Miss Pacific Fleet (Warner Bros.) (1935)

PUBLICITY Actor Can Steal Picture Without Speaking a Line Hugh Herbert, Comedian in “Miss Pacific Fleet,” Has Fortune in Face By Carlisle Jones So he took the somewhat less than fifty thousand dollars and the three lines of dialogue, and this is what he did with them. He “stole the picture,’ walked away with a majority of the laughs, dominated the best scenes and came out of what was supposed to be a minor funny role with the rating of a star comedian. The picture was the highly successful “Convention City’ and the actor’s name is Hugh Herbert as those readers who saw the picture have already guessed. Lack of lines was no handicap to Hugh Herbert. He can’t remember lines anyway and those he improvises are generally funnier than those written for him— even when he writes his own, as he does sometimes. For Hugh Herbert is a writer as well as an actor, a fact which has added to the general confusion between his name and that of F. Hugh Herbert, novelist and scenarist also employed by Warner Bros. Even so Hugh Herbert isn’t as funny when he writes as when he acts. Just seeing him is enough to send the average audience off into chuckles. Three Lines to Stardom When Herbert was signed by Warner Bros. no one at his studio knew just how good he was. He played small roles in two or three feature pictures and one or two shorts and was then called in to be told that he would work next in the picture “Convention City.” In due time Herbert reported to Director Archie Mayo to talk over his role in the picture. “Are you in this?” asked Mayo. Hugh said he had been told he was. ; Together they looked through the script to find his lines. There were just three of them—and two of those were exactly alike. Herbert threw the script away, aS he always does and reported for work as called. The use he made of this forlorn opportunity to be funny on the screen is one of Hollywood’s favorite anecdotes now. He just stood around—but how he stood. Words in the mouths of the other players were powerless against him. Almost unwillingly the camera seemed to follow Herbert, recording for posterity the comic adventures of a convention attender attending the wrong convention. Hugh got a new contract with a boost in pay and the reputation of being a dangerous competitor in any picture out of his work in “Convention City.” Most comedians are _ serious minded chaps at heart. Herbert is different. He is just as funny to talk to over a lunch table as he is to watch on the screen. Gifted Scene Stealer The very players from whom he loots many of his best remembered scenes, are his closest friends. Perhaps the most frequent victims of the “Herbert look”—that muddled expression which registers with an audience more than any spoxen line—have been Joan Blondel! aud Glenda Farrell, who are again playing with Herbert in “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ the Warner Bros. film which comes to the.................... Theatre: on... 3 Both these young women are scene stealers of no mean ability themselves but they recognize Herbert as the toughest competition in pictures. Less able comediennes might refuse to work with Herbert. Joan and Glenda are always threatening to desert him but their threats don’t ring true. The three of them are good friends off the set and friendly enemies during the making of a picture. “How can we work with him?” demands Joan of a perspiring director. “He makes faces toward the camera while we read our lines.” Just the same they get along splendidly. Herbert’s role in “Miss Pacific Fleet” was funny as written but it turned out to be infinitely funnier when Herbert played it. Voice Behind the Screen “Every time I work with him,” said Joan later, “I swear I’ll never Page Ten | Hugh Herbert nA Hugh Herbert made his big film hit with Joan Blondell in “Convention City.” Now he’s again teamed with her and with Glenda Farrell in the funniest film they’ve ever made, “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ the Warner Bros. picture at the............ Theatre. Mat No. 108—10c accept a role in another picture in -which he is to play. He makes it too tough. He has a face that ought to be padlocked.” Hugh Herbert has, according to his own account, been “kicking around in pictures since the year one.” He was a voice behind the screen years before the recorded talking picture was_ perfected, when an ahead-of-the-times exhibitor featured pictures that seemed to talk. Before that he toured various vaudeville circuits, having graduated from theater ushering to acting. His first picture was “Caught in the Fog,” which had a few talking sequences. Then he turned to writing and with Murray Roth turned out the scenario for a short, called “The Roaring Forties.” It outgrew the short stage and emerged finally with a new title, as the first all talking picture ever made, “The Lights of New York.” Later he directed Lowell Sherman in “He Knew Women” and still later he wrote the screen adaptation of “The Great Gabbo.” “Miss Pacific Fleet” is a glamorous romance and hilarious comedy based on a story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Allen Jenkins is another of the quartette of fun makers. Warren Hull has the romantic lead. Music and lyrics are by M. K. Jerome and Herb Magidson while Raymond Enright directed the picture. Joan Blondell Back On Midway In Latest Film Early in the spring of 1930 a rather obscure young actress made her screen debut in a Warner Bros. picture titled “Sinner’s Holiday.” The picture was taken from a stage play called “Penny Arcade,” and the story concerned the lives of those semi-theatrical people who work in amusement parks and midway sideshows. The actress’ name was Joan Blondell, and she had been recruited from the legitimate stage version of the play to enact her first motion picture part in the screen adaption. Today, as a full-fledged star, Joan is back on the midway. Cast as the operator of a cane-rack concession booth in her latest picture, “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ which COMES 10-ThE: 3 ee. Theatre POAT Sey ey a , the popular comedienne is virtually re-enacting the type of role she portrayed in the first picture in which she ever appeared. Going back onto amusement park midway for a sequence in her latest picture is particularly interesting for Joan, for it brings memories of a time when she was struggling to gain recognition in the ranks of the cinema. “Miss Pacific Fleet” is a rollicking comedy romance. With Miss Blondell in the cast are Glenda Farrell, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Warren Hull, Eddie Acuff, Marie Wilson and Minna Gombell. Raymond Enright directed the picture from the screen play by Lucille Newmark and Peter Milne, based on a story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Music and lyrics are by M. K. Jerome and Herb Magidson. Glenda Farrell Pulls A Cagney On Fellow Star Glenda Farrell has achieved her lifelong cinematic ambition. She has kicked another young lady. In fact she pulled a Cagney with her foot. The kick, of course, was delivered in a comedy scene in Glenda’s latest Warner’ Bros. picture, “Miss Pacific Fleet,” which comes BO: CNG es Theatre on............... The recipient was Marie Wilson, a close friend of Miss Farrell’s. The scene called for Glenda to kick Miss Wilson after a particularly trying scene in which the young featured player annoyed Miss Farrell to death with her silly dialogue. “Marie played the part so naturally,” said Glenda afterwards, “that I think I would have kicked her anyway. It’s one of those things everyone wants to do at one time or another, and yet very rarely does. I found myself at peace with the whole world when I had done the kicking.” Miss Wilson was not quite so delighted. She declared it re GLENDA FARRELL in “Miss Pacific Fleet” at the Strand Mat No. 104 10¢e minded her of some naughty days when she ate her meals from the mantlepiece. “Miss Pacific Fleet” is a rollicking comedy romance with that quartette of fun makers, Joan Blondell, Miss Farrell, Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins heading the cast. Others include Warren Hull, Eddie Acuff, Marie Wilson and Minna Gombell. Raymond Enright directed the picture from the screen play by Lucille Newmark and Peter Milne, based on a story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Music and lyrics are by M. K. Jerome and Herb Magidson. You See, It’s This Way! Glenda Farrell and Hugh Herbert tell it to the Marines as weil as to the Navy, when Glenda and Joan Blondell take the seamen for a real ride in the Warner Bros. picture “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ coming to the...........:...... Theatre on Mat No. 203—20c¢ Two Blonde Menaces in New Gold Digging Film Joan Blondeil and Glenda Farrell Take Over Navy in “Miss Pacific Fleet” When the average movie fan turns to the drama page and sees the names of Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell linked together in a forthcoming moving picture, he immediately assumes that they will be cast as two wisecracking young gold-diggers. It is not surprising that these two young ladies have become known as public avengers of their sex on business men. They have been teamed in such roles for so long that their names have be come synonymous with deflated egos. Their work in such pictures as “Kansas City Princess,’ “Havana Widows,” “Traveling Saleslady” and “We’re in the Money,” stamped them as the topmost exponents of the subtle art, and now their fans expect to see them as nothing else. Their latest Warner Bros. picture, “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ now showane At these ei... ciesss vc: Theatre is no disappointment to those moviegoers who delight in seeing the two girls wheedle a few hundred dollars out of the pockets of a shy but willing business man. For they’re gold-digging the navy this time, and putting a couple of battleships in mortgage while they do it. Actually the Misses Blondell and Farrell are so far removed from their popular characterizations as it is possible to be. Both are essentially home-loving and neither have ever been in want either before or during their cinema careers. Joan Blondell was born in New York City in 1909. Her father, Eddie Blondell, was for twenty years a_ well-known vaudeville comedian, and his family not only traveled with him, but played in the act with him. Vaudeville was at its zenith in those days, and Joan was never in want of a good job. She was sent to schools in California and Texas, and took a trip or so abroad with her theatrical family. Joan’s success in moving pictures was instantaneous, and she is now a star in her own right. Her tastes are simple and her ambition is to rise to even higher fame as a great dramatic actress. Glenda Farrell’s life story reads in a like manner. She was born to the stage and its traditions and was a highly-successful legitimate actress before the moving pictures claimed her. and teamed her with Joan Blondell. The grandest thing in her life is her 12 year old son, Tommy, whom she is with constantly when not working at the studio. “Miss Pacific Fleet’ is a rollicking comedy romance. Others in the cast include Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Warren Hull, Eddie Acuff, Marie Wilson and Minna Gombell. Raymond Enright directed. Glenda Farrell Yearns To Play Character Role “Wisecracking and gold-digging roles are fun enough to work in, but I would rather do straight character parts for the balance of my screen career.” So said blonde Glenda Farrell as she rested between scenes of “Miss Pacific Fleet,’ the Warner Bros. picture now showing at the et ae eA Re Theatre. It is the fifth film in which Miss Farrell has been featured with Joan Blondell in the. roles of little golden-haired girls who know all the answers. Glenda, like Joan, has become recognized as one of the screen’s leading comediennes in the wisecracking line. “And that’s just the trouble,” said Glenda, hotly, “I think the real test of any actress is not in specialized work, but in being able to play any sort of a role at a moment’s notice. My first few parts in moving pictures were straight character roles, but since the beginning of the gold-digging era in films I’ve been tagged as a perpetual menace to the _ tired business man. “When theatergoers see me billed in ‘Miss Pacific Fleet’ they'll say: “*There’s Glenda Farrell again; she’s taking in the navy now!” “Miss Pacific Fleet” is a hilarious comedy with all star cast including Joan Blondell, Miss Farrell, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins and Warren Hull. The music and lyrics are by M. K. Jerome and Herb Magidson, while Raymond Enright directed the picture from the screen play by Lucille Newmark and Peter Milne, based on a story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan.