Stranger in Town (Warner Bros.) (1931)

ADVANCE AND CUR Ann Dvorak’s Marriage Started Her Screen Rise At the very beginning of her career, Ann Dvorak gets a new deal. The independent young actress whose sudden rise to prominence is one of 1932’s contributions to movie history, says she didn’t know what real living and acting meant until her recent marriage to Leslie Fenton. Following the nuptial flight to Yuma, Arizona, she found no time for a protracted honeymoon as she had to go right into the production of “Chic” Sale’s latest Warner Bros. comedy classic of real folks, “Stranger in Town,” which is now playing at the .... Theatre. But in the short few days between her marriage and her return to work she found herself to be an altogether different person. As the sweetheart of David Manners in the picture, her portrayal is the finest she has yet given for the screen. . “I had always said that I would never marry,” Ann spoke from the wisdom of her nineteen years. “I valued my independence highly, but now I find that I have something even more valuable—Freedom. “My marriage has given me a far different and vaster outlook on life. I think it is the dropping of a lot of petty restrictions that has given me my present feeling of freedom. As a single young lady, living with my mother, I had to be wary of companionships, hours. I kept, and places I went. Now that I have the only com panion I wish, we are free to come ™ and go as we please and at any and all hours of the day or night. “There are no admonitions ringing in my ears when we go for long walks in the Hollywood hills early in the morning or late at night. On free days we usually hop into the car and drive to some destination, unknown until we get there, just for the sake of being out in the open and going somewhere—any where.” ' The effect of this new-found freedom on a girl as young and impressionable as Ann Dvorak is at once noticeable to her co-workers at the Warner Bros. Studio. The self-consciousness of youth is fast disappearing. She seems more sure of herself, and she is able to impart that warm, human spark into her. work, _ Ann recognizes this change in her style of acting and welcomes it heartily. She finds many scenes, especially emotional ones, which she had to work so hard at before now come to her with ease and instant understanding. And then there is the spur of achievement. “I think I made a very wise choice, aside from the fact that we happen to be very much in love,” Ann said. “Being married to an actor adds an incentive to my work. I feel that I Page Four David Manners and Ann Dvorak in a scene from the Warner Bros. and Vitaphone comedy classic of real folks, “Stranger in Town.” Cut No. 2 Cut 15c¢ Mat 5c must do my best to prove worthy of Leslie’s constant encouragement—and it makes working hard a pleasure.” Hollywood has discovered that she is a girl with a vast amount of native wit and intelligence. .Just as her husband is an artist and writer, she is also a musician and artist. She likes to do things on the spur of the moment, and has the keen ability to make snap judgments that always turn out to be well-founded. It was that way with her marriage. She and Fenton met when they worked together on “The Strange Love of Molly Louvain,” the picture she made prior to “Stranger in Town.” “My mother wanted us to be engaged for a year,” Ann confided. “We held out for three months and my mother tried to compromise on six. But Leslie and I knew that our marriage was inevitable—so why wait? We got married as soon as we had a free day from work.” And by an unusual coincidence, Ann Dvorak in “Stranger in Town” elopes with David. Manners, because she feared the objection of her grand father, played by “Chic” Sale. “Chic”? Sale, Minus His Beard, Unrecognized by Hollywood Fandom The most neglected man in Hollywood on the night of a motion picture premiere is Charles “Chic” Sale. Sale has as many fans and enthusiastic admirers as the next one, but they don’t know him -‘vithout his whiskers, the mustachios and the spectacles of the characters he has made famous on stage and screen. Things will be different for “Chic” after he is seen in “Stranger in Town,’ the Warner Bros. clean comedy classic of “real folks” in which he is featured with Ann Dvorak, David Manners and Noah Beery, coming to the .... Theatre next ..... For the first time in his screen career he is. seen minus his bewhiskered make-up. From now on, “Chic” may be sure of being recognized at Hollywood premieres by the fans. Up to now, however, autograph hunters have passed him by without a second look. He has been trampled by crowds edging up to get a look at players who have “bits” in his pictures. He has been buffeted about by excited women chasing Dickie Moore or James Cagney. Men have elbowed him out of the way while they fought for a chance to see a girl who looked like Kay Francis, but wasn’t. Even children, who ordinarily have an uncanny perception about such matters, seldom recognize “Chic” Sale although his pictures are favorites with the younger audiences, and “Chic” himself, with four youngsters of his own, is enthusiastic about “kids.” There is no hush of delight or murmur of expectancy in the waiting crowd ° and so .“Chicsy? foyer li Once, ‘ was « wor a word, ment that Sale, the c ttreets re; a chorus ruder one known as This sit markable that “Chi ing pictur of Holly talking : started tl No otk Lon Cha sold to rather The f tages. “Tonesui to: be he has i a good chucklir other c storm 6 tongues Seats. . Sale is younger put t SHORT FEA. Versatile Ann Dvorak Heading for Stardom Ann Dvorak, Warner Bros. striking and talented brunette, who has made the most sensational sort of progress in the movies during the past six months because of her great versatility, gives another striking example in “Stranger in Town” of her ability that led Warner Bros, to sign her to a long-term contract. She first appeared in a Warner picture opposite James Cagney in “The Crowd Roars.” In this picture she played the role of Cagney’s sweetheart, unbothered by any moral code. Her fine work in this picture led to’ the feminine lead in “The Strange Love \ ture s girl 1 ciatio who jHer / Rack eb teas) i felloy Doug his o’ Nc “Str: at t} role to a “Re: trea’ role, with tor 2: Lh a thic? and Mrs. “Chic” some of the little ; er the blinding nd obby and asked to say ed by the announceyas introducing “Chic” of curious milling the ed its skepticism with Oh yeah’s?” and the ted what is familiarly ‘razzberry.” might not be so re*re not for the fact a veteran of talk5 been in and out ad on and off the rer since Vitaphone atic revolution. ', not even the great S ever so completely 1 as a character an actual individual. compensating advanstatement that Sale is icture openings is not literally. Actually fun at them, enjoying ‘privacy himself and the discomfiture of who must brave a eyes and clamoring ne they leave their ~an and looks even »ybably is. Let him /and appear as re Lem Putt muswig and skirts of teacher and appear eet—or any other er—and he would wd about him in the thin, slightly with the sharp ‘es gets no recogwd at all. ranger in Town.” vain.” In this picue role of a young a d bitter by assoyrong type of men, ible with the police. as in “Love Is a Douglas Fairbanks, yortraying a “good yugh in love with to interfere with ‘arrent picture, which is playing re, she plays the ‘d_ granddaughter ie is one of the which the story \tion, no sexual clean romance siness competi Ann Dvorak Prepared for **Stranger in Town” Cry by Fooling Interviewer After all, interviewers are human, and as such are just as gullible as the rest of the race, which accounts for the manner in which one of the newspaner lads fell for Ann Dvorak’s tale of woe. The aforementioned newspaper lad went out to the Warner Bros.-First National Studios during the production of “Stranger in Town,” which comes to the <4). Lheatre next). 2/2/55 for the purpose of interviewing Ann Dvorak, who plays the leading feminine role in that picture opposite “Chic” Sale and David Manners. The interviewer found her in the portable dressing room on the stage, bent over her dressing table, crying. “T didn’t mean to intrude,” the interviewer apologized. “That’s quite all right,’ Ann said between sobs. The interviewer felt embarrassed. He didn’t quite know how to launch his interview, but Ann helped him out. “You never knew that I sold newspapers on a street corner. Did you?” Zowie! What a story! The newspaper man was all ears, “Yes. Yes. Go on,’ he begged breathlessly. “I can’t help feeling this way,’ Ann said while her sobs were coming more audibly. “It was just ten years ago today—and I can never forget that awful tragedy. “We were very poor. My father had been ill in bed for months, and my mother was unable to buy medicine for him or food for our little family. There had been a blizzard for two days, and I had no shoes to wear. “The landlord had been threatening to put us out in the cold because we had not been able to pay our rent for months. Things were in a bad way. We were starving, freezing and friendless. “Then . . . ” Ann began to sob convulsively at the thought of this, TEREST Sarg At this point Ann was convulsed with grief—and the interviewer was in no better condition. “Miss Dvorak,” yelled the assistant director, “all ready for the set.” Crying bitterly, Ann ran out. The show must go on. But how, thought the interviewer, could she do it in that condition? He walked out to see the young actress in action, and behold, he saw Ann Dvorak going through a dramatic crying scene. When the scene was_ successfully shot, Ann came back to her dressing room, dry-eyed and cheerful. “Now,” she said brightly, “what sort of an interview would you like?” The interviewer was nonplussed. “’'m going to use that tragic story of your childhood,” he said. “Oh, that,” Ann said. “I hope you didn’t take me seriously. I was making it up as I went along. You see, I had to get myself primed for my crying scene.” ENT NEWS FEATURES “Chic” Sale One of Few American Humorists How many American humorists can you name? And by American, we mean just that. There are a great many artists in letters and acting who are Americans, but there are very few indeed whose work is utterly devoted to the true American background and tradition. Mark Twain was one—but that was a long time ago, and he left no artistic heirs. Rogers and Charles “Chic” Sale— and then we start racking our minds. Although these three men belong to that rare school of American humor, each has a different personality and a vastly different medium of expression. Lardner works only with the printed word, while the latter two both write and act. America’s greatest medium of folk expression—the motion picture—then has but two great exponents of folk humor, Rogers and Sale. And again, between these two there is a vast difference. Will Rogers is always himself, no matter what the character may be that he essays on the screen. It is his pithy philosophy, uttered in his natural drawl, that has made him famous as the Voltaire of the American backwoods. But “Chic” Sale chooses to depict the whimsicalities of American life by portraying the actual characters, as in “Stranger in Town,” the Warner Bros. picture now playing at the .... Theatre, with Ann Dvorak, David Manners, Noah Beery and Raymond Hatton in the leading roles. Although Sale is rated as a comedian, he plays his characters for sympathy rather than for comedy. His humor is incidental and on the surface;:the entire basis of his characters is a keen understanding in this clean comedy classic of real folks. We aim to give you the finest help possible in the way of advertising, exploitation and publicity. These stories are written with the object of furthering the interest created by your ads. They are the proper length, and are loaded with just the type of material the fans love to read and the editors like to use. In the present age we can name Ring Lardner, Will There is no secret as to why Sale is so thoroughly convincing in his work. It merely resolves itself to the: fact that he is the characters he plays. Talking to Sale about himself or his creations is just the same as talking about the one person. They are merged. “T could never play a sophisticated role or any city-bred character,” Sale said, “because I am not a city-bred person. I have not the sympathy and understanding to do it naturally. Being an actor with a lot of experience, I suppose I could get by with it; but it would only be mechanical acting.” The strange part about this assertion is that “Chic” Sale has spent the greater part of his life in cities. He has toured in vaudeville and mixed with sophisticated stage folk for years. But he has never been able to break away from the effect of his earlier environment and he is proud of it. “T’m still a country boy,” “Chic” said seriously. “I think that way, 1 feel that way, and I live that way. “The characters that I play now are all done spontaneously. The only mechanical part about them is memorizing the lines—but I do not practice shading and intonation. I’ get that while in action from the character itself. I am never ‘Chic’ Sale before the camera—I am the character. It isn’t & matter of thought transference ‘or anything like that. It is just that I know these characters so well— every detail of their lives and mannerisms—that I know just how they would act and react to any given situation. “In ‘Stranger in Town,’ for instance, I felt deeply moved when I was relieved of the office of town postmaster. I could feel the tragedy it would mean to a real person of this sort, and in character I took it personally. It was the same way in ‘The Star Witness.’ Every word that I spoke throughout the picture came from the heart, because I felt it and believed it.” He is frank and naive, but nevér vulgar and obscene. And that is why the .... Theatre is urging its patrons to bring the entire family to see “Stranger in Town.”