From Headquarters (Warner Bros., 1933) (1933)

Advance Features Science Replaces Old Time | Methods in Drive On Crime New Police Tactics, Eclipsing Old, Revealed in Novel Murder Mystery, ‘““From Headquarters” ee HANKS for your fingerprints.’’ Police never say it, but often as not they get them just the same. There are more than a hundred and fifty ways, known to modern police everywhere, of obtaining finger prints from people against whom they have not enough evidence for an arrest. guarding the glass, getting the victim to put his hand on a highly polished desk or _ car surface, and many others. In a modern police headquarters, such as that depicted in Warner Bros. murder mystery drama, “From Headquarters,” which to the Theatre on officials know more than just how to get fingerprints, however. They can tell, through its scientific investigation bureau, for ex comes ample, at just what hour a murder victim died by merely examining his stomach—and whether he had champagne and _ oysters beef hash for dinner! No detail of a prisoner’s physique goes unrecorded in the last-word poHeight, weight, identification scars and every other possible characteristic is noted. But these records comprise but a small part of the work of the scientific investigation bureau. Powerful microscopes for minute examination of every piece of evidence, from a single hair to a blood stain are employed by experts who can reveal from such slim evidence whether the hair or stain belonged to a human being or an animal— and whether to male or female. A new eard-indexing system, developed in recent years, even records accurately, for every known criminal in the world, his known modus operandi. That is, it tells if he operated only against Caucasians, only at certain hours of the day, using only certain tools, ete. All this information is very carefully kept, and sometimes, when a criminal cannot be detected by any other method, he can be traced with this information. Violet ray apparatus with which to read invisible writing on paper or silk, a long tester box, stuffed with cotton thread, into which bullets may be fired when it is desirable to know if a certain gun makes a peculiar scar on the bullet, and a complete chemical laboratory for other and varied tests, are only some of the elaborate equipment of the modern scientific police headquarters. Officials working with such modern, scientific apparatus in order to solve a double murder mystery, one committed right in police headquarters, will be seen in the picture, “From Headquarters.” The mystery is a highly baffling one, the first concerning the killing of a millionaire Broadway playboy whose blackmail plots and secret loves. open the door to several suspects. The second murder is committed, not to cover up the first killing, but another crime connected with it. Romance between a girl suspected of murder and a police official is unfolded with the unravelling of the plot, and parts played by George Brent and Margaret Lindsay. Others in the cast include Eugene Pallette, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Burgess, Theodore Newton, Hobart. Cavanaugh, Robert Barrat, Henry O’Neill, Ken Murray, Murray Kinnell and Kenneth Thomson. The picture is realistically and accurately portrayed, the screen play having been written by two former police reporters Robert N. Lee and Peter Milne. William Dieterle directed. or roast lice headquarters. Page Four These comprise offering a smoke, and getting them on a cigarette case, giving a glass of water, and jealously George Brent, star of “From Headquarters,’ which comes to the on Mat No.1 Price 5c Police Lab Seen in Mystery Film A modern police headquarters is a labyrinth of curious and highly efficient offices as disclosed in the Warner Bros. murder mystery drama ‘‘From Headquarters,’’ which comes to the Theatre on entire headquarters building had to be reproduced on a sound stage. Besides general offices, of which there were a good number, there are shown: An inquest laboratory, fitted with complete surgeon’s tools for autopsy. A teletype room—which is the telegraph room in which messages from police in other cities are received over the wire. A chemist’s laboratory, complete in every detail necessary for scientific crime detection, including various microscopes for minute examination of single hairs, blood stains, bullet scars, and other pieces of evidence which crop up in the course of police. work. A photographic studio, for the developing and printing of all photographs of criminals, and for press photography. A room fitted with fingerprint equipment and files, A press room. This maze of rooms, all opening from one central hall, was necessitated because one of the two murders in the story is committed at police headquarters. George Brent and Margaret Lindsay have the leading roles. Is Brent Through Playing Lead to Ruth Chatterton? Lead Role in ‘‘From Headquarters” Indicates George Brent Has Decided to Go It Alone S George Brent ‘‘through’’ with Ruth Chatterton? Not as wife, of course, but as a star to whom he is always to be leading man—and nothing more? Have Ruth Chatterton and George Brent played their last screen play together? Their studio—that of Warner Bros.—says yes. But the studio has said that before, and they have gone on playing picture after picture together just the same. Ruth says no—and what Ruth says generally goes. Now enters the third party to this little game with an opinion of his own. Asked if he was going to play with Ruth in their next picture, Brent said: “There’s been enough of that.” It sounds definitely as if George Brent had a say in these matters too. “No more pictures together,” says the studio. ; “Nonsense,” says Chatterton. But, “There’s been enough of that,” says George Brent. Nor is Brent’s attitude to be wondered at. He came to the coast two years ago, one of the most promising players to have entered films. He played in two or three of Miss Chatterton’s pictures, and it looked as if nothing less than top billing was to be his soon. But about the time you supposed George would go on to make a picture of his own, with “George Brent in—’ for the twenty-four sheet, along came another of those “Ruth Chatterton in—”’ and “with George Brent” somewhere under the title. Then the studio cast George in a murder mystery, with Margaret Lindsay as the feminine lead, a picture called “From Headquarters” Wich comes tO-the 25... ieias...-., Theatre on But it has done that before, too, so that it hardly indicates whether they intend finally to be firm in their stand against letting Mr. and Mrs. Brent play together again. Speculation, however, in the film colony is rife. There are those who say that Brent would have achieved stellar heights before this if he had not been cast as leading man opposite his wife. There are those who say that his leads opposite Chatterton have been the best thing in the world for him. Yet George Brent was an immediate hit in pictures when he was first seen on the screen. Such infallible indicators as fan mail, fan magazines, and the various popular polls—as well as that most infallible of all, the box office—have shown that he holds great appeal for feminine moviegoers. One of the most curious things about the whole argument is the entire good nature of everyone concerned. The studio has not been rough in its attitude. After putting down its foot, it serenely waves aside its own dictum, and has let Brent and Miss Chatterton play in two pictures together since the final forbidding. Miss Chatterton says Brent is to continue to play with her in his pictures, but has indicated to friends that George’s wishes in the matter will do more than anything else to determine what her attitude will be for the next picture. Brent’s attitude is, as always, good humoredly firm. A tall, quiet young Irishman with a sense of humor, he smiles most of his statements at you, but means them no less for that. “The thing’s gone far enough,” he says. “I don’t think the public itself particularly cares to see a She Guffawed at Tashman And Hollywood Applauded Margaret Lindsay Lead in “From Headquarters” Kidded Lil’s Operation and Won Big Salute M°.. Margaret Lindsay. Without half trying, she put over three of the best publicity stunts Hollywood has seen in a year. She’s the little girl, you may remember, who so well palmed herself off as an English actress—and that in a city just flowing with fake English actresses (and actors)— that she got one of the choice roles in ‘‘Cavalcade’’—next to George Arliss, the most English thing that’s come out of Hollywood. It got her quite a lot of publicity. Not content with that, she saw that the game would sooner or later be up—and perhaps not in her favor —so she drew aside one of the most famous women correspondents in the West and gave her the story of the deception. Merely making a lark of it. That also got her quite a bit of publicity. Then she laughed at La Tashman’s operation! It was at Margaret’s first Hollywood party. She’s only been to two, by the way, in her nearly a year in Hollywood. And this was quite a famous one. Nearly all the celebrities were there. And in the middle of one of those breathless quiets that sometimes come over even Hollywood parties, La Tashman began the story of her operation. ‘<Well, my goodness,’’ said Margaret later, explaining the action which electrified the gathering, ‘¢doesn’t everyone always laugh at a story about an operation?’’ But it seems that this time they didn’t. It was one of La Tashman’s serious moments—and no one laughs at her serious moments, any more than they laugh at Garbo’s funny ones. But Margaret Lindsay laughed. And that also got her quite a lot of publicity. But what, actually, is this young actress like? What has she got besides this flair for attracting attention, effortlessly, in a town that spends millions of dollars every year, just trying to attract that attention? What has she got? Tallullah Bankhead, for one, has said that she has the Bankhead forehead—it’s really one of the highest and broadest in Hollywood—and the best voice the screen has heard. Michael Curtiz, who directed her with William Powell in ‘‘ Private Detective 62’’ said that she was the most promising young actress to come under his notice in ten years, William Powell has said that she is ‘‘marvelous.’’ Paul Muni, with whom she worked in ‘‘The World Changes’’ said the same thing. Leslie Howard picked her to play opposite him in ‘‘Captured!’’ And now she is co-featured with George Brent in ‘‘From Headquarters,?’ the Warner Bros. picture husband and wife play always together. But even if there were no other reason, I think it’s reason enough that I would much rather do something on my own.” If the time ever comes — and may it not have come now, the wise ones are asking?—when George Brent saw that playing with Ruth Chatterton was not alone inimical to his own future success, but to her as well, those who know him best know that there would be only one course open to him—and that he would take it. He would refuse to play in any more of her pictures, and the combined pleas of Chatterton and the studio officials would fail to move him. George Brent is playing on his own in “From Headquarters” heading a strong cast of players, which include besides Miss Lindsay, Eugene Pallette, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Burgess, Theodore Newton, Hobart Cavanaugh, Robert Barrat, Henry O’Neill and Ken Murray. which comes to the Theatre on Is she English, people are asking, or was that first story of her just a gag? She isn’t English. She was born in Dubuque, Iowa, went to school there and in Washington, D. C., and then spent a short while abroad. Personally, in both appearance and action, she is a young woman of extremes. She can play a smart and sophisticated New Yorker, an ingenue, or an older matron with equal finesse. But she likes comedy best of all. ‘*You can’t always go on playing a girl who cries through seven reels, and get anywhere,’’ she says. ‘You didn’t ery in ‘From Headquarters’,’’? she was told. ‘¢But I came very close to it,’’ she answered. In appearance, she is medium tall, with black hair and brown eyes. She loves to go to the Victor Hugo for tea or dinner, and, conversely, she loves to put on an old pair of slacks and eat her dinner sitting on a high stool at a ‘*hamburger joint.’’ Margaret Lindsay, talented actress in “From Headquarters,” coming siansa Seto to the Theatre. Mat No.3 Price 5e The in-between, the ordinary, such as eating at the best known of the Hollywood places, with the best known of the Hollywood names, she simply doesn’t care for at all. ‘¢And I’ll be like that in pictures, too,’’ she says. ‘‘I’ll be very bad— or I’ll be very good. You watch.’’ If she has been attractive to the usual Hollywood young men who hang around the usual young Hollywood actresses, that fact has been kept a strict secret. She is almost never seen in public, and when she is, it is with her sister, or with an older group of players, or with Janet Gaynor, whose close friend she is. ‘¢T will not be the ordinary young Hollywood ingenue,’’ she says. ‘‘I will not be the young ordinary anything.’’ She has probably her finest role in ‘From Headquarters,’’ a most baffling murder mystery story.. Among those in the cast besides Miss Lind say and George Brent are Eugene Pallette, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Burgess, Robert Barrat, Theodore Newton and Ken Murray.