Heart of the North (Warner Bros.) (1938)

x ADVANCE PUBLICITY — ‘‘HEART of the NORTH’’ eee Dick Foran Heads Big Cast (Lead ) ‘Heart Of The North’ Thrilling Tale Of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Technicolor Film Will Open Friday At Strand Theatre High adventure along one of the world’s last frontiers is thrillingly depicted in ‘‘ Heart of the North,’’ the Warner Bros. picturization in Technicolor of a tale of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Authentic in every detail, the picture ‘‘debunks’’ many a wide spread misconception of the opera-_ tions and daily existence of the Canadian ‘‘Mounties,’’ but the actuality, as vividly portrayed in “*Heart of the North,’’ turns out to be even more thrilling and certainly more interesting than the popular delusions. This Technicolor production was done on the same large scale as all of the previous Warner Bros. color pictures and it has a cast so liberally sprinkled with outstanding names that anyone of at least half a dozen players could with equal justice be called the star of the troupe. The hero is Dick Foran, big, red-headed star who is most effective in outdoor pictures, and there are three girls who could each be nominated as heroine. They are Gloria Dickson, Gale Page, and little Janet Chapman, six-year-old starlet who recently captured the the hearts of a host of fans in ‘“Broadway Musketeers.’’ Other important roles are filled by Allen Jenkins, Patrice Knowles, James Stephenson, Anthony Averill, Joe Sawyer, Joseph King, Russell Simpson, and a canine actor who is a cinch to steal some of the scenes in which he appears. He is a huge police dog, called ‘‘Rex’’ in this picture, but in reality the famous ‘‘Lightning’’?’ who was starred in ‘‘White Fang’’ and other films. The country in which the story 1s laid is that wild stretch which borders the Mackenzie River in the far northwest of Canada just below the Arctic Circle. And the impressive outdoor scenes of the production show this scarcely popu Mat 202—30c DICK FORAN AND GLORIA DICKSON head the cast of “Heart of the North” Warner Bros.’ Technicolor epic of the adventures of the Canadian Mounties, coming to the Strand on Friday. lated outpost of civilization in Technicolor for the first time. Based upon a novel by William Byron Mowery, the picture plot devised by Scenarists Lee Katz and Vincent Sherman revolves about the hold-up of the Arctic Queen, a little steamship loaded with trappers’ priceless furs and with miners’ gold. There’s a threecornered romance, too, with Foran torn between the charms of Gale Page, city girl visiting in the Great Northwest, and Gloria Dickson, a true daughter of the North. The picture builds to an absorbing climax, packed with thrills. The production was directed by Lewis Seiler and the beautiful photography was the joint achievement of L. Wm. O’Connell and Wilfrid M. Cline. Se aneraker. DICK FORAN Mac Drummond Joyce MacMillan...................... GLORIA DICKSON Dave MacMillan Elizabeth. Spaulding. ............0.....2....2 GALE PAGE Larry Young...... Corpl. Bill Hardsock Corpl. Jim Montgomery Judy Montgomery Inspector Stephen Gore Directed by Screen Play by Based on a Novel by Dialogue Director Film Editor Technicolor Photography by ALLEN JENKINS agent PATRIC KNOWLES et REA JANET CHAPMAN er Se JAMES STEPHENSON DRT n tle Pee AS ANTHONY AVERILL LEWIS SEILER RO nS 5s, LEE KATZ and VINCENT SHERMAN WILLIAM BYRON MOWERY Gis Gate dees FRANK BECKWITH Photography by........ L. WM. O’CONNELL, A.S.C. -. OUTS HESSE Cast of Characters JOE SAWYER Production Staff WILFRID M. CLINE, A.S.C. Father Claverly Lunnon Dick...... Makeup Artist i ron Pe a JOSEPH KING A Pee ee RUSSELL SIMPSON = ap ee ee ARTHUR GARDNER i sa named Se GARRY OWEN oN os eae PEDRO DE CORDOBA 1 ee BRERA Oe ALEC HARFORD Seo Ne oN ROBERT HOMANS eee. ANDERSON LAWLER A BRUCE CARUTHERS For the Technicolor Company Color Director.......... NATALIE KALMUS re MORGAN PADELFORD SP ret Paice tee) STANLEY JONES Sh CR ISRE AMBRE IRENA ci atM'T TED SMITH Marea fii: atte BRUCE CARUTHERS Ge ili os orca MILO ANDERSON Pee eer ta an ADOLPH DEUTSCH Eee ey LEO F. FORBSTEIN co re RES, PERC WESTMORE [9] In ‘Heart Of The North’ An inspired piece of casting placed Dick Foran, big, red-headed outdoor actor at the head of the cast of the Technicolor special ““Heart of the North,’’ which comes to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Of all the sereen’s current heroes, Foran seems to be the one best suited to playing a Royal Canadian ‘‘mountie’’ in this thrilling epic of the Great Northwest. His fellow ‘‘mounties’’ include Allen Jenkins, Patric Knowles, James Stephenson, and many others, while the villain roles are capably filed by Joseph King, Anthony Averill and Joe Sawyer. Feminine interest is plentifully supplied by Gloria Dickson, Gale Page and six-year-old Janet Chapman. While the picture is set in the Canadian Northwest, it is definitely not a ‘‘Western’’ picture. For this Foran is profoundly grateful. Not that he objects to ‘‘Westerns’’—they’re his favorite film fare — but he’s anxious to play straight dramatic roles. The reputation of having been a cowboy star in pictures is a hard one to shake. Especially a singing cowboy star. Pasts of torrid, not to say lurid, nature have been forgotten and forgiven. But not that. Ah, not that! At least, that’s the way it seems to Dick Foran. Dick quit making ‘‘ Westerns’? about a year ago. Since that time he has had a wide variety of fine acting parts in all sorts of pictures. The nearest he came to playing a ‘‘Western’’ star during that period was portraying the comedy cowboy star in ‘‘Boy Meets Girl.’’ He lost Bette Davis to Errol Flynn in ‘‘The Sisters.’’ He won Gale Page in ‘‘Four Daughters.’’ <Almost as soon as he entered pictures, he lost Bette Davis to Leslie Howard, then won her back again, That was in ‘‘ Petrified Forest.’? Since that time he has played in a total of ten singing cowboy pictures. He has made three times ten other pictures. Yet he is still referred to as ‘‘the cowboy star’?! Foran played comedy in ‘‘Boy Meets Girl,’’ played tragedy in ‘Black Legion.’’ For a young man who came into pictures with no acting experience other than college play leads, he hag had quite a variety of parts. But they can’t blot out from fans’ memory the fact that he was for a time a hard-riding, fist-swinging, six-gunshootin’, singing cowboy star. Born 28 years ago at Flemington, N: J., of a non-professional family, Foran made quite a splash at Princeton as a scholar as well as all-around athlete. He played ‘Varsity’ football, baseball, lacrosse and ice hockey, while majoring in geology. During vacation seasons he shipped on South American freighters with an A.B. rating, and on matriculation got a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad: as special investigator. An ambition to sing in opera led to his radio warbling and acting career in Hollywood. DARING AIR FEATS IN OUTDOOR DRAMA Something new in stunt-piloting for motion pictures was demonstrated by ‘‘ Ace’? Bragunier for the flying sequences in Warner Bros.’ big Technicolor special ““Heart of the North’’ opening at the Strand Theatre on Friday. He successfully ‘‘set down’’ a 1928 flying boat on three small, highmountain lakes behind towering San Gorgonio Peak in Southern California — and then took off again, not once but several times. On one lake he chased and smashed a canoe, and as a finale brought the plane down in flames on one of the tiny bodies of water. The scenes represented close shots of action first filmed on the Mackenzie River in Canada. In the plane in various scenes with Bragunier were actors Dick Foran and Allen Jenkins, the latter being the stunt pilot of the picture. They represented Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The plane burned on Cedar Lake. Equipped with special automatic extinquishers, it was salvaged in part after the scene but could not be flown out. Trucks conveyed the body, wings and pontoons separately down miles of dirt, control road and steep ‘‘hairpin’’ turns to Big Bear Lake, over 2000 feet below. Altitudes of the other lakes, which were canyon streams dammed for fire and flood protection, were 8200 and 8700 feet. They are approached only by ranger trails but the U. S. Government is surveying roads to make them available for military purposes, linking the lakes as flying boat landing spots. Technicolor Film Coming ‘“Heart of the North,’’ Warner Bros.’ thrilling action drama dealing with adventures of the Royal Canadian ‘‘Mounties,’’ which opens at the Strand Theatre on Friday, is filmed entirely in Technicolor. Heading the cast are Dick Foran, Gloria Dickson, Gale Page, Janet Chapman, Allen Jenkins, Patric Knowles and many others. ‘MOUNTIES’ AREN'T MOUNTED ANYMORE They’re still called the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, but they’re no longer mounted. That fact developed in the course of technical research Warner Bros. conducted for the filming of the first authentic and modern ‘‘Mountie’’ drama, the Technicolor production ‘‘Heart of the North,’’ which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. The discovery separated Dick Foran, for the first time in an outdoor picture, from his horse. Of course Dick originally made _ his big screen hit in ‘‘ Petrified Forest,’’? and has filmed many ‘‘indoor’’ dramas since, right down to and including the newest Bette Davis picture, ‘‘The Sisters.’? But as a singing, hard-riding, two-fisted cowboy the big red-head, a former college athlete, first reached actual stardom. It seems the ‘‘ Mounties’? today use canoes with outboard motors part of the time, cover a great deal of snow country and swamp by plane, and even have some motorized dogsleds — but do practically none of their work on horseback any more. The horse passed out of this service quicker than almost any other, because horses can’t stand cold and are inefficient in deep swamp, deep snow and rugged mountain work. As a consequence, Foran in the modern ‘‘mountie’’ story speeds to the rescue of heroines Gale Page, Gloria Dickson and tiny five-year-old Janet Chapman by canoe and airplane. Boys Will Be Boys Dick Foran and Anthony Averill invented a new version of snowballing when hail descended one summer day on the Warner Bros. company filming ‘‘Heart of the North’’ near Big Bear Lake in Southern California. They made slingshots of willow crotehes and an old inner tube, and stung everybody within range with hailstones, some as big as marbles. ‘*Heart of the North,’’ which is in Technicolor, opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday.