Four Wives (Warner Bros.) (1939)

“FOUR WIVES"—ADVANCE PUBLICITY Four Daughters Get New Lease on Life In ‘Four Wives” By Popular Request, Original Cast of Beloved Hit Comes Back In a New Sequel Still FW406; Mat 204—30c THEY'RE DIETZ AND LEMP AGAIN—Jeffrey Lynn and Priscilla Lane continue their hectic romance, begun in "Four Daughters", in "Four Wives", the new sequel to last year's hit. "Four Wives'’ opens at the Strand Friday. Baby of Lane Family Now Grown-Up Star Ot ‘Four Wives” Priscilla Lane Carries Acting Burden in New Film Sequel to ‘Four Daughters’ Priscilla Lane says she was “just a baby” when she began her film career. Says it with tears in her voice. On the set of ‘Four Wives,” which opens at the Strand Theatre on Friday, she confessed hoping that she was becoming an actress. Critics were very kind to her, she thought, for her work in “Dust Be My Destiny” and “Brother Rat.” Praise for the latter, raves for the former. The fact that she recently landed twelfth in one big popularity poll, and had climbed amazingly in fan mail rating at her own studio, Warner Bros., doesn’t console her too much for what she considers amateurishness in earlier roles. “Everybody treated me like a baby, just as the family had done and Fred Waring and his organization,” Priscilla explained with that appealing smile. “They made everything easy, and praised my efforts when they should have pinned my ears back.” And the Lane family “baby,” who hopes she’s grown up, was silent for a moment as she cut separate letters out of newspaper headlines. These were to be pasted on the dressing room doors of Frank McHugh and Dick Foran, proud new fathers, as ribbing notes. Or something of the sort. But then, Lola Lane was right there beside her, doing the same thing. So was Rosemary. Only Gale Page, of the four girls who play sisters’ in “Four Daughters” and its sequel, wasn’t cutting out letters to paste on dressing room doors. Gale was wholly out of the spirit of this little off-stage scene. She and her lawyer were discussing a new radio contract! The “family,” as it was represented there, didn’t seem to recent Priscilla’s charge that it babied her. Lola, however, looked up with a grin to say, “You were a baby, you know.” Now, with this background of acting success, as well as some fair-to-middling earlier efforts in which she was more of a blonde cutie with a wonderful smile than a Thespian of impressive skill, Priscilla is faced by a problem. She had been warned, and herself realizes that her current role is the toughest she has played. Says Priscilla, “In the earlier picture I merely went through a little love affair. There was no complicated soul struggle. My part. in -Yes;-My Darline Daughter’ was much more exacting. But in ‘Four Wives’ I have to portray an inner struggle that’s very complicated, to say nothing of the emotions of widowhood and motherhood— having one man’s baby while married to another, incidentally. Just the same, I’m glad to try.” In “Four Daughters” Garfield’s acting burden was heaviest. In “Four Wives” there can be no doubt that the greatest and most exacting histrionic job rests on the shoulders of the Lane family’s “baby sister.” Wedding Bells for Fourth Daughter Rosemary Lane thinks every motion picture actress should get married at least two or three times. But in pictures, not real life, she hastens to add. Until a girl not only gets her man but leads him safely to the altar she is apt to lack a certain confidence, Miss Lane explains. She remains an ingenue at heart. Once she’s portrayed a wife, however, she begins to attain dramatic maturity. Miss Lane speaks with the authority of experience. She was married for the first time in the Warner Bros.’ picture, “Four Wives” which opens at the Strand Friday. Eddie Albert is the man to whom she was married and they were wed in the grand style before a stage full of spectators. Lola and Priscilla, Rosemary’s sisters, were both married in “Four Daughters,” but Rosemary didn’t even have a beau. But in “Four Wives,” the “middle Lane” really gets a break. She has a much meatier role than she had in “Four Daughters,” and her romance with Eddie Albert provides much of the intimate humor of the film production. Acting Lane Girls Are Full-Time Job For Mother Lane Mothers who think they have their hands full getting a couple of youngsters off to school in the morning might well consider the problems of Mrs. Cora B. Lane, of North Hollywood, Calif., who happens to be the mother of three grown daughters who are motion picture stars. Nine times out of ten when Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane are appearing together in a production as they are at present — in Warner Bros.’ “Four Wives,” which opens at the Strand Theatre Friday—all three will have simultaneous calls to be on the set at 8:30. When that happens Mrs. Lane shudders, sets the alarm and goes to bed early the night before. She is up at 5:30. In the kitchen she snaps on the light and, because it is too early to servants, wake the squeezes *Still FW421; Mat 109—15c HERE COME THE BRIDES—Priscilla, Lola, and Rosemary Lane and Gale Page all say "Il do" in “Four Wives", which opens Friday at the Strand. fruit juices for her daughters— grapefruit juice for Priscilla, orange juice for Rosemary, and tomato juice for Lola. Rosemary usually suggests as she sips her orange juice that the other girls go ahead to the studio, and ask Director Michael Curtiz to start the day’s shooting with some scene she isn’t in. Then, while Lola and Priscilla are racing for the shower Rosemary crawls back under the covers where she remains until her mother discovers her. While the girls are dressing she rehearses with them their lines for the day, and takes part in the general discussion as to who should drive the car to the studio. At the door she sees that they have their scripts. NEW STILL SERVICE!... Stills available on most of the scene cuts on the publicity pages in this Campaign Plan. Price [5c each. Order by still number indicated Campaign under each cut, from Plan Editor. If still number is not given, photo is not available because the cut was made from a special retouch or a (* Asterisk denotes included in composite. still is regular set available at local Vitagraph Exchanges.) ts3 Every day, in various ways, the lives of popular screen characters are getting longer and longer. Most characters, it is true, still live but a single picture. They go their adventurous and romantic ways for seven, eight or nine thousand feet of film, and pass into oblivion. Unless they are definitely killed off, however, the exceptional favorites may fare better these days. The public has discovered it can resurrect them by the simple expedient of appealing to the studios who created them. Consider, for example, the remarkable Lemp sisters played by the three Lane girls and Gale Page. Originally they were scheduled to live only through the film, “Four Daughters.” The public wanted them back, so they’ve been given a new lease on life in “Four Wives,” which opens at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Furthermore, Warner Bros. studio has gone to some pains to extend their life expectancy. In “Four Wives,” three of the girls have babies and the fourth sister, who escaped matrimony in “Four Daughters,” is happily married off. Much the same system, possibly based on observation of nature’s highly efficient method, has been used by Warners to insure the continued existence of the highly popular characters of last season’s comedy hit, “Brother Rat.” It will be recalled that Jane Bryan and Eddie Albert became fond parents in “Brother Rat.” Along with Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan and the other characters of last year’s success, they’re coming back in “Brother Rat and a Baby.” Peter B. Good, aged 14 months, is the “crown prince” of the Brother Rat family. The Lemp girls and the Brother Rat clan differ from the series’ picture characters in that their screen life courses were not charted in advance to run on indefinitely. They were put on the screen in complete stories that had no “continued next week” (or next year) implications. As a matter of fact, the Warner Bros. scenarists were put to rather a problem in meeting the public demand for bring ing the Lemps back to the screen because in “Four Daughters” they had killed off John Garfield, one of the key characters. They solved that problem most ingeniously by writing Garfield’s “ghost” into the “Four Wives” story. Garfield appears briefly in the picture as a vision seen through Priscilla Lane’s eyes. It is Priscilla’s memory of him that provides the basis of the plot. “In Four Wives,” the writers were careful to avoid killing any more key characters. Except for introducing the babies, however, they otherwise avoided any semblance of series treatment. New Modern Symphony Played in ‘Four Wives’ Warner Bros.’ studio has received thousands of letters asking about the musical theme John Garfield played in scenes of the picture “Four Daughters.” That theme has now been elaborated into an original symphony called “Symphony Moderne,”’ which is presented in “Four Wives,” the sequel picture to “Four Daughters.’”’ Max Rabinowitsh, who composed the original theme, and Max Steiner, collaborated on the symphony. May Robson Solves Landlord Problem May Robson, “landlord” on a large scale in private life, told the secret of how she can accept families with little children and still keep her apartment houses and gardens in such fine shape. “Muzzie May,’ now playing in Warner Bros.’ “Four Wives,” at the Strand says she merely offers prizes for the children who do most to keep the gardens and their own apartments neat and clean. Vest-Splitting Job Jeffrey Lynn has all the sympathy in the world for Leopold Stokowski, whose stiff wing collar popped out of place the other day leading a Philadelphia concert. Lynn played a symphony orchestra conductor for scenes in “Four Wives’— and spilt 11 formal white vests in the process of doing it. Still FW401; Mat 205—30c IT'S PAPA WHO PAYS—Claude Rains as Papa Lemp gets an “earful" from May Robson, in the sequel to last year's "Four Daughters", “Four Wives", starring the Lane sisters and Gale Page, which opens at the Strand on Friday.