Havana Widows (Warner Bros.) (1933)

Current Publ city (Review) “Havana Widows: Will Keep You Laughing Throughout Wanted — Two Suckers 5th day of run One Experience With | Woolen Underwear Is Too Much for Kibbee Guy Kibbee is all ready to go on the warpath. This “turn-back-the-clock” movement to 1900—and earlier—in women’s fashions, and men’s as well, has Guy plenty worried. And not only worried, but sore—good and sore. It’s not the women he’s worried about. They can dig up all of grandmother’s dresses they please and strut in them to their hearts’ con Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell Immense in Great Comedy of Two Gold Digging Chorines AYBE it’s just that comedy is so welcome in times like these—at any rate the present reviewer found himself almost rolling in the aisles at ‘‘Havana Widows,’’ First National comedy drama, which opened ive ota. theatre. Here is a fast comedy that steps along from one hilarious situation to another at express speed, with the smartest dialogue and the niftiest lot of wisecracking we have heard in many a day. Joan Blondell’s well earned reputation for getting off the grandest sort of repartee, is enhanced by this tangy roistering comedy. Just imagine the flippant Joan Blondell and the equally flippant and_ clever Glenda Farrell, as two burlesque queens, who decide to blow the stage and go in for millionaire collecting in Havana on a large scale. They’re out for the dough, and they don’t care even if they have to resort to the old badger game to snare it. If you were casting this picture could you possibly select anyone else but Guy Kibbee for the dumb money victim, selected for the plucking? Or Allen Jenkins as Herman the comedy gunman body guard for a ‘‘big shot’’ gambler? Or Frank MeHugh as the hard drinking attorney who acts as the go-between after the gold diggers have compromised their victim? And when it comes to romantic interest, you’ll have to admit that Lyle Talbot is just the handsome, capable one you’d want for the straight lead. Well, you’ll find that First National’s casting director has anticipated your own selections and has given ‘‘Havana Widows,’’ as perfect a cast of comedy players as you could name. Mae and Sadie, that’s Joan and Glenda, stumble onto the idea of going to Havana and looking for sappy millionaires, after one of their former chorine friends visits them looking like a million dollars. It seems the girl friend has just returned from the Cuban capitol where she had shaken down a millionaire for sixty thousand dollars with a threatened breach of promise suit. What happens to the girls in Havana, forms the basis for a succession of laughs in situations which if they had been less broadly played might have been termed risque. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are incomparable and carry off their roles with high honors. As we stated a couple of paragraphs back, the entire cast shows the same careful selection that has come to distinguish all Warner Bros. First National productions. Ray Enright who directed from the screen play by Earl Baldwin, has kept the story moving at a fast, even clip and has succeeded in combining the fine elements of story, cast and comedy into a decidedly entertaining picture, you’re sure to enjoy. Opening Day Story Ist day of run ‘‘Havana Widows’’ To/Ruth Donnelly Sets Open Today at... .|Record By Acting in With Joan Blondell | Five Films at Once For good natured, rough and tumble, catch-as-catch-can comedy, “Havana Widows,” the First National picture which begins a Pete ida pee as engagement on the screen of the Theatre today, is said to be the sereen’s undisputed champion. Riotously funny and _ startling situations are created by Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell. As two wise-cracking Broadway burlesque girls, they invade the Cuban ecapitol on a hunt for millionaire easy marks, whom they hope to compromise and shake-down for easy money. Their decision to invade the Cuban capitol is reached after a former chorine friend had blown in on them looking the picture of prosperity. The friend’s story that Havana was simply reeking with millionaires all anxious to be separated from their dough, leads Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell to depart post-haste for Havana after first shaking down a boy friend for $1500 for expenses. There their mad adventures lead them into the most unusual lot of complications, which because they are played so broadly, result in one fast comedy situation after another. Snappy dialogue has been injected into the screen play by Rian James. The comedy action is c¢arried along by no less than six players who know how to strut their stuff. Besides Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell these include Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins, Lyle Talbot, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Ralph Ince and Maude Eburne. Ray Enright directed. Page Sia During the making of “Havana Widows,” now showing at the Sie epee PAS ERE Theatre, Ruth Donnelly, an important member of the cast, was appearing in five pictures at the same time at the Warner Bros.-First National studios. That establishes a new record for a featured player, even in these days of high-pressure production schedules. In “Female,” with Ruth Chatterton, she was playing a secretary. In “Ever In My Heart,” with Barbara Stanwyck and Otto Kruger, she was wearing her hair tightly pulled back and leaving off the make-up for a prim New England maid-of-all-work. In “Bureau of Missing Persons” she was the jovial receptionist guarding the gate at that same bureau. In “Footlight Parade,” her role was that of the overbearing wife of Guy Kibbee—just as it jis again in “Havana Widows.” Some of these five productions were finished before the others, naturally. But at one point or another all of them overlapped—at least so far as Ruth was concerned. Joan Blondell has the stellar role in “Havana Widows,” which is a snappy, wise-cracking comedydrama of a couple of gold digging New York chorus girls on the hunt for millionaires in the Cuban eapitol. Others in the cast inelude Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins and Frank McHugh. Ray Enright directed the picture from a screen play by Earl Baldwin. Mat No. 2nd day of run Lyle Talbot Enacts Only Straight Role in ‘‘Havana Widows’’ Lyle Talbot played characters and heavies for so long that when he was put in “Havana Widows,” the First National picture now showing Reon ee ore Theatre, as the only “straight” part in the picture, he felt that his regeneration was complete. He played his first straight part, or male lead in “She Had To Say Yes,” and followed it with a lead opposite Kay Francis in “Mary Stevens, M.D.” But he really never felt that he had changed from heavies to straight parts until he got his role in “Havana Widows.” If everyone in the picture but yourself, he contends, is either a comic or a heavy, as are Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Frank MeHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Guy Kibbee and Allen Jenkins—then there is no longer any doubt about what you are. Youre a straight part. “Havana Widows” is a hilarious comedy by Earl Baldwin, dealing with the somewhat daring adventures of a couple of Broadway burlesque queens on a millionaire hunt in Havana, in which they try to shake down their victims by a form of badger game. Ray Enright directed the picture. 3rd day of run Frank McHugh Pulls His Funny Drunk Act in ““‘Havana Widows’”’ According to Frank McHugh, he has been doing his drunk act for fifteen years. It took Frank that length of time to get his act to the point where he _ could sit, stagger, flop and talk like a drunk and yet have his diction clear enough to be understood. Frank got his first inspiration for Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, a bit down on the luck, are seen wishing for the traditional help ing hands. They get it from the dience where they are playing in “Havana Widows,” First National’s comedy riot. 8 Price 10c tent. As far as men’s clothes are concerned, Guy will stand for a lot— peg-top trousers, short tight coats, snub-nosed shoes, even fancy waistcoats and beaver hats. But there’s one garment at which Guy draws the line. If they tell him he’s got to go back to that, his hat’s in the ring—for keeps! That’s one-piece, ankle-length, woolen underwear. The old-fashioned union suit, in other words. Maybe you think Guy is erying before he’s hurt. So we’ll let you in on a secret. All through “Havana Widows,” the First National comedy-drama now showing at the Theatre, Guy plays the role of Deacon Jones with Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Lyle Talbot Allen Jenkins and Ruth Donnelly. Guy sweated and suffered in a union suit of woolen underwear. The story describes Deacon Jones as the kind of an old sport who still wears woolen union suits. And there was nothing for Guy to do but sacrifices his personal feelings on the altar of art. So he agreed to wear the union suit, like a penitent putting on a hair-shirt, and sweltered under the lights in a union suit during the making of “Havana Widows.” But youll never get him to wear the garment unless he happens to go to the North Pole on location. “Havana Widows” is a comedydrama about a couple of gold diggers in Havana on a hunt for a eduple of millionaires. The picture was directed by Ray Enright. au 4th day of run Joan Blondell Made Three Scenes While On a Lost Hamburger Orchids to Joan Blondell for the bravest deed of the year. It happened on the set of “Havana Widows,” the First National comedy now showing at the CE eS er ee Theatre. And it concerned a hamburger— Joan’s—which somehow got lost. Joan had bought it right after dinner, an old habit of hers, and had eaten part of it. The rest of it disappeared. Everyone, prop men and _hairdressers and wardrobe people began a search. But no hamburger. Joan’s scene called for her to get into a Havana hotel bed. Despairing of the hamburger ever being recovered, she got into the bed. The bell clanged, the lights went up, the cameras rolled, and all the | § machinery of a motion picture being | ! made got under way. Just before the signal to start her lines, Joan raised a dramatic hand. “Don’t look for that hamburger any more”! she said. “It’s under |: me.” Joan finished the take—and three |: others—on the hamburger. The picture is a hilarious comedydrama by Earl Baldwin, directed by Ray Enright. In the east with Miss Blondell are Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins, Frank McHugh and Ruth Donnelly. the act, he says, when he was touring the tank towns with his father and family, all of whom were ac-|§ tors. When he didn’t have anything to do, he would sit, he says, in the little town hotels, watching the drunks in action. There’s only one time when you should never try to “act” like a drunk, he contends. And that’s when you're really drunk. McHugh brings one of his most amusing characterizations to the screen in First National’s comedydrama “Havana Widows,” now playing at the Theatre, in which he plays opposite Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kib An irresistible invitation from Glenda Farrell and Joan Blondell to see their comedy hit, “Ha bee, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins Wi ” and Ruth Donnelly. Ray Enright haga . et pean play. directed the picture from a screen = Theatre mle ae play by Earl Baldwin. Mat No.6 Price 5c