Road to Singapore (Warner Bros.) (1931)

GO uv FEATU ey a mit, ——— POWELL OWES HIS STARDOM TO HIS TALKIE VOICE AND NOT TO A RATHER SINISTER PHYSIOGNOMY Star of Warner Bros. ‘The Road To Singapore,” Now-at the =... Discusses Changes Theatre, Entertainingly in Film Personnel Brought About by the Talkies (Interesting Feature for Sunday Paper) The ugly mugs have the best of things in motion pictures ~ just now and the collar-ad boys are taking back seats or play ing villain roles, according to William Powell, who is starrea in Warner Bros. Theatre. “The Road to Singapore ’* now at the “This amazing upset dates from the advent of talking pictures but it has been gathering momentum at a tremendous rate the past two years, culminating as it has in the starring of such players Arliss, Waiter Huston, Jack as Wallace Beery, Oakie, Edward G. George Bancroft, George Robinson anc others of us who do not exactly qualify as models for neck wear advertisements,” When the human voice became a part of screen entertainment, looks faded in importance and personality came into its own. Without talking pictures Bill Powell might still be a signboard heavy—a very talented signboard but a signboard nevertheless—and other male stars, now sharing the major supply of screen glory might very conceivably still be character actors of only secondary importance. Handsome is as handsome talks talking pictures. t even the semi-sacred Valentino .zht have found himself lost in the present landslide of public opinion to men who look interesting and talk well and away from men who are merely good looking. It is noteworthy that even John Barrymore has neglected his classic profile in recent pictures and insisted on roles in which he appears as_ considerably less than beautiful. THEY CAN TALK Talking pictures, then, the final and most important stepping stone to stardom not only for William Powell but for many others, who, like him are personable fellows; but not in the Adonis class. In some indefinite way speech on the screen showed up the deeper qualities and the finer abilities of men who had of necessity been relegated to character roles in silent pictures when nothing but appearance counted. Powell himself is more than ready to give talking pictures the credit for his present wide popularity and his starring status. ie=think the talkies are just dandy,” he grinned hen queried, patting the pocket in which he had a few minutes be 2 put his weekly pay check. But .¢ Was serious when he answered the question, “Do you think they hurried your stardom?” “Don’t be foolish,” he said, “They caused it.” He stepped out of the lighted set and continued. “The face doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s inside; but the voice does. Now this,” pointing to his own interesting but irregular countenance, “isn’t everything. You know yourself that you form an opinion of a person you see and generally have to modify it when you meet that person and talk to him. Your opinion of that person may improve or suffer from the meeting, but until you hear him talk you can’t judge fairly. LOOKS NOT ENOUGH “A director, in the old days, could take a pretty face and say to the owner ‘Now Miss What’sYour-Name, you look at that nail up there.’ “And she would look at the nail Ye Man Women viens STRAND _.tways Remember ! A Warner Bros. & Vitaphone Picture Cut No. 23 beautifully while It is possible | furnished | DORIS KENYON MARIAN MARSH Powell declares. the cameras ground and the director threw in moonlight and someone wrote lovely titles and there was a moonlight love scene of exquisite beauty. But not now. “The public would never have accepted me, or any number of others as the romantic interest in a silent picture. But they seem to now. They are even willing that I should sometimes get away with the right girl. “Anyway people don’t see you as clearly on the talking screen as they did in the silent pictures. Their perception is divided between two senses. They are listening as well as watching and neither sense is as sharp as the single sense of sight was in silent pictures. So some homely mugs get by.” Now probably Powell fans by the ten thousands could be found who would rise up in righteous wrath when anyone called Bill Powell a “homely mug.” As a matter of fact he is not. But the term will do io illustrate his point. FACE MY MISFORTUNE ‘But for talking pictures I would | probably still be a first class ‘soand-so’ in every silent picture in which I appeared. I .was practically doomed by my face and my screen reputation to play the menace every time. I tried to make him a human menace, a character that was possible, not just a mechanical force to oppose the plot. But I couldn't have got away from the villain role if the screen had not learned to talk. But when the public heard my voice I had another chance to be decent. “Now that I have leading roles to play I am trying to keep them human too. You'll hear me yelling and shouting around here over lines I don’t think are natural or situations I don’t believe ring true. I have only one test for any scene— is it reasonable? Would these people, in this situation, act and talk this way. And if I think they wouldn’t I make a lot of noise trying to get it changed. Powell does not go lily-white in “The Road to Singapore.” But it is a character which wins sympathy for its good qualities—a character which, Powell explains, has a good, self-satisfying reason for everything he does. He is ably supported by a fine cast headed by Doris Kenyon and Marian Marsh. Others in the cast are Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth, Lumsden Hare, Tyrrell Davis and A. E. Anson. The play is by the celebrated British writer Roland Pertwee. Alfred E. Green directed. | THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE with Cut 40c, Mat 10c The Man Men Remembered < And Women * Couldn't Forget | WILLIAM POWEL at his dramatic best in his first big hit for WARNER BROS. THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE Suave gentleman—debonair lover! matic power! screen play DORIS taken the More intriguing than ever before! See him at the height of his dra A story of flaming love under a tropic moon! Finest of his career with KENYON MARIAN MARSH Newest screen sensation who has country by storm. Cut 60c, Mat 10c Cut No. 17 Carole Lombard Paid Daily Visits On “Road To Singapore Scenes (Current—Plant 3rd Day) Carole Lombard, lovely screen star, paid so many visits to the Warner Bros. lot during the filming of “The Road to Singapore,” starring William Powell, now at the..... Theatre—that some curiosity was aroused—until her engagement was announced to the star. When it became known that the two were ‘that way’ about each other, the daily afternoon calls of Miss Lombard became a matter of niuch feminine interest. Were they aN about scenes and lines of “The Road to Singapore’—or planning the honeymoon—Dame Grundy wanted to know. Their marriage took place immediately after the completion of the picture. Mr. Powell’s support in “The Road to Singapore” includes Doris Kenyon; Marion Marsh—the year’s most brilliant screen discovery— Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth Lumsden Hare, Tyrrell Davis and A. E. Anson. The story is by the brilliant English playwright, Roland Pertwee. Alfred E. Green directed. “The Road to Singapore” is a darkly glamorous story of love in the tomt m-haunted jungles of Ceylon. Jinrikishas Used In Powell Drama Were Made In Trenton (Advance—Plant 5 Days Before) The world’s supply of jinrikshas— those two-wheeled oriental buggies for which men play horse is made in Trenton, New Jersey for export to Japan, China, Indo-China and other oriental cities where they offer the most convenient and common method of transportation. Twenty of the latter were used recently by Warner Brothers in William Powell’s picture, ‘The Singapore” which comes to the.... Theatre next. Out of the twenty seen in ‘The Road to Singapore” only one is actually occupied and that to take William Powell and Doris Kenyon through a half mile of driving tropical rain. The nineteen others serve as atmosphere only fora street scene in Ceylon. “The Road to Singapore” is the darkly glamorous romance of a woman who, resentful of the neglect of her husband seeks the love of a suave stranger. Mr. Powell is supported by Doris Kenyon, Marian Marsh, Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth, Lumsden Hare, Tyrrell Davis and A. E. Anson. The story is by Roland Pertwee. Alfred E. Green directed. MARIAN MARSH GIVEN CCDE OF CONDUCT FOR NEW YCRK Seventeen-year-old Marian Marsh, now to be seen at the in support of William Powell in Warner Bros. “Road to Singapore”—immediately foliowing the filming of the picture, came with her mother for a visit to New York. Before leaving Hollywood she was given the following code of conduct which she was told to conform to without reservation while in the Big Town, 1. Never keep an interviewer waiting. This is unproductive for everyone concerned, 2. Go nowhere in New York unless accompanied by your mother. 3. Don’t attend night clubs and don’t visit speakeasies. 4. Answer questions of interviewers honestly and freely. You’re lucky you can. There has been nothing in your life or your career that doesn’t warrant publication. 5. See as many of the spots of interest, historical and natural, in the East, as possible. There is no telling when you will have another chance. 6. See “The Green Pastures” and “The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” even if you have no time for other plays. It would be best to attend matinees. 7. And be at your hotel by elezen every night, whether you go to the theatre or not. Page Five