June Bride (Warner Bros.) (1948)

ee BETTE DAVIS, twice Academy Award winner, goes in for comedy in her new Warner Bros. film, “June Bride,” coming soon. Still BD-3111 Mat 701-2C COMEDY NO CINCH —BETTE DAVIS “Don’t let anyone tell you comedy is easier than drama,” Bette Davis says, speaking of her new Warner Bros. comedy, “June Bride,’ in which Robert Montgomery plays opposite. “It isn’t.” Bette approached this new film with the confidence of an actress sure of her talents but also aware of the pitfalls of comedy. She said it was no secret to her that an actress leaves herself vulnerable’ to critical and fan attacks when she abandons the field for which she is most famous (drama, of course) to undertake the breezy frolics of a comedy like “June Bride.” But Bette is a great actress and had good direction. Bretaigne Windust, director of such Broadway smashes as “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Idiot’s Delight” and “State of the Union,” was at the helm on this film and steered the First Lady of the Screen through with flying colors. It promises to be one of the great film comedies of the year. Preview audiences in particular have noted the sharp direction in this laughfest. One scene in which the turning on and off of the drawing-room lamps is given such deft treatment that it brings laughs long after leaving the theatre. “JUNE BRIDE” brings Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery together for the first time on the sereen. The Warner film opens shortly at the Strand Theatre. Still 701-669 Mat 701-2E June Bride’ Presents Bright’Team of Stars With due respect to the other, both Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery stars of Warner Bros.’ laughprovoking film, “June Bride,” recall that their first professional encounter more than a few years ago was something less than memorable. In Montgomery’s case, it seems that he was too dazzled by a captivating lady called Billie Burke to notice another member of a Rochester, N.Y., stock company—a snip of a girl name of Davis. And as for Bette Davis, she recalls that her principal concern in a brief engagement with the company was to make an impression on the director, George Cukor. The fact that there was a leading man named Montgomery left her completely unmoved. She couldn’t have cared less. How the leading man fared with Miss Burke or how much of an impression: the young blonde made on the director nobody knows. That was years ago, RISING PLAYER IN ‘JUNE BRIDE’ Raymond Roe, one of the sons of the original “Life With Father” cast, appears in Warner Bros.’ comedy, “June Bride,” Bette Davis-Robert Montgomery starrer which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. This will be the young actor’s first screen role since his discharge from the Navy late in 1946. He has just completed a tour with the Charlotte Greenwood “I Remember Mama” company. Roe, who is now 22, was born in New York. Besides his “Life with Father” appearance, he was also seen in ‘The Great Waltz,” “Jubilee,” “Our Town,” and “All in Favor,” on the New York stage. The latter was produced by Robert Montgomery. In “June Bride,’ Roe shares honors with pert Betty Lynn, the charming comedienne. Montgomery Learns Lesson Bob Montgomery learns in Warner Bros.’ laughfest, “June Bride,’ what every country boy knows, that when you sample applecider (frost-bitten variety) . look out! Bob arrives in Indiana to get a story for a magazine, and is soon invited out into the kitchen for a ‘quick one.’ Tom Tully, his host in the film, offers him cider, and Bob, blase with extended trips abroad and around the New York pub belt, gulps glass after glass down. The cider works fast and soon Bob is riding high. In fact so high, that Bette Davis, his co-star and boss in the Warner comedy, practically fires him on the spot. Instead, she falls in love all over again with him .. . way back in Indiana. and the event is now so hazy in the minds of the principals that they can’t even recall the title of the play in which their talents briefly touched. “T played in so many that season,” Montgomery says, “that it might have been anything from Shaw to Shakespeare.” “Well, hardly Shakespeare,” Miss Davis replied. “As a matter of fact, it’s more likely to have been Ibsen. Or St. John Irvine.” In the years that have elapsed since the Rochester debacle, Miss Davis and Mr. Montgomery have become eminently famous screen stars, and have observed a passing and casual acquaintance. “You might say,” Miss Davis says, “that we nodded at parties.” “Until yesterday I called her ‘Miss Davis’,” Montgomery said. “Now I’ve modified that to ‘Miss D.’ Tomorrow I may break out with a plain ‘Bette’.” June Bride” premieres next Friday at the Strand Theatre. BETTY LYNN and RAYMOND ROE Still 701-606 Mat 701-1B NO DYED TRESSES FOR BETTE DAVIS For the information of those people — especially the ladies — who labor under the misapprehension that all film stars have dyed hair, Bette Davis reports that she quit dyeing her hair “after my first leading role.” And it has been since then, and is now, in its natural, untampered-with state, same being ash blonde, which Bette says, is the euphonious way of describing what is vulgarly called “dirty blonde.” There are golden blondes and platinum blondes and copper blondes, and then blondes like Bette Davis, who admits that she wasn’t above trying a few odd shades herself when she first came to Hollywood. “T went through the experimental stages,” she said, ““when I thought a new tone on top would give me new personality. It didn’t do much good.” Bette’s latest film, “June Bride,” in which Robert Montgomery appears opposite the actress, opens tomorrow at the Strand Theatre for a week. 16 BOB MONTGOMERY STARTED SLOWLY Robert Montgomery’s first film acting job lasted exactly two weeks. The man who hired and fired him, thereby cutting Montgomery’ career on the screen a year shorter than it would have been otherwise, is a presently famous Hollywood producer: “And I never talked to him or met him during those two weeks,”” Montgomery recalls. And Montgomery who is now starring with Bette Davis in Warner Bros.’ laugh riot, “June Bride,” due soon at the Strand Theatre, went back to the stage, and it wasn’t until a year later, 1929, that M-G-M signed him to a film contract. He has been a film star ever since. Speaking of his friendship with the producer who so summarily fired him Bob says they frequently meet at Hollywood occasions. “We always have the same conversation,” Montgomery said. “Goldwyn says, ‘We must have lunch together,’ and I say, Yes.’ Then he says, “Next week, for sure,’ and I say, “Yes, for sure.’ Just as we part, Goldwyn will remind me, ‘You were my actor once, you know.’ “We have never had lunch together, and I don’t know to this day whether Sam Goldwyn knows that he fired me before he ever met me.” Speaking of “June Bride,” Bob is of the opinion that working with Bette was one of the prize plums of his entire acting career. Also, he raves’ over Bretaigne Windust’s expert direction of the comedy. TRICK LAMP BIT IN ‘JUNE BRIDE’ One of the trickiest scenes ever filmed figures in Warner Bros.’ new comedy, “June Bride,” Bette Davis-Robert Montgomery starrer, coming soon to the Strand Theatre. It is a love chase in and around the furniture in Bette’s apartment, which was considerably more tricky to stage than the way it meets the eye. The busiest electricians and fixture men in town were found on the set during filming of this scene, operating control panels of the nine lamps which are turned on and off by Bette and Bob, respectively, as he tries to catch her for a kiss in the dark. The timing in particular had to be stop-watch, as the lamps had to be switched on and off at just the right words in the script. Bette Ushered As Bob Emoted Robert Montgomery graciously remembers that when he was appearing in a summer stock company at Cape Cod Playhouse years ago and Bette Davis was an usherette at the theatre that “Bette was undoubtedly a better usher than I was an actor.” At the present Miss Davis and Montgomery are co-starring in Warner Bros. comedy, “June Bride” which opens next week at the Strand Theatre.