Easy to Love (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Publicity —A dvance Key Story “Easy To Love,’ New Comedy Coming Soon With All Star Gast Here’s a poser for the wives of America! What would you do if, some day, you discovered that your apparently devoted husband had been earrying on an affair for goodness knows how long, with your most intimate friend? Many women refuse to believe that such a thing could happen to them. So did Carol Townsend until, one morning, the ugly truth stared her in the face. She engaged a detective to confirm her suspicions and had them confirmed only too well. After that, it was simplicity itself to take Eric, the other member of the quartet of friends, along with her a witness and, under pretense of looking for an apartment, drop in “accidentally” at the love-nest where her dear friend Charlotte and John Townsend spent their afternoons when he was supposed to be playing polo. Carol’s visit to Charlotte’s apartment — while John listens in fear and trembling from the closet in the bedroom — is only the first of the excruciatingly funny situations in “Easy To Love,” the new Warner Bros. comedy of domestic sixes-andsevens which will soon be seen at the Theatre. From then on, the pace of the story becomes faster and funnier with each new twist in the dothe mestic mishaps of Townsends. Played with finished artistry and a superb sense of comedy by an expert cast, “Easy To Love” has been hailed as one of the most delightful romantic comedy-dramas of the year by the critics of the nation. On the stage and on the screen, Miss Tobin has proved herself equally at home in both drama and comedy, as evidenced by her suceess in “Fifty Million Frenchmen” .and “Polly Preferred” in New York, and in “The Trial of Mary Dugan” in London. On the sereen, she was an equally outstanding hit in “One Hour With You,” starring Chevalier, and “I Loved A Woman” with Edward G. Robinson. In the role of John Townsend, Adolphe Menjou has ample scope for the polished, suave sophistication of which he has shown himself to be master in such pietures as “Front Page,’ “Bachelor’s Affairs,” “Farewell to Arms,” “Morning Glory” and “The Worst Woman in Paris.’ Mary Astor lends her auburnhaired -beauty to the role of Charlotte, following her performances in “Kennel Murder Case” with William Powell and “The World Changes” with Paul Muni, the latter of which earned her a long-term contract with Warner Bros. Edward. Everett Horton, one of the foremost of stage and screen exponents of polite, drawing-room comedy, plays Erie. Patricia Ellis will be seen in the part of Janet Townsend, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the household, who with her fiance, finally takes the bit in her. teeth and brings about an unexpected solution of the domestic tangle. Paul Kaye, promising young actor from the east, plays opposite Miss Ellis. It is his first screen role. William Keighley, well-known stage director, who co-directed last season’s Warner successes, “Match King” and “Ladies They Talk About,” brings the fruits of his years of experience in the theatre to the interpretation of the dramatic and comedy values of “Easy To Love.” Page Fourteen Woodman, Spare That Gall! “ Mary | On The Stars | What Qualities Make People Easy To Love? Stars Say “Charm” What are the qualities that make a man or a woman easy to love? A diseussion of this question broke out on the set at the Warner Bros. studios during the production of “Hasy to Love,” a picture which comes to the Theatre on most of the lovable characteristics of any man or woman were summed up or implied in the single word, “charm.” The members of the east, Genevieve Tobin, Adolphe Menjou, Astor, Edward Everett BIS Oy 4 mee, . oa 2 SS Horton, Patricia Ellis, Paul Kaye Yessir, that’s Adolphe Menjou brandishing that fire-ax under the noses of Genevieve Tobin and Edward Everett Horton. But he’s not really serious; it’s just a scene from their latest hilarious Warner Bros. Comedy, “Easy to Love,” opening Wednesday at the Strand. Mat No. 7—10c. | News Flash! | | On The Stars | ‘Menjou Is World’s Rest-Dressed Man’ —Sartorial Solons According to a vote of the smartest tailors of London, New York and Hollywood, Adolphe Menjou is one of the ten bestdressed men in the world. He is the only motion picture actor to be named in the list, which was published in newspapers throughout the United States and the British Empire recently. Other picture stars were among the runners-up, among them William Powell, Warren William, Ricardo Cor tez, Ronald Colman, Warner Baxter and George Raft; but Menjou alone made the Upper Ten, thereby beating even the Prince of Wales. Among the international figures selected for the accolade of the sartorial experts were the Earl of Westmoreland, British sportsman and racehorse owner; F. Frazier Jelke, New York stock broker; William Goadby Loew, also of New York and Wall Street; Sir Austen Chamberlain, formerly British Foreign Secretary; Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, leader of Philadelphia society; the Marquess of Cholmondeley, of London; and Sir J. W. Buchanan Jardine, prominent English sportsman. And, as aforesaid, Adolphe Menjou, as_ the sereen’s only representative. Ever since his career in motion pictures began, Menjou, whose latest vehicle is “Easy to Love,” for Warner Bros., opening...... Ste Weta ern, at the Theatre, has been a model of elegant attire. According to those who know him best, clothes have never been an_ obsession with him; he simply dresses well because, as he says himself, “It is easier to dress well,” and he possesses a natural taste for the right garments at the right time. One of the London tailors who took part in the balloting that chose Menjou and the others said: “Tt is difficult with the present day interpretation of what constitutes the well-dressed man to make a choice. But the men I have named are among those able Big, Bad Bee Bites Genevieve’s Back In Film Bathtub Scene This is the tale of a big, bad bee that broke all the rules of social etiquette by wandering into a lady’s bathroom. Miss Genevieve Tobin was the lady and the bathroom was a set on a stage of the Warner Bros. studios where a scene was being shot for “Easy To Love,” which comes to the Theatre on Miss Tobin was seated in the tub, clad in nothing but a mass of soap suds, carrying on a domestie argument. with Adolphe Menjou, in the role of her husband, through the partially open bathroom door. A delicate odor of perfumed bath salts, which the property department very thoughtfully provided, filled the air. A wandering bee, presumably deceived into thinking the perfume came from a flower, flew across the set and into the bathroom. Miss Tobin saw it and suddenly interrupted herself in the middle of a line to utter a piercing shriek. At the same time she made a pass at it, which is contrary to regulations when dealing with a bee. The insect became bewildered and flew against Miss Tobin’s shoulder in trying to eseape. And when a bee comes in contact with an object when frightened or angry it is inelined to declare war. This one ran true to form and punctured Miss Tobin’s delieate skin with its stinger. More shrieks as the property department rushed to the rescue with fly swatters. They got the bee and Miss Tobin got a lump on her shoulder. to walk the streets in the loudest checks without attracting attention.” Adolphe Menjou received the news of his selection by the world’s leading tailors philosophically. “I accept the nomination,” he said. PICK UP MAT NO. 16 IN EXPLOITATION SECTION FOR USE WITH THIS STORY. ; and Guy Kibbee, agreed without a dissenting voiee, and without regard to sex. William Keighley, the director, assented without a murmur of protest. “Charm,” said Genevieve Tobin, “to me means everything, mental and physical, that would make a man easy to love. It implies good health, intelligence, an even disposition, courage, manliness. Perhaps the only thing it does not inevitably involve is success. But I cannot imagine any man with real charm being a failure. So VU stick to my contention that charm sums it all up.” “Charm is more important than beauty in a woman,” was Adolphe Menjou’s verdict. “In fact, I have never met a_ thoroughly charming woman who was_ not actually more beautiful than a mere beauty without charm.” “T’ll agree with you both on the question of charm,” Mary Astor remarked, “though I think we ought to omit specifically from this debate the charming rascals and fascinating devils we have all met or heard of, and of which history is full. That type is often too easy to love, but they don’t well, and much of their charm is a veneer. wear “For my own satisfaction, I’d that a man who was both charming and what we eall ‘regular’ at the same time would be the easiest to love, and stay in love with the longest.’ “Bravo!” eried Edward Everett Horton, “I can’t add a thing except my endorsement to the statements that have already been made.” “T think charm covers everything,” said Patricia Ellis, “except that I don’t think any man would be easy to love very long who had too large a family of relatives.” say At which everybody laughed and walked out in front of the eameras for another scene in “Hasy to Love,” which is a hilarious comedy of marital mix-ups based on the play by Thompson Buchanan and adapted by David Boehm. On Production New Film Pictures Wife’s Novel Method Of Hubby Discipline Genevieve Tobin, as the neglected wife in the Warner Bros. picture, “Easy To Love,” which COMES 10 SUMO ck sieatats oye nes Ga PEO ACLO: sONl sane ee ates eae paar vents a novel method of bringing her husband to time. Presumably happily mated to Adolphe Menjou, according to the theme of the story, based on the play by Thompson Buchanan, her suspicions are aroused when her husband repeatedly returns home jaded after afternoons spent in the fresh air with his polo ponies. Finding him in a love nest with her best friend, instead of on the polo field with male companions, she deliberately leads him to believe that she is having an affair with his best friend. This situation leads to the most hilarious series of marital mix-ups imaginable. Nor is the quadrangular love tangle straightened out until their daughter and her lover rush from the house to live, as they put it, a life of sin. Mary Astor and Edward Everett Horton form the other two sides of the love quadrangle as the other woman and the other man, while Patricia Ellis and Paul Kaye are the young lovers. Other noted players in the cast, which is one of exceptional strength and talent, include Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Hobart Cavanaugh, Robert Greig and Harold Waldridge. William Keighley directed. Boo! You Bootiful Creature! Flash! Genevieve Tobin and Edw. Everett Horton, stars of the Warner Bros. comedy sensation, ““Easy to Love,” are rumored ‘that way’ about each other. They are seen here in an affectionate pose. “Easy to Love,” coming soon to the Strand, also features Adolphe Menjou and Mary Astor. Mat No. 9—10c.