Four Wives (Warner Bros.) (1939)

a Na Sie an ie, Na ee Ne oes, Nam Soe Ne Sot, Nate Yara, ate itt am Site Nig oi Nite i i i "FOUR WIVES"—ADVANCE PUBLICITY Still FW69; Mat 206—30c BROTHER RAT IN A TRAP—Eddie Albert says "Il do’ to Rosemary Lane— who thereby becomes one of the "Four Wives"’ in the picture of that name which has its first local showing at the Strand on Friday. Acting ‘Dumb Made Smart Eddie Albert Bis Comedy Star Clicked as Slow-Witted Cadet In ‘Brother Rat’ On Stage and Screen, Now Starring In ‘Four Wives’ Acting dumb is the smartest thing Eddie Albert has ever done. And Albert is a very bright young man, -= smart enough to be earning an annual salary that would make most bank presidents envious. Albert first got smart and acted dumb when he quit a soda jerking job in Minneapolis, Minn., to try for something better. Everyone told him what a sap he was to give up a job when they were so scarce. Eddie agreed he was probably dumb and proceeded to get himself odd jobs as an entertainer. He played stooge for a strong man act. He danced and sang at club parties and amateur night programs. He looked and acted so bewildered and dumb that audiences roared at him— and booking agents and sponsors kept on hiring him. He did so well with these odd jobs that he was able to finance his way through two years at the University of Minnesota. Then he really acted dumb in a colossal way. He left the University and went to New York to win his fortune. His friends lost no opportunities to tell him just how dumb he was. Eddie agreed — sincerely this time. For a long time, Eddie had been acting dumb — in the opinion of his fellow Bohemian entertainers—by devoting all of his spare time to writing instead of playing around. One day he took a radio script to a producer. But instead of buying the script, the producer hired Eddie as an actor. Eddie “clicked” on the radio and got a regular place on a national program. He was doing fine, but he just couldn’t keep from acting dumb. He quit the radio to try for a stage career. His first chance was a walk-on bit in a play that lasted only about as long as his part. He could have gone back to radio, but he preferred to keep on acting dumb. He stuck with the stage. George Abbott was preparing to launch a comedy called “Brother Rat,’ with a comparatively unknown cast. One of the parts was that of a college athlete with a heart of gold, and a mind that functioned slowly to say the least. Eddie landed that role, and was a riot as the dumb Bing Edwards. When Warner Bros. decided to make “Brother Rat” as a picture, Eddie was offered his original role. He had his choice of several Broadway plays. Most of his friends told him he would be awfully dumb to go to Hollywood just then. The rest is comparatively recent, and in theatrical circles well known, history. Eddie won film stardom through making Bing Edwards one of the most appealingly amusing dumb guys ever to blunder across’ the screen. He went right back to Broadway to star in a musical —not start over again. Then he hurried out to Hollywood again—at an increase in salary —went into the stellar cast of “Four Wives.” The film which opens at the Strand Friday is a sequel to last year’s hit “Four Daughters,” and was directed by Michael Curtiz. *Still FW63; Mat 203—30c THERE'S GOING TO BE A WEDDING—and that's exactly what there are any number of in “Four Wives" which opens at the Strand Friday. (Left to right) Lola and Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn and Frank McHugh. Memory of Loved One Is Cleverly Handled in Film A girl, a man and a vision comprise what is probably the screen’s strangest romantic triangle. The girl is Priscilla Lane. The man is Jeffrey Lynn. And the vision is that of John Garfield. “Four Wives,’ Warner Bros.’ sequel to “Four Daughters,’ is the picture. It will open Friday at the Strand. “Four Daughters” ended with the way apparently smoothed for Lynn and Priscilla to be married and live happily ever afterward. Garfield, Priscilla’s first husband in a marriage that proved an unhappy mistake, got himself killed in a traffic crash. But in “Four Wives,” Priscilla is haunted JOHN GARHELD:)2 her memories of Garfield. She is obsessed by the fact that he was a failure and blames herself because a promising career was cut short. She can’t rid herself of visions of Garfield as he sat at the piano and played for her one of his own compositions —a melody that had no beginning or end, just a middle. Thus Garfield’s memory is the “menace” of the story. It is perhaps the first time in film history that a vision has been the “other man” in a romantic triangle. Mat 105—15c Director Curtiz Has Too Many ‘Favorites’ Director Michael Curtiz is too impartial. Coming to the set of “Four Wives” for the first day of work in the sequel to “Four Daughters,” Rosemary Lane gave a squeal of pleasure. On her dressing room door hung a painted wooden sign: “Mike Curtiz’s Favorite Actress.” Just then Claude Rains discovered a board on his dressing room door. It read: “Mike Curtiz’s Favorite Actor.” While Claude was making a _ polite protest the whole cast in succession — Priscilla and Lola Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Dick Foran, Gale Page, May Robson, Frank McHugh, Eddie Albert, Henry O’Neill and Vera Lewis — all discovered identical signs on their dressing room doors! One Shade to Another Claude Rains calls John Garfield “The Invisible Man” now. That’s the title of one of Rains’ first starring pictures, in which he played the title role and was seen only in a brief flash at the end of the film. Garfield and Rains appear in Warner Bros.’ “Four Wives,” now showing at the Strand, the former only in a three-minute scene in which he’s semi-transparent! Simplifies Everything! Director Mike Curtiz was explaining to Rosemary Lane how to play a certain scene in “Four Wives” which is currently showing at the Strand. He told her, “You’re wondering what this fellow Eddie Albert really thinks about you. You say to yourself, ‘Does he love me, or does he doesn’t?’ ” Not a Gossip at Heart! Vera Lewis, who plays the inveterate town gossip in “Four Wives”, was the only cast member who took no part in any of the “bull sessions” that went on around the set, during production of the film. [6] (Special to Music Editor) Musical Theme Made Complete Symphony By Public Demand Unfinished Piece ‘Composed’ by John Garfield In ‘Four Daughters’, Finished for ‘Four Wives’ A musical theme that the American public couldn’t forget has become a full fledged symphony that is presented from the screen in the Warner Bros. picture, “Four Wives,” which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. That haunting theme is the one John Garfield played when he sat at the piano and improvised for Priscilla Lane in the movie, “Four Daughters.” Max Rabinowitsh, internationally known concert pianist and composer, wrote it to fit Garfield’s own description: “it hasn’t a beginning or an end— it’s just a middle,” he called it, disgustedly. During the year since ‘Four Daughters” was released, thousands of letters have poured in to the studio asking about that “middle.” Many of : the writers have asked where they could obtain the music. Others have inquired from what published work it was an excerpt. Far more have demanded that it be given a beginning and an Ten squalling, crying babies created a problem on a film set that threatened to remain insoluble, until luck, in the form of a careless electrician stepped in and saved the day. Ten babies of the youngest possible ages arrived at 10 A.M. at Warner Studio for the hospital nursery scenes in “Four Wives,” the film which opens at the Strand Friday. Every preparation had been made: at ten o’clock the actors were ready, camera movements had been rehearsed, all the incandescent lights had been put on a single switch so they could be lighted simultaneously. The plan was to use the babies as soon as they arrived. It was hoped they could be _ photographed before they started to cry. But as soon as the babies arrived on the set, and before they could be placed in their cribs, they started to cry. Director Michael Curtiz was in a quandary. He turned around to the people on the set, and the mothers of the babies, and asked if they had any suggestions as to how to keep the babies from crying so hard. One mother suggested that all 10 Babies Invade Film Set end and that they be allowed to hear it in finished form. That last demand is being answered in “Four Wives,” sequel film to “Four Daughters.” Max Steiner, one of America’s leading composers and a member of Warner Bros.’ music staff, has supplied the beginning and the end for Rabinowitsh’s theme and the two have collaborated on a symphonic treatment. They call their work “Symphony Moderne,” and it is played by a 110-piece concert orchestra for climaxing scenes of “Four Wives.” Jeffrey Lynn, who lost Priscilla Lane to Garfield in “Four Daughters” and apparently won her again when Garfield deliberately eliminated himself through a fatal automobile crash, leads the orchestra. In the story of “Four Wives,” Lynn does for Garfield’s unfinished composition what in real life Steiner did for the Rabinowitsh theme. He gives it a beginning and an end and makes it a finished symphony. Still FW Pub. A40; Mat 202—30c The Four Daughters—Priscilla, Lola and Rosemary Lane and Gale Page—get married in "Four Wives", and these are some of the results. the babies’ diapers ought to be changed. Another mother suggested that if she were allowed to stand next to the camera and shake a rattle the babies would become quiet. Jeffrey Lynn thought maybe they were hungry. Priscilla Lane said she had an aunt who made her baby stop crying by turning it over on its stomach. None of these brilliant suggestions were to any avail, however, even the one about the diapers. Since babies are permitted by the Health Dept. to work only 30 seconds at a time, and two hours in the day, Michael Curtiz was getting pretty desperate. Suddenly an electrician walking along behind the set tripped and hit closed the light circuit, flooding the set with bright light. Instantly, every one of the babies stopped crying. Director Curtiz thereupon experimented and discovered that the babies were silent for the first 30 or 40 seconds after the lights went on. In those 30 seconds. he got all the scenes he needed, and Director Michael Curtiz is now a wiser man.