My Bill(Warner Bros.) (1938)

(Lead) Strand to Show ‘My Bill Drama Of Family Life *“My Bill,’’? with Kay Francis, Bonita Granville, Anita Louise, Bobby Jordan and Dickie Moore heading the cast, has been booked as the next attraction for the Strand Theatre, where it will open on Friday. ‘‘My Bill’’ was adapted from Tom Barry’s stage play, ‘‘Courage.’? Sacrificing that intangible asset generally termed glamour, which has heretofore been the bulwark of her career, Kay Francis has taken the oportunity presented by this picture to prove that she is, first and foremost, an accomplished actress. She has dared what few motion picture actresses in her position would consent to do—that is, to play a woman who is older than her real self and is the mother of four children, of whom the eldest is supposed to be sixteen years of age. In the story Miss Francis is a widow, who has just finished running through the inheritance left by her socially prominent husband. In desperate straits, she borrows money from a banker who was her childhood sweetheart. This causes scandal, and her eldest three children leave her and go to live with a wealthy aunt. Only little Bill (Dickie Moore) remains with his mother, but, small as he is, he proves to be a real bulwark in time of need. Then, it is the little fellow who reunites the family as a Mother’s Day gift to Kay, and, as the story ends, not only is the family reunited but the town gossips’ tongues are to be silenced by Kay’s marriage to her childhood sweetheart. The screen play was written by Vincent Sherman and Robertson White, and the production was directed by John Farrow. MAKING PRETTY PICTURES An average motion picture script contains about 300 scenes, but the director, in filming it, ordinarily takes . three times that number of scenes because he cuts them up into ‘‘angles.’’ Naturally the proportion is greater when a pretty woman is before the camera. For ‘‘My Bill,’’ the film starring Kay Francis which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, the director filmed 1800 scenes. TRESSES DON’T MATCH Kathleen Lally, stand-in for blonde Bonita Granville during the filming of ‘‘My Bill,’’ the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand Theatre Friday, is the film industry’s only brunette who stands in for a blonde star. She’s a little beauty but is often required by the cameraman to cover her hair with a blonde wig. soe eee Mat 102—15c BELOVED BRAT — Bonita Granville lives up to her reputation for cinematic cutting-up in “My Bill’ opening at the Strand on Friday. HE’S JUST HER BILL — Kay Francis’ newest heart-throb is little Dickie Moore, who plays her son in “My Bill,’ a tender drama of one woman’s family against the world. It comes to the Strand Theatre on Friday. (Advance) Director Employs Psychology On Film Actors In ‘My Bill’ Kay Francis needs polite but business-like suggestions. Anita Louise needs picturesque comments that will amuse her and arouse her imagination. Bonita Granville needs encouragement and praise. Bobby Jordan needs ocecasional sarcasm. Dickie Moore needs gentle kidding. Those are the conclusions of John Farrow, who directed ‘‘ My Bill,’’ the Warner Bros. picture with Kay Francis heading the cast, which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Farrow virtually psycho-analyzes his actors. He is one of the few directors since Von Stroheim who will admit it, and also admit that occasionally he’ll go so far as to antagonize a player deliberately, just so as to get the best work out of him. For instance, in casting John Litel as male lead in the Kay Francis picture, he surprised the actor considerably. Litel, of stage ‘‘Ceiling Zero’’ and screen ‘‘Aleatraz’’ fame, had gotten the impression during the filming of a previous picture that Farrow didn’t like him. Being a forthright sort of fellow, Litel expressed his surprise and told Farrow why. The director was astonished at first. Then he remembered, and began to laugh. ‘‘T’m sorry, John! ’’ he said. ‘‘ You had a scene near the end of ‘Little Miss Thoroughbred’ in which I thought it might help you to act disgruntled, if you really were. So I tried to annoy you with my comments just before we filmed the scene. Then I forgot to explain to you afterward.’? Farrow claims the theory is his own, because he hadn’t heard how Von Stroheim, when a director, occasionally drove his actors to murderous fury against him, purely for effect. ‘¢T’m sure I wouldn’t go to such leneths,’’ he declared. ‘‘My only object is to get the best possible results obtainable from each individual, and I believe a bit of study of each player’s personal psychology aids one to that end.’? He believes that any actor’s performance on the screen is a blending of private-life personality with that of the character he is playing. It is part of a director’s job, he believes, to know human psychology fairly well, [7] and it’s a handy trick of the trade to apply that knowledge to the task of directing a group of people who are as individualistic as actors are apt to be. Kay Francis and Farrow got along extremely well during the filming of ‘*My Bill.’’ The director and Anita Louise played practical jokes on each other. Bonita Granville, Bobby Jordan and Dickie Moore were easy for him to handle, as he likes and understands children. And the fine performances which all these folks give in ‘My Bill’’ prove that Mr. Farrow seems to ‘‘have something there.’’ _ (Advance) LoveScenes Easy For Young Stars Anita Louise and Maurice Murphy were borther and sister in ‘‘Tovarich’’ and now they’re lovers in ““My Bill,’’ the Warner Bros. picture starring Kay Francis which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. They liked being sweethearts better than being relatives, despite the fact that they claimed there was no real romance between them, both having other heart interests off the screen. ‘“The easiest acting the screen offers young people is love-making,’’ young Murphy declared, and Anita agreed. Murphy, like Anita, was a child star a few years ago. Unlike Anita, he wasn’t in romantic roles when 13, or even for quite a few years afterwards. He played typical American boy parts. The discovery that the easiest sort of acting for young players is lovemaking, came to young Murphy very recently. He did a screen test love scene with a young lady whose name, for obvious reasons, he’s keeping to himself. He thought he and the young lady did a bad job of it before the cameras. To his surprise, the director applauded. Then came his partner’s faux pas. ‘We should have done it well,’’ said she. ‘‘You see, we spent a long time rehearsing it the other night, when we met at a party.’’ (Advance) Anita Is Tops At Agelessness In Movie Roles Anita Louise, famed as the child star who played adult roles occasionally from the time she was 12 years old, recently acted in what may be her last under-age part. The role was that of the sixteenyear-old daughter of Kay Francis in the Warner Bros. film, ‘‘My Bill,’’ which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Anita was born in New York City, and birth records there show the event occurred on Jan. 9, 1917, which means that she reached the age of 21 last Jan. 9th. When she was nine, in Vienna, she made a feature-length color picture in which she played the 18-year-old sweetheart of the 30-year-old hero. She had begun a theatrical career at the age of 7, on Broadway, but her first American film didn’t come along until, at the ripe old age of 13 (just barely past twelve), she played the wife of Neil Hamilton. About eleven months later she played in a picture with Neil again. This time she was his 12-year-old daughter! Apparently ageless, Anita has been child of, and sister to nearly every other woman star on her ‘‘home’? studio lot, Warner Bros. She was sixteen, by the way, in ‘‘Tovarich.’’?’ As Kay Francis’s niece in ‘‘Firgt Lady,’’ she was cast as a somewhat older girl—probably eighteen. In ‘‘Green Light,’’ as Errol Flynn’s sweetheart, she was of unspecified age—probably 25! In real life, Anita is not yet married. That is, unless a current romance blossoms into matrimony before this gets into print. She once declared she would wait until she was 25, having reached the conclusion, from cinematic love affairs beginning at age 9, that a woman couldn’t know her mind until she reached that age. STARLET MEETS STAR Kay Francis, tall, dark and famous, entertained on her set recently a tiny blonde star who is just dawning, Janet Champman. John Farrow, who was directing Kay at the time in her new Warner Bros. film, ‘‘My Bill,’’ which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, had previously directed sixyear-old Miss Chapman’s initial starring film—first film of any kind, in fact —‘‘Little Miss Thoroughbred.’’ they fell very hard for each other. ANITA ENTERTAINS CAST Anita Louise finally yielded to persuasion one day during the filming of ‘““My Bill,’’?’ and played a harp (courtesy of the prop department) for the entertainment of Kay Francis and other members of the cast. Mat 104—15c ANITA LOUISE — is the very decorative juvenile feminine lead in “My Bill” which will be the next feature attraction at the Strand Theatre.