Princess Orourke (Warner Bros.) (1943)

PREPARED REVIEW OLIVIA de HAVILLAND, NORMAN KRASNA STORIES (Prepared Review) Princess O'Rourke, Gay Comedy, Strand Theatres New Attraction ‘‘PRINCESS O’ROURKE’’; a Hal B. Wallis production; written and directed by Norman Krasna; a Warner Bros.First National picture presented at the Strand Theatre with the following cast: Primcess Maria..cccceccscccscce Olivia de Havilland Eddie O’ Rourke... Robert Cummings Wincler ree css aah cet Charles Coburn Dave waojack (Garson |g 0 ea to elt Ot gee cl 9 Aran ER Jane Wyman Harry Davenport Gladys Cooper ..Minor Watson Supreme Court Judge. Miss Haskell................. Mr. Washburn.. Si Loo eee heeeaee eae Cee ir oat Nan Wynn Count Peter de Chandome.............. Curt Bois Ge Maniacs, cache Ray Walker Butler hss. ..David Clyde IME SEMA EV ACY secs sstestsescioteoes Nana Bryant MiSHrBOW erate ic cesses Nydia Westman Glarazcnstiliwelle sees eee Ruth Ford Stewardess cies ence siciontseecnemeter Julie Bishop Greeks eZ Frank Puglia Greek’s Wife. Rosina Galli Mrs. Pulaski... ..Ferike Boros Delivery Boy... Dave Willock Bbematorn Nats cae ower pitt a John Dilson Stanger teases oi Ge ward Gargan Olivia de Havilland and Robert Cummings head a royal recipe for romantic merriment in the new Warner Bros. production, “Princess O’Rourke,” which opened last night at the Strand Theatre. With Charles Coburn, Jack Carson and Jane Wyman and a smart lot of supporting players the effervescent comedy is skilfully played for a steady succession of laughs. Coburn is “uncle” again, this time to lovely Princess Maria (Olivia de Havilland), daughter of royalty-in-exile. He finds it difficult to suit her with an appropriate Prince Consort and sends her for a rest and change of scene to California by plane. Because she fears heights, he suggests sleeping pills. Sleep is elusive so, one by one the solicitous plane crew ply her with additional doses. Plane Turns Back By the time unfavorable weather conditions turn the plane back to New York, co-pilot Eddie O’Rourke (Robert Cummings) finds an anonymous sleeping beauty on his hands. To awaken her in order to discover her identity he tries walking her around, and the “cup of black coffee” method. But in misdirected kindness the coffee-shop proprietor loads the drink with more sleeping pills, so there’s nothing to do but to park his sleeping beauty in care of Pilot Dave’s (Jack Carson) wife until she can return to consciousness. The lovely Princess awakens in a strange apartment, Eddie’s, plastered with ardent notes demanding a date. Curious about her absent host, she keeps the date. Cautious as well, she also keeps her incognito. The complications that ensue in Eddie’s courtship Mat 201—30c Robert Cummings and Olivia de Havilland are co-starred in Warner Bros.’ gay, romantic comedy, "Princess O'Rourke," which started its engagement yesterday at the Strand Theatre. are gaily handled in the best vein of frothy farce. They culminate in the revelation that his sleeping beauty is a genuine Princess, and, furthermore, that he has been approved as her Prince Consort. Eddie, stunned into a menial blackout, is carried off to Washington to be married in state at the White House. He listens as the man from the State Department teaches him the protocol, demeanor and duties of a Prince Consort. But when he’s told that he'll have to give up his American citizenship, he wakes up and rebels. The royal wedding is cancelled, whereupon Maria rebels and elects to be a married commoner rather than a_ spinster Princess. Olivia de Havilland is delightful as a beautiful, demure but not so dumb Princess, and teams neatly with Robert Cummings as the ardent if befuddled swain. Charles Coburn’s dry drollery is, as usual, superb, while Jack Carson proves himself a master in his own style of clowning. Jane Wyman deftly and surely joins in the fun. A superb supporting cast includes such established favorites as Harry Davenport as the Supreme Court Judge who is called in at the eleventh hour to perform the nuptial ceremonies, Curt Bois as the royal suitor for the Princess’ hand, Gladys. Cooper, Minor Watson, Nana _ Bryant, Ruth Ford, Julie Bishop, Frank Puglia, Ray Walker, Nydia Westman and Edward Gargan. In his first directing job, Norman Krasna, long a top flight scenarist, has done right by himself and his own story. He has kept it moving and bubbling with a sure hand and a gay and spirited cast, which doesn’t lose a single one of the story’s thousand laughs. Nan Wynn’s warm and husky delivery of ‘Honorable Moon,” a song by Arthur Schwartz, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg, points it up as prime hit-parade material. OLIVIA de HAVILLAND WONDERS ABOUT HER LATEST ROLE Olivia de Havilland, the browneyed movie star, is suffering from a slight case of remorse. She wonders what her fans will think has become of her modesty. For Miss de Havilland is now starring in the new Warner Bros. picture, “Princess O’Rourke,”’ currently at the Strand Theatre, in which she (1) appears in a pair of men’s pajamas, (2) takes a bath, (3) barks like a dog, (4) chirps like a bird, and (5) becomes punch drunk on an overdose of sleeping tablets. “And really,” explained the actress, “I’ve never before cut up like that on the screen. Off-screen, 14 of course, I DO take baths and I can bark like a dog and chirp like a canary, but heretofore I’ve always been so modest and demure in my film characterizations that I shudder to think what people will say about me now.” Although recently Miss de Havilland has gone on record as rebelling against ‘nice girl’ roles, the fact remains, she says, that this very quality in her portrayals was instrumental in her success. Nice girls, she continued, can last for only so long on the screen, and then their Pollyana roles and their Pollyana dispositions begin to pall. on the public. The first thing you know, they are—to put it crudely—washed up. Janet Gaynor, Miss de Havilland believes, is the most successful of all cinema nice girls, with the possible exception of Mary Pickford, who, of course, functioned during a period when nice girls were inevitable—for a movie actress there was hardly any other choice. Nowadays, though, a good actress may, depending on her personal talent, temperament, or de: sire, become typed as a witch, a nice girl, a shrew—or all of them. As far as her own nice-girl screen career is concerned, Miss de Havilland believes it stems from the fact that she is fundamentally and by nature a quiet, modest young woman. And that, no doubt, is one reason for her distress at what people will think when they see her unfamiliar antics in “Princess O’Rourke.”’ “TI feel much the same,” she said, “as the time when I was attending a convent in Belmont, California, and was forced to write on the blackboard 100 times the following statement: ‘I will in the future be modest and will not display my bloomers while playing basketball.’ ” Comes the Draft and Charles Coburn Becomes ‘a Glorious Apollo of a Man’ Charles Coburn has discovered that glamor begins at 60. It all happened when Coburn, currently appearing “Princess O'Rourke,” now at the Strand Theatre, received a fan letter from a woman in Ohio who described herself as “fat, fortyish and available.” She referred to her screen idol (C. Coburn, that is) as “a glorious Apollo of a man.” She also coyly pointed out that it would be all right if Coburn sent her a photo, “because I’m a widow, and I know you're a widower.” . Coburn is modest about it, though. “It's not my big brown eyes,” he said. “It's just that all the young men are in the army. “By next year at this time, I expect to be playing in Warner Bros.’ juvenile leads again.” THERE'S MORE TQ SUREEN BATH THAN MEETS THE EYE In delicacy of treatment, screen baths have no equal. There’s something sacred about the bathroom that even Hollywood movie writers dare not defile. On the other hand, though, baths (either tub or shower) are sometimes quite as necessary on screen as off, and, besides their service to story progression, they may be used also for purposes of comedy or of allurement, depending, of course, on the bather. Norman Krasna, the writerdirector, who is becoming something of an authority on movie bathing, was directing Olivia de Havilland in a bathroom sequence for Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Princess O’Rourke,” his own story, opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. Two Main Rules “As far as problems of the scene were concerned,” said Krasna, “I simply observed two main rules: keep the bathwater cloudy with milk and keep it up fairly high on Miss de Havilland’s shoulders.” Krasna didn’t use bubbles in the star’s bath, because ‘“‘that’s been done so often it’s practically a plumbing cliche.’ “Funny thing,” continued Krasna, “but an actress may be a great deal more undressed in a swimming suit, a decollete evening gown, or even shorts, and still be considered decent. But the minute you get her-in a’ bathtub, you've got to keep her well covered.” In “The Gay Sisters,” Barbara Stanwyck appears silhouetted behind the glass door of a stall shower. Her head and shoulders showed above the door. Director Irving Rapper had planned to continue this scene by having George Brent stand by with a large bathrobe for Miss Stanwyck to don as she emerged from the shower. The idea, however, didn’t meet with general censorship approval, and, to avoid charges of immodesty, that part of the scene was eliminated. Another famous bath was Joan Crawford’s elaborate submersion as Crystal in “The Women.” Worries Less for Men With male bath-takers, to be sure, the worries are less, although the same general rules of concealment (but not so _ stringent) apply. Here, the director only has to be certain that there aren’t any giggling girls on the set and that there is plenty of soap and water for the bather. The most famous of all filmic bath entrepreneurs, of course, is Cecil B. deMille, who dunked all the beautiful ladies of the screen years ago. In fact, he rarely made a picture, a couple of decades back, without a bathing scene in it. Claudette Colbert was plunged up to her white shoulders in a fancy tub for “Cleopatra,” and before that, the deMille bathing technique had been applied to Jetta Goudal, Julia Faye, Leatrice Joy and many another bather. Krasna says that despite his rapidly developing interest in screen bathing, he will never be able to compete with the deMille project in “King of Kings.” “That’s the one,” said Krasna, “when deMille gave the whole Egyptian army a bath in the Red Sea.” Still PO 18; Mat 203—30c Not a bathroom baritone but a bathtub brooder is Olivia de Havilland as she wonders whether she, a real princess, has fallen in love with an airlines pilot (Robert Cummings) in this scene from Warner Bros.’ light comedy, ‘Princess O'Rourke,’ the Strand Theatre’s current attraction.