First Lady (Warner Bros.) (1937)

Te ee a ae ee ee a | hs eee a ee ae gee ee eee ee es * * x KAY FRANCIS (Advance) Anita Louise Was Film Bride ‘Ati -Eatly Age Not long ago Anita Louise had a chance to view one of her first movies, ““The Life of Johann Strauss,” in which she played a _ fourteenyear-old bride. She made the picture in Europe when she was 10 years old. It was released as a feature there, a short subject here. What amazed Anita about it was that her love scenes were quite effective, viewed in the light of many subsequent cinematic lovemakings when the actress was more mature. ““Which seems to show,”’ chuckles the Warner Bros. blonde, “‘that one can do a fair job of acting without knowing what one’s doing. If so, I've wasted a lot of time studying since that early picture.” Having recently completed a romantic lead opposite Victor Jory in Kay Francis’ new picture, ‘First Lady,”’ puts Anita’s score of pictures played well over one hundred! The youthful ‘‘veteran’s’ first American picture was opposite Neil Hamilton, playing an eighteen-yearold sweetheart at the age of thirteen. Presently they did another picture together in which the actor played her father! Anita’s screen age, unlike her real age, hasn't progressed evenly with the passing seasons. Several times when she got well up in her later ‘teens she played young girl roles. At other times, sedate mature women, and once, even an elderly woman! She will be seen in a delightful role in ‘‘First Lady’? when it comes to the Strand Theatre next week. (Current) ‘Doubles’ Get Great Break In All Star Movie For the first time within the memory of the oldest movie directors, fourteen stand-ins were used simultaneously on a single movie one recent day. The picture was Warner Bros.’ “First Lady,’’ which stars Verree Teasdale Mat 106—15c Kay Francis and is now showing at the Strand Theatre. Stand-ins, in the event that you've forgotten, are the folks who resemble the stars they represent in size and coloring. They earn their pay standing for the stars between scenes, so the cameramen and electricians can ‘“‘light’’ them, chalkmark their various positions for certain parts of each shot, and so on. The fourteen stand-ins used in scenes of “‘First Lady” did this for Miss Francis, Preston Foster, Anita Louise, Victor Jory, Walter Connol ly, Verree Teasdale, Louise Fazen da, Marjorie Rambeau, Marjorie Gateson, Henry O'Neil, Grant Mitchell, Eric Stanley, Sara Haden, and Lucille Gleason. Not every director would use so many stand-ins, but Stanley Logan, who got his training and fame as a New York and London stage director, was in charge of ‘First Lady.” He believes in having full rehearsals off the set before every scene, so the stand-ins were a necessity with him. However, at least eleven of the players named above are so important their contracts provide for stand-ins furnished by their employers. iN aay \ 4 Mat 203—30c HE’D RATHER BE RIGHT—but she’d rather he be president. Preston Foster and Kay Francis as Mr. and Mrs. Secretary of State head the cast of “First Lady,” a brilliant comedy of Washington. It is coming to the Strand next Friday. Preston Foster Heads For Wilds When His Movie Chores Are Ended Preston Foster is one of Hollywood’s real he-men, not only in stature and virility but in tastes. His idea of fun is a schooner expedition to San Clemente Island, a wild, rocky, uninhabited spot off the California coast, for an assortment of special sports. He’s often there between pictures. You land there at the risk of your life, against rocks, from a_ small boat. Once there you put up your tent, fish from the cliffs, shoot wild boars and wilder goats — if your legs permit the strenuous chase over the cacti-covered mountains. And just for a final thrill dive off the end of a point where the breakers crash viciously. On your wrist you wear, by a thong, a short flat bit of steel — usually the halfleaf of an old auto spring. Then at low tide, clinging to the rocks while breakers batter you and you're submerged just beneath low-water line, you pry abalones off their boulders! | Having completed Warner Bros.’ “First Lady”’ in which he played opposite Kay Francis, and which is now playing at the Strand, Foster was off again on his favorite element — the sea — but not, this time, to San Clemente. Instead, he was going to fish off Mexican waters. He has a yacht of his own but in this case he went on a larger boat with friends, seeking giant tuna. Foster, born October 24, 1902, in Ocean City, N. J., stands six-two in sox, and weighs 200 pounds when in top athletic condition. Once he let his weight get up to 234. On his big frame this didn’t look fat, but he became alarmed. Ever since, he has kept: himself in strict training. He goes in for all sorts of athletics, but likes baseball, tennis, golf and boxing best. He attended high school and went from school dramatics to the legitimate stage, and shortly after the movies began to talk, into Hollywood drama. In “‘First Lady’’ he has one of his best roles to date with the exception, probably of “Annie Oakley,”’ in which he played the rival sharpshooter. In her attempts to become “‘First Lady,’’ Kay schemes throughout the picture — into first one pickle and then another —to make him President of the United States. The battle is chiefly between Verree Teasdale, who is backing first Victor Jory and then Walter Connolly as Presidential timber, and the star, whose efforts in Foster’s behalf are abetted by such worthy supporters as Anita Louise, Marjorie Rambeau and Louise Fazenda. Foster for the first time in his career, wore makeup which “‘aged”’ him a little. The makeup man silvered his hair slightly at the sideburns. He wasn’t certain he wanted to appear that old, and with a wife so much younger. “After all,’ said he, ‘“‘thirty-five is thirty-five. You can see real grey hair close ahead!” But he liked playing the ‘part, liked his director, Stanley Logan, and before the picture ended was on good practical-joking terms with Kay. He invited the whole cast to go to San Clemente with him, but the only member who liked Foster's description of the island’s rugged joys was Jory. As a result, the two will head out there soon with their tents and guns — probably as soon as each does another picture and Preston’s Mexican fishing trip is over. [3] “FIRST LADY” (Advance) Kay’s Grandpa Is Created By Studio Artist Kay Francis finished ‘‘First Lady,” her newest Warner Bros. film, which comes next Friday to the Strand Theatre, with one souvenir she prizes for a peculiar reason. It is a large oil-painting of an elderly, mustachioed, distinguishedlooking man, who bears a distinct resemblance to the star. In the picture, you will see it as a portrait of ‘‘a former President of the United States,” the grandfather of the character Kay plays. The reason it resembles Kay is that she posed for the picture part of the time, so the studio artist who painted it might get in a “family resemblance.’’ A character actor posed for the masculine general appearance the painter sought to catch. According to her family album, however, the picture doesn’t resemble either of Kay’s real grandfathers. The studio artist, incidentally, had a busy time with portraiture for ‘First Lady,’ probably because of its background of Washington, D. C. life and distinguished famil 1es. Sitting for him, besides the star, for portraits either of themselves or ancestors, were Preston Foster, Anita Louise, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale and Marjorie Rambeau. Stanley Logan directed the picture. (Current) Modern Acting Repressive Art Says Connolly Kid all you want about the actress who “‘ran through the gamut of emotions from A to B,” says Walter Connolly, but modern acting is largely an art of repression. The average beginner does too much acting, particularly in big Walter Connolly Mat 107—15c closeups. If he did no more than a skilled actor, Connolly declares, he'd feel as though he were facing the camera with an absolutely expressionless, ‘‘poker’’ face. “There have been scenes I’ve done in which quite complicated emotional changes were portrayed, and, I’ve been led to believe, satisfactorily, in which | strove not to change my expression by so much as the wrinkle of -an eye,’ Connolly declares. “In scenes farther away from the camera it is possible to gesture a bit, and also to grimace ever so slightly. But in closer shots the best technique for many situations is to strive to be totally expressionless. “Despite this. effort a subtle expression, a twitch of a muscle here, a flicker of the eye there, is caught by the camera and magnified hugely on the screen. That's all that’s necessary. The blanker you can look in such situations, the more they’re going to praise you for acting ability.” Connolly is now playing at the Strand Theatre in “First Lady,”’ the Warner Bros. film starring Kay Francis. In the same cast are Preston Foster, Anita Louise, VWerree Teasdale, Victor Jory and other celebrated troupers. * a. ee eee *