Female (Warner Bros.) (1933)

Current Keatures Ruth Chatterton Sets New Flower Vogue in “Female” By ROSALIND SHEPARD > E VER know that there are fashions in flowers, as well as in dresses, jewelry, and smart places to go? Well, there are, says Orry-Kelly, First National’s studio stylist, who predicts that there will be a distinct change in fall flower fashions within the next few weeks. “Several years ago,’ Orry-Kelly relates, “orchids were the swankiest flower a woman could wear to a formal evening affair. But pretty soon they got all cluttered up with too much tinsel paper and silver ribbon. The wrong people tried to wear. them—everyone who could muster up the price, appeared, proudly sporting orchids. So they became overdone and common. ‘Then,” he © ‘says,“the smarter women stepped out wearing gardenias. And the same thing happened. So for: the past season, they’ve been wearing no .flowers at all.” Now, during the coming ‘season, Orry-Kelly prophesies, the © smart thing to do will be ‘to wear whole garlands of flowers, or leis, over evening dresses in harmonizing colors. They will be made especially of wild orchids, for those who can afford them, and of carnations and pansies. Ruth Chatterton, in her latest picture, “Female,” now showing at the . ... Theatre, wears the first, to introduce the new fad to the screen. Designed by Orry-Kelly, it is a lei of pansies, worn over an_ evening gown of lemon-yellow mousseline. Naturally, when Orry-Kelly made his prediction, the first thing he was asked by a horrified male was whether or not the men would have to buy these elaborate floral pieces for the ladies. The answer is in the affirmative. “It’s going to an expensive time for us men from now on,” Kelly grinned ruefully. “In the future, when a gentleman has a date to take a lady dancing, he must call her up during the afternoon, and ask her the color of her gown and what kind of flowers she’d like to have. Then, he won’t have them delivered in a florist box, like he used to. “Instead he must arrive, up_ the front walk, carrying the garland of flowers over his arm, and gallantly place them, with his own hands, around her neck!” Expensive, this new fad in flowers —but undeniably romantic! In “Female,” Miss Chatterton has the role of a very wealthy and fashionable young woman who can afford the best in flowers and anything else. She does not go in for society, however, but for business in a big way and love affairs as a side line. She takes her business: seriously but her loves: light. In fact, she breaks the hearts of the loving males in her employ and then packs them off to a branch office in another city when she tires of them. George Brent, who has the leading masculine role, is the only one she cannot twist around her finger. Consequently, woman-like, she falls for him in a big way. Others in the cast include Johnny Mack Brown, Lois Wilson, Ruth Donnelly, Ferdinand Gottschalk and Phillip Reed. The screen play by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola. It was directed by William Dieterle. George Brent Tackled Bull While Visiting in Spain Life For Chatterton’s Leading Man in ‘“‘Female”’ Has Been Too Peaceful Since He Married Star EKORGE BRENT has thrown a bull. Not an Irish “bull,” FREAK -FACTS CAME TO HOLLY WOOD VIA A NATIONAL ~ BEAUTY CONTET. ‘\ NOW IN PICTURES IS A FORMER FOOTBALL STAR. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA CHATTERTON 1S THE ONLY SCREEN STAR WHO PREFERS TO HAVE HEA KUSBANO GEORGE BRENT) PLay opposite To HER AS LEADING MAN. HE 1S WITH HER in Zemale” GEORGE BRENT HANDSOME SCREEN FAVORITE ZAP lll WAS A DISPATCH CARRIER Th ]) fk Micaee Couns —\a ., DURING THE IRISH ie hii =, REVOLUTION RUTH— i DONNELLY S uncce, Freo Donnetty, HAS BEEN MAYOR OF TRENTON, FLEEING To AMERICA WHEN COLLINS WAS KILLED. Nid. FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS. Many showmen have successfully planted “Freak Facts” as a regular newspaper feature. It is of great interest to readers because it contains unusual facts concerning movie stars and at the same time does not over stress the advertising of the picture. All that is necessary to complete the tie-up is a credit line mentioning your theatre and playdates of the MELT ee Mat No. 36, Price 10c Note to Ewhibitor: Plant this story or the thought in it with your local critic as a follow-up to his review. Chatterton Does Not Have to Stress Sex Has Ruth Chatterton definitely decided to forego a strong, sexy type of screen drama such as ‘characterized the plots of “Frisco Jenny” and “Lilly Turner” for the gayer type of screen story, such as “Female,” in which she has captivated all her old admirers and won many new ones? There is no questioning Ruth Chatterton’s marvelous ability to portray a fallen woman or a _ disillusioned heart-broken mother. In fact, there is no questioning her ability as an actress no matter what the role. Quite recently, she announced in interviews that she would no longer play a lewd woman’s role. We must say that after seeing “Female” at the .... Theatre, where it is now playing, she has gone the whole way in her determination. In it she wins in a_ splendid demonstration of ability as a comedienne as well as her usual impressive dramatic ability. Yet, one can’t help but think how easily her role in “Female” could have been turned into a sort of Mae West role in less capable hands. The distinctive fact about “Female” is the extremely good taste and cleverness with which Chatterton’s affairs with her handsome male employees are told. } Snappy dialogue and clever direction help put over the intriguing situations in the story in a delectable manner. “Female” is beyond doubt Ruth Chatterton’s most entertaining picture from the viewpoint of its wide appeal. The popularity of Miss Chatterton in “Female” proves that the star will not have to go back to fallen woman roles. Ruth Chatterton Spent Her Day on Location.in.Garage Star Passed Up Invitation to Palatial Home While Making Exterior Scenes for ‘‘Female”’ location on the afternoon of the very first day of the filming of . . i . ce >? 5 : her new picture First National,““Female,” the unofficial observer hurried after her, intent on learning just how the first lady of the screen behaves under such circumstances. Leen almost too late, that Ruth Chatterton was to go on It is very simple. She just sat in a garage. This. particular location was the exterior and entryway of one of Hollywood’s swankiest houses. It) When Director Dieterle indicated took two years to build and cost more : than a quarter of a million dollars. 1e wanted Miss Chatterton before the camera, she came out from the garage. you understand, but a real, live, honest-to-goodness Spanish G bull. The bull throwing took place last summer in Madrid, while Brent and Miss Chatterton, his wife, were touring Europe. But the fact did not get out until he returned to Hollywood to start work on his latest picture, “Female,” showing at the .... Theatre. The bullfighting episode, when it got noised about, brought understanding smiles to the faces of his friends. George Brent had_ been peaceful about as long as his nature would permit. Brent has scrapped his way through fife. ips te the time he met Ruth Chatterton, Brent had always been a battler. Since he met Ruth Chatterton he has changed materially. For. almost a year Brent has been a peaceable citizen. He even let the Beverly Hills police handle a man caught prowling about the Chatterton-Brent house. Not long after Brent met Miss Chatterton, in Hollywood, he had his last fight. It took place late one night near a mountain resort out of Los Angeles, against a tall, gaunt Indian who was too intoxicated to be reasonable or to know when he was licked. It was a tough fight, according to the few witnesses who watched it. Mat No. 2, Price 5c Page Eight in which Miss Chatterton is starred, and Another fight, long years ago, sent Brent out of the University of Dublin into the Irish revolutionary army and almost ended his career as an actor before it was well started. That was a battle inside a hansom cab along the streets of Dublin. Though hats and coats, canes and neckware went flying out the cab windows, the two men remained inside and fought it out. When it was over, Brent found himself dismissed from school and unable, consequently, to continue regularly with his work with the Abbey players. The bull fight had no such untoward ending. Brent and the bull both emerged — unscathed—the _ bull was thrown, but not killed, and both conscious that they had only been playing at fighting. But it sufficed, presumably, to satisfy Brent’s fighting nature for another year or so. Brent has the leading masculine role in “Female,” as the only man able to tame Miss Chatterton, big business executive, who is as careless in her love affairs as she is ruthless in her financial operations. The picture was dramatized for the screen by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola. Others in the cast include Lois Wilson, Ruth Donnelly, Laura Hope Crews, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Johnny Mack Brown and Phillip Reed. William Dieterle directed. | six-room bungalow in the world. But Miss’ Chatterton was content to just sit in the garage. The house crowns the top of a towering hill above Los _ Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles. It looks, from a distance, a little like an Egyptian pyramid from which the point has been removed. A retaining wall forty feet high and two hundred feet long supports the gardens, the spacious paved patios and adds to the apparent size of the mansion. Inside the cool and spectacularly elegant “bungalow,” Mrs. Charles W. Ennis, widowed owner of the mansion, sat calmly by one of the windows and watched the unfolding of a screen drama within the confines of her own gardens. When she learned that it was Miss Chatterton who occupied the improvised dressing room set up by the studio in the Ennis garage, she dispatched a messenger, offering the hospitality of her home to the actress. The message was delivered to Miss |. Chatterton. She replied that she was only recently out of a hospital, which was true, and that she understood the house was large and that she wished very much to conserve her energy for her work. “So,” she said, “I will stay here— in the garage.” In a way she was right, too. The room which Mrs. Ennis would have hospitably turned over to Miss Chatterton in place of her garage-sheltered dressing room, could be reached only by walking through a hundred and thirty-five feet of house—one hundred feet of that down a marble and glass corridor. She might actually have walked miles in one afternoon within that house. It is probably the largest, most costly Eventually Mrs. Ennis, intrigued by the indifference of the lovely lady to her beautiful home, came out and sat down near the garage herself, The spectacular exterior of the house, the massive grilled iron entrance gates and the Frank Lloyd All this was done in one afternoon and the “Female” company was finished with the location before dark. A nurse, in attendance due _ to doctor’s orders and on. hand to prevet’ any excess of effort on Miss Chatterton’s. part, moved quietly about the. garage, mixing strange potions of what appeared to be vile medicine occasionally and watching out continuously for her patient’s welfare. That welfare seemed best preserved if” Miss Chatterton stayed close by the garage. She never got inside the house for a minute, although for picture purposes she got out of an automobile and started in a half a dozen times. The house is for sale. Miss Chatterton will probably not buy it. She has never been in any part of it except the garage! The house forms one of the many lavish settings for “Female” which is the story of a woman of many loves, who ruled not only her lovers but her business with an iron hand. It was dramatized for the screen by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola. George Brent plays opposite Miss Chatterton, while others in the cast include Lois Wilson, Ruth Donnelly, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Johnny Mack Brown and Phillip Reed. Wright entryway were the things that Director Dieterle wanted to get into the camera, along with Miss Chatterton’s lovely face. “Ringing the bell.’ That describes this scene from “Female,” on view currently at the Strand, and might also describe the excellent portrayals offered by Ruth Chatterton and George Brent, both shown above, in the starring roles. Mat No. 25, Price 10c.