Frisco Kid (Warner Bros.) (1935)

RISCO Pp UB Se LaG@ei Fy They'll Fight at the Strand The battle to decide who should rule the world’s most famous underworld in the vicious fifties is one of the many exciting scenes m ““ Frisco Kid,’’ Warner Bros.’ drama of the birth of gangland which opens at (heen se ese Theatre on The fighters are James Cagney and Fred Koller. Mat No. 206—20c¢ Barbary Coast Of ‘Frisco Reconstructed For Film Notorious Underworld Section, Now Wiped Out, Will Be Seen In “Frisco Kid” On the shores of the lake at Warner Bros.’ studio, carpenters rebuilt a forgotten city—the young city of San Francisco which in 1854 sprawled across the sand hills. Few Californians would recognize this San Francisco, for it resembles not at all the great city overlooking the Golden Gate in the year 1935. And nearly everyone who lived in the days following the gold rush when the Barbary Coast was more than a name and when the vigilantes built Fort Gunnybags, has long since died. The city was built for “Frisco Kid,” which comes to the ............ Theatre on, with James Cagney in the stellar role. Building a town that exists only in faded photographs is not an easy task. The architectural magician was Art Director John Hughes. He took a series of photographs and from them recreated the waterfront, Portsmouth Square, Knob Hill, Telegraph Hill, portions of Pacific, Kearney, Clay and Washington Streets of the year 1854. All the old sets on the east side of the lake were cleared away in a three acre area. The mine used in Paul Muni’s “Black Fury” disappeared. The docks, erected ten years ago for another San Francisco waterfront picture, were removed and new docks, aged nearly three quarters of a century over-night, took their place. Beyond the docks was Pacific Street—the Barbary Coast—with its scores of saloons, gambling houses, cheap hotels and bagnios. Then leading away from it were the other streets with the buildings getting more and more re Donald Woods with James Cagney in “*FRISCO KID’’ at the Strand. Mat No. 111 10c spectable until Portsmouth Square was reached. On Portsmouth Square stood the “Hayworth” theatre, an exact duplicate of the famous Jen Page Four ny Lind theatre built in 1851, which burned the following year. Also on the square was Fort Gunnybags where the Vigilantes held court and hanged not a few of the Barbary Coast characters. There, too, was the Monumental Fire House. On a sound stage the more elaborate interiors used in the picture were constructed. The International Hotel, Morra’s gambling hall, the Tribune office, the Bella Pacific, the Occidental Hotel and the Hayworth theatre interiors were built almost complete. There were replicas of famous structures of the 1854 period. Hughes hasn’t stopped there. After Cagney is swept from his position of power by the forces of law and order back to the Barbary Coast, the settings follow him down and at the end they are as drab as they were at first. “Frisco Kid” is a dynamic dra ma of the days when vice and. erime were rampant on the Barbary Coast and the vigilantes represented the only potent law. Cagney heads the cast which includes Margaret Lindsay, Rieardo Cortez, Lili Damita, George E. Stone, Donald Woods, Barton MacLane and Joseph Crehan. 50 Pounds Of Hair For Film Whiskers It was a tough life for the make-up man on the set of “Frisco Kid,’ the Warner Bros. picture which comes to the ........... Theatres ON ec seee More than 50 pounds of hair were used for false whiskers worn by the 400 extras, playing old time characters, from San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. These beards had to be adjusted on to the extras’ faces each morning and taken off again in the evening. One Time Stars Play “Bit” Roles In “Frisco Kid” Among the hundreds of extras and bit players in the Warner Bros. production, ‘‘ Frisco Kid,’’ MOW= SHOWIN Se Abs LUC Sh i.ccsecss cess evaeen: Theatre, are a group of persons whose names once were as well known to movie goers as many of the current crop of film stars. All are determined to stage a comeback in pictures and they are convinced extra work is the best route to follow. The group includes such once famous names as Vera Stedman, Helen Chadwick, Alice Lake, Jane Tallent, Bill Dale and Dick Kerr, the latter once a director. The Misses Stedman, Chadwick, Lake and Tallent are portraying small roles as belles of the Barbary Coast gambling resort operated by a character played by Ricardo Cortez. Dale and Kerr are among the scores of men giving the resort ‘Satmosphere’’?’ as gamblers, miners, sailors and denizens of the notorious area. James Cagney, who was unknown in Hollywood at the time thes players were at the top of the film heap, is the star of ‘‘ Frisco Kid.’’ In addition to Cortez, he is supported by a stellar cast, including Margaret Lindsay, Lili Damita, Donald Woods, George E. Stone, Barton MacLane and Fred Kohler. The picture is a thrilling story of old San Francisco, when the underworld ran wide open in defiance of decency and the vigilantes took the law into their own hands. Lloyd Bacon directed the production, the story and screen play being by Warren Duff and Seton I. Miller. Cagney May Be Rough Neck But It’s Distinctive Jimmy Cagney, star of the Warner Bros. production, ‘‘ Frisco Kid,’’ now showing at the ............ is eee Theatre, has a character neck. Most people have necks that are just necks. Turn their backs to the camera and they lose their identity at once. Not so with Cagney. The scrappy actor is as unmistakable from the back as from the front. There is no other neck like that in pietures. No other player has ever stolen a scene from Cagney just beeause he had his back to the camera. Most actors who play heavy roles have thick necks. Cagney’s neck, from the rear, looks stiff and unyielding. It is short and freckled but it is not thick. It is as definitely a part of his characterization in ‘‘Frisco Kid’’ as are his justly famous hands. Necks are always interesting, particularly to cameramen who must photograph them to the best advantage, either for beauty or character. If one watches his pictures closely he will find that he can always recognize him, whether he is facing the camera or not— by his neck. Cagney is a ‘‘rough neck’’ in ‘“Frisco Kid,’’ a story of San Francisco’s notorious Barbary Coast when the noose of the vigilantes was the only check on robbery, rioting, arson and murder. Besides Cagney in the cast are Margaret Lindsay, Ricardo Cortez, Lili Damita, George E. Stone, Donald Woods, Fred Kohler, Robert MeWade, Barton MacLane and Joseph Crehan. Lloyd Bacon directed. Rope Ends Ricardo Cortez’ Villainy In Latest Film Man Of A Thousand Deaths Has New Experience In “Frisco Kid” After playing featured roles and being starred in eightyseven pictures, there are few new film experiences left for an actor. Nevertheless, Ricardo Cortez, who began his screen career when movies still wore swaddling clothes, had a novel experience in his latest Warner Bros. production, ‘‘Frisco Kid,’’ which comes to the Cortez has probably been “exterminated” in films in more ways than any other member of the motion picture colony. Aside from the ordinary and prosaic methods of shooting and stabbing, he has been boiled to death in a bath of acid, he has been slugged and mortally wounded, he has been thrown to his death from a window, he has been choked to death and he has just plain died, to name a few of his more important screen departures from this mundane sphere. He is known as the “man of a thousand deaths.” Now he is hanged. Cortez has the role of proprietor of a notorious gambling establishment of San Francisco’s early day Barbary Coast, in “Frisco Kid.” He gives a job to a penniless sailor, a part played by James Cagney, and when the latter subsequently fights his way to the leadership of the vicious denizens of the Coast, he takes Cortez up the ladder with him. In the fall of the year 1854— the period of the picture—San Francisco has its first taste of grand opera and Cagney, as a gesture of defiance to the righteous citizens, sends a group of his hirelings to McGuire’s opera house. Everything goes along quite nicely until the gambler takes offense when Judge Stephen Crawford, a leader of the better element, declines to sit in the same box with him. Cortez, the gambler, empties both barrels of his derringer into the judge’s body. As the story goes, he is arrested but soon released by the erooked city administration, which is under Cagney’s thumb. This offends the presumably dormant Committee of Vigilance, that famous group of citizens “whieh had cleaned out the law Theatre on .... Bad Man No. 1 Barton MacLane, the screen’s No. 1 bad man, has the most villainous role of his career as the ‘‘crimp boss’’ of San Francisco’s water *. front in the days of the gold rush ~* in Warner Bros., ‘‘ Frisco Kid,’”: NOW Gt 16 c.tiainweateente Theatre. Mat No. 104—10c¢ less element of the city once — before, in 1851, and the gambler is removed from his lodgings. The hanging takes place in the plaza several hours later. The business of being synthetically suspended from a gallows was rather interesting to him. “Really quite a novel way of ending one’s mortal career, even ~ in pictures, don’t you think?” he remarked. Ricardo Cortez and Lili Damita, shown above in the foreground, portray two underworld ‘‘big shots’’ of the vicious ‘‘ fifties’? in Warner Bros.” drama of the successful battle against the underworld by the vigilantes: in ‘‘Frisco Kid’’ now showing at the Theatre. Mat No. 201—20c s » = nF, * a, to 2