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

CURRENT PUBLICITY —“EACH DAWN I DIE” Todays SCREEN STORY James Cagney, as a muck-raking reporter, gets hot on the trail of political racketeering in his town. To get him out of the way, he is framed and sentenced on a man slaughter charge. In the “pen,” he becomes hard and reckless. Js thrown in with an underworld big shot (George Raft), serving a life term. Cagney helps him to ‘break.’ In return Raft promises to track down the guy who framed him. But Raft thinks he’s gotten the double-cross when he finds that Cagney’s newspaper has been tipped off. Cagney’s g‘rl, Jane Bryan, comes to Raft, however, and gets him to keep his promise. To do it, he has to give himself up. (Now go on with the story). Four-column mat of art only: Mat 401—60c Hot-headed Cagney and cold-blooded Raft clash! Does Cagney take all that Raft can dish out? (Opening Day) CAGNEY AND RAFT, SCREENS TOUGHEST KILLERS, GLASH IN “EACH DAWN I DIE’ The outstanding toughies of sereen history, James Cagney and George Raft, are teamed in “Kach Dawn I Die,” a Warner Bros. picture dealing realistically with life in a big prison which opens today at the Strand Theatre. Tt is a frank, grim, brutal and tremendously exciting story to which these two premier bad men of the screen have lent their talents, and if they were tough before, they are veritable hell cats now. Each in his own way outdoes everything in the line of vicious characterization he has ever done before, At the outset of the film, the characters portrayed by the stars are poles apart, Cagney being merely an altruistic and aggressive newspaper reporter with not the slightest trace of viciousness in his make-up, while Raft is the same hard and callous criminal that he seems to be until the very end. Their paths cross when the young reporter is framed on a manslaughter charge and sent to the state penitentiary for a long term. Raft, who is a big shot in the underworld, has finally been eaught and is up for the rest of his life. Rebellious from the outset because of the injustice done him, Cagney is a difficu't prison. er for the authorities to handle. He and Raft become friends when he saves the latter from an attempt on his life made by an enemy in the prison. Raft eventually pays his debt with interest when he lays down his life as the result of his efforts—which were successful — to obtain evidence that will prove Cagney’s innocence of the charge which bas sent him to prison. The scene is a vast prison riot. Supporting the two stars is a east which includes such luminaries as Jane Bryan, George Baneroft, Maxie Rosenbloom, Stanley Ridges, Alan Baxter, Victor Jory, Edward Pawley and Emma Dunn. Based on Jerome Odlum’s novel of the same title, the screen p.ay of “Kach Dawn I Die” was written by Norman Reilly Raine and Warren Duff, and William Keighley directed the production. Author Plays Role In Own First Film Jerome Odlum, one of Hollywood’s ace writers, is probably the first person ever to pay money to work as a film extra. Odlum was on hand at the Warner Bros. Studio the night when opening scenes of the James Cagney picture based on his novel, ‘‘ Kach Dawn I Die,’’ which opens today at the Strand Theatre, were filmed. The s7encs were exteriors in a factory district and several extras were on hand to do ‘‘walk through’’ duty. Odlum watched the first rehearsal, then approached one of the atmosphere men. ‘‘Give you _ five dollars to let me walk through the scene for you,’’ he said. The extra didn’t want to take the money but Odlum insisted it was worth that to him to appear in the first seene of his first picture. Mat 203—30e James Cagney, in “solitary,” defies warden George Bancroft in “Each Dawn I Die,” Warner Bros. drama opening today at the Strand. ‘Hach Dawn I Die’’ Prison riot, planned by Ratt, brecks loose. It's a “break” that never clears the prison gates — yet is instrumental in freeing Cagney. And The Battle Is On! In Which Jimmie Cagney Meets Georgie Raft — Now at the Strand Theatre. Vindicated at last, Cagney returns to the waiting arms of his faithful girl friend, Jane Bryan. (Review) CAGNEY & RAFT IN BATTLE OF KILLERS IN ‘EACH DAWN I DIE’ Picture Achieves Reality With Teaming Of Screens Top Tough Guys In Action Drama The teaming of James Cagney and George Raft in “Each Dawn I Die,” which opened yesterday at. at the Strand Theatre, brings together the screen’s two topmost portrayers of authentic modern hard guys, and the result is a prison picture which achieves a brilliant reality—far and away the strongest drama of this type ever to reach the screen. Not only has each contributed a character portrayal that compares more than favorably with anything along the same line that he has ever done before, but jointly they present a rarely achieved welding of great talents. Both are tough, both are hard, and yet both are distinetive. And that is just as it should be, for the story of the picture demands that they be entirely different types of persons. In the fine screen play based by Norman Reilly Raine and Warren Duff on Jerome Od!um’s novel of the same name, Cagney at the outset is anything but the almost animalistic convict that Ne becomes later on, whereas Raft is from the first a criminal, a eruel and callous killer and yet a man of principle, unsocial though his ideas may have been. Sent to jail as the result of a frame-up, Cagney is naturally rebellious. His attitude is met with brutality by the prison authorities and that results in a degeneration which makes of him, on the surface at least, as tough and vicious &@ man as any convict in the place. After he saves Raft’s life, the latter gives him a loyalty which eventually results in Raft himself laying down his life to prove his friend’s innocence. And thus Raft vindicates the only _ principle to which he has adhered in his whole life. This is but a sketchy narration of the story, for it is also filled with a succession of stirring incidents of life and death in the great prison where the two men are incarcerated. Most of the aetion takes place in the twine mill where the convicts work, which in itself is rather unusual in prison pictures, for they generally stress merely bars and walls and prison yards. The climactic action takes place in the course of a prison riot which is the most luridly ex: citing episode of the sort ever filned and is so authentic in detail that it actually gives the spectator a sense of watching such newsreel shots as no newsreel cameraman has ever been able to obtain. Supporting the two stars is au extraordinarily able cast. Playing opposite Cagney in her first lead in an important picture, Jane Bryan gives a rare picture of tender devotion, courage and loyalty as the sweetheart of the wrongfully imprisoned man. The only other woman in the cast is Emma Dunn, who gives an intense'y moving performance as Cagney’s mother. Of the men, the stand-outs are George Bancroft as the warden of the prison, Maxie Rosenbloom, Stanlev Ridges, Edward Pawley, Paul Hurst and Louis Jean Heydt as convict types, Alan Baxter and Joe Downing as the “rats” among the conviets, John Wray as a vicious'y cruel guard, Willard Robertson as a vindieative deputy warden, and Victor Jory as a erooked politician. The production was directed by William Keighley, who first came into prominence as the director of one of the greatest of all the Cagney successes, “G-Men.” He has done an even better job this time with “Each Dawn I Die.” STAGESTRUCK A Hollywood girl who has made good as a sereen actress in her home town, Jane Bryan will never be satisfied until she has had a fling at the New York stage, although she realizes that most stage actresses want nothing more than to get to Hollywood and into the films. “T’d probably feel that way myself if I were in their places,” she said. “Pictures undoubtedly offer greater and more varied opportunities than the stage. Nevertheless, I have the theatre bug in my blood and I won’t be completely happy until I have done some time behind the footlights.” Miss Bryan’s chanees of realizing her stage ambitions appear a bit remote at this writing. She is under contract to Warner Bros. and has been coming along so rapidly that the studio considers her one of its most promising young actresses. As evidence of that confidence, she was given the feminine lead in “Each Dawn I Die,” one of the season’s most important productions, co-starring James Cagney and George Raff, [ 20 ] IS WORD FOR JANE BRYAN which is now playing at the Strand Theatre. Miss Bryan’s cinema stock, always on the ascendant, started soaring after her role as the kid sister of Bette Davis in “Marked Woman.” Miss Davis, incidentally, became one of Jane’s strongest boosters and flatly predicted she was destined for stardom. Jane can scarcely remember the time when she didn’t want, and expect, to become an actress. She participated in student theatricals in high school, read all the books on the theatre she could find, and never missed seeing a good play that came to Los Angeles or Hollywood. She started her actual training for a dramatic career at Jean Muir’s Theatre Workshop in Hollywood. A Warner Bros. scout saw one of her performances there, she was given a screen test, and at the age of 18 found herself with a studio contract. She’s now 21 and has played about twenty important parts. Sparkling-eyed and bubbling with vitality, Miss Bryan says she is lucky because she isn’t beautiful. Her fans may give her an argument on the beauty point, but Miss Bryan will cite her freckles (which fiim make-up covers and which are attractive anyhow) and her wide mouth us evidence she’s no glamour girl. If she had been beautiful, she says, she might have been shunted into straight heroine roles. As it happened, she was mostly given character roles—kid sisters and girl friends—which gave her both more variety and acting opportunities. And most important to her, it gave her the chance to work with such stars as Miss Davis and Cagney. Aside from the theatre, Miss Bryan’s enthusiasms are travelling, of which she has done little but intends to do more, outdoor sports and literature, particularly Trish literature. There is, of course, a reason for her Irish sympathies. Her real name is Jane O’Brien. The studio persuaded her to make the slight change to Bryan. It already had, and still has, one O’Brien on its contract list. His first name is Pat.