The Angels Wash Their Faces (Warner Bros.) (1939)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY — "THE ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES" BREAK DISHES AND GET PAID! THAT'S FUN! The proverbial bull in the china shop was just a harmless softie compared to the “Dead End” Kids one day as they prepared for a scene in their latest Warner Bros. picture, “The Angels Wash Their Faces,”’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. A great exterior setting representing the tenement district of an eastern city had been erected at the studio, and the action required the six irrepressible boys to troop along the sidewalk, past the welter of pushcarts lining the curb, laden with vegetables, rugs, tinware and dishes. The dishes suggested an idea to Director Ray Enright. “As you come along,” he said, “you boys take a few of these dishes off the cart and begin to juggle them. Throw them back and forth to each other and kid around for a few moments, then put them back on the cart and go on down the sidewalk. In the meantime the peddler will be going half crazy. Now, try it!” This was all the “Dead Enders” needed. They promptly declared a field day, and the air was filled with heavy white plates, cups and saucers, inexpertly juggled by unaccustomed hands. Accidents followed with startling frequency, with each boy nonchalantly reaching for a fresh supply when his crockery crashed to the sidewalk or met another plate in midair. Never before, they agreed enthusiastically, had they so enjoyed a rehearsal for a scene: Task to Guest Dead End Kids Ann Sheridan, the screen’s new “oomph” girl, hardly made a move on the stage at the Warner Bros. Studio one Monday without saying “Oomph,” or emitting a groan which sounded very much like it. Sore muscles were crying out because of the unaccustomed jitterbugging she had been doing the day before, when she entertained the six “Dead End” Kids and _ their ladies at her San Fernando Valley home. The wild dancing came at unexpected intervals during an afternoon and evening that saw Ann’s house gradually become a shambles, in spite of the maid’s efforts to maintain a semblance of order. At six o’clock the rambunctious Kids called a temporary halt in their destructive antics and devoted a few minutes to a whirlwind cleanup of the house, but half an hour after the mess was worse than ever. At eleven Gabriel Dell decided to bake a cake—and did it. Billy Halop made coffee, and at midnight the exhausted Miss Sheridan, Dell, Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley, Leo Gorcey and six fun-loving young ladies topped off a hard evening with a more-or-less quiet repast. Hostess and guests had to be up at 6:30 the next morning, to answer an early studio call for “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand, in which Ann and the Kids are co-starred. She Changes Roles Ann Sheridan is playing a very good girl in her new Warner Bros. feature, ‘The Angels Wash Their Faces,”’ which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, after being a consistent meanie in most of her recent pictures. She plays the part of a social worker and likes the change. Page Twelve The ‘Oomph’ Gurl, Ann Sheridan, poses for this exclusive George Hurrell photograph. Miss Sheridan is currently seen in “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. Mat 202—30c Ann Sheridan Prefers Interesting Mento Thosewith ’Oomph’Alone By Ann Sheridan (Miss Sheridan has the leading feminine role in “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” a Warner Bros. picture also featuring the ‘‘Dead End’”’ Kids and Ronald Reagan which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre.) The answer to a maiden’s prayer needn’t be an Adonis or even an Errol Flynn. It is more important that he have a sense of humor than a widow’s peak. He should be ambitious but not too insistent. Above all else he should manage, by hook or crook, to be interesting. A woman will forgive a man for being almost anything as long as he isn’t dull. Personally I’ve known lawyers and ministers who were sparkling good company and actors, handsome ones, who were unpardonable bores. One of the most entertaining men I know is a chemical engineer who talks en PRESS tertainingly on almost any subject except chemicals. He is interested and intelligently curious about motion pictures, has opinions but doesn’t try to make me agree with him. He doesn’t talk shop, a cardinal virtue in him and the principal weakness in actors generally. Some of them seem to forget when they are not on the set. I know another extremely interesting man who is an archeologist and a famous one. He knows more about the theatre than any actor I ever knew. He can talk interestingly on a dozen subjects without ever taking all the spotlight himself. I think the ideal man is well informed on all commonplace subjects and on a few specialties. He should be able to talk about art as well as badminton, should know some thing about “ships and _ shoes and sealing wax,” yes, and about “cabbages and kings,” too. To me the ideal man—and we all have one in mind—can be either rich or poor, handsome or homely—not ugly, however—any age from twenty-five to fortyfive, provided his spirit is twentyone. I do not want my ideal man to be a spendthrift, even on me. I like some attentions, naturally. Every woman does. You can hardly blame us. Personally I would like to have him a good dancer, although that isn’t absolutely essential. I want him to be capable of earning a good living but I do not think it necessary that he have ‘“prospects of being rich.” Too many people get rich at the sacrifice of other, more interesting and worthwhile qualities. AND PROGRAM NOTES Huntz Hall and Gabriel Dell, “Dead End” Kids, were playing handball one day against the side of a stage at Warner Bros. Studio when Ann Sheridan, the screen’s new “oomph” girl, passed and got a resounding smack as the ball hit her on the side of the head. “Oomph!” yelled Hall. The kids and Ann are in “Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture opening at the Strand Theatre Friday. eae eek A photographer was effectively set back on his heels at the Warner Bros. Studio one day. Presenting roller skates to each of the “Dead End” Kids while they were at work in a street scene for ‘The Angels Wash Their Faces,” which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, he asked only to be allowed to take a picture of each, wearing his new skates. All went well until he approached Leo Gorcey, oldest and shortest of the “Dead Enders.” “Not me!” said Gorcey. “It ain’t dignified.” x ok OF Bonita Granville, 16-year-old actress, feels as if she has graduated to the estate of young womanhood. She is_ being “rushed” for membership in a sorority. The young actress, enjoying a day of idleness during the production of her current Warner Bros. picture, “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, recently at tended the first party of a series to be given by members of the Delta Iota Chi sorority of Westlake School. Re Ann Sheridan saved 1/6 dozen eggs for Warner Bros. one day—just because she followed a woman’s natural instinct. She was appearing with Ronald Reagan in a scene for “The Angels Wash Their Faces,’ opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. As part of the action she put the two eggs on to fry, afterward sitting down at the kitchen table to talk with her visitor. But the instant the conversation and the scene were finished the actress sprang to the stove, turning out the gas just in time to save the eggs from burning. 9 * * * According to George Hurrell, ace photographer, Ann Sheridan is one of Hollywood’s most photogenic stars because of her cleancut throatline. Ann has a simple and effective way of keeping these contours lovely. First of all, she gives her posture a daily check-up. Each day she slaps chin and throat smartly with ice cold astringent. Several times daily she does an exercise which takes her head forward, backward, to the sides, and as far as she can stretch it in height. Occasionally she does the additional and very beneficial exercise of blowing a feather about the room. Ann’s latest Warner Bros. pic ture, in which she is co-starred with the “Dead End” Kids, is “The Angels Wash Their Faces.” It opens at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Director Ray Enright had trouble keeping the “Dead End” Kids in character for Warner Bros.’ “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. They were washing their faces, keeping their clothes neat and clean and bringing gifts of flowers, candy and books every day to Ann Sheridan and Bonita Granville. Ray Enright is firm in his belief that a motion picture director belongs behind the camera, and not in front of it. Cast and crew of “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, conducted a little celebration in honor of his birthday, presenting him with a set of books and supplying an enormous ice-cream cake which was trundled onto the sound stage at the proper moment. But when Ann Sheridan, the “Dead End” Kids, Ronald Reagan, Bonita Granville and other members of the company gathered around the table, to pose for pictures in which Enright was to cut the cake, the bashful director flatly refused, and no photographs were made. ANN SHERIDAN DOESN'T NEED LEG DOUBLE “It is quite a comfort,” said Ann Sheridan on the set of “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, “for a girl to know what her own hands and feet are doing. For a long time after I started in pictures I usually hadn’t the least idea.” Miss Sheridan’s odd observation simply illustrates another idiosyncrasy of motion picture production. Next time you see a star putting on her stockings and then see a close-up of well-molded nether extremities, don’t be too sure that the legs are not those of some lesser light whose face you have never seen. It happens every day. The glamorous Miss Sheridan, before the days when _ her “oomph-ness” was recognized officially and while her dramatic ability was still unsuspected, was under contract to a film studio principally on a piece-work basis. The only call on her services for a time was for close-ups that pertained to portions of physique rather than physiognomy. In studio parlance, she “doubled for hands, feet, shoulders, legs and handwritings.” Piece by piece, she impersonated many of the screen’s outstanding feminine stars. Now that the beauteous Miss Sheridan is a star in her own right she finds herself doing her own close-ups. “At least,” says Ann, “when theatre audiences see me stick my neck out, they can be sure it’s my own neck!” Real Slum Set Impresses Kids The squalid tenement district of a great city was literally set down on the “back lot” at the Warner Bros. Studio, where the “Dead End” Kids, Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan and Frankie Thomas made scenes for “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. A welter of crooked streets comprised six city blocks, lined with ancient brick buildings two and three stories in height. Fire escapes served as_ repositories for washtubs, baby carriages, broken chairs, mattresses, mops, battered buckets and all the flotsam which would ordinarily be stored in closets or cellar space. Racks of men’s clothes and all the merchandise contributing to the life of an impoverished neighborhood encroached on the already narrow sidewalks. Lining the curbs were rickety pushcarts, piled with sorry stocks of vegetables, fruit, crockery dishes, pictures, rugs, tinware, secondhand toys and a variegated assortment of knick-knacks. Though the screen consistently characterizes the “Dead End” Kids as particularly hard-bitten slum boys, in real life they are sons of substantial families, so it was with considerable truth that Billy Halop remarked, as he gazed about the teeming set: “Home was never like this!” Dad Comes Calling Frank Thomas, Sr., on an afternoon off from work in his current picture at another studio, visited his son Frankie and watched him emote in “The Angels Wash Their Faces” at Warner Bros. Studio. The picture starts its engagement at the Strand Theatre on Friday.