Girl Missing (Warner Bros.) (1933)

~~. high fora while as, the “ang ADVANCE FEATURES (Advance Feature) Kibbee Likes Cops More Than “Sugar Daddies’’ FTER two experiences as a ‘‘sugar daddy,’’ Guy Kibbee has decided he’ll decline the nomination for any such roles in the future, and content himself with quieter parts, such as detectives, hoboes, and the like, in which there may be fewer thrills but considerably more honor. This decision, of course, has to do strictly with Mr. Kibbee’s screen life. It’s based on the ‘‘bald-headed’’ parts he was called upon to assume in “42nd Street” and “Girl Missing” recently at Warner Bros, studios. Particularly, on “Girl Missing,” which is coming to teen. ee Theatre. In both these productions—espectally the mystery thriller—Guy is the hot-cha boy about town, riding to the chorines with all the earnestness of an English squire setting out on a fox hunt before breakfast. One of those “Indian Summer” parts, in which the actor gets that grandfather complex about dandling the kiddies on his knee—only in this case the kiddies are eighteen or thereabouts, and have already been glorified by Carroll, White & Co. And, of course, in the end Guy gets what our grandmothers used to call “the mitten”—only we don’t wear mittens these days—and has to go drown his sorrows in champagne. | Fated to Door Slams | That’s the kind of a “sugar daddy” Guy has to be in “Girl Missing,” playing the good old wolf to Mary Brian’s Little Red Riding Hood, and having the door slammed in his face, after ne’s wined and dined Mary and her chorus girl pal, Glenda Farrell, and paid for their gambling flings at the Palm Beach casinos. In “42nd Street” Guy did do a little better, to be sure. He rode 32, can do it—I’ve known so many of them in real life in the course of my years on the stage that it’s easy to embellish any role of that kind with recollections of playboys I’ve actually watched at play. “Maybe that’s why it doesn’t seem to me like acting, in the real sense oi the word. I hope sve played my last one, although if Warner Bros. say to me, ‘Guy, you’re just the man for this part,’ and hand me another chorus-girl collector, I’ll probably grit my teeth and go out and do my best. “Another reason that they leave me cold is, I guess, because the psychology of such boobs is so painfully simple and ingenuous that it’s hard to make yourself believe you could even give a good imitation of a sixty-year-old sap who can’t see through the prop routine of a go:d-digger. | Likes Detective Part | “I’m perfectly willing to leave the ‘bald-headed row’ parts to anybody who enjoys doing them. Give me something like the role of Phlaxer, the detective in “The Life of Jimmy Dolan,’ Doug Fairbanks, Jr’s. picture, and I’m as completely in my element as if I were off for a day’s fishing. There’s a Saat charage r—2 = ae “ we = the show Bebe Daniels was starring in, and enjoyed the ecstasy of putting Bebe up in a swank Park Avenue apartment and in other ways, was the treasurer of the situation. And ail he got for it was a stand-up when Bebe walked out on him and into the arms of George Brent, her real high-voltage boy friend, just as the audience knew she would. any actor’s efforts —a detective sent an innocent man to the chair through a perfectly honest but erroneous piece of testimony, and has been living to redeem himself ever since.” Guy Kibbee’s characterizations, numerous and varied as they have been, are significant of an unusual ability. Such pictures as “The Crowd Roars,” “Main Event,” “Crooner,” “Mouthpiece,” ‘‘High Pressure,’ “Union Depot,” “The Dark Horse,” “Central Park” and “42nd Street” testify to his powers of characterization, regardless of background or social scale. Robert Florey directed “Girl Missing” with a cast headed by Ben Lyon, Glenda Farrell, Mary Brian and Peggy Shannon, and including such other well-known players as Harold Huber, Edward Ellis, Helen Ware, Ferdinand Gottschalk and Lyle Talbot. The story is the work of Carl Erickson and Don Maullaly, who also adapted it for the screen. By and large, the two experiences have soured Guy Kibbee on the ‘gay old dog’ role. The business of being the lad who always chases ’em and never gets ’em seems like a lot of squirrel-food to Guy. It’s a lot more fun being a Central Office flat-foot —or even a house detective in a modern hostelry—at least, you’re given credit for some brains to start with, and if you show a little intelligence in the course of the story, it doesn’t threaten to ruin the part you’re playing. | Knows Real Life Type “T guess I’m too easy going and dignified by nature to get a kick out of playing those stage-door Johnny roles,” said Guy in discussing the situation. “Of course, I WHAT’S HAPPENING On The Warner-First National Lot. A new news serice instituted by Warner Bros. presents the latest news from the Warner Bros.First National studios, dealing with pictures in production — Hollywood previews—and about the coming product. It is called ““What’s Happening on the Warner-First National Lot” Make use of this up-to-theminute news, by planting it with your local movie editors, taking care to mention the fact that the picture will be shown at your theatre. Write for this free service without delay. Address: Warner Bros., PUBLICITY DEPT., 321 West 44th Street, New York City. MARY BRIAN follows up her success in “Hard to Handle” with a grand performance in Warner Bros.” intriguing mystery “Girl Missing.”’ Out No.2 Outi15e Mat 5c Advance Feature “Girl Missing’’ Player Has Pioneer Heritage EET Glenda Farrell—a genuine daughter of ‘‘The Last Frontier,’’ who plays the leading feminine role in ‘‘Girl Missing,’’ a mystery thriller which opens at the Watching the expertness with which this saucy, high-powered blonde plays underworld molls, cigarette-smoking, cocktail-drinking dames, wisecracking back-stage parts, blase newspaper reporters, and gold-digging chorus girls, it’s hard to see in Glenda perament and problems are worth who’s lost his nerve because he once ~ a child of the western cattle ranges, with the blood of the hardy landrushers of the ’90s in her veins. But that is precisely what Glenda Farrell is. Perhaps, after all, it’s the heritage of the open spaces that GLENDA FARRELL’S characterizations are always a treat. In “Girl Missing”? she plays the part of an ex-chorus girl. You can imagine the fun that results. Out No.3 Outiice Mat dc puts a biting tang into her speeches, and gives her a manner that rings equally true in a Broadway speakeasy or a mining camp of the boom days. For this newcomer to the ranks who eiectrified pro@ucers ana puv.. alike with her sensational per formance in “Life Begins” and “The Mystery of the Wax Museum,” hails from Oklahoma. Parents Joined Land Rush And that’s only half the interesting truth about Glenda. Her parents—long before they even thought of becoming her parents—were both active figures in the huge swarms of homeseekers, thousands strong, who poured into the famous Cherokee Strip, when the Federal Government opened these three million or more acres to colonization in 1893. Glenda’s father, Charles Farrell— no relation to the motion picture star of the same name—trekked into the virgin territory that once belonged to the Cherokee Nation, from the Kansas side. Another huge army of white nomads, hungry for new land, invaded the Cherokee Strip from Iowa, and among these legions was Glenda’s mother, with generations of gentle German blood in her veins, fashioned of the stout-hearted stuff that makes pioneers. of Warner Bros, features = Both were strangers to each other when they were swept into the new territory on this tide of humanity, but before many years had passed Charles Farrell had found a bride, and it was in the little town of Enid, Oklahoma, that Glenda first saw the light of day, while the twentieth century was just struggling out of swaddling clothes. Past Frontier Gone The opening of the Cherokee Strip marked, in truth, the passing of the last frontier of the old west. The first barriers had been swept away with great Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. The day of the open range was done. A new era was born. The West, as we know it today, had come into being, though it took many years for the country to pass through the painful transition from the past to the future. The wanderlust of her parents must have been passed on to Glenda, for the theatre claimed her at the early age of seven, when she made her debut as Little Eva in a traveling “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Company, or “Tom Show,” as they are called in the slang of the show world. For years thereafter, Glenda was a nomau of the footlights, continually on tour—living in a trunk,’ to use her own vivid phrase—with occasional detours to school for an ed ‘neation that sha nieke* piece. al Gets Valuable Training Valuable experience in several stock companies along the Pacific Coast, from Portland to San Diego, trained the ability that eventually brought her a call from the metropolitan theatres of the east, and led her ultimately to a tempting contract with Warner Bros.-First National Studios, As the gold-digging chorus girl in “Girl Missing” Glenda Farrell can be counted upon to give an outstanding performance, following her sensational success in “Life Begins” with Loretta Young, “The Match King” with Warren William, and “The Mystery of the Wax Museum” with Lionel Atwill. Ben Lyon has the leading masculine role in the mystery thriller, “Girl Missing,” with Mary Brian in the ingenue role. Others in the cast include Peggy Shannon, Lyle Talbot, Guy Kibbee, Harold Huber and Edward Ellis. The picture was written and adaptea by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly and directed by Robert Florey. ADVANCE SHORTS Mary’s First Cigarette Cured Her of Habit Mary Brian smoked her first cigarette during the production of “Girl Missing.” This is the first time in her picture work that she has been called on to smoke. As she does not smoke off the stage her first effort resulted in considerable choking. Mary decided she won’t make a habit of smoking. Guy Kibbee Prefers Cop To “Sugar Daddy”’ Roles Guy Kibbee, the veteran aetor, plays the role of sugar daddy in “Girl Missing.” He says he prefers a cop role however, as he has seen too many sugar daddies to have any love for them or the part they play with chorus girls. Talbot Can Plug Ace of Spades From Ten Feet Lyle Talbot proves he is mighty handy with.the shooting irons in the Warner Bros. picture, “Girl Missing,” which opens at the ........ peanciuiees Bhoeatre: Noxta.etasccee. As the villain of the piece he wants to warn a man, whom he thinks is interfering with his plans to get out of town. So he shoots a hole through a playing card in the-man’s hand. The card was held by Ferdinand Gottschalk and Talbot, leaning through a winuow ten feet away, put a bullet through the ace of spades. NOTE: Don’t overlook the tremendous value of shorts. Your Motion Picture Editor will find them very helpful both as items for his gossip column and as newsy squibs to he used as fillers. Page Five