Madame Dubarry (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Production Items @ Star Stories F) Genuine Oddities As suggested in The Film Daily’s poll of motion picture editors Said To Have Grandest Smile of Screen Victor Jory The grandest smile in pictures belongs to the same chap that owns the swellest right hook and the heftiest left hook in Hollywood. The smiling, hard hitting gentleman is Victor Jory, who plays an important role in the Warner Bros. production of “Du Barry,” now showing at the read Et seen ae Theatre. New Yorkers remember him in “Berkeley Square,’ “Tonight or Never,” “What Every Woman Knows” and “The Truth Game”. Salt Lake City, Denver, Cincinnati, Columbus and Vancouver know him as their favorite stock leading man. Hollywood knows him for a number of screen. roles, jaclecing “Murder in Trinidad,” “Disillusion,” “Smoky,” “Sailor’s Luck” and especially for “Madame Du Barry” with Dolores Del Rio. Victor’s aforementioned smile almost ruined him for heavy roles, for no matter how villainous he might be, if he chanced to smile the audience immediately espoused the cause of villainy. In “Madame Du Barry” he plays the role of one of the very few honest nobles, who nevertheless succumbs to the wiles of the beautiful favorite of King Louis XV. The story treats of the frivolous side of Du Barry’s life and loves. There is an all-star cast headed by Dolores Del Rio which also includes Reginald Owen, Osgood Perkins, Verree Teasdale, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Dorothy Tree, Anita Louise and a score of others. William Dieterle directed from the screen play by Edward Chodorov. Osgood Perkins Outstanding legitimate stage star returns to the screen in Warner Bros.’ “Madame Du_ Barry’. Dolores Del Rio plays the title role of this film which comes to the Strand Theatre. Mat No. 11—10c Page Eight It Takes A Thousand Men To Make Du Barry’s Bed But It Was Made Just The Same For The Mammoth Picture ‘‘Madame Du Barry”’ By CARLISLE JONES UILDING a bed for Du Barry is no ordinary undertaking, even in Hollywood. Du Barry’s bed was one of the most talked ‘about sleeping places in the his tory or Europe. Barry,’’ which comes to the on Yet for the sereening of ‘‘Madame Du Theatre Sager e! Y eaMaERT Paws cor MEE , Warner Bros. had to build two beds, a job which must have cost Louis XV of France a pretty penny in the first place, and which was costing the studio no end of time and trouble. Everybody on the lot, it appeared, knew all about those Du Barry beds. At least half of the studio employes admitted having had a. hand in the making of them. And everybody, without exception, was proud of the job. The research department, it seems, had struggled for months with those beds. Historians and chatter writers of the eighteenth century wrote unmeasured reams of copy about Madame Du Barry and the part she played in French history, but none of them took time to jot down an accurate description of the lady’s bed. Real Bed a Mystery The beds the kings and queens of France oceupied, officially, were freely pictured and deseribed. In fact many of them are to be seen even today in museums. But the more interesting boudoir of the woman who ruled the king and riled the queen has been left largely to the imagination of sueeeeding generations. The fir report about Du Sarry’s eds, as it eventually emanated from the research office, was something like this: “Du Barry’s beds were probably like other royal beds of the period; only more so.” So Art Director Jack Okey, unhampered by facts, set about building his Du _ Barry beds. The nearest thing to a pattern he possessed was a photograph of the bed which Mrs. Leslie Carter occupied, times without number, when she played the role of Du Barry on the stage. Okey built one of his beds a little like that —-only more so. At first glance that bed looked a little like an over-grown and excessively ornate gravy boat, the two sides coming together at the foot like the toe of a court jester’s slipper. Perched perilously on the single high “toe” of the foot of the bed, was a nude eupid. This much Art Direetor Okey stole deliberately from Mrs. Leslie Carter, except that on her Du Barry bed, the cupid was perched on the headboard. The whole bed stood on a raised dais upholstered in green satin and from the gilded, regal canopy high above it, countless yards of pale green velvet fell in loose drapes, gathered at the corners’ with strong crystal ties. Many “Make the Bed” In.a way the other Du Barry bed, while less ornate, was even more spectacular.’ That proved to be a footless ‘couch, almost square, upholstered in pink satin and hidden, when necessary, under the plentiful folds of pink brocade curtains, hung from a gilded canopy twenty feet above the bed. The head of this bed is lined with small mirrors. The bed itself boasts of satin sheets and Things look dark for Dolores Del Rio in this scene from “Madame Du Barry”, Warner Bros.’ intimate tale of the famous courtesan’s life. The gentleman with the quizzical expression is King Louis XV. Well, we'll let you in on a secret... he’s really Reginald Owen, who plays the part in this film, now showing at the Strand. Mat No. 6—20c silken covers, real lace pillows and brocaded foot stools to stumble over in the dark. A final check showed that almost every technical department in the studio had helped make the Du Barry beds what they are. The research department supphed the idea. The art department drew the plans. The boat shaped. bed was east in plaster in the “staff” shop as was the cupid on the prow of it. The carpenter shop supplied the see-— ond bed, with the help of the planing mill. The painters, the gilders, and the glass shop had a hand in the business too. The “inside rag” department, a trade name for the drapery workers, cut and sewed for weeks on the drapes and the bedding. Truly the Du Barry beds repre sent the concentrated efforts of a thousand workmen laboring for a common purpose. The researchers gave the cue line. The Du Barry beds in the finished picture are exactly like the beds that might have been occupied by the king’s favorites in the eighteenth century—only more so! The picture is an _ intimate story of the famous Du Barry written and dramatized for the screen by Edward Chodorov. The dance creations are by Albertina Rasch dancers. There is an exceptionally large and talented cast, which includes Dolores Del Rio, Reginald Owen, Vietor Jory, Osgood Perkins, Verree Teasdale, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Anita Louise, Maynard Holmes, Henry O’Neill and many others. William Dieterle directed. Reproduction of King’s Palaces Is A Tough Job “Prop” Men Find It Hard To Make Replicas Accurate For ““Madame Du Barry” By ARTHUR ZELLNER N the production of period plays like ‘‘Madame Du Barry,’’ the Warner Bros. picture now showing at the Theatre, interest in the settings does not lie in size or elaborateness alone, but in the fact that it taxes the resource and ingenuity of technicians. Mere grandeur presents no problem in itself, nor does authentie arehitecture. How, for instance, can Louis XV’s famous Aubisson rug be shown? It is no longer in existence, except in pictures. It not practical to Still, it The solution was is obviously weave an _ imitation. must be shown. simple enough, once it was found. An artist was found who could paint one on a special fabric. the bed of the King, there was a picture of Madame Over Pompadour. If still in existence, the pieture is in a French Mu seum. It was a simple matter to obtain a reproduction of one of Pompadour’s many portraits, but it required months of search to find the details of the frame. In the end it was necessary to commission a famous hand-earver to reproduce it by hand. Old photographs showed that the floor of the throne room was of a marble with an _ unusual grain. The only way to _reproduce it accurately was to paint each block by hand; a prodigious task with the vast expanse of floor to be covered. Clocks Were Problem The King’s Cabinet Room teemed with quandaries. It is an enormous room with French windows, flanked by semi-circular hook cases. In the center is the eabinet table, and several chairs. Against the walls are several Credenzas, while one of the side walls holds the big mantel. All of the furniture was reproduced except two of the chairs which were borrowed from a_ private collector. Near one of the bookcases were a desk and a clock. The elock was a problem of the first water! The only picture of it was so highly treasured that it required weeks of diplomatic wheedling to persuade the museum that owned it, to allow it to be re-photographed. Even that was only a first step. The clock represents such an elaborate collaboration of cabinet-maker and goldsmith that it was months in the making. The boudoir of Du Barry gave the technicians many | worries. Chief of these was the wall treatment. The charming and extravagant lady evidently had ideas of her own and they must have been a challenge to the artisans of her day. Above a paneled wainscoting, the entire wall was decorated Victor Jory appearing in Warner Bros.’ “Madame Du Barry” at the Strand. — Mat No. 15 —10¢ gold base-relief in intricate in and unique patterns. The men who ean do such work must be artists enough to work out the designs and mechanies enough to apply the base-relief properly. There are such men in Hollywood and Warner Bros. fortunately had them. The highly elaborate urns and bases that seem to have been the choice of Du Barry could only be reproduced one way; they were moulded in plaster from a handmade wooden model. Some of the fragile detail called for most careful handling, even after the job was completed. Details Cause Concern Two of the chairs were upholstered in a tapestry material of a very odd design. This was reproduced in the same manner as the Aubisson rug. One of the finest examples of accurate reproduction was a sereen that occupies one corner of Madame Du Barry’s boudoir. It is a massive tri-sectional affair, with a scrool-embellished frame in which is set on embossed material. A faney wooden beading is inset. This was made by earving the main part of the frame of wood, then reproducing the larger scroll work in plaster. The panels were made solid and the fabrie glued onto the panels. Finally, the embossing was done by attaching a moulded plaster pattern over the fabric. The pretentious scale on which “Madame Du Barry” was_ produced as well as the almost incredible attention to detail makes Dolores Del Rio’s first starring vehicle under her new Warner Bros. contract a significant initial effort. These details, however, are only significant in the telling of the story itself, which is an intimate revelation of the day to day life of Madame Du Barry and King Louis XV. In the cast with Miss Del Rio are Reginald Owen, Victor Jory, Osgood Perkins, Verree Teasdale, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Dorothy Tree and hundreds of others. The story and sereen play are by Edward Chodorov with dance creations by Albertina Rasch Daneers. William Dieterle direeted.