June Bride (Warner Bros.) (1948)

STARLET LOSES DENVER ACCENT Barbara Bates, who plays an important role in Warner Bros.’ hilarious comedy, “June Bride,” has finally got the Denver out of her voice, and she is eager to assure other young actresses that they, too, can correct those unpleasant tones. Not that there’s anything wrong with the city of Denver or the state of Colorado, for that matter, or with the way people there talk, but everybody had been telling young Miss Bates ever since she came to Hollywood that she “talked too much like Denver.” “IT guess I rasped or something,” she said. “Anyway, I was kind of nasal and sounded too much like the Rocky Mountains and not enough like an actress. No culture, maybe.” So Sophie Rosenstein, Warner Bros. dramatic coach, who had been only mildly horrified at Barbara’s scratchy tones, having heard much worse in her years of hammering young men and women into smooth-voiced actors and actresses, started to work on Miss Bates. “She made me drop my register,” Barbara explained, “until I was talking like Marlene Dietrich without an accent. My husband used to jump when I’d bark at him like a bullfrog.” After those low, throaty tones for a few weeks—“and lots of humming practice’—Miss Rosenstein lifted Barbara’s voice back up a couple of tones, and that’s just where she wanted it. “And now,” said Miss Bates proudly, “I don’t talk like Denver any more.” “June Bride,” which opens Friday at the Strand, co-stars Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery. STATUE FIGURES IN ‘JUNE BRIDE’ Julius Caesar—may he rest in peace—never gave the Gauls more trouble than he gave Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery in Warner Bros.’ “June Bride.” A bust of J. Caesar figures importantly as a story point in the film comedy. Preparing a bust of the right dimensions and of a sufficiently Caesar-like expression was the first difficulty hurdled by studio plaster artists. His nose was too shiny. It glowed so brightly under the movie-making lights that Miss Davis looked pale by his side and Robert Montgomery looked even paler on the other side. So Caesar got a hasty makeup job which took the gloss off his nose. Then Cameraman Ted McCord, peering through the lens at Caesar, Bette and Bob, decided that what the Roman general really needed was eyelashes. So in addition to a powdered snout, Caesar got some dark paste on his eyelids, and the cameraman was satisfied. Miss Davis, who apparently had read farther into the script, pointed out that greater things yet were in store for the Caesar bust. As the story progresses, the bust is remodeled. “And next week,” she said, “they’re going to paint him black.” She’s right. They did. Fay Bainter and Mary Wickes are also in this particular sequence of the comedy hit. June Bride’ Comedy Has Indiana Setting The “McKinley stinker” in which Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery and the cast of Warner Bros.’ “June Bride” work out most of their comedy scenes, kept Art Director Anton Grot and his assistants busy for many months. This hilarious comedy opens next Friday at the Strand. It should be hastily explained, in fact the Warner studio practically insists that it be explained, that “McKinley stinker” is a term of architectural derision. More particularly, it is the expressed derision of staff members of an ultra smart fashion magazine of which Miss Davis, in the story, is the editor and Mr. Montgomery is the assigned feature writer. “McKinley stinker” -then, is intended, by the script writers, to indicate that the house where the June bride is to be married for the benefit of the magazine’s readers, is an architectural monstrosity similar to many erected in this country about the time William McKinley was president of the United States. “It means gingerbread trim,” explains Grot, “and squares of colored glass around the windows in the doors. It is a hangover from the time when enough lumber to build a bridge across BETTY LYNN Still 701-617 Mat 701-14 This Little Pig Has A ‘Hair-Do’ Here’s one little pig who went to makeup. To get her tail curled— of all things! The three-week-old piglet made her screen bow in a hay-wagon scene with Betty Davis and Robert Montgomery in Warner Bros.’ comedy “June Bride,” which opens next week at the Strand Theatre. Everybody agreed that her acting was, all right, but as pigs’ tails go, this one left much to be desired. It was practically straight. 'So they sent her to makeup, where, under the supervision of experts who are used to making beautiful women more beautiful and handsome men more handsome, the pig got got a curler on her tail. ay the Atlantic was wasted annually in jim-cracks intended to impress the neighbors. This “stinker” supposedly is located in Indiana in ‘June Bride” but it could have been placed, story-wise, in New York, New England, almost any midwestern state or even in California. People everywhere threw good taste to the wind in that era, according to Grot, and built houses which have continued to be eye-sores for nearly half a century. Grot found plenty of samples of such “stinkers” in his reference books of period architecture and he also visited some examples in the Los Angeles vicinity, houses on Figuero, a street and in the older sections of Hollywood itself. “Tt’s a house a _ reasonably prosperous hardware merchant in a small city might have built for himself and his family at the turn of the century,” Grot says. “He could have built it then for $4,000 or $5,000—and would have impressed his neighbors as well. “Tt cost us considerably more than that to reproduce the house as a set. In fact, we built or indicated a whole street of similar houses. You can find duplicates in any small city.” TALL, PLAIN GALS HAVE A CHANCE! Tall girls with plain faces may take cheer — for Mary Wickes, a tall girl with a plain face, who admits it and says that her chances for an acting career were something like 10to-1 better than if she had been cute and cuddly and pretty. “For every plain girl who wants to be an actress,” Miss Wickes who appears in the Bette Davis-Robert Montgomery starrer, “June Bride,” says: “there are at least 10 beautiful ones. See what I mean?” Mary Wickes has been acting steadily and successfully, both on Broadway and in Hollywood, since she made her memorable appearance as Miss Bedpan, the dour nurse in “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” She did that role in the original stage version and later in Warners’ film version of the play hit. “Whenever I tell anyone that I’ve got a role in ‘June Bride,’ they tilt their eyebrows and say, ‘Not the bride!’ You’d think I couldn’t be a bride! All brides aren’t beautiful.” Bette Davis Deserts Drama for Laughfest In Warner Bros.’ “June ‘Bride,” Bette Davis wipes the salty tears of tragedy from her eyes and substitutes the coquettish glances of frivolity that go with her first comedy appearance in almost eight years. Robert Montgomery is co-starred. According to advance word, the results are most gratifying. Others importantly cast in this delightful comedy are: Fay Bainter, Betty Lynn, Tom Tully, Barbara Bates and Raymond Roe and Mary Wickes. ROBERT MONTGOMERY co-stars with Bette Davis in Warner Bros.’ hilarious comedy, “June Bride,” due Friday at the Strand. Still 701-649 Mat 701-2B STARLET CASHES IN ON FRECKLES By the time Betty Lynn was old enough to say the word “freckles,” she knew she had a face full of them and that most other little girls didn’t. Today, Betty, who plays an important role in Warner Bros.’ gay comedy, ‘June Bride,” Bette Davis-Robert Montgomery starrer, due soon at the Strand, still has the freckles—‘maybe more of them’”—and also the flaming red hair that is the proper topper to a freckled dial. But in the meantime, instead of trying to cover them up, Betty has campaigned to capitalize on her freckles. “And that,” she says, “is what all freckle-faced girls ought to do. Let them show. After you get used to them, they aren’t so bad. Somebody even told me once that freckles give a face character. I don’t know why, but the idea appeals to me.” When Betty came to Warner Bros. to play a juvenile lead with Bette and Montgomery in “June Bride,” the first thing he makeup department wanted to do was to erase those freckles. Betty said, “Huh-uh. I’ve had them for 20 years. I don’t intend to hide them now.” Betty shares juvenile acting honors with Raymond Roe in this delightful comedy offering. BETTE DAVIS and ROBERT MONTGOMERY braving the cold wind in Warner Bros.’ rollicking laughfest, “June Bride.” Still 701-40 Mat 701-2F