Northern Pursuit(Warner Bros.) (1943)

ABOUT JULIE BISHOP AND THE SUPPORTING PLAYERS Marine Goes from Bomb _ Actress Started Bursts to Powder Puffs From bomb bursts to powder puffs was the odd transition completed recently by Nicholas Marcellino. Marcellino, sole survivor of 17 wounded Marines bombed while being evacuated from Guadalcanal, has laid aside his automatic rifle for an eyebrow pencil, put by his hand granade for a jar of cold cream. It is not by his own choice that Nick Marcellino one morning started work as a make-up man at Warner Bros. studios. It is by the edict of Marine Corps medicos. At 28, Marcellino has fully discharged his obligation to his country. He has an honorable discharge to attest it—not to mention the Order of the Purple Heart conferred upon him by General Vandegrift, and sundry bits of shrapnel scattered hither and yon through his lean, slender frame. Quite a Change Making up Ann Sheridan and Bette Davis and Julie Bishop, Nick admits, is quite a change from his previous make-up experience, which consisted of applying mud to his own face to take off the shine before night forays against the Japs on Guadalcanal. His last assignment was making up the stars of “Northern Pursuit,” a story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine and John Ridgley in the top roles. The picture opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. “How come a tough Leatherneck takes up make up?” he was asked. “Most natural thing in the world,” replied Marcellino. “I was an artist before I enlisted in the Marines.” Even so, the particular type of art followed by Nicholas is yet a far cry from the glamorizing of Hollywood lovelies, for Marcellino’s specialty was religious murals. Born Feb. 1, 1920, in Philadelphia, Marcellino attended Thomas May Pierce elementary school and Thomas Fitzsimons High School in that city, then studied art at the famed Graphic Sketch Club there. On Guadalcanal Marcellino spent ten weeks on Guadalcanal in the early stages of the campaign on that embattled isle. Wounded, he was evacuated on October 15, last. In the compartment with him aboard the United States destroyer which was to take them to base hospital were 16 other wounded Marines. A 500-pound bomb, dropped by one of nine Jap bombers which attacked the destroyer, burst four feet above that compartment. Only Marcellino came out alive. Altogether, this new Hollywood recruit spent 214 years overseas. His service record reads like a Cook’s tour—Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bermuda, Panama, Trindad, Samoa, Fijis, New Hebrides, Tonga Tabu, New Caledonia, Guadaleanal and Tulagi. Now Hollywood. Because of His Traditions Indian Natural-born Actor Although her artistic training up to this point had been limited to beading and basket weaving, Miss Higgins was an instantaneous success as an actress, which seeming phenomenon she attributes to her racial heritage. “Even an Indian who has never seen a motion picture, much less a legitimate show, if you can find one today—I mean, find such an Indian—is a trained actor,” says this Indian actress. “What are the rituals of the Indians but show business? And their dances? The Indian, too, was a master of make-up long before Louis XIII started powdering and patching his face. Don’t think Indian war paint isn’t a refinement of make-up. It takes hours to put on. Every stripe, every dot, every color has its symbolic significance. Every Event a Ritual “Every event in the life of a tribe or an individual is the occasion for a ritual, the opportunity to put on a show. “As for the taciturity of the Indian, some of my people rank amonk the great orators of histery — Sequoia and Tecumseh, for instance. The Indian chiefs who are remembered are not those who led the war parties, but the masters of rhetoric, the showmen who inspired’ the people.” Some actors inherit histrionic gifts, some achieve a technique through struggle, others have the motley thrust upon them, but there is one race whose every member is a natural-born actor and it’s the last one you would think of—the American Indian. The average American is wont to think of the red man as a taciturn stoic with an emotional content equalling that of the bronze statue in your city park, whose color he shares. This, avers Tash Mahak, alias Sun Leaf, alias Rose Higgins, is a gross libel, upon her race. Miss Higgins, a Papago from Arizona who is portraying an Assiniboine in “Northern Pursuit,” the Warner Bros. film, now at the Strand Theatre, in which Errol Flynn pursues his victims as far north as Hudson Bay, should know. She has been an actress 18 years and when she made her debut she had about as much training as Shirley Temple. Sun Leaf came to Hollywood from Sherman Institute, the Indian college at Riverside, Calif., where dramatics has.no place on the curriculum. She was looking for a job as a domestic, but wound up in films because every Indian in Hollywood was needed for a picture aptly titled “The Vanishing American.” They're Cramping Errol Flynn's Style Notes on the progress of a swashbuckler: Errol Flynn fought the Barbary pirates on the deck of a ship in “Captain Blood.” The Warner Bros. star fought the Indians on Wyoming’s plains as Custer in “They Died With Their Boots On.” He fought in the air over Germany in “Desperate Journey.” He fought in the prize ring in “Gentleman Jim,” life story of James J. Corbett. Currently Flynn is knocking out Charles Marsh with one punch in “Northern Pursuit” at the Strand Theatre. The fight takes place in the men’s room of a Pullman. “At this rate,” cracked Flynn, “my next assignment will be to beat up a midget in a telephone booth.” Rideto Film Fame Astride a Horse Julie Bishop, like many other ambitious young people in Hollywood, started her ride to her present state of stardom astride a horse. There is, according to Hollywood tradition, no better way of starting a career. Miss Bishop was beautiful, believed to have talent and she could, as she explained it, “stick on a horse.” “Horse operas” are a sort of obstacle course for stars-to-be. They test not only the abilities and photogenic qualities of the player but they also give producers and directors an insight into the character and stick-toitiveness of the young lady involved. Miss Bishop, it turned out, stuck not only to her horse but to her job and thus won her right to be considered seriously as star material. Her rewards were not slow in coming. She was named to play the leading feminine role opposite the popular Humphrey Bogart in “Action in the North Atlantic” and after that she was given the feminine lead in “Northern Pursuit’ opposite Errol Flynn. The picture opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. Julie is only one of several young players in Hollywood who literally won their spurs while wearing them. Martha O’Driscoll is another and Frances Gifford and Barbara Britton are still others. Not Universal Not. all feminine stars by any means rode to their exalted state a-horseback. Olivia de Havilland, if memory serves, came in on a moonbeam in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Bette Davis picked up a revitalized career through the interest and help of George Arliss. Yet horses, by and large, have had a great part in bringing stars to the screen, Not just the ladies, such as Miss Bishop, can point to the horse as their transportation to stardom, Humphrey Bogart rode a horse in one of his earliest pictures and was thrown into the bushes for his trouble. Now he avoids them when possible. Errol Flynn, the other partner for Miss Bishop in her newlywon stardom, has been seen aboard a horse or a ship in more than half of his many pictures. Julie Bishop believes with reason and hopes with some trepidation that her horseback days are over. Few successful feminine stars ever return to the horses on which they rode to their first fame. Miss Bishop has difficulty even now in remembering either the horse or the name of the early pictures she made aboard one. But she does remember that shortly after her new Warner Bros. contract had been signed she was loaned out to another company to make a picture called “Young Bill Hickok.” In that, she recalls, she rode far and wide and tirelessly. But she stuck to her job and to her horse and look where she is now! John Alvin Debuts John Alvin, Warner Bros.’ newly-signed young leading man, gets his first role under his film contract in “Northern Pursuit,” Errol Flynn starrer, now at the Strand Theatre. Assignment of Alvin to the film brought to three the number of Pasadena Community Playhouse graduates appearing in this film, the others being Helmut Dantine and John Ridgely. Still JB 264; Mat 207—30c Julie Bishop appears opposite Errol Flynn in Warner Bros.' adventure film, “Northern Pursuit,’ opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. Actors Reunited In Hollywood It was an odd renuion when Helmut Dantine recently met William Osten for the first time in four years. They met one day on Stage 16 at the Warner Bros. Burbank studios, both portraying Nazi prisoners in a Canadian concentration camp for a scene in “Northern Pursuit,” an action story of adventure with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the vast snow-lands of Canada with Errol Flynn in the starring role. Their last meeting was in the Vienna concentration camp, where both were imprisoned throughout the spring and summer months of 1988 by the Nazis. Dantine, released in July of 1938, came to the United States in January of the next year. The Nazis kept Osten imprisoned a few months longer, although he landed in New York only one month after Dantine. A leader of the Austrian Boy Scouts, Osten had been active in the Schuschnigg government, while Dantine naturally arroused the suspicion and enmity of the Nazis because he was a member of the Austrian diplomatic service. They had not met since the day of Dantine’s release, because Osten came to Hollywood only recently. Errol Flynn Find Wins Film Pact Called up for active Navy Duty under the collegiate training plan, Richard Alden has been signed by Warner Bros. to a contract which will as| sure the Burbank studio of first call on his services upon conclusion of the war. Alden is the young University of Southern California — athlete who peor was “discovy ered” by Errol Flynn while viewing the rushes of “Northern Pursuit,” now at the Strand Theatre, in which the student was working as an extra. Flynn saw potentialities in Alden, called him to the attention of producer Jack Chertok and director Raoul Walsh. As a result, Alden was given a featured role in the film. A pre-legal student, Alden is a graduate of Anaheim High School, where he starred in football, basketball and track. Although Anaheim has been his home since he was three years old, he was born in Cedar Falls, Ia. His only previous dramatic experience was in high school theatricals. in the snow-lands of Canada. Still TM 89*; Mat 201—30c Helmut Dantine and Errol Flynn are shown in this scene from the Strand Theatre's current attraction, Warner Bros.’ action production of adventure 13