The Crowd Roars (Warner Bros.) (1932)

ele NEWS FEATURES. Howard Hawks Directs Photographing And Recording of Racing Cars At 125 Miles Per Hour For ““The Crowd Roars”’ By FRANK DAUGHERTY Hollywood, the home of miracles, is now taking pictures with cameras tearing along at a speed of 125 miles per hour! A tall, loosely knit and _ prematurely grey young man of somewhat distinguished appearance stands in the center of a hubbub of snorting racing cars at the Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, and calmly, it would appear almost absent-mindedly, directs the cars and their drivers into their respective places and then walks slowly and thoughtfully from the track. A gun is fired, the snorting cars stop snorting and roar away around & curve, melting into the darkness beyond the lighted area in front of the stands. A crowd of several thousand people rises to its feet as one man, a yell goes up —and you look again for the distinguishedlooking man who has started all this. The tall, grey, and (we think) good-looking young man is Howard Hawks, director of the memorable “Dawn Patrol,” and “The Crowd Roars,” a motion picture story of the race track and the young men who risk life, limb and the pursuit of e Joan Blondell Finds Grind Of Movie-Making More Restful Than Grind Of Theatrical Life Joan Blondell likes Hollywood because it is so restful. The lively young lady who was playing on Broadway not so very long ago in “Penny Arcade” is possessed today of a lucrative longterm picture contract and is taking her ease — that is, comparatively. As a matter of actual fact, she is working hard. “The Crowd Roars,” a First National picture in which ghe is featured with James Cagney, is due at the Theatre and lately she was the heroine for Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in “Union Depot.” But, as compared with the grind of theatrical life as Miss Blondell has known it since early childhood, Hollywood is a haven of peace and relaxation. Or so she says. ; Page Nine» happiness for the rewards that are to be wrung from its smoke and grime. Lamps of many thousand candle power slash the darkness before you, illuminating the track and the stands and its yelling hordes. A corps of newspaper and _ studio cameramen, hucksters, scene-shifters, truck drivers, assistant directors and technical experts move about in the foreground awaiting the moment then the scene will have finished and the cars again will be wheeled into place for the retake. Only the roar of the cars is heard as they round the lap behind a speeding light car which sheds sufficient illumination before them to prevent them hurtling one of the low fences at the side of the track. Suddenly the racers rush again into the lighted area before the stands, cross” it in a breath and are gone again— to an accompanying roar from the crowd. “Tt looks a difficult scene to photograph,” you may hazard. “Well, perhaps a little difficult as we are trying to do it,” soft-voiced director Hawks will answer. “You see, I’ve got to get shots of this track, of these racers — Jimmy Cagney, Eric Linden, Harry Hartz, Billy Arnold and the rest — as if the camera was in their cars. You probably know that that’s impossible, owing to the fact that racing cars When she was four months old her father carried her on the stage of the Globe Theatre, in New York, in “The Greatest Love.” Since that time she has been an actress; and when she was not acting she was going to school in accordance with the educational requirements established by law. She really hasn’t had much time for herself. One-night stands are an old story to Joan Blondell. She knows certain tank towns in China by perShe knows the split weeks of Australia and the onenight stands of Germany. She has sonal experience. been with a circus. Once, utterly fed up with the stage, she tried to break away from it and got a job in a department store. Fifteen minutes after starting work she was fired. Back to the stage! At last came her first real break For Warner Bros. were about to screen “Penny Arcade” under the title of “Sinners’ Holiday,” and Miss Blon when Hollywood sent for her. dell was wanted for the same role S have no springs and jounce the ~ camera too much for filming. We’ve had a specially constructed camera racing-car made with springs, and have taken some shots at approximately 125 miles per hour.” The curiosity to know whether a director so informed about the mechanics of proper camera work for speeding racers knew a like amount about acting kept us on the set awhile. Vivacious Joan Blondell, Cagney, and Ann Dvorak were going through a scene. We looked for Hawks. He had draped his long form across a chair directly beneath the camera and apparently was not watching the scene at all. It was a rehearsal, so perhaps it didn’t matter. But the signal came to shoot, the lights went up, the camera “rolled over,” the sound boom swung into place. Still he didn’t look up. It appeared as if he hadn’t seen it. A moment later however, he walked onto the scene and re-arranged all the action, and then went back to his absorption under the eamera. So he must have had a glimpse or two, anyway. This curious absorption was apparent when he talked to you. His eyes lifted to yours slowly, meditatively, looked at you, then through you to some horizon beyond, thoughtful, mild, largely intelligent eyes — the eyes of an artist and an engineer in one. she had played in the original version. So was James Cagney, whose screen career began simultaneously with hers. Of course says Miss Blondell, if “the stage’ meant merely “Broadway,” her viewpoint might be different. But she knows better; she knows what touring the country with a repertory troupe means, and those one-night stands in China. Hollywood is not entirely a bed of roses; it demands that she get up early in the morning; but her travels are at an end, and she loves it. For the first time in five pictures, Cagney and Joan are in the same picture — and are not paired. In “The Crowd Roars,” enamoured of a young actress named Ann Dvorak, and Joan, though she has many slapstick exchanges with Jimmy is her partner of so many pictures, is “that way” about a young actor named Eric Linden. He plays the part of a professional racing driver, of whom there are several in the east, including Lou Schneider, 1931 A rare combination, though several directors of our acquaintance have it. Hawks had received his early training at Cornell, where he majored in engineering. Later he was an army fiyer. Today he is known as one of the most daring and intrepid airmen in a community where daring and “intrepid airmen are by no means the exception. In the wake of Griffith come a few of these American directors of note — William A. Wellman, Vidor, Mervyn LeRoy, Howard Hawks. A gap in their ranks appears occasionally where some foreign director of talent pushes through. But on the whole the advance of the Americans is notable. Certain it is, at any rate, that these are the men today drawing the largest audiences into picture houses. We felt, as he waved.a long arm at us in casual farewell, that if the picture-making industry had only a few more like this tall, gangling Hoosier, we would have more smashing hits like “The Crowd Roars” which opens at the Theatre ext: < 22. ices Incidentally, Hawks also wrote the story. It gives the James Cagney-Joan Blondell team its greatest acting role. Warner Bros. and the entire motion picture industry should be proud of Howard Hawks, director, author, engineer and gentleman. & Indianapolis Speedway champion, Billy Arnold, Harry Hartz, Ralph Hepburn and Fred Frame. Both profess to be overjoyed that they’re not teamed for once, but talked to privately, each had their own individual way of expressing it. “Of course,” said Joan, “Jimmy’s like an old pair of shoes — you somehow don’t find it the easiest thing in the world to change them for new.” “Joan was all right,” said Jimmy. “But of course, it wasn’t always so pleasant to have her’ grabbing scenes the way she does. I’m glad we’re apart for once.” Such being the case, the studio authorities wondering why, when each was approached about the idea of pairing them again after “The Crowd Roars,’ each was so exceedingly anxious to get their names on the contract that would are insure it. Jimmy being a gentleman, we know in his case —but how about Joan? ——— ee $3 2