Road to Singapore (Warner Bros.) (1931)

~ See -— we a — BE SURE TO PLANT THE MANY : WILLIAM POWELL SAYS FANS BAN. |AT THE GLAMOROUS HEIGHT BAD MEN THAT ARE ALL BAD OR. OF HIS DRAMATIC POWER HEROES THAT ARE ALL TOO GOOD anam : Star of Warner Bros. “Road to Singapore” Now At The Strand Theatre, Theorizes On Dramatic Character Development ~*~ Woman of the Tropics (Interesting Human Interest Story for Use in Sunday Edition of Paper) Take a little tip from Bill Powell: “Don’t be too darn good, if you want to hold public interest! William Powell whose first Warner Bros. picture “The Road To Singapore” comes to the Theatre next; wants to hold it. He hopes his new roles with his new producing company will make him out no worse than necessary to keep him interesting, but that they will keep him just that. Doris Kenyon, usually seen in a back ground of drawing rooms and society teas, finds herself in a vastly different atmosphere in “The Road To Singapore,’ the Warner picture at the.............. WOME. ota ie Playing opposite William Powell her role takes her to the mystery laden tropics In addition to the two leading players the casi where the drums of love beat loudly. includes Marian Marsh, Louis Calhern and Alison Skipworth. Alfred E. Green directed Cut No. 5 Cut 15c, Mat Sc “Road To Singapore”’ Features Skipworth (Current Reader) Alison Skipworth, playing an important supporting role in “The Road to Singapore” the Warner Brothers picture starring William Powell, now at the Theatre, .s known as one of the grand old troupers of stage and screen. Her work in a previous Warner Bros. picture, “Outward Bound” was particularly outstanding. Beaded Curtains Still Used In The Tropics (Advance Reader) Beaded curtains, long since out of fashion in American homes, are still in general use in tropical countries, such as the Ceylon setting for “The Road to Singapore,” the new Warner Brothers picture starring William Powell which opens iat hen see Oath O ora next. It was necessary to manufacture them on the studio lot however, since there was no place in America where they could be purchased. WILLIAM with DORIS KENYON \{ARIAN MARSH DOWELL THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE STRAND Has the honor to present William Powell at his dramatic best in his first, big Warner Bros. Hit! Beautiful Marian for Powell intrigue. Cut No. 19 ut 40c, Mat 10c Marsh and lovely Doris Kenyon form a perfect combination IS NONCHALANT Powell though not a handsome man is an intelligent and devilishly attractive one. The air of assurance which he affects on the screen is not affectation. He is the only man J ever saw who appears to really be as nonchalant as the cigarct advertisers would have him be. One feels that it would be worth while to set off a fire gong under his bed some night just to see if he could possibly be startled out of that suave and slightly bored attitude toward things in general. But ten minutes with Bill Powell convinces one that he is not bored with his profession, not disinterested in his pictures. The veneer of indifference, one surmises, was coliected during the years in stock companies. Early portraits of Bill in unbelievably high white collars and uncomfortably stylish suits give first-hand evidence to his own claim of having once been a prize theatrical package. Powell it was who first demonstrated on the screen how narrow the line of demarkation is between hero and heavy. It is a matter upon which he has very definite ideas and can become almost enthusiastic. He himself drew the odd parallel between his screen career and the life of Jesse James or Captain Kidd. “T like to work on the assumption that the villain is just as sincere in his own way as the hero is in his,” Powell elaborated, suddenly displaying energetic interest. SHE DESERVED THE AX! “For instance. A man. murders his wife. It’s a horrible crime, with many ugly angles. But the man himself, barring the possibility that he is insane, can give any number of excellent reasons why he did it and why she deserved to be murdered. “There is an explanation for any crime and any criminal. The latter has convinced himself that whatever he does ought to be done. He has found a reason good enough to satisfy him. It may be a confoundingly good reason when it’s investigated, too. The same man may admit that he is dangerous to society, that he ought to be punished for his crimes, but he will never agree that he did whatever he did, without a good reason.” From the beginning of his career it seems, William Powell was too much the suave, sleek voluptuary to be trusted with heroic roles. He came to pictures from a reasonably unsuccessful stage career as second lead and heavy. His first screen role was with John Barrymore in “Sherlock Holmes,” in which he appeared to be a heavy but turned out to be nothing in particular. GIVE BAD MAN HIS DUE From that Powell quickly settled into a steady diet of villainous and unsympathetic roles. He developed his idea that even the bad man is entitled to have his sincerity demonstrated with the result that his work came to be more and more a feature of the pictures in which he appeared. Then he was starred in his own right and half a dozen well established screen production rules were scrapped as a result. “The public resents the man with no saving graces, no good qualities, just as it has come to resent the character who has no faults. The average ‘bad man’ is so little removed from the average ‘good man’ in percentage of perfection,” Powell suggests, “that it is difficult to tell where he stops being bad and A WARNER BROS. & VITAPHONE HIT! Cut No. 16 Cut 40c, Mat 10c begins being good. Most of us in life go along balancing dangerously on this narrow dividing line. We have sympathy for anyone who tumbles over the edge in either direction. Perhaps that explains the popularity of Jesse James and Captain Kidd. Maybe it has something to do with whatever success I have had.” What ever it is that Powell has done to make heavies human in pictures is the thing about which he exhibits the most pride. He hasn’t always played such roles recently— the Philo Vance roles are the notable exception—but it is evident that villainy, in a modest way, 1s close to his actor’s heart. THE ‘BILL POWELL’ LOOK “Should an actor be a person?” | asked, referring belatedly to the notes of what it was intended 1 should ask him. “Do you still want to keep your individuality in your roles? Will you try now, at this new studio, for a new kind of characterization? Are you going to get away from the ‘Bill Powell’ look?’ “TI like to see an actor filter a characterization through his own personality,’ he answered steadily. “It gains something in that process. And my looks, unfortunately, are my own. There’s nothing I can do about that. I hope for some new opportunities of course. But I am most certainly not going in for heroics.” William Powell lives expensively and expansively. He has become since financially able, a conoisseur of the good things of life. He is a dandy, a Beau Brummel, a sybar ite, determined to get out of life al: the enjoyment it has to offer. Hy is known more pointedly as a regular guy.” In “The Road to Singapore” he has an especially intriguing vehicle for it is the story of a waster in the tropics—a man feared by men and faseinating to women. Doris Kenyon plays opposite Powell in this thrilling story of love and life and Marian Marsh is delightful in the ingenue role. Others are Louis Calhern, Lumsden Hare, Alison Skipworth, Tyrrell Davis and A. E. Anson, Roland Pertwee wrote the play. Alfred E. Green directed. Tropic Rains of ‘Road To Singapore” Filmed Under Cloudless Sky (Advance—Plant 3 Days Before) Rain of the tropics, sudden, he soon over, soon begun again—1 the glamorous scenes of “The Ru to Singapore” the Warner Bros. picture starring William Powell, and coming to the Theatre next. An odd feature of the filming is the fact that bright days had to be chosen to film the rain sequences. The reason is that rain a la cinema must fall on players and scenery within the camera’s angle but not on camera, lights, microphones or crew. Studio rain is controllable as to volume and duration, and they do not necessarily have the accompaniment of thunder, lightning, hail or wind. “The Road to Singapore” is the story of a woman who comes to Ceylon, marries a doctor who neglects her for his patients, falls under the spell of a suave and amorous devil-may-care, and decides to take her own way out despite convention. Mr. Powell is supported by Doris Kenyon, Marian Marsh, Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth, Lums Hare, Tyrrell Davis and A. E. son. The story is by Roland } twee. Alfred E. Green directed. PROGRAM PORTRAIT MARIAN MARSH in “The Road to Singapore” Cut No. 24 Cut 15c, Mat Sc,