Heroes for Sale (Warner Bros.) (1933)

ADVANCE FEATURES William Wellman’s War Experience Saved Day William A. Wellman’s war time experience stood him in good stead in the Richard Barthelmess starring vehicle for Warner Bros. ‘‘Heroes for Sale,’’ which comes to the Strong Drama In Strand Film | theatre-0n: o2 3 Wellman was a flying ace during the World conflict. Consequently when the property man was nonplussed as to what medals he should supply an ex-veteran, Wellman quickly set him on the right track. Versatile Aline MacMahon In Barthelmess Picture Aline MacMahon, who comes to the Sion ig oe thedtre—.c0s. oN Richard Barthelmess’ latest picture for First National, ‘‘Heroes for Sale,’’ has earned a reputation as (Advance Feature) Staging Battle Scene for Films Requires Generalship Richard Barthelmess Exposed to Great Danger Making War Sequence in “Heroes for Sale” LANNING a battle scene for the movies requires a great deal more generalship than mapping a wartime offensive against a very real enemy. In the latter case, the outcome is dubious. They have to achieve an objective, if possible. If it just doesn’t turn out as planned, it is Just one of those things that are chalked up against the fortunes of war. In the movies, everything has to move like clockwork without appearing to do so, and a very definite objective has to be RICHARD BARTHELMESS at Strand as Star of “Heroes for Sale” sensational drama of an ex-service man. Aline MacMahon. Out No.7 Cut 80c (Advance Feature) Loretta Young’s Greatest Wish is to Have a Baby ORETTA YOUNG, who has the leading role opposite Richard Barthelmess in the First National picture, ‘‘ Heroes for Sale,’’ which opens at the a ee eee , has been a popular leading lady since she was sixteen, has one unfulfilled desire. She wants a baby. In her role as Ruth, a lovely little laundry worker who falls ‘~ Tove with Barthelmess in “Heroes for Sale,” she asks nothing ~errw have babies, and live happily with on ta. .8 OL this tamous screen actress! An amazing girl, Loretta. Beautiful, well-to-do, famous and successful, she has remained absolutely natural, unspoiled and unostentatious. She looks back upon a career that has been built upon the hardest work since she was five years old; and summarizes her entire success by saying, “It’s all a matter _of luck!” Having danced with Mae Murray in vaudeville at the age of five, played child parts until twelve, and crashed pictures in a big way at fourteen by eliminating forty-seven other candidates for a role, she says, “Tt must have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” And speaking of spoons, once, between pictures when she was fifteen, Loretta held down a job as instructress, at ten dollars a week, to a grammar school cooking elass. The last time the studio took up her contract, Loretta celebrated by junking her three-year-old Buick for a Cadillac. But it was the medium sized kind, black, minus aluminum hoods, liveried footmen and snakeskin upholstering. She has never had a chauffeur. When Loretta reached actual stardom, last year, Hollywood sat back and waited. How would she react? Would she indulge in an orgy of orchid and silver Mercedes-Benzes and put a Norwegian elkhound in the rumble seat? Would sunken bathtubs grace the Young home, and chattering monkeys the Young gardens? No. Loretta brought home a surprise present for Baby Sister Georgianne, donned her white pique pajamas and went to the beach. Her personal wardrobe is very much like that of any well-dressed young woman. She eschews blacklacquered finger nails, and takes her mother along on every shopping trip, even if it’s only to match a ribbon. Her appearance is prim; to set off her blonde beauty, her clothes are severe, and dark almost to the point of sombreness. Once Loretta was married, and money, or the injudicious spending of it, broke it up. Now she says that if she ever marries again, it must be to a man who will budget. She has the soundest business sense of any woman in Hollywood, unless, perhaps, it is Bebe Daniels. If Loretta marries again, and she Page Ten Featuring Loretta Young and Mat 10c Theatre Ss why praies OnE uullig 80, 10 will | be for the radiant reason that she wants a baby. Asked what she might have been, had motion pictures not been invented, Loretta replies, “Since the time I was a small girl, I have wanted to be a great dancer like Pavlowa. But that is coupled now with the desire to paint. I don’t know whether I have any talent or not, but when I am through working, I shall go to Paris and enroll in an art school.” Eat a lot —sleep a lot — dance a lot. 2 Those are Loretta’s rules for a graceful figure. Rated one of the most beautiful girls on the screen, she thinks “beauty hints” are frankly, the bunk . “Be yourself,’ is her great rule for living. Having climbed now to the higher pinnacles of filmdom, Loretta also likes to climb anything else, from mountain peaks to fences. She has made twenty-five pictures in the last four years, likes to attend their opening nights, but hates personal appearances. She never has played golf, worn pearls, been in Europe, bought a baby elephant, which she is dying to do, never been on a diet, never missed an appointment and never known the time she wasn’t happier working than vacationing. Her favorite picture is “The Hatchet Man,” in which she suffered more than on all her other pictures put together, because the Chinese make-up she had to’ wear was so painful. She likes hot dogs with mustard, pajamas, roller skating, tarpon fishing, chewing gum, San Francisco, Ronald Colman, good perfumes, faney handkerchiefs, cheese sandwiches and milk, and writing in the sand at the beach. In short, like Ruth in “Heroes for Sale,’ Loretta Young is a wholesome, refreshing girl, sophisticated enough to know what she wants and wise enough not to want the impossible—, and no matter what happens, work, home, husband and babies will always come first. With the two stars in “Heroes for Sale,” a poignant realistic story of the “forgotten man,” are Aline MacMahon, Gordon Westcott, Robert Barrat and Charles Grapewin. William A. Wellman directed. one of the most versatile players in the world. She came to Hollywood in the satire on motion pictures, ‘‘Once In A Lifetime,’’ followed it with the role of a secretary in’ ‘‘Five Star Final,’’ and followed that with a role as the wife of Colorado’s Silver King in the ’80’s. Her two most recent roles, which overlapped one another, were in ““Gold Diggers of 1933,’’? Warner Bros., super. musical in which she played a comedy role, and ‘‘ Heroes for Sale,’’ in which she has a powerful dramatic role. 200 Men in Breadline Given Work in Picture Two hundred hungry men were taken from an actual breadline in Los Angeles and given work at the First National studio during the production of the latest Richard Barthelmess starring vehicle, entitled ‘“Heroes for Sale,’’ which comes to the theatre on The picture, is a story of present day conditions, dealing with the unemployed. In a ‘‘flop house’’ scene in which free meals are doi a breadline was needed. Barthelmess suggested that realism could be obtained by going to a charity organization and picking out men who were in line for food, at the same time giving employment to the needy. Motor vans were taken to a Los Angeles mission during the breakfast hour. When the men learned that all they had to do was to stand in a breadline for a picture, to get real food and be paid for it in the bargain there was a wild scramble for the trucks. Before The War Took Its Toll reached. Direétor William Wellman had his share of movie generalship when he staged a night battle sequence for Richard Barthelmess’ latest First National picture, “Heroes for Sale,” which will be shown at the Theatre on Several acres on the huge Warner Bros. Ranch was fixed up as a battlefield in Flanders. Shell holes and trenches were dug, the ground was ploughed up and turned into mud. Barbed wire entanglements were constructed, and long poles on either side of the field supported water pipes which were to supply the rain. One side of the set ended in a hillside, on which lights were placed and trained on the field. On the other side and all around, scores of huge studio lights were placed on platforms of varying heights in order to light up every portion of the field when it would be needed. It was impossible to shoot any scenes right on the field itself on account of the barbed wire, shell holes, mud and the explosions that wara +n tolea nilawa Instead, a double wooden track was built encircling the entire field. Huge cranes on trucks were placed on the track. Cameras were placed on the cranes which could shoot from any height and be streched out onto the field without actually being placed down on it. The shooting of a scene showing men advancing over the top and attacking a German machine gun nest would have been difficult enough even without the element of explosions. It so happens that the sate RICHARD BARTHELMESS as TOM HOLMES, unsung hero of the thrilling drama of war and ‘peace,’ production now at Cut No. 11 “‘Heroes for Sale” the First National the Strand Theatre. Cut 30c Mat 10c movies have not yet found a substitute for creating explosions other than real explosives, and these, needless to say, are dangerous. Charges of dynamite were planted at different spots throughout the set. Each of these charges was wired and connected to a switchboard mounted on a high platform overlooking the field, and manned by an experienced powder man. Each key on the switchboard corresponded with a certain definite charge in the field, and the pressing of the wrong key would set off the wrong charge with perhaps fatal results. Not only did the powder man practically have to know each explosive charge by its first name, but so did Director Wellman. In rehearsing Barthelmess and the other characters, he had towork them out with the utmost precision so that he could time his explosions. To add to the maze of technical problems, there was also a lightning machine that was to provide the necessary storm effects at the right moment. a ae a It was Wellman’s regret that he had only two arms. He could have used four more without the least trouble. Throughout the scene, sis arms waved constantly in signals to the powder man, the lightning machine operators, the players and extras, comeramen, crane movers and electricians. When the call “Action!” came, a group of American soldiers crept out of the trench while the rain beat down in a drenching downpour. Every now and then tke lightning would flash, and _ they would throw themselves flat to avoid revealing themselves to the enemy. Shells and grenades burst around them, but still they kept on, crawling through the barbed wire entanglements, through the mud and in and out of shell holes. A German machine gun nest at+ the extreme side of the set was the objective. As the American soldiers advanced, the cranes moved with them. The climax of the scene was the a battle scene, it deals almost ennades, and here it was again worked out with precision so that no one in that spot was injured. Although the picture starts with a battle scene, it déals almost entirely with the soldiers after the war when they find tough sledding in civil life. It is an intensely dramatic story written by the late Wilson Mizner and Robert Lord. A strong cast supporting Barthelmess, includes Aline MacMahon, Loretta Young, Gordon Westcott, Berton Churchill, Robert Barrat and Grant Mitchell. College Men as Extras In Barthelmess Picture A survey of 200 male extras used in ‘‘ Heroes for Sale,’’ the latest First National picture starring Richard Barthelmess, which comes to the.......... ‘Phestre0n 3 a ,» revealed that 19 percent of the men had either graduated or had the benefit of some college education, and several were winners of Phi Beta Kappa honors. The picture presents a flaming romance between Barthelmess and the lovely Loretta Young, against a background of Post War conditions.