Girl Missing (Warner Bros.) (1933)

CURRENT FEATURES alternate nights with Shelia Terry and Joan Marsh, two of the younger beauties. Current Feature Current Feature “Girl Missing’? Villain To Be Real Star Soon OO aieor while Clark Gable is running his meteoric course, The feminine hearts of Hollywood could be said to be doing a tattoo over the young Talbot. Nevertheless, he’ll tell you, with the most engaging grin imaginable, that he really doesn’t care about that sort of thing at all. He likes girls, sure, but only as a pastime. He’s more interested in doing a good job in pictures. He’s been married before, and divorced, and that kind, as anyone will tell you, is the hardest to catch sleeping again. Ben Lyon One of Few to Rise From Extra Ranks KING friendly and refraining from putting on the high hat with extras who work with him on the set is not just a mat ter of noblesse oblige with Ben Lyon. The young actor who plays the leading role in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘Girl MissHig winch is now at-the.................<:. Theatre, knows just what it means to be an extra, for he got his own start in pictures that way. a major studio is grooming another young actor for stellar roles. His name is Lyle Talbot, who carries the ‘‘heavy’’ honors in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘Girl Missing,’’ now showing ReLUee Se ee Theatre. Sometimes the thing isn’t done so consciously. You’ll remember, for example, that John Gilbert was an extra and bit player when Richard Dix and Conrad Nagel and Ramon Novarro were Muni), a prison breaker (remember holding the chief masculine limeSpencer Tracy), a man-about-town “Marriage is too tame,” he says, and you believe that, for him, it is. “The most fascinating thing in the world is a good job of work.” He is one of those rare individuals who rose to the top from the extra ranks, but he doesn’t lay his rise to the fact that he worked from the bottom up. His adWhat are you going to do with a vice to extras who ask him how to become stars is: “Get out and do some stage work and them come back.” It was back in the days when the film industry went begging for players, and its main center of activity was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that Ben Lyon got his start. But despite the uncrowded status of the movies, Ben found it impossible to raise himself any higher than extra work. | P. S. He Got the Job | He got his job, in the first place, by calmly walking into the studio to see how movies were made (it could be done in those days), and inquiring offhand as to how to get @ job. He was hired on the spot and told to report the next morning. After a few months of nothing but extra work, Ben Lyon began to feel that there was no percentage in it, and that the ods were all against him. wne thing ne uad acquired, and that was the urge to act. He had to quit the movies in order to give this urge something to urge about. It took him many months of walking streets and being interviewed, but he finally won a part in a stage production of Booth Tarkington’s “Seventeen,” afwhich, things came a little He had some references of ter easier. experience to show. He then won a part with Jeanne Eagles in “The Wonderful Thing,” following this with a featured part play oppe~* a5 .vvgtl, Barbara LaMarr and in “Mary The Third” by Rachel Crothers. The leading lady of this play was a popular movie star of that day, Louise Huff, and when the run of the play was over, Ben felt that he had something to offer in the way of experience as far as the movies were concerned. He decided that the time was ripe, so he just walked back to the movie studio and presented his credentials. tion this time. It was a different recepHe went right into featured roles and then right on up the ladder to the status he enjoys today. | Took Years of Work | It wasn’t quite as easy as that, for there were months of uncertainty and disappointment here and there, and it meant years of hard work to make good—and stay good. Several good breaks came in a row, especially when he was chosen to ‘screen favorites 255 other top-notch figures of their particular time. Most of these stars have since passed, but Ben Lyon still goes on. : Playing opposite him in “Girl Missing” is Mary Brian, and others in the cast are Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot, Harold Huber, Peggy Shannon, Edward Ellis and Ferdinand Gottschalk. The story was written and adapted for the screen by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly. It was directed by Robert Florey. CURRENT SHORTS “Hats Coming Down, New Crowns Deeper’’—Stylist It may be good news or bad news, according to the point of view and the individual hair-cut, but—-women’s hats are coming down in the back. That’s the opinion of OrryKelly, Warner Bros.’ studio stylist, who also looks for deeper crowns in the near future. Glenda Farrell, in “Girl Missing,’ which opens at the Theatre. on ::..c... de is one of the first to indicate the new millinery trend on the screen, wearing a hat of gray ostrich fabric that covers her hair in the back and reaches low on one side. Ben Lyon has the leading masculine role in “Girl Missing” and Mary Brian the ingenue part. Clara Horton Old Time Star, in ‘Girl Missing” Clara Horton, once a star in her own right, returned to the screen to work in “Girl Missing,’ a Warner Bros. picture, now showing at theatre, but she is not in evidence in the picture. Her part is that of “stand in” for Mary Brian. Mary plays the ingenue role with Ben Lyon and Glenda Farrell also prominent in the mystery thriller by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly. Page Sia Found! Film Player Who Uses No Grease-Paint Harold Huber, now appearing with Ben Lyon, Glenda Farrell, and Mary Brian in “Girl Missing,” the Warner Bros. picture at the Theatre, has the art of make-up down to a real science. He doesn’t use any! He has never used it! During his early days on the stage he found it wasn’t essential that he use it and when, after making one of his regular appearances sans grease-paint, he was complimented by other Warner Bros. players on the natural make-up and his cleverness in applying it, he decidea for all time to renounce it. Star Told, ‘“‘Put It In Pipe—and Smoke It” Lyle Talbot, who is a pipe smoker, is always distressed when he has to break in a new pipe. That is he always was until he started work on “Girl Missing,” the Warner Bros. mystery thriller, now showing at theatre. He told his troubles to Director Robert Florey and was advised to line the pipe bowl with honey. “This,” said Lyle, “makes it taste exactly like a well broken in pipe. I advise anyone who likes a pipe to try it.” ‘were not all the light. Then a young man named Gable played an extra in a picture in which Gilbert starred—“The Merry Widow.” Now, Gable the crowned heads of stardom toppling, young Lyle Talbot slips quietly into town and begins to play roles in almost every sort of picture the Warner Studios can give him. while sends He’s not aiming at Gable’s crown. Nothing so crass. This young actor isn’t even a Gable type, although he has played heavies, as Gable did, in most of his early pictures. Talbot is a product of the stage. He was practically born on it, his mother and father both being on the stage. thing else. He has never known anyHe has played in stock practically all his life. He went a while to school, even to the university, but got his chief knowledge of the world from the stage and from books. : He can play, if we are to believe the directors on his home lot—anything. when his name is mentioned for a There is no qualification role. But it actually is true. Perhaps that sounds strange. He has played heavies, but they same sort of heavies. He has played a gentleman-detective (remember Powell), a young doctor (remember Chevalier), a brain specialist (remember Fredric March), a small town chain store representative (remember Nagel), a king Paul gangster (remember (remember Menjou), a cub reporter (remember Gilbert). He has played plenty of hoofers on the stage. He studied music for eight years and has made a number of song records for Columbia Phonograph. He played in “Irene” and “The Gingham Girl” in musical comedy. It may make you wonder where Warner Bros. have been hiding him for his first six or eight months in pictures. It may until you begin to give the matter a little thought. And when you’ve done that you'll realize quite suddenly that if you were yourself setting out to create a star of the first water, you’d groom him just about as Warner Bros. have groomed Talbot. “‘Leave Women Alone’”’ Polly Moran, who has known him for a long time, and who ocecasionally gives him good advice, gave him his first lecture on arriving in half a dozen words. “Kid,” she said, “you leave women alone.” Anu to be sure he did. She introduced him to Estelle liked him, apparently, for she took him in tow, and for days the papers wondered out loud when Lyle and Jack Dempsey and Jan Rubini were going to settle the matter of whom Estelle favored. She gave a party to the press to have it meet Lyle in a body. Dorothy Burgess brought him out to Malibu, not once, but a dozen times. There was talk of the thing being serious. But Dorothy went away and Lyle was seen shortly in company with Wynne Gibson. Then he was seen with her again, and yet again. It got to be a ho-hum item finally, and people thought that was serious. But a little later he was seen on young fellow like that? Grooming for Stardom | His home studio seems to think it knows. It’s putting him in every sort of role its fertile imagination can conjure up. Really, he’s nothing at all like any of the roles he’s played. He’s tall and well set up, with straight brown hair and well cut features—good looking enough to play with anyone from Garbo down. He’s not a tough. His interest is the stage and books. He’s a collector of the latter. He’s modest, works hard. lives simply and He could perhaps be compared to Frederic March for knowledge, ability and application to his job. He’s already played in ten pictures, including “Love is a Racket,” “The Purchase Price,” “Three on a Match,” “Stranger in Town,” “Thirteenth Guest,” “Klondike,” “Unholy Love,” “Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing,” “42nd Street,” and now in “Girl Missing.” In “Girl Missing,” Lyle has his important role since joini~—_ Warner Bros. He has been given more and more important parts with each succeeding picture. His next step is that of leading male part. This has already been assigned him —opposite Loretta Young in “She Had To Say Yes.” In “Girl Missing” a mystery thriller, Lyle has the villain role, at which he is perfectly at home through long experience in such parts. Ben Lyon has the hero’s role with Glenda Farrell playing opposite him and Mary Brian in the ingenue role. Others in the cast include Peggy Shannon, Guy Kibbee, Harold Huber and Edward Ellis. The story and the screen play are by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly. It was directed by Robert Florey. —IIS=eaouquqa rr re SSS SSS SSNS see reese r neers Sens saaaratastacnssstaansnssntssnsnassassesansnessesesessssaeaeaenesmemnenenemneseneeeeeeeenee, BEN LYON, MARY BRIAN and GLENDA FARRELL whose pleasing performances in “Girl Missine make it one of the most entertaining pictures seen in a long while. Out No.6 Cut 45e Mat 15¢