Northern Pursuit(Warner Bros.) (1943)

eee ee a ce a le pea ee pe el PRODUCTION STORIES ABOUT THE PICTURE Still TM 115*; Mat 204—30c Julie Bishop and Errol Flynn, cast as a Northwest Mounted Policeman, are teamed in Warner Bros.’ adventure film, "Northern Pursuit,"' which starts its engagement at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Mustaches Usually Provide Key to Player's Character A trick mustache tickles an audience almost as much as it does the leading lady who works with the player who wears it. Mustaches, like monocles, are character props in pictures. This is as true with villains as with comedians. The scraggly, stringy mustache affected by George Coulouris as the despicable Teck de Brancovis in Warner Bros.’ “Watch on the Rhine” was easily spotted as a key to his character in that Bette DavisPaul Lukas picture. An audience disliked him immediately, once that mustache registered upon the screen. In the same production Donald Woods, playing Bette’s brother, wore his customary _ shortcropped lip trimming that fit exactly his characterization as a strong and sympathetic member of the household. Paul Lukas, playing the lead, and Bette’s heroic husband, was clean shaven—always the safest condition for the hero of any picture. Charles Coburn made effective use of both a mustache and a monocle for his role of the testy English uncle of the Sanger family in “The Constant Nymph.” Together they helped him give an hilarious interpretation of that role. Used for Comedy Jerry Colonna and Groucho Marx have made mustaches their principal trick of the trade. Jerry’s is his own, in spite of its highly false appearance. The mustache that Marx wears is usually merely painted on for comedy effect. Time was when the spiked, waxed mustache was accepted as a definite mark of the villain who “still pursued her.” Now it can be used by the hero or the comedian. Errol Flynn wears his EGTA GSTS 0 POE <r ET, Still Service Now Available Stills available on most of the scene cuts on the publicity pages in tiis campaign plan. Price: 10c each. Order by still number indicated under each cut, from Campaign Plan Editor, 321 West 44 Street, New York 18, N. Y. If still number is not given, photo is not available because the cut was made from a special retouch or a composite. (*Asterisk denotes still is available at local Vitagraph Exchanges.) | SES ar OE ae EE 4 16 usual wisp of lip adornment in “Northern Pursuit,” now at the Strand Theatre, while Helmut Dantine, the villain he is pursuing, is clean shaven except during the time he goes completely unshaven and grows a full crop of short whiskers. Humphrey Bogart, alternating between heels and heroics as he does, prefers to be always clean shaven. He was in “Casablanca” and in “Action in the North Atlantic,” in which he displayed heroic qualities. Grow Their Own Most actors prefer to grow their own when given enough notice before a production begins but if they fail, for any reason, the studio make-up departments can always provide a satisfactory substitute on short notice. Oddly enough one of the most whiskerless pictures of recent years was “Mission to Moscow” because research proved that the mighty Russians do not go in for beards or mustaches to any greater extent than do Americans. Unintentional comedy follows the false mustache onto many motion picture sets. Sometimes the hero finds that it has remained on the heroine’s lip after a warm embrace. Occasionally it loosens and the wearer himself nearly swallows it while registering indignation or alarm. But these are comedy moments that are enjoyed only by those who make the pictures, not those who watch them on the screen. Audiences know that mustaches will provide an accurate key to a player’s character, sometimes more quickly than the dialogue itself. As with George Coulouris in “Watch on the Rhine,” they want to hiss him almost before he opens his mustached mouth. ee eT ee BE RT TEN Hollywood Admits Impossible Once Who said "Nothing is impossible to Hollywood?" It ain't so! Producer Jack Chertok and his technical staff achieved unnumbered miracles in the filming of “Northern Pursuit," now at the Strand Theatre— avalanches and blizzards and bombing expeditions. But they were forced to write one scene out of the script as "impractical." Helmut Dantine was posed to kick a wolf, a ee sup OSE Ao en ee ee Finds History Repeats Itself Helmut Dantine knows that history repeats itself in Hollywood as elsewhere. He realized it most, however, when he reported on the Warner Bros.’ set of "Northern Pursuit,’ the film now at the Strand Theatre, and found that he was to work that day with Errol Flynn in an airplane parked under the protection of tall pine trees. Dantine's first Warner Bros. picture, in which he spoke only one line, was "Desperate Journey,’ and in that he worked his first day beside Errol Flynn in an airplane parked under tall trees. Even the director, Raoul Walsh, was the same. So, in just a little more than two years, Helmut Dantine figures his career has completed one cycle. \ Stee ae Dep ee Proving Ground For New Stars The studio call sheet at Warner Bros. occasionally lists “miscellaneous tests” to be spotted on some stage for the following day. This means, usually, that some of the young contract players there are to be given their chance to show what they can do with lines and looks under the microphone and before the tell-tale camera. To those young players, already encouraged by the fact that they have a studio contract, these “miscellaneous tests” are the most important things in life at the moment. Many new and promising stars have been developed through them. Gig Young got his big chance in “The Gay Sisters” from similar tests and Charles Drake won his chance to kiss Bette Davis in “Now, Voyager.” The call sheet never lists the players to be involved in drama coach Sophie Rosenstein’s miscellaneous tests. But it is certain that a group of newlysigned players will be involved. Studio tests proved Miss Rosenstein’s contention that Julie Bishop, for instance, was ready for important placement in pictures and she was assigned to play opposite Errol Flynn in his new action picture, “Northern Pursuit,” now at the Strand. In a similar series of tests Dolores Moran showed up so well in the projection room when the tests were screened that she immediately was assigned to the principal supporting role to Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins in “Old Acquaintance” and from similar tests Eleanor Parker was chosen to play Walter Huston’s daughter, Emlen Davies, in “Mission to Moscow.” Seill TM 514; Mat 103—15c JULIE BISHOP. is cast importantly in the Strand Theatre's film, “Northern Pursuit." Snow's S'no Fun for Actors -Especially Hollywood Snow It was only June and the winter wasn’t half over yet. Sounds like a letter from a doughboy trying-to tell Mom he’s stationed at the South Pole, but it was a bulletin from Stage 7 at Warner Bros. where a hardy troupe of cinemactors were being buffeted by the bitterest blizzard since New York’s ’83. It had been a long hard winter on Stage 7, no foolin’, and the survivors were beginning to wonder if there wasn’t some sinister significance to the title of the film upon which they were engaged—“Northern Pursuit.” The magic of art director Leo Kuter had transformed Stage 7 into a veritable slice of Canada’s forbidding North. Giant pines reached upward to brush with their tips the roof of Hollywood’s loftiest stage, huge boulders dotted the landscape and over all was a blanket of snow. Mat 104—15c Gene Lockhart Fools the Dogs Even the Siberian huskies and Alaskan malamutes in the three dog teams imported by producer Jack Chertok from Sun Valley, Idaho, were fooled by the “snow.” Every time their services before the camera were required, the dog teams raced eagerly onto the set, dug holes and settled down in obvious anticipation of cooling off. Then they lapped up a mouthful of “snow.” Ensued a general spiting and sputtering, not convinced that the “snow” was gypsum. Nobody else’ involved’ in “Northern Pursuit,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. was in any doubt on this score, however, especially Errol Flynn. Troubled with a sinus condition, Flynn had breathed in enough gypsum to send him to a hospital once and home to bed on two other occasions. Wear Masks When not actually before the camera, Flynn, Julie Bishop, John Ridgely, Gene Lockhart and other players, as well as all the technicians, wore masks over nose and mouth. Bundled up in parkas, they looked like furbearing gnomes. A fine film of gypsum settled over everything after just one rehearsal of a furious action scene. Miss Bishop’s tawny tresses took on the appearance of a powdered wig so that the star had to be excused to wash her hair as often as thrice daily. Director Raoul Walsh went quietly mad in his ceaseless struggle with technical caprices. Wind machines drowned out the dialogue. Miss Bishop inhaled a cloud of gypsum and sneezed in the middle of a tender scene with Flynn. Helmut Dantine’s skis tossed a barrage of “snow” into the very lens of the camera as he made a sharp turn. The dog team stopped too soon. The dog team didn’t stop soon enough. The dog team stopped at just the right spot, but the leader picked this occasion for an unmistakably purposeful visit to a tree smack in the middle of the foreground. Helmut Dantine Wrote Scene The dream of every actor came true for Helmut Dantine, when he wrote a scene for himself in the new Warner Bros. film “Northern Pursuit,” cur§ rently at the : Strand Thea tre. Producer Jack Chertok and writer Al; vah Bessie had arrived at an impasse in the script of “Nor thern Pursuit,’ in which Dantine has a feaMat 106—15¢ tured role Helmut Dantine with Julie Bishop, John Ridgely and Gene Lockhart in support of the production’s star, Errol Flynn. Question was how best could Flynn infuriate a Nazi (portrayed by Dantine) to such heights that the German would lose control of himself and give away a piece of vital information? The problem involved a deep understanding of Nazi psychology. After wrestling with it a day, Chertok had the inspiration to consult Dantine, former member of the Austrian diplomatic service, who had the opportunity to study Nazi psychology at close range while imprisoned in the Vienna concentration camp. Between scenes, Dantine wrote a full page of script on a paper bag and producer accepted it without so much as changing a word. The actor solved the problem by attacking the Nazis at their weakest point—the infallibility of Nazi ideology. A Swashbuckler Swashbuckles “Maybe the Inspector was right about you and that Nazi ” Smack. Crack! Wham! And Constable John Ridgley soars through the ain with the greatest of ease, propelled by the furious fist 3 of Errol Flynn. Errol is; swashbuckling § again, this time in “Northern Pursuit,” roister ous story of the Mat 105—15¢ Canadian John Ridgely Northwest Mounted Police, currently featured at the Strand Theatre. Tom Tully, portraying the inspector, rushes into the fray. Flynn stabs him with a left, hooks him with a right. They grapple. But only momentarily. Then the inspector goes flying through the air with the greatest of ease, landing in a hotel lobby corner. Flynn brushes his hands together with that nonchalant gesture. Turning, he stoops to grasp his suitcase by the handle. He straightens up, but the grip remains on the floor. He grabs at it frantically. It doesn’t budge. He is reaching for it with both hands when a roar of laughter stops him. Director Raoul Walsh has had the suitcase nailed to the floor for a little joke on the swashbuckler, refraining from telling Errol] that the camera stopped with the brushing of hands and that the business with the grip is to be filmed in another cut.