Racket Busters (Warner Bros.) (1938)

12 RACKET BUSTERS — CURRENT PUBLICITY Bullet Nearly Finishes Actor HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Allen Jenkins has been shot thoroughly and well for the movies. Although, strictly—not metaphorically—speaking, he was only Extra! Sunday Feature Ready A feature article, about words in length and especially adaptable for Sunday Feature Sections, is now ready. It is available free of charge by writing for "Racket Busters Sunday Feature" to the Warner Bros. Campaign Plan Editor, 321 West 44th St., New York City. Containing a factual and meaty account of the toll that rackets have extracted from the nation, you'll find your Sunday Feature Editors more than cordial to such a story. half shot. | ,000 deflect. Comedy Training Excellent for Serious Acting If you want to be a great dramatic star, get your first training as a comedian. That is the advice of Penny Singleton, famed Broadway musical and film star who is featured in the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production, “Racket Busters,” at the Strand Theatre. Penny has been an actress since the age of eight. As a singing and dancing comedian she won fame in “Good News” and many other tuneful stage hits. She was known then as Dorothy McNulty. Her screen debut, however, was made in the very dramatic role of the night club entertainer in “After the Thin Man.” Then she reverted again to comedy, scoring a huge success in “Swing Your Lady” and other pictures. Now in “Racket Busters,” she is playing her second dramatic role. Today’ SCREEN STORY Humphrey Bogart, George Brent, Walter Abel and Gloria Dickson come to the Strand Theatre today in the Warner Bros. Cosmopolitan drama, “Racket Busters.” Bogart heads a racketeering trucking association, After being forced (through threats to his wife Gloria Dickson) to join the racketeers, Brent aids Special Prosecutor Walter Abel to smash the rackets. (Order Mat 401-B-60c from Campaign Plan Editor) > “T don’t want to be painted as a comedian who yearns to play heavy Shakespearean roles,” she says, “but I do believe it is a happy combination to mix dramatic roles with wide comedy parts. “Tt is not any easier to make people laugh than it is to make them cry. A person who has mastered the art of comedy, however, will find his dramatic sense intensified and I advise every young girl who plans a dramatic career to lay the groundwork with comedy first.” a8 DESTRUCTION REIGNS in the racket-ridden city. Brent’s truck is burned by gangsters. During a strike of truck drivers induced by racketeers for the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production, ‘Racket Busters,” he is supposedly shot by a gangster and his wildly careening truck crashes into a store building. After the filming of the scene, there was a small, eloquently vicious hole in the windshield of the truck where the bullet passed through and Jenkins was slumped realistically in the seat. The windshield actually was pierced by a bullet but Jenkins, of course, was uninjured. Ronald Berkscheid, studio firearms expert, deserves the bow for the success of the scene. It was he who fired the gun that sent the bullet whistling through the windshield to land within inches of Jenkins’s head and sink deep in the heavy oak back of the seat. Berkscheid made exhaustive tests before he would attempt the feat that was made necessary by the peculiar requirements of the scene. Velocity of the bullet entering the shatter-proof windshield was determined and the angle of the windshield was tested to make sure the bullet wouldn’t The scene was made three times, for different angle shots and with a new windshield each time. Berkscheid unerringly placed the bullet in the same spot each time and Jenkins unflinchingly and unemotionally played his role. When the scene was finished, Director Lloyd Bacon and the company showered Jenkins with compliments. “There’s the man to be congratulated,” said Jenkins, pointing to Berkscheid. “Think what a joke it would have been on the expert if he had hit me!” Studio Prop Bomb Burns Brent’s Suit Serious injury to George Brent was narrowly averted one day during production of “Racket Busters.” During the making of a mob scene, tear gas bombs were thrown by racketeers in an effort to coerce truck drivers. One of the glass bombs filled with chemical dropped at the feet of Brent. Water from a hose turned on him by a stagehand counteracted the acid but his suit was ruined. DEFEATED, he is forced to join Bogart’s association. Truck Burned 1 Week After It Exploded They burned a huge truck at the Warner Bros. Studio one night to make a spectacular scene for the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production, “Racket Busters,’ now showing at the Strand Theatre. It was a huge, beautiful truck that cost more than $5,000 when new. It was the pride and joy of the studio when new and had been the pride and joy of George Brent a week before it was burned. That was when he was making the Tough Thugs Wreck Trucks Usually when a_ wrecking crew is called, it is for the purpose of clearing away wreckage created by other persons. That isn’t the way things are done in Hollywood, though. The casting director telephones Central Casting and says, “Have the wrecking crew at the studio at 8:30 tomorrow morning.” And he tells how big a wrecking crew he wants. At the designated time next morning the wrecking crew appears. They are a motley assortment that would delight any student of the genus homo. The sight of any one of them on a dark lonely street would strike apprehension in the heart of a. strong fearless man. The wrecking crew was called out for sensational mob scenes | in the Warner Bros.-Cosmopoli tan production, “Racket Busters,” now showing at the Strand Theatre. They worked as racketeers and truck drivers, and part of their job was to wreck the trucks of their business rivals. Spotted among the wrecking crew in the big riot scenes were seen Jim Thorpe, the Indian who still retains title as the greatest all-around athlete of all time, and many former prizefighters including Spike Regan, Jack Perry; Al Bain, from Newark, a light-heavyweight; Paul Berlenbach, who fought every leading light-heavyweight, and Phil Bloom, who fought Benny Leonard five times. ‘Racket Busters’ at Strand Today LOCKS HANDS with Walter Abel to fight racketeering, while wife looks on proudly. scene in which he drives it home, parks it in front of his apartment and hurries upstairs to greet Gloria Dickson, playing his wife. George, in that scene, is in the act of kissing Gloria when a terrific explosion interrupts this entertaining marital duty. They rush to the windows and see the truck in flames, the result of sabotage on the part of Humphrey Bogart. Then one night, just a week later, the scene was shot which shows George and Gloria hurrying from their second floor apartment to the street to watch the truck burn to a pile of ashes. Smoke pots and bombs were used with awe-inspiring effect to enhance the spectacular scene. Gasoline poured over the truck did the rest. With solemn ceremony George and Gloria presented Director Lloyd Bacon with a gift before the fire started. “Here, Nero,’ George said, “take this fiddle and enjoy yourself.” Bacon grinned and ordered the four cameras to start rolling. The scene had to be filmed from several angles simultaneously, for fire waits for no man and the scene could be done but once. When the truck was a grotesque heap of twisted metal and smoking ashes the company went home. Asks If He Was Hurt by Proxy The funniest crack made during the filming of “Racket Busters,” now showing at the Strand Theatre, was the remark of Humphrey Bogart at the close of the bitter fist fight waged between his double and George Brent’s “representative.” They did the “long shots” for the Bogart-Brent fight scene. After the fight was over Bogart said, solicitously: “Hey Jack, did we get hurt?”