Invisible Stripes (Warner Bros.) (1939)

PUBLICITY — INVISIBLE STRIPES @ Advance Feature on Story ‘Invisible Stripes’ Pleads Better Deal for Parolees George Raft Takes Strong Role In Drama Coming to Strand Ex-convicts fed up with prison life and eager to walk the straight-and-narrow have found a defending voice on the motion picture screen. The voice is George Raft’s which, through his characterization as a paroled convict who strives to become a worthy citizen, challenges the righteousness of all those reform agencies that clamor for the abolition of the prison parole system. The picture is “Invisible Stripes’ which opens Friday at the Strand. Its author is Lewis E. Lawes, who champions the rights of one-time-losers to return to good citizenship after learning their lessons behind prison walls. The producing studio is Warner Bros., which many times in the past has dared to plead the cause of under-dog minorities and emerges victorious from beneath threatening clouds of criticisms with smash hits. Although about prison people, Executive Producer Hal B. Wallis emphasizes that “Invisible Stripes” is not a prison picture. It is the story of two convicts, one bad and one good, who are thrust back upon society with their prison records hanging over their heads. The good one, George Raft, leaves Sing Sing with the encouragaing encomiums of the friendly warden inspiring him to resume life honorably. The bad one, Humphrey Bogart, is a hardened type. He scoffs at the ® Bogart Reader Coat ‘Bloodstains’ Bring Cop on Run A bullet-pierced, stained coat brought an inquiring policeman to Humphrey Bogart’s door. Bogart had worn the coat in a gun battle for Warner Bros.’ “Invisible Stripes.” The bullethole had been cut by a wardrobe man. On his way from the studio, Bogart left the coat at a cleaner’s explaining: “T’d like to get it tomorrow night for another job.” The cleaner looked at it suspiciously and promised to deliver it in twenty-four hours. When it arrived, it was delivered by a policeman. “Listen,” Bogart argued, “I’m just an actor and that bullethole is phoney.” “Oh, yeah? Then how about this blood-stain?” “Taste it,” Bogart advised. “It’s only chocolate.” “TI ain’t eating no coats,’’ the cop -protested. So he smelled it and left, convinced—that Bogart is an actor. “Invisible Stripes,’ which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, stars George Raft, Jane Bryan and Humphrey Bogart. Lloyd Bacon directed. STILL SERVICE! .-... Stills available on most of the scene cuts on the _ publicity pages in this Campaign Plan. Price 15¢ each. Order by still number indicated under each cut, from Campaign Plan Editor. If still number is not given, photo is not available because the cut was made from a special retouch or a composite. (*Asterisk denotes still is included in regular set available at local Vitagraph Exchanges.) warden’s advice which he has heard many times before. Raft, the paroled convict, finds it impossible to go straight because of the prison stigma that hangs over him. He not only loses his girl, who shudders at the thought of becoming an exconvict’s wife, but he also loses five jobs between the first and the last reels when his record catches up with him. Meanwhile, the hardened excon returns to his former haunts and shady associates. He knows he will some day return to the big house but, until then, he is in clover. The futility of going straight because of the prison brand eventually leads Raft, the paroled convict, back into crime. His motive is to acquire funds to prevent his younger brother, William Holden, from trading the same criminal path. Also, to make it possible for the younger brother to marry his sweetheart, Jane Bryan. “TI have been objecting to playing any more convict roles,” said Raft, “but I have changed my mind for this picture. I believe the fate of its paroled convict, who is not a seasoned criminal at heart and who honestly struggles to go back to a decent life on an equal footing with other good citizens, will be a strong argument for the rehabilitation of such unfortunate men. Besides, I wear no stripes in the role—but they are there, invisibly.” @ Production Reader Hardest Film Line Is ‘I Love You’ Many critics and reviewers of stage and screen have agreed, from time to time, that only a skilled actor can deliver the three words, “I love you,” in such a way that an audience will believe him and not giggle. Director Lloyd Bacon has found what he thinks is an even more difficult acting job—the delivery of good advice. “A man can advise another to go out and rob a bank,” Bacon said, “and it will sound as though he meant it. But when he tells a man leaving prison on parole, how to stick to the right road in the future, he is apt to sound and be self-conscious or to get an obviously false note into his voice. “Good advice is difficult to take in real life,’’ he added. “But it’s doubly hard to give in a motion picture and not make the audience rebellious.” The good advice under discussion was that delivered by Moroni Olsen as a prison warden, to George Raft, a paroled prisoner, in the Warner Bros. picture, “Invisible Stripes’, which will be the next feature attraction at the Strand Theatre starting Fridiay. Olsen’s sincere manner and easy delivery of more or less exalted lines, made the scene realistic and led Director Bacon into the above soliloquy about lines that are difficult for an actor to deliver. “Just the same,” said Raft, “Tt’s not easy to say ‘I love you,’ and not sound foolish. Try it in front of your mirror sometime, Lloyd. And when you do, have a half dozen or so of assorted prop men around looking wise, then you’ll see what I mean.” *Still IS-107 Mat 202—30c WILLIAM HOLDEN and JANE BRYAN co-star with George Raft in "Invisible Stripes'’ Warner Bros. motion picture coming to the Strand Friday. The film is Holden's first since his rise to stardom in "Golden Boy." @ Advance Feature on Holden To Stardom in One Role Record of William Holden ‘Golden Boy’ Shares Top Billing In ‘Invisible Stripes, Soon at Strand While talent scouts were scouring the nation’s four corners for potential picture actors, one of the most promising of young players was found at Hollywood’s back door. He is William Holden, who makes his second film appearance in Warner Bros.’ “Invisible Stripes” with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart. Holden, as William Franklin Beedle, Jr., was born in O’Fallon, Illinois, on April 17, 1918, the son of a chemist. When he was four years old, his parents moved with William and his two brothers, Robert and Richard, to South Pasadena, Calif. At junior college, against his better judgment, Holden was inveigled into trying out for a school play. Anxious to become a chemist, like his father, the only reason he joined the play was because of its scientific theme. The drama was “Manya,” based on the Curies, and in it Holden played a doddering old man, Pierre Curie, Sr., at the age of seventy. It was Holden’s first and only stage appearance, although he had appeared in playlets from local _ radio stations. Holden’s work impressed his instructor, whose enthusiasm impressed a talent scout. The scout arranged a screen test and, to Holden’s amazement, he was given a contract as a_ stock player. Things began to happen. He was given dramatic coaching. Also, he was assigned to a picture. Before the picture started, Holden was called to the casting director’s office. He was asked if he had considered trying out for the “Golden Boy” role. He had not, but was told to report to Rouben Mamoulian, the director, at Columbia. He did, in a daze, won the role and a generous amount of acclaim. Since “Golden Boy,” Holden was borrowed by Warner Bros. for “Invisible Stripes,” the film which opens at the Strand Friday. It is his second screen role. His screen job was Holden’s first, aside from odd jobs he held during school vacations. In his new work, Holden prefers vigorous, dynamic parts. He admits that he has been influenced in his new career by Paul Muni, Claude Rains, Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck. He reads Fortune, Life, all the digests and current newspapers. Blondie and Henry are his choice of the newspaper comics. He is a good boxer and swimmer, and a rabid football and track meet fan. He plays no card games and calls singing his hobby. A bassbaritone, he studies with a vocal coach and sings in two choirs at the Oneonta Congregational Church. He smokes cigarettes and drives his own car, enjoys flying and sun-bathing and dislikes writing letters. Favorite amusement: attending fires. He is six feet in height, weighs 165 pounds and has blue eyes and brown hair. RAFT FORSWEARS PRISON STRIPES (Short Advance) George Raft has written his own death warrant. By his own act, he never again will wear prison stripes in his motion picture roles. Raft feels he has _ played convict roles too often. He had hoped to rest on his Mat 10i—15¢ Jaurels and reGeorge Raft urs Ss from con parts after, according to critics, his finest role in “Each Dawn I Die.” Then along came his newest Warner Bros.’ picture, “Invisible [14] Stripes” which opens at the Strand Friday. In it, he again is a convict, but on parole and trying to go straight. When he arrived in New York on the Normandie from Europe, Raft’s first move was to telephone his studio at Burbank. He wanted to know if the character he plays meets death in the final reel. He was told that he does not, that the ex-convict reforms and goes straight. “Bump him off and promise never to dig him up again and I'll be seeing you next week.” ..To please Raft, the climax was rewritten and Raft doomed to death as a convict—for the last time, he insists. But preview critics say it’s his best role to date, so maybe he’ll reconsider. @ Robson Feature Flora Robson Gets Compliment--‘Talks Fine New York’ A visitor to the set of “Invisible Stripes” complimented Flora Robson one day. For a New Yorker, she said, Miss Robson certainly spoke beautiful English. That was quite a pleasant compliment, even if the facts were garbled. For an Englishwoman, Miss Robson certainly speaks fine New York. She had been studying it. Only twice before has she appeared in American films, in “Wuthering Heights,” for which Goldwyn brought her to this country, and Warner Bros.’ Paul Muni film, now being shown, ““We Are Not Alone.” In both pictures she played Englishwomen. Almost her only other connection with the American, or New York, manner of speech was when: she worked in England for a branch of the Shredded Wheat Company, as a recreation adviser to the employees. When she was cast as George Raft’s East Side, hard working mother in “Invisible Stripes,” which opens at the Strand Friday she settled down to some serious study. The manager of the Garden of Allah apartments in Hollywood introduced her to several tenants who were from New York. She lunched several times with John Garfield—a native New Yorker. In the evenings, she became academic, and studied the exact construction of the New York idiom. Also, she admitted, she went to a 15-cent movie theatre to see some New York cop and gangster pictures. The result is the accent which she speaks with in “Invisible Stripes.” But her greatest compliment didn’t come from the visitor, but from George Raft, who ought to be an expert on New York accent. He said her speech made him homesick. @ Advance Shorts Use Fire Alarm to Find Star William Holden Such a sound sleeper is William Holden that it took a fire department to wake him up. Unaccustomed to night work, with only one other screen role to his credit, young Holden vanished from the set on Warner Bros.’ back lot during a night sequence for “Invisible Stripes.” The hour was 3 a.m. Director Lloyd Bacon was certain Holden had crawled off to some quiet spot for a nap, but no amount of shouting could awaken him and half a dozen company members failed to find him in their search for him. So Bacon pulled the studio fire alarm box. Tearing the night asunder with screeching siren, the studio fire truck raced through back lot streets—and Holden raced out of a nearby dark tenement doorway to find out where the fire was. Director Lloyd Bacon Uses “Dialogue Tea” Jane Bryan, William Holden, George Raft and Lloyd Bacon, who directed them in the Warner Bros. picture, “Invisible Stripes,” had “dialogue tea” served on the set at least four times a day during production. It was often ice cream and soda pop but it worked as well as tea, the idea being a theory of Bacon’s. He thinks dialogue is learned best, as well as painlessly along with a bit of food and perhaps something to drink.