Now Voyager(Warner Bros.) (1942)

Davis Becomes Dowdy for B3 _Dramatic Character Role Bette Davis was near tears. She saw herself as no woman in the world likes to see herself—25 pounds over-weight. Her hair was straight and caught in a plain bun at the nape of her neck. Her eyebrows were thick and she wore glasses. Her stockings were cotton. Her (Stili NV. 19; Mat 106—15c) BETTE DAVIS AND PAUL HENREID shoes were sensible. And there was no question about it—Bette was fat. This was Miss Davis’ makeup for early scenes in her new Warner Bros. picture, ‘Now, Voyager.” She plucked her eyebrows and wore a red wig for “Queen Elizabeth,’ made herself old for ‘The Old Maid,” and has never hesitated to dare to be unattractive whenever she thought a good picture required if | “T’ve gone the limit ey she said, sadly regarding her padded self in a full-length mirror. What she saw was not a character study of a famous British queen or an experiment in aging, but a fat and dowdy young woman. Even the famous Davis eyes, never before disguised, were different. Her face was plump and—stolid. Perhaps not even Bette Davis would dare that make-up unless she knew what was to follow. In “Now, Voyager,’ the story of a.New England girl who rescues herself from her inhibitions, Bette is unattractive ta start with but beautiful before : the film is well under way. In ; fact, she plays herself at three different ages—as a wisp of a girl of 20, as the obese and disappointed old maid of 27. And as a sleekly groomed young woman of the world a year later. And, to top it off, she has a love affair with Paul Henreid, her new leading man. “Now, Voyager” is from the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty and, in addition to the excitement and romance that runs through the story, is an interesting case report on the psychology of a young woman who is erushed and oppressed by a New England family, especially a strait-laced mother. The title, by the way, is from an interesting source. It comes from Walt Whitman’s poetry: “Untold want, by life and land ne’er granted, “Now, Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find.” 12 Yr.-Old Tops In Screen Debut Of Different Role Betting on a 12-year-old girl making her screen debut in a Bette Davis picture is like wagering on a filly in the Kentucky Derby. Even experienced players of the movie-acting world often get the nervous jitters at the prospect of stacking up against a lady so formidable. A little Santa Barbara, Calif., girl named Janice Wilson didn’t know about this legend. She simply moved in on “Now, Voyager” at Warner Bros. and played scene after scene with Miss Davis as sincerely as if she were make-believing in her own back yard. The result is that Janice has made a solid hit, has won a contract, and has been cast with Bette again in “Watch on the Rhine.’ Janice’s part in’ “Now, Voyager” called for an inhibited, affection-starved little girl, not a pitiful little girl and not a mischievous one, but a _ bewildered, neurotic juvenile headed for frustration and old-maiddom. In getting away with that kind of part, Janice has apparently brought something new to the screen. Janice, like all other screen children, went to school three hours a day on the set, worked four. She switched from play to work without apparent effort. TRAILING BETTE It’s a small world dept: Gladys Cooper, who produced and starred on the stage in Somerset Maugham’s “The Letter,” which later became one of Bette Davis’ most successful pictures, plays the part of Bette’s mother in “Now, Voyager.” GROWS YOUNGER Bonita Granville, who’s not yet 16, has already felt the first pinch of the years. She had to be made to look at least three years younger in order to appear in Warner Bros.’ “Now, Voyager,” as Ilkka Chase’s daughter and Bette Davis’ 23h yp Aegiess niece. She plays a Mat 107—15c¢ rather preco-BONITA GRANVILLE tious young ster whose teasing at first drives her aunt to distraction, but later is completely won over by Bette’s changed outlook on life. FOR THE RECORD Bette Davis has been made love to in all 44 of her Warner Bros. pictures during the past 10 years but she surpassed all previous records for kissing in a scene with Paul Henreid in her current production, “Now, Voyager.” The score: Thirty-three kisses in rehearsal; three kisses for a take; and one kiss that ran for a full two minutes. Bette was unaware that she had done anything like set a record for herself. STILL SERVICE Stills available on most of the scene cuts on the publicity pages in this campaign plan. Price: I0c each. Order by still number indicated under each cut from Campaign Plan Editor, 321 West 44 Street, New York City. 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.) (Still NV 39*; Mat 205—30c) GLADYS COOPER, CLAUDE RAINS AND ILKA CHASE BETTE DAVIS IN “NOW, VOYAGER” SCREEN'S GRANDEST LOVE STORY “Now, Voyager” is the name of Bette Davis’ newest picture and great is the word for both the picture and its star. In one of the! grandest love : stories thei screen has: ever told, Miss : Davis rises to the greatest | heights of her | entire dramat; ic career, and the result is the year’s finest screen entertainment. CLAUDE RAINS Here is a film story so sensitively directed, so ably enacted that the audience cannot help but live the events as they unfold on the screen. Bette is cast as Carlotta Vale, a girl who has been kept in such complete seclusion by her mother for so long a period of time, that she suffers a nervous breakdown as a result. It is a role that calls for a superb performance, and Miss Davis certainly gives that. As Carlotta, she plays a young girl of twenty whose first love affair is ruthlessly broken up by her tyrannical mother; a girl of twenty-eight, who looks like thirty-eight, dowdy, with thick eyebrows, thick rimmed glasses and a bad case of nerves, and as a charming young wo Mat 103—15c WRONG TENSE Ilka Chase, author of “Past Imperfect,” an auto-biography in which she takes some vicious cracks at Hollywood, got her comeuppance from a fan who met her at the Union Air Terminal. Miss Chase had just flown out after an absence of three years to work with Bette Davis in Warner Bros.’ “Now, Voyager.” “Will you autograph a copy of your book, please?” the fan asked. Miss Chase obliged. “And may I ask a question?” the fan persisted. “Don’t you’ think ‘Present Vindictive’ would have been a better title?” MAKING PROGRESS In “The Man Who Came To Dinner” a young man stumbled into the camera’s eye, tripped over a chair on the set and stumbled out of camera range. The star of that film, Bette Davis, never met him on the set because she didn’t have to appear in that particular scene. The young man was Charles Drake. In Miss Davis’ new Warner . Bros. picture, “Now, Voyager,” the same young man appears. But this time Charles Drake has more to do than stumble around. He has one of the warmest love scenes with Bette in the picture. man of the world. Cast opposite Miss Davis is Paul Henreid, who gave such fine performances in the play “Flight to the West” and the film “Joan of Paris.” This picture will most certainly put him up with the screen’s greatest lovers. His portrayal of a lonely man who finds happiness but cannot accept it, is flawless. Claude Rains, as the psychiatrist called in to help Carlotta find the road to happiness, gives a fine performance. Never does one get the feeling that here is a professional physician, but a good friend of the family. The role of the mother who is a strict disciplinarian is played with superb realism by Gladys Cooper, famous actress of the London stage. Ilka Chase is grand as Carlotta’s sister-in-law. She is one Vale who refuses to be awed or frightened by Back Bay traditions and is instrumental in seeing that Carlotta receives the proper care. Irving Rapper, who piloted Miss Davis through “In This Our Life,” has directed “Now, Voyager.” The story which was adapted for the screen by Casey Robinson, from the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, is a decidedly original treatment of a truly unique theme. The film is a Hal B. Wallis production. BELLES LETERES They call the “Now, Voyager” company out at Warner Bros. the “literary set.” The three principal women characters are all authors. Bette Davis wrote “Uncertain Glory,” the story of her life, which ran in The Ladies Home Journal. Gladys Cooper once known as the most beautiful woman on the London stage, who plays the role of Bette’s mother, also has written her autobiography, entitled simply “Gladys Cooper,” and Ilka Chase authored “Past Imperfect,” story of her life and good times. The book has caused quite a stir. REALISM Twelve-year-old Janice Wilson, whose teeth are perfect, had to have a dentist affix an ugly set of bands to them in order to win her first role in pictures. Janice plays Paul Henreid’s daughter in the Bette Davis starring film, “Now, Voyager,” at Warner Bros. She almost lost the part after her first test because she was too pretty. It’s a fat part and Janice wanted it badly. She got her mother to take her to the family dentist in Santa Barbara, who put the bands on (they hurt, too), and then she came back for another try, and got the part over many competitors. There’s Nothing Like Love in A Railroad Station Love behind a stanchion, Bette Davis discovered in Warner Bros.’ “Now, Voyager,” is hard on a girl. The stanchion was in a station. Bright lights flashed in her eyes. Seeping steam from yawning locomotives curled around her legs. Hurriers-by bumped her with luggage. But, as she remarked to Paul Henreid, there seems to be a very definite tie between stations and love. It occurred to her, she said, that the male animal’s usual determination to kiss a girl good-bye invariably finds a feminine response when the trains roll out. Henreid said he thought that was true. He said he had observed—academically, of course —that a girl who couldn’t be kissed anywhere else would kiss in a station. Even if they do get cinders in their eyes, Bette added. It was farewell for Bette and Paul, all right, their big farewell scene in “Now, Voyager,” where the lovers part. The station was Back Bay, near Boston, and commuters hurried by. “Don’t look at the kissing couple,” Director Irving Rapper instructed the extras. “You see that in every depot. You do it yourselves. Just pass ’em by.” More tender leave-takings have probably been recorded in the Warner Bros. train shed than in any station in the world. As a matter of fact, the train shed on the back lot houses part of a remarkable railroad, one that runs 100 yards from nowhere to nowhere. But during any given year it spans the hemisphere several times. Two Accents Are Too Many for Paul It’s bad enough when a man has an accent to correct, but when he has—not one—but two, well, that’s tough. Ask Paul Henreid, the engaging European actor who is currently Bette Davis’ leading man in the Warner Bros. picture, “Now, Voyager.” Such a bi-lingual headache confronts him. “Poor me!” lamented Mr. Henreid. “Here I am a man of Swedish-Viennese descent who must overcome the traces of my childhood tongue, and_ besides that, now that I am an American film actor, I must try to polish off the remnants of the British accent I acquired during my years in the British cinema.” Henreid is smitten, admirably enough, with the idea of perfecting his English—or rather his American. Despite their differences in background, Henreid’s speech is similar to that of Charles Boyer, although his English experience has softened Henreid’s sharp accent considerably. “And some day,” promises the actor, “I’ll sound more like an American than even Harold Teen.” LUCKY THIRTEEN “Now, Voyager,” Warner Bros. picture which stars Bette Davis and Paul Henreid, now playing at the Strand Theatre, will be the latter’s thirteenth film since he turned film actor. This number includes pictures made in Austria, France, England and America. “But thirteen has been lucky for me,” remarked Henreid. “I arrived safely in America during great submarine activity in the Atlantic, on the thirteenth of August, 1940, and I signed my contract with Warner Bros. last February thirteenth,