Pride of the Marines (Warner Bros.) (1945)

Marine’s Letter Provides Story of Fighting Hero “Dear Ruth” was the sub-head of a story running for half a stick of type in the issue of Time for February 1, 1943. It remained for Warner Bros. to make it the basis for one of that studio’s most important productions for this year, “Pride Of The Marines,” currently at the Strand with John Garfield, Eleanor Parker and Dane Clark in top starring roles. Still J6 281 Mat 202 — 30¢ John Garfield, Warner Brothers star, plays Sgt. Al Schmid, Marine hero. In "Pride of the Marines," currently at the Strand Theatre. The film also stars Eleanor Parker and Dane Clark. “Private Al Schmid, of the Marine Corps, was facing life, while handicapped. In San Diego Naval Hospital he began his biggest readjustment. ““Dear Ruth ....: * he said. The Red Cross girl, Virginia Pfeiffer, wrote it down. She did not hesitate when he came to the part about breaking his engagement to Ruth ‘Because I don’t want to be a drag on anybody.’ She signed his name ‘Al” The Jap bullet that wounded Al Schmid after his machine gun killed 20° Japs had struck far from Guadalcanal.” Jerry Wald Impressed The moment Warners’ producer Jerry Wald read it, instinct told him that what had happened to Al Schmid and what was going to happen to him made for a screen scenario, and his studio saw it the same way. Many a script was in preparation or filming on the plight of the soldier returned to a civilian world; this was to be the first actual case history. A wire was despatched to Roger Butterfield, who covered the Schmid yarn for Time, for more details, and he replied that he was then preparing an extended feature for Life, and was then going to put the story into book form. Warner Bros. bought the book from Butterfield before it was written. While waiting for the galleyproofs, Warner Bros. sought 6 Mat 112 — 15¢ Rosemary DeCamp This was the story: the man best suited to adapt the screenplay. He proved to be a slight, professional-looking fellow named Albert Maltz, who previously had written “Destination Tokyo” and has since written one of the top current best-sellers, ‘““The Cross and the Arrow.” Maltz, who has turned down a score of lucrative film assignments because he felt “they had nothing to say in times like these,” believes the story of Al Schmid does have something to say. Paine His Ideal His beau ideal of the writing craft is Thomas Paine, and he delights to point out how Paine’s words changed an entire people’s perspective, he has felt that way ever since he was graduated from Columbia and Yale Universities and in high temper wrote his first short story, “Man on the Road,” about the workers who died of silicosis because of a contractor’s negligence on a giant tunnel-building project. As a result of this story, which at first was rejected by every first-rate magazine, there was a Congressional investigation. And “Man on the Road” is now printed in at least ten top anthologies. When he was assigned to “Pride Of The Marines,” Maltz first went to the San Diego Naval Hospital to look up Virginia Pfeiffer, Al Schmid’s nurse when he came back from Guadalcanal. Then he _ spent weeks of research studying Al, his past, his present and _ his future. For the foreword, he wrote: “It is the story of a boy named Al Schmid and a girl named Ruth Hartley, and of the generation of Americans that became twenty-one on December 7, 1941.” Dane Glark Plays Sixth Straight Role In Uniform Dane Clark, whose role with John Garfield in Warners’ “Pride Of The Marines,” currently at the Strand, marks his sixth consecutive picture in which he wears a military uniform, finally figured out a way to get on the screen in civilian clothes. During the filming of the picture, he persuaded Director Delmer ; Daves to let } him appear in : the pack =i ground, in a |; scene with a: group of extras, dressed as Joe Civiljan. Brought to Hollywood by Warner Bros. two years ago from the New York stage, Clark was a merchant seaman in “Action in the North Atlantic,’ a sailor in “Destination Tokyo,” an army sergeant in “Hollywood Canteen” and “The Very Thought of You,” a flying lieutenant in “God Is My Co-Pilot” and is currently a leatherneck in “Pride Of The Marines.” John Garfield To Sponsor A Drama School For Vets John Garfield, currently starring in Warners’ “Pride Of The Marines” at the Strand, will sponsor and finance a postwar drama_ school for screen players, exclusively for men and women released from military service, he announced recently. Mat 106 — 15c Dane Clark Encouraged Garfield He will offer the management of the school to Dr. Angelo Patri, who recently retired from the New York Board of Education after forty years’ consecutive work. It was Patri who first took an interest in Garfield as a Hell’s Kitchen “incorrigible” and encouraged the ambitions which led to the actor’s successful career in the theatre and on the screen. Garfield said he has sounded out several top players, and expects to be able to draw upon them to give a series of guest lectures. Still 639-52 Map LOA == 1 5c Lovely Eleanor Parker plays the girl who waited for Al Schmid, in Warners’ thrilling drama, "Pride of the Marines, “currently at the Strand. Also starred in the film are John Garfield and Dane Clark. Rory Mallison Turns Up As An Actor After Working As Warner Studio Laborer More proof of Hollywood's predilection for inconsistency is the young Warner Bros.’ actor, Rory Mallison. Aiming for a break on the screen, Mallison grounded himself with four years' experience in the “little” theatre, was a night club emcee, payed before the footlights in everything from minstrel shows to Shakespeare, and even completed a course in television. It got him nowhere. After exhausting his stake when a score of interviews and auditions proved fruitless, he took a job as a studio laborer. That did it. A talent scout saw him in his overalls on an Errol Flynn set, and asked him if he'd ever considered acting. He was signed to a long term Warner Bros. contract, starting with the John Garfield starring film, "Pride Of The Marines," currently at the Strand. Garfield Gives Red Cross Girls Overseas A Big Hand John Garfield, currently starring in Warners’ “Pride Of The Marines” at the Strand, has chalked up a total of more than 25,000 miles entertaining at the war fronts and claims that there are two things often more important to a soldier than the food he eats. They are letters from home, and the girl in Red Cross uniform. Of the latter, the actor says: Still EP 181 Mat 201 — 30c Eleanor Parker, lovely Warner star, plays the sweetheart of Sgt. Al Schmid, U. S. Marine hero, in "Pride of the Marines," currently at the Strand Theatre. Also starred are John Garfield and Dane Clark. “This girl is his living link to home. I have seen men coming back to the rear for a few hours’ relief, with their eyes red from lack of sleep, and dulled with the despair, the disillusionment and the complete exhaustion of the bitter job they had to do. “But there would be a Red Cross girl there to give them a cup of hot coffee and a doughnut — and a word and a smile. “Right then nothing could have been as important. “I saw the same thing again and again in hospital wards. “At present I am doubly conscious of what the Red Cross is doing — as a layman privileged to have had a ringside seat at the firing lines, and also in my profession as an actor. “For in my current motion picture for Warner Bros., ‘Pride Of The Marines,’ we are telling not only the story of a hero of the Marines at Guadalcanal, Al Schmid, but a story that also belongs to a Red Cross girl, who, in her way, too, became entitled to some kind of a medal. “Her name is Virginia Pfeiffer. “When Al Schmid came back from the Pacific after killing more than two hundred Japs with his machine gun, he was wounded. “There was a pretty girl in his home town of Philadelphia whom he was engaged to marry. “But Al said he didn’t want Ruth Hartley to be dragged down by a wounded veteran who wasn’t in good health. “He demanded that Virginia Pfeiffer write Ruth a letter and sign his name. He said he was never coming back to Philadelphia, and he was breaking the engagement. He wouldn’t tell her why. “Virginia tried to tell Al that he was wrong, that he still had a lot to live for, that he should tell Ruth the truth, and let her help decide their future. He refused. “So Virginia took the matter into her own hands. “And today, Al Schmid is a happy, hard-working well-adjusted citizen. And the former Ruth Hartley is glad she is Mrs. Schmid. “That’s the story. And like hundreds of other stories of Uncle Sam’s heroes in uniform, it belongs almost as much to a Red Cross girl as to the man with the ribbons on his chest.”