In Our Time (Warner Bros.) (1944)

PREPARED REVIEW e PRODUCTION FEATURES ABOUT THE STARS (Prepared Review) [da Lupino and Paul Henreid Stars — Of ‘In Our Time’ at Strand Theatre “IN OUR TIME”; directed by Vincient Sherman from an original screen play by Ellis St. Joseph and Howard Koch. Music by Franz Waxman. A Warner Bros.-First National picture presented at the Strand Theatre with the following cast: Jennifer Whittredge..Ida Lupino Stephan Orvid....:...Paul Henreid Janina Orvid..... Nancy Coleman . Mrs. Bromiley io.s 2k Mary Boland Pavel: Orvid.j.i. v0. Victor Francen GOLY A “OV VAG oie.s susie eh coerce Nazimova Uncle Leopold..Michael Chekhov Antique Dealer.Marek Windheim Bujangil. |. csc. tis Ivan Triesault WVSLECLB Ge sane east ok 33 John Bleiffer Wana a cot te oss aa Lotte Palfe Father Josef....Wolfgang Zilser RY ORFS recsncheie aise Richard Ordynski The antagonism between the titled aristocracy and the serflike peasants is great. The difference between the ideas of democratic and feudal minded people is even greater. Never before was there a _ stronger contrast brought to the screen than in Warner Bros.’ new production, “In Our Time,” which opened at the Strand Theatre yesterday. The contrast is represented by Ida Lupino, playing a modern English girl, and Paul Henreid, portraying a Polish Count, inhibited with the traditions and customs of the feudal system. These two outstanding actors make this human drama of the present a memorable experience for the audience. Cast together for the first time, they play their respective roles with deepness and perfection seldom seen. Meet in Antique Shop They meet in an antique shop in Warsaw, the time, the eve of World War II, the occasion a misunderstanding. The girl is looking through a window display from the inside, while he stares at her from the outside. He assumes she is a saleslady and inquires about a watch. The misunderstanding vanishes and they are on their way to romance. This strange meeting results in the most talked of marriage in Warsaw. A girl of the middle class. to marry the aristocratic Count Stephen Orvid was something unheard of. But neither the general disapproval nor the objections of his family could lessen their happiness. The war interrupts this happy marriage and Stephen has to join his regiment. Poland collapses and he comes home wounded. His family urges the couple to escape with them from the country but they decide to stay and burn the house that has seen so much hardship and. so much good fortune. The stars are supported by Nancy Coleman, as a bigoted 6 Still IT 20*; Mat 206—30c IDA LUPINO and PAUL HENREID spinster, intolerant and belonging to a feudal past, by Nazimova, returning to the screen as Countess Zofya Orvid, playing with the ease and poise of a great lady, Mary Boland and Victor Francen. “In Our Time” is a story of two contrasting worlds, a story of the past, the present and the future, a story of love. It is a memorable picture. In Our Time’ Stars Lived Their Film Roles “But, my dear, you haven’t lived.” Those words spoken by an aggressive male to a young actress who wants to get ahead is one of the laugh lines in the show business, but it is spoken in all seriousness by young Vincent Sherman, director. And his intentions are strictly honorable. By way of explanation he nodded in the direction of Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid whom he directed in Warner Bros.’ “In Our Time,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. “They’re a good example of the importance of having lived, in the serious sense of that phrase,” said Sherman. “They’re Mat 105—15c Paul Henreid Still IT 57; Mat 202—30c Nancy Coleman and Alla Nazimova are shown in a scene from “In Our Time,” Warner Bros.’ thrilling love story which started its engagement yesterday at the Strand Theatre. in parts which demand it.” Ida Lupino is playing a middle class English girl who suffers through the great bombing of England, and Henreid a young Polish nobleman whose security makes him blind to the treacherous forces of appeasement in pre-war Poland. “Let’s take a look at the way Ida’s ‘having lived’ is paying off heavily in this picture,” the director said. “The two high points in the role for her are the London blitz and a separation from her husband. Ida has to be capable of realizing the agony of people who have seen their loved ones killed under Nazi bombs. “Tda’s ‘living’ has actually included that experience. Her father, Stanley Lupino, the great English comic, died as a result of injuries received in that blitz. Husband in Service ee ne “And as for the other experience, being separated by war from her husband, she’s going through that right now. I understand Capt. Louis Hayward has just arrived in a combat zone. Ida’s smart, she knows she might never see him again. Isn’t it common sense to realize she’s going to be convincing in that same situation on the screen?” Sherman pointed out that Henreid is called upon to react in the film to a growing Nazi danger and yet to understand how a man can be seduced into inactivity by his comforts. That, too, in this case, parallels the life of the actor. Henreid comes from the titled aristocracy of Vienna, and when the Nazis became powerful after 1933 he resisted the temptation to make peace with them and instead went to London, where he campaigned against them. “Unfortunately none of this sort of ‘living’ can be acquired in order, as implied in the advice given by the designing male,” summarized Sherman. “But aside from that, the advice is sound.” Once Gave Stage Role To Her Film Director When Alla Nazimova was appearing in her own stage production of ‘Ghosts’ in New York, one of her actors was ill and she had to replace him, she recalls. A young actor applied for the part. He was earnest, she gave him the part. That was many years ago and she didn’t meet him again until she returned to the screen to play her current role as Paul Henreid’s mother in Warner Bros.” “In Our Time,” now at the Strand. When she appeared on the set she was introduced to him. He was Vincent Sherman, her director. STAR GELEBRATES DECADE IN U. 8. Ida Lupino recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of her arrival in Hollywood. “And a turbulent decade it has been, too,” commented the actress. She came to the film capital 10 years ago and in the intervening years has experienced both triumph and tragedy. Her triumph has been stardom, her tragedy the war. It claimed the life of her English father and brought suffering to other loved ones. Looking back across_ the decade, she recalled that her arrival was marked at once by trouble. “I arrived in Hollywood as an imposter,” she said. ‘“Paramount brought me here as a demure and sweet child who could play the part of ‘Alice In Wonderland.’ It was almost § mistaken iden& tity.” Miss Lupino explained that she had appeared as <a gutter-snipe in an, English picture, “Money for Speed,” a type of role she knew well. There was a freak episode in which she pretended to be sweet and demure. That is what a talent scout clipped from the rest of the film and sent as his candidate for “Alice.” very deferential, and Mat 102—15c Ida Lupino Studio Got a Shock “When I walked into the studio, I’ve never seen people so shocked,” reminisced the star. “I was only 16 but they wanted to know if I had dissipated on the boat, or what. I said, ‘No,’ and asked if they had seen ‘Money for Speed’—all of it. They hadn’t, but they did finally, and were they surprised!” There followed a_ succession of unhappy roles in which she mostly played blonde scatterbrains. Finally she left the studio, established herself as a dramatic actress in “The Light That Failed” and then signed a contract with Warner Bros. where she won stardom as a result of films like “High Sierra,” “The Sea Wolf” and “The Hard Way,” which brought her the New York Film Critics award. Her present role is opposite Paul Henreid in “In Our Time.” now at the Strand Theatre, in which she plays an English girl married to a Polish army officer. “A decade in Hollywood,” summarized Miss Lupino, “made me a philosopher. My philosophy? Maybe if you work hard you won’t be president; but if you work hard and have luck, you'll surely win that swimming pool.” PAUL HENREID NEW ROMANTIC TYPE FOR HOLLYWOOD With everyone talking about a global war and the necessity for global thinking, Hollywood is filling a demand for a new romantic type, which may be described as international or global in its appeal. This reflection of a changing world was turned up in the film capital by Dr. Stephen Barasch, formerly of the pre-war European picture industry, who declared that the new romantic type is distinct from the established foreign star in the tradition of Valentino. “The transition from Hollywood’s early foreign stars— through Maurice Chevalier, Nils Asther, Charles Boyer—was accelerated by the war, thereby ushering in this new romantic hero perhaps a decade before his time,” said Doctor Barasch, who has always been a student of American films. He said the new type is exemplified by Paul Henreid, “who combines the Americanism of Gary Cooper with the continental suavity of Charles Boyer— a blending which is a product of recent world events.” Henreid Creates Pattern Doctor Barasch predicted that other stars will be developed who will follow in the pattern created by Henreid, whose recent roles have won him wide acclaim, particularly from feminine fans. The actor is Swedish in origin, Austrian by birth and rearing and the product in recent years of the American and British legitimate stage and screen. “Without the war and what preceded it the Henreid type would not be on the screen today,” explained Doctor Barasch. “Henreid himself would be an actor of the traditional foreign type. But his revulsion from Nazi doctrines tempered the grace of his aristocratic rearing with an appreciation of democratic values.” Henreid fled Austria and his title of baron to make anti-Nazi films in London. Seen recently with Bette Davis in “Now, .Voyager” and with Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca,” Henreid’s present role is with Ida Lupino in “In Our Time,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, in which he plays a Polish army officer wed to an English girl at the outbreak of the war in Poland in September, 1939. Doctor Barasch, veteran of the Polish fight against the Germans at Warsaw, has been engaged by Warner Bros. as a film consultant. PH 9; Mat 108—15c PAUL HENREID