The Big Shakedown (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Advance keatures Bette Davis Plants Fists On Charlie Farrell's Chin The Piquant Bette of “The Big Shakedown” Is Not the Same Bette of Two Years Ago viewer, smiled wanly, and said she hoped she didn’t Pv short years ago, Bette Davis looked up at an inter have to stay long in pictures. She hoped she could soon return to the stage. She hoped, that if she could not, five years would be all she had to work in pictures. After that — who knows? — motherhood, the stage, and a lot of other things offered. She was not then Mrs. Harmon O. Nelson, Jr. She was not then a star. She had not then worked two years in motion pictures. And then recently, during the production of “The Big Shakedown,” the First National picture Which womestorthe 9)... ve oe heatie: Opisck 628 ees eo dege , Bette looked up at the same interviewer, grinned mischievously — or maliciously —or just grinned —and answered some more questions. “Hollywood? its. peall) aright: What’s the matter with it? It’s like any other place, that’s all. Just what you make it for yourself. “The people? Friends? Oh, I’m not much on friends, you know. You have friends, of course, who come around to visit. You have others with whom you go here and there. That doesn’t fool anyone. They’re not friends, really. They don’t expect to be. They’re — just Hollywood,” she finished. She had lit one ¢cigarette-from the burning end of another, nervously, while she talked. She was dressed in blue shorts, her legs bare, white sport shoes and white short socks on her feet; a blue blouse was opened comfortably at the throat. Her honey-colored hair was brushed back from her forehead and temples. It was not difficult to see that something had changed in Bette — changed radically. The big blue eyes were no longer wistful. They were electric with energy. “But you have some friends here, surely?” she was asked. “Someone who has befriended you — perhaps among actresses your own age?” “T have,” she answered, “but not many, especially of my own age. I’ve been out, of course. I’ve been several times to see Ruth Chatterton, and Mr. and Mrs. Arliss. Other places too. I know enough people so that I don’t lead a narrow or isolated existence in Hollywood, thank heaven.” There had been a good deal of gossip about Bette in one of the papers. So she was asked if she didn’t mind what had been said about her— about a divorce, about her presence at several night places with a young writer. Bette laughed. “Oh, that! No, it doesn’t bother me. Partly, I suppose, because I don’t happen to be going to get a divorce. I happen to be very much in love with Ham, and believe him to be with me. I was out with the writer mentioned exactly once. Where I made my mistake was in going to one of the places where the gossips hang out. There are five of them you know: The Brown Derby, the Vendome, the Chinese, the Colony and the Grove. If I wanted to play around in Hollywood all I’d have to do would be to keep away from those places. I could go anywhere else I wanted to, and no one would ever think anything of it. The gossips don’t go anywhere else.” She mentioned the wife of a writer who has the same manicurist she has. The wife is quite sure Bette is on her way to divorce. She told the manicurist so. The mani eurist told Bette. So Bette hears the things that are being said. And she doesn’t care. Bette’s eyes as she made these comments were wise. Hollywood holds few secrets for her any more. As the interviewer opened the door of the dressisg room to make his exit, a script flew in past his ear, crashed into the mirror and dislodged some of the cosmetics on the dressing table. Bette went past the alarmed interviewer with blood in her eye. Charlie Farrell, sitting innocently on the set of “The Big Shakedown,” in which he and Bette were working, in a hospital wheel chair, looked up to see the indignant Bette standing over him. “You did that, Charlie Farrell!” she shouted at him. “Did what?” the amazed Mr. Farrell answered. “Threw that seript—”’ said Bette. And that’s all the interviewer heard. The rest was covered up in the scuffle that followed after Farrell took a couple of socks on the chin from Bette’s small fists. Yes, quite a different Bette from the Bette of two years ago as any one can note with half an eye by seeing her in her latest picture, which is thrilling drama exposing an entirely new racket—a racket headed by as bloodthirsty a gang of crooks as ever strutted before the silver screen. Ricardo Cortez is the handsome villain who heads the gangsters, while others in the east are Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Henry O’Neill and Phillip Faversham. John Francis Dillon directed the picture from the screen play. by Niven Busch and Rian James, based on the story “Cut Rate” by Busch and S. Engels. Bette Davis and Charles Farrell seem pretty pleased. Can it be that they too have seen their latest pic ture “The Big Shakedown” now at the Strand? Mat No.7, Price Sc. M) Will XS y Nyy. YP y) BETTE DAVIS as seen by Abner Dean S Ss! My; ESS VAS Here is the impression a prominent caricaturist received from watching Bette Davis at work. The blonde beauty may be seen at the Strand beginning Wednesday in her latest picture “The Big Shakedown.” Mat No. 2, Price 10c. Manufacturing Plant Goes Intact To Movie Studio Apparatus Used in Filming of “Big Shakedown’’ Taken Directly from Authentic Factory RODUCTION value on a picture sometimes calls for some P strange innovations — as for example on the recent First National picture, ‘‘The Big Shakedown,’’ a story of racketeering in a modern pattern, which comes to the ............ pI ca Theatre on 0) oo. ce. The story calls for some highly technical manufacturing — of toothpaste, among other things—and the countryside around Los Angeles, of course, had to be scoured to see if a toothpaste factory couldn’t be located where these scenes could be shot. Some were finally found, but presented difficulties when the actual business of photographing their interiors was broached. At this juncture one was discovered which had closed down — but it couldn’t be photographed, because the lease on its building was up and the machinery had to be moved out at once. To any other industry in the world, this might have been a major problem. Not so to the studio. Some big trucks were trundled down to the toothpaste factory and _ its entire manufacturing plant was transposed to the Warner Bros. lot in North Hollywood. There, it was set up on a sound stage and the picture photographed more expertly than it ever could have been in a borrowed plant. Only one difficulty now presents itself to the makers of the picture. They have a perfectly good toothpaste factory on their lot that they haven’t the slightest notion in the world what to do with! Other manufacturers in the same picture were got over more easily. A chemical laboratory was _ constructed for the mixture and bottling of drugs. Packing and shipping rooms were easily rigged up. A cauldron of steaming acid into which the gang leader is eventually dropped was less simple to construct, but nevertheless could be done. The toothpaste making alone had been the stumper. It took machines to make and mix the paste, to portion it into the right amounts. It took other machines to make the tubes of tinfoil, still others to make the caps, and still others to make the little corks which fit inside the cap. Then there were machines to paint and stencil the label. There were other machines to count the tubes of paste off into gross lots, and still others to pack them in their paper cartons. All in all, it’s a very fine toothpaste factory, but now that the picture is finished, the problem is what to do with it. Warner Bros. haven’t any shelves large enough to put it on, and wouldn’t if they did have —for who.is to know how many years it will be before a _ picture calls for another toothpaste factory? But it shows to what thoroughness the modern motion picture companies go to make the technical portion of a production accurate and realistic. The picture itself is a melodramatic thriller dealing with an entirely new kind of racket which gangsters have taken up since Repeal has made the liquor racket more or less unprofitable. In addition to the many thrills, which include bombings, strong arm work, and murder, there is a fascinating romance with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis as the lovers. Ricardo Cortez has the role of the ruthless gang leader who doesn’t hesitate to put his own sweetheart on the spot when his roving eye turns to another light o’ love. There is a strong supporting cast which includes Glenda Farrell as the gunman’s moll, Allen Jenkins, Henry O’Neill, Phillip Faversham, Robert Emmet O’Connor, John Wray and George Pat Collins. John Francis Dillon directed the picture from the screen play by Niven Busch and Rian James, based on: the_ story “Cut Rate” by Busch and Sam Engels. Page Thirteen