the convicts’ fire. Of course, they were picked off by the rioters. And when they were, they fell to the floor below. There were no mattresses or nets spread to receive them but Hollywood stunt men have mastered the art of falling distances that would kill or maim ordinary individuals without so much as spraining an ankle or wrist. The corridor action, with long shots, close ups, and flash szenes, took three full days of filming. Cagney participated in all this action, as a convict swept against his will into the riot, and took his full share of bumps. Raft, who was supposed to be locked in solitary, escaped. Later, when the mob scenes were completed, Cagney, Raft, and 4 few of the principals, worked with actual machine gun buliets, fired by trusted sharpshooter, whizzing past their heads. These scenes were cut into those showing the mob. Through it all, Cagney preserved the utmost calm, refusing all offers of a ‘‘double,’’? although many of the scenes were fraught with real danger. He has made his screen reputation on pictures such as this one, and he c¢laims that long practice has made him quite able ‘to take care of himself when the guns start popping. STAGES SWIFT COMEBACK Being a big star and earning a comfortable competence isn’t all there is to motion picture success. George Bancroft learned that, and he had to lose stardom to do it. Onee the champion menace of them all and among the highest paid actors on the screen, Bancroft today is working his way back into the limelight in charaeter supporting roles. Oddly enough, he’s having more fun than he ever had when he was a star. “*T started acting because I loved it and got a big bang Oust ot eit: the one time “smiling villain’’ explainGeorge Bancroft © between Mat 101-—15¢ S%°°meS 2 the set of ‘‘ Each Dawn I Die,’’ the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday. ‘‘When I became a film star, the fun began to go out of it. The battle to stay up there was too intense. What had been sheer pleasure became a grind. So I decided it was time ito retire.’’ ‘’hen he suddenly realized he wanted to come back. The old zest for acting had returned and he couldn’t really be happy unless he was back in harness. He made the first important step in his comeback with a role supporting James Cagney and Pat O’Brien in ‘‘Angels With Dirty Faces.’’ In ‘‘ Each Dawn I Die,’’ he supports Cagney and George Raft in even a better role. ‘“T’m not saying I wouldn’t like to be a star again. Ambition is something that doesn’t die and when a fellow gets back in harness he just naturally starts aiming high. But I wouldn’t want to lose the real pleasure of this business again.’’ Fan loyalty is something else Bancroft had to lose stardom to learn about. You can’t tell him the publie is fickle. ‘“T’ve received letters, thousands of them, while I was off the sereen;’’ he said. ‘‘Naturally the fan mail began to dwindle down as people lost track of me and didn’t know where to send their letters. But after ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ the letters came in in a flood. And the majority of them were from old fans telling me how glad they were to see me back, and wishing me success. It was the same kind of warm feeling you get when you go back to your old home town.’’ From all indications, he’ll be around, in pictures, for quite a few more years. He’s hitting his stride again. And he’s having fun. Mat 207—30¢ Can love wait outside prison gates? James Cagney and Jane Bryan prove that it can in “Each Dawn I Die,” coming to the Strand. George Raft Exemplifies Typical Success Story George Raft’s career measures up to the best specifications of the traditional American success story. It has all the elements of poor boy, perseverance in the face of difficulties, early disappointments, and eventual success with accompanying fame. Raft will tell you it also has the element of luck, as most success stories probably have. For one thing, he didn’t want to become Mat 106—15e George Ratt a screen actor. He was eventually persuaded to have a try at the screen, became a star, and has remained one. James Cagney, with whom Raft is co-starred in Warner Bros.’ **Bach Dawn I Die,’’? which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, had a hand in that decision. Cagney, then just coming into his own as a film personality, was making a picture called ‘‘Taxi.’’ In it was a dance contest sequene. Cagney said there was only one chap he knew who could play the winner of that dance contest and do the role right. His name was George Raft. ““Taxi’’ was Raft’s first pieture but it was his gangster portrayal in ‘‘Scarface’’ shortly afterward that made him a star. Raft was born in New York City, attended both public and parochial schools, and after school hours and during summer vacations, he worked as an electrician’s helper. Like other youngsters of his west side neighborhood, George was a rabid boxing fan. The [19] champion of the juvenile lot, he decided to turn professional. He was only 15 at the time and fought as a bantamweight. In 25 bouts he was knocked out seven times, and after his last beating, he wisely decided to quit the game. After giving up boxing, Raft tried professional baseball as a career.. He was signed as an outfielder on the Springfield, (Mass.) Eastern League team, but gave that up, too, after a few seasons. Returning to New York, he decided to capitalize on his hobby of dancing. He was a Charleston whirlwind, and had become known as the ‘‘kid with the fastest feet in New York.’’? It wasn’t hard for him to find employment at Churehill’s and Rector’s, hoofing at the tea danees. Europe came next. Raft accepted an itinerary that took him to most of the world’s capitals.’ He was the highest paid American dancer who ever appeared before Huropean audiences and won international fame as one of the world’s fastest hoofers. On his return to New York, Raft danced in virtually every leading night club and motion pieture theatre. His work in the film theatres brought him to the attention of picture people, all of whom talked Hollywood to him. Finally, he decided to have a look at the picture city, with the results already related. Following ‘‘Taxi,’’? Raft did a role in ‘Quick Millions.’’ He next played in ‘‘Hush Money.’’ Then came ‘‘Searface’’ and immediate fame. Seeking a change in roles, Raft recently terminated the contract with Paramount which had _ endured since he started in pictures and signed with Warner Bros. to co-star with Cagney in ‘‘ Each Dawn I Die.’’ He has an agreement to do another picture with the same studio and expects to jivide the balance of his time at various film plants, doing pictures and roles whieh appeal to him. One Jump Too Many George Raft made three jumps off a high window ledge for a scene of Warner Bros.’ ‘‘ Each Dawn I Die,’’ which is coming to the Strand Theatre, and each time landed without harm. Then, when the scene was okayed, the still photographer asked him to make one more leap for an ‘‘action’’ still. Raft obliged ... and wrenched his knee so painfully it had to be bandaged and taped. FORMER ‘HOOFERS ARE HOLLYWOOD'S ACE TOUGH GUYS The recent teaming of James Jagney and George Raft at Warner Bros. studio serves to point the rather odd fact that dancers make the most successful screen menaces. The two toughest stars on the screen today, Cagney and Raft are both former ‘‘hoofers.’’ Cagney started as a chorus boy, became a vaudeville song and dance man and literally stepped his way to success. Raft was once known as ““the kid with the fastest feet on Broadway.’’ First a Charleston champion, then an exhibition dancer at clubs, he ‘‘hoofed’’ his way into musical shows, toured Kurope where he was the highest paid American dancer, and thence to the films. Since getting into pictures, Cagney and Raft have done little dancing but they still retain their terpsichorean skill and may at any time drop their hard-guy roles to star in musicals. The two stars are at their menacing best playing convicts in the grimly dramatic prison feature, ‘“BRach Dawn I Die,’’ which comes to the Strand Theatre Friday. The only thing resembling dancin: they do in that film is to side-stejcrowbars, baling hooks and load ed canes in the riot scenes. While they serve very nicely as exhibits A, Cagney and Raft are far from the only ‘‘hoofers’’ who have won fame as film toughies. George Bancroft, the old ‘‘smiling villain’’ and in his heyday the unrivalled king of film heavies, was once a chorus daneer, later a vaudeville song and dance man. Coincidentally, Bancroft, who is making a swift comeback to film fame, is appearing with Cagney and Raft in ‘‘Each Dawn I Die.’’ Dour-faced Allen Jenkins and tough-mugged Stanley Fields are other film menace specialists who served their time as stage ‘‘boofers’? in pre-Hollywood days. WORDLESS SCENE PACKS WALLOP IN “EACH DAWN 1 DIE” -' Action ‘still speaks more effectively than words on the screen and a single sweep of a camera frequently can pack more sheer drama into a scene than any dialogue a brilliant scenarist could write. There’s for example, the scene of Warner Bros.’ ‘‘EHach Dawn IL Die,’’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, where 500 convicts file into a prison audito:ium to see a movie show. It’s played without a word of dialogue but it carries a terrific wallop. The interior of the big auditorium is austere but not althogether depressing. The gray, stone walls are smooth finished and the steel! bars of the high narrow windows are covered by plain green drapes. Straight-backed wooden chairs are set in severe lines. There are thirty or forty rows of them and not a chair is out of place by the fraetion of an inch. Twelve convicts take their place in the orchestra pit. Thcy strike up ‘‘The Stars and Stripes Forever,’’ and their fellow inmates start to pour into the auditorium. They come in columns of four, slouching, shuffling and silent. Among them are James Cagney and George Raft, the stars of the picture. The busy camera moves from impassive faces, to an endless procession of marching gray legs and on to full flashes of the filling room. It catehes the contrast. of grimness and semi-holiday gayety but it reserves its big punch for the last. With a single sweep it swings upward to focus on a small baleony-like box above the screen. A blue uniformed guard stands in that box. In the crook of his right arm he earries a rifle.