The Adventures of Mark Twain (Warner Bros.) (1944)

U. S. Grant, Mark Twain, Meet in 1944 General Grant sat at a bare desk in a dingy apartment. A plaid shawl was draped about his shoulders, a heavy blanket was drawn tightly about his knees. The stubbly beard covering his square jaws, and his thinning hair, were white. He was a Grant the American people had never seen. Mark Twain sat near him in a straight-backed chair. His bushy, white hair ran riot over his head and overflowed his coat collar. His shaggy, drooping mustache at the moment was quivering in indignation. He was a Mark Twain the American people had seen in countless photographs. The Grant the public never had seen and the Twain it knows so well were holding a conference for a movie scene. Fredric March, as Twain, was having another of his memorable meetings with a great man of the past for the Warner Bros. production, ‘The Adventures of Mark Twain,” opening Friday at the Strand and co-starring Alexis Smith. Joseph Crehan, a short, thickset. character actor, was rounding out his portrait of General Grant, which has in past pictures included the victorious Union commander and the President of the United States, with the stricken, bankrupt but © still dauntless, aged hero. Twain Visits Grant In the scene, Twain had come to see the General about publishing his book, the ‘Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant,” which today still holds a place on the library shelves of so many American homes. The action was played in the interior of one of the faded old brownstone front houses on a studio street that has seen almost as much movie history as Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant saw real history. Through the ugly, square window of the General’s cheerless apartment, a dismal rain could be seen falling on the somber street. Obviously, Twain was shocked at finding a man who had been his own and the nation’s hero in such surroundings. “IT presume you’ve come to talk about my book?” the General asked. “Yes, General. I have come to talk about your book. You’ve had offers from other publishers?” Quickly, Twain glanced through the documents the General passed him. Finally he exclaimed in indignation. “General, if you ever permitted yourself to sign such contracts as these! This is outrageous!” “Why?” asked Grant, “isn’t that all I have a right to expect?” “Right to expect!” exploded Twain. ‘General Grant—who has the right to expect more than you? In his own times, perhaps, General, no man is truly great but millions of children yet unborn will know and realize your greatness.” The rain outside drizzled to a stop. The are lights in the room were snapped off, leaving it in semi-darkness. The scene was ended. March leaned over to Crehan. “Twain and Grant,” he said, “what a pair! And what a meeting this one must have been! You know, Joe, playing scenes like these are a mighty good antidote for the ego. They remind us so forcibly of the difference between a famous person and a celebrity.” Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Walter Hampden and others are featured in the supportng cast. Alan Hale Imagination As Hot As The Weather! Scene: On location for the filming of Warner’s “The Adventures of Mark Twain,’ costarring Fredric March and Alexis Smith, and coming to the Strand on Friday. Heat waves shimmered over the snowdrifts and a dry wind rattled the icicles. Alan Hale wiped the perspiration from below his fur cap, loosened the top button of his mackniaw and admitted the obvious fact that it was hot. “But not, he added hastily, “as hot as it was yesterday. The lizards were panting and the horses were fainting yesterday. The people? Well, most of them are actors. They’d rather be in the movies than be comfortable. And they wouldn’t be in the movies if they didn’t play winter scenes in summer.” He peeled off his mackinaw and undid a couple of buttons of his heavy flannel shirt. “Got to unlayer gradually,” he commented. “Bringing the body temperature down from 150 to 120 degrees all at once is dangerous. Don’t worry, the cap is coming next.” “You know,’ he went on, “vou’d think those fool lizards would be sensible enough to hunt the shade instead of risking sun stroke just to look at movie people. When Freddie March and I were digging through the shale under that snowdrift yesterday, a long black lizard sidled up to me. He was puffing and blowing and I asked him why in blazes he didn’t get under a tree and snooze. “Why don’t you?’ he comes right back at me. “‘Because,’ I answer, “I’m making a movie and getting paid for this. Fredric March and I are supposed to be looking for gold.’ ” “What would you do with it if you found it?’ the lizard asks. ‘The government wouldn’t let you keep it. And why is that pardner of yours wearing that droopy lip dressing?’ “‘That mustache,’ I says, ‘is to make him look like Mark Twain. This picture is called “The Adventures of Mark Twain”.’ “‘Mark Twain,’ wheezes the lizard. ‘Seems to me I heard rumors of his death being greatly exaggerated. But what’s this white stuff?’ “It’s supposed to be snow,’ I tells him patiently. This is Virginia City, Nevada, in the winter time.” “It is not,’ the lizard snorts. ‘It’s the Warner Bros.’ ranch in Calabasas, California. I ought to know. I was born and raised here. And while I don’t know about that stuff called snow, any fool knows this is summer, not winter.’ “*You got me there, brother,’ I admit, ‘but this is the movies.’ “ ‘Silly business, I calls it,’ pants the lizard. “Can you beat that, coming from a lizard?” Hale was down to the top half of his woolen underwear now and looking speculatively at his thick corduroy trousers and high topped boots. “Can’t make it,” he decided sadly. “They'll be calling me any minute.” The California sun was blazing down on the Nevada snow in rare mid-August form. Near the cameras, a corral horse drowsed in the shafts of a heavy dump cart. “See that horse?” asked Hale. “Well, he was one of those that fainted yesterday. Just flopped out cold. Well I runs over to him with a bucket of water. “I’m about to douse him with it, when he opens one eye and winks at me. “ ‘Hold your fire, kid,’ he says real softly. “‘I’m just playing possum. And for Pete’s sake, don’t tell anybody I’m a talking horse. I’ve got enough to do as it ae” Star Purchases Film Miniature So pleased was Alexis Smith with the miniature painting of herself as Mrs. Mark Twain which is used in Warner Bros.’ “The Adventures of Mark Twain,” that she has purchased it for her mother. The medallion, which has a prominent part in the film costarring Fredric March and Miss Smith, was painted by Alexander Rosenfeld of Warner Bros.’ scenic department. “The Adventures of Mark Twain’ opens Friday at the Strand. Star Has Many Namesake Fans Alexis Smith, co-starring with Frederic March in Warner Bros. “The Adventures of Mark Twain,” which opens tonight at the Strand, wouldn’t change her name from plebian “Smith” to something more exciting when she won her Warner’s contract. And now, a fullfledged star, she is happy and proud that she didn’t. “Nobody thought of it at the time,” she said. “It was just a matter of pride with me. But being named ‘Smith’ got me an enormous audience immediately. All the Smiths wrote fan letters. “And now look—” Alexis pointed to a sackful of newly received fan mail. It contained four hundred and fifty letters from soldiers—all named Smith. “Smith Clubs” have been formed at Fort Bragg, N. C., Denver (where there are hundreds of Wacs named Smith), Governor’s Island, and Kiska. And there are overseas Smiths who write regularly. Most amusing fan letter came round-robin fashion from a sergeant, two corporals and a buck private in Tunisia—all named Jones. “You’re the Smith whose name we’d most like to change to Jones,” they wrote. FURLOUGH BRIDES...FOR YOUR TROUSSEAU Are You A Girl Whose Wedding Date Is Dependent On G.|. Orders?... If So— You are bound to be an inspiration to your One and Only in this robin's egg blue chiffon and satin diaphanous negligee worn by Alexis Smith. The graceful lines of this robe make it universally becoming, even in the more practical fabrics. For thot Day of Days...Lovely Alexis Smith, who co-stars with Fredric March in Warner's “The Adventures of Mark Twain,” currently at the Strand, chooses this two piece petunia pink faille suit made with self covered buttons, a U-shaped neckline ornamented with roses in blended shades, a blush pink rough straw veil trimmed hat and matching gloves, Here Are 3 Items Of Bridal Finery Which You Can Assemble On Short Notice! For general use you will enjoy this wearable soft green light weight wool suit easily adapted to different accessories. Here Miss Smith wears a chic brown rough straw hat trimmed in velvet. Matching brown accessories complete her costume. Write for Mat MT 301-B to Campaign Plan Editor, Warner Bros., 321 West 44th St., New York 18, N. Y. ‘Mark Twain’ Director Awed By Hollywood A motion picture director on the set has almost as much authority as a ship’s captain outside the three-mile limit. Some of them act as if they had the right to perform marriages and last rites for the dead. But, as Director Irving Rapper is the first and maybe the last to admit, directors are often frightened. Mr. Rapper is frightened at the moment and would be chewing his nails except that he did that last week. He is almost as seared, he says, as he was the first time he came to Hollywood. Reason for his fright is the release of Warner’s new film, “The Adventures of Mark Twain,” co-starring Fredric March and Alexis Smith, opening Friday at the Strand. Mr. Rapper directed it. Warner Bros.’ Studio has great hopes for it. “Tt’slike dropping a a letter in the post office box,” says Mr. Rapper. “It’s so inevitable. You ean’t get it back. Nothing more I can do about it. The period between a picture’s completion and its release are tough on the director. I always think of so many things I shouldn’t have done, and a lot I should have done, and I want to pull the whole show back and’ re-shoot it.” Actors and actresses have it easy, he says. If they give good performances, they can take bows. If they are bad—oh, well, it was a poor story, or they had a cold in the head, or the director was at fault. Most often the director was at fault. Rapper’s worst fright was in 1934 when he came out to Hollywood from Broadway, where he had directed stage plays, to direct for David O. Selznick. “I used to walk around the lot, and look in at the restaurants, and see all those stars and directors and producers, and shudder. They made thousands of dollars a week, and I had felt lucky to be getting more than a hundred dollars a week in Mat 106—15c Alan Hale nd I was afraid of them all. “I thought their conversation would be Olympian and grand, and I was afraid to butt in. “Finally I did butt in, on a conference between some directors and producers. They were talking about truck gardening.” Still, Rapper didn’t like Hollywood. He returned to Broadway at a third of his Hollywood salary and stayed there until Warner Bros.’ fetched him out again in 1936. He became a dialogue director for four years. “Another frightening thing,” he said, “is your first scene. You meet new players, often with big names, and then you start directing them. That first scene is important. It sets the key for your whole picture—your relationship with your cast, that sort of thing. “Frightens me to death. That’s why I talk most of the “time.” Rapper wasn’t too frightened to make “One Foot in Heaven,” “The Gay Sisters,” “Shining Victory,” “Now, Voyager,” among others. He has a solid row of hits. “Gosh,” he says, they’ll like this one.” The “Mark Twain” film has a supporting cast which includes featured players Donald Crisp 29 “I hope and Alan Hale.