The Firebird (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Sensational Stage Hit, ‘The Firebird’ Now On The Screen “The Firebird,’ the sensational Broadway stage success of a season ago, has finally made its way to the screen in a flaming picture by Warner Bros., and is scheduled tor be: Shown gat seme... ecco saree cee The picture, based on the play by Lajos Zilahy, carries one of the most novel and unusual romances, as well as being one of the most powerful emotional dramas of the day. The theme evolves about the strange and fatal fascination exerted by a popular, although unscrupulous actor over a beautiful young girl. Born of a proud and aristocratic family, surrounded) by wealth and luxury, the girl is educated and trained with such care and watchfulness that her constantly suppressed emotions finally burst forth in a secret and tawdry, although passionate romance, which ends in the mysterious murder of the actor lover. The theme seeks to parallel the emotions of the girl with that of the firebird, which is drawn irrevocably to the fire to bask in the glow of the flames. In the story the girl is lured by the weird and sensuous strains of Stravinsky’s famous musical ballet, “The Firebird,” to throw herself into the flaming and consuming embrace of a man whose magnetic personality she is unable to resist. Ricardo Cortez has the role of an egotistical and _ insufferable actor who first attempts to lure the mother into a _ clandestine affair, and upon failing, turns his attentions to the daughter. Verree Teasdale has the part of the mother who tries to sacrifice her own reputation and her very life to shield her daughter. Anita Louise, the daughter, is the firebird, while Lionel Atwill is the father. C. Aubrey Smith has the role of a police inspector, while Dorothy ‘Tree, the actor’s estranged wife, and Helen Trenholme, a beautiful governess in the diplomat’s household, are the two feminine suspects, other than the mother and daughter. Other important members of the cast include Hobart Cavanaugh, Robert Barrat, Hal K. Dawson, Russell Hicks, Spencer Charters, Etienne Girardot, Florence Fair and Nan Gray. William Dieterle directed the picture from the screen play by Charles Kenyon. The Broadway play was originally produced by Gilbert Miller. The Villain One of the most villainous looking of all film players, Ricardo Cortez is really a swell guy off the screen. He is. appearing at the sists Theatre now in Warner Bros.’ “The Firebird’’. Mat No. 8—10c Page Sixteen Cortez Has Role Of Stage Villain In “The Firebird” There were several scenes in his most recently completed picture for which Ricardo Cortez needed no rehearsals. In the Warner Bros. film, “The Firebird,” which will open at the spate Ga eee Theatre On) ivtetpem eat he appears with Verree Teasdale, Lionel Atwill, Anita Louise and | | RICARDO CORTEZ Mat No. 6— 10c others, Cortez portrays the role of a popular though villainous, stage actor. Several sequences in the film disclose him signing autograph books for some admirer. Cortez needed no rehearsal for these scenes. He rarely appears publicly in the movie town and his absence from the usual haunts of the film colony has made the Ricardo Cortez autograph one of the most to be desired in Hollywood. Consequently, on those few occasions when he and his wife appear in public, the actor is besieged by autograph collectors. Those scenes in “The Firebird” which disclose him graciously signing autograph books weren’t rehearsed. The scenes were natural. “The Firebird” is a most unusual and dramatic story in which a young girl is lured by flaming passion. William Dieterle directed the ‘picture from the screen play by Charles Kenyon, based on the play by Lajos Zilahy. Anita Louise Does An Exotic Dance In “The Firebird” Anita Louise disclosed a hitherto concealed talent during the production of the Warner Bros. picture, “The Firebird,” which comes to the ..... = DneatresOn so. a% The young actress is an accomplished ballet dancer. During the filming of a scene in which Stravinsky’s “Firebird” is played, Director William Dieterle asked Miss Louise if she could dance a few steps in keeping with the scene to denote carefree abandon. She did more than that. She started to whirl and pirouette, executing a beautiful dance for the benefit of the cameras. Upon its completion everyone on the set applauded enthusiastically, but the young actress thought little of the incident, admitting that she had studied ballet dancing in the early part of her career. In “The Firebird” Anita has a role which exemplifies the spirit of the Firebird, a bird that in Hungarian legend delights in basking in the warmth of consuming flames, or, in the picture, of passion. The picture is a highly dramatic and ultra modern story, revealing the secret love of a_ beautiful young girl whose emotions have been repressed by a conventional and aristocratic family. There is an all star cast which includes besides Miss Louise, Verree Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill, C.. Aubrey Smith, Dorothy Tree, Helen Trenholme, Hobart Cavanaugh and Robert Barrat. The picture was directed by William Dieterle from the screen play by Charles Kenyon, based on the play by Lajos Zilahy. Atwill Home Vies In Artistry With His Film Apartment Lionel Atwill felt perfectly at home in the artistically decorated Viennese apartment which represented his home in the Warner Bros. picture, “The Firebird,” which will open at the 2.0.0.0... Pheatre ‘on 26 fea See >» for in real life the actor possesses many objects of art which have made him envied by all Hollywood. As an Austrian diplomat in the picture his apartment showed many objects of art. His own apartment is decorated with paintings which include “Portrait of. His Niece,” by Sir Joshua Reynolds, F.R.A. (1723-92); “A Southern Gentleman,” by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), painter of the celebrated portraits of George and Martha Washington; “Miss Baring,” by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), as well as works of Sir Peter Lely, Sir Henry Raeburn and George Marland. In addition to these, the Atwill home contains a beautiful painting of Mrs. Atwill by Segall, the famous contemporary artist. The furnishings of the Atwill home include a genuine Adams highboy, a superb collection of Dresden china, a spinet made by Charles Allbright in Philadelphia in 1810 and a music box labeled “Jacot’s Ideal Sublime Harmonium —1886.” The artistic “movie home” of Lionel Atwill and his screen wife, Verree Teasdale, is quite beautiful, but not comparable to the Lionel Atwill home of real life. “The Firebird” is a highly dramatic and ultra modern story, revealing the secret love of a beautiful young girl ,whose emotions have been repressed by a conventional and aristocratic family. There is an all star cast which includes besides Atwill and Miss’ Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Anita Louise, C. Aubrey Smith, Dorothy Tree, Helen Trenholme, Hobart Cavanaugh and Robert Barrat. The picture was directed by William Dieterle from the screen play by Charles Kenyon, based on the play by Lajos Zilahy. Film “Firebird” Is Named For Famous Music Composition Many songs have been written based on motion picture titles, but “The Firebird,” the Warner Bros. production which comes to the PRE We Teer, Theatre om. ...........2:...9 gains its name by the reverse process. The film is based on the successful Lajos Zilahy play which Gilbert Miller produced on Broadway. The musical composition titled “The Firebird” forms an important and integral background for the dramatic story and is used in the screen version with the same effectiveness that it was in the stage presentation. “The Firebird” is a ballet written in 1910 by Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, Russian composer born in 1882, who wrote it for Diaghilev’s Russian company, with which Stravinsky was afterward so closely associated. “The Firebird,’ one of the most unusual as well as one of the most dramatic pictures to come to the screen, is set in the colorful background of Austria’s gay capital. There is a talented all star cast which includes Verree Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill, Anita Louise, C. Aubrey Smith, Dorothy Tree, Helen Trenholme, Hobart Cavanaugh and Robert Barrat. William Dieterle directed the picture from the screen play by Charles Kenyon. A thrilling scene from a thrilling picture is this one, portrayed by Verree Teasdale and Lionel Atwill in Warner’s “The Firebird”, coming totter: ae: Theatre on..............:.. Bonen fs Others in the cast include Ricardo Cortez, Anita Louise, C. Aubrey Smith and Dorothy Tree. Mat No. 4—20c Verree Teasdale Hates Term ‘Best Dressed Actress’ When two sophisticates, the best dressed man and the best dressed woman of the screen, fall in love, what happens? That’s the case of Adolphe Menjou and Verree Teasdale who were wed early last fall just after she VERREE TEASDALE Mat No. 7— 10c completed work on the Warner Bros. production, “The Firebird,” now showing at the .......... Theatre. “TY’m so madly in love with Adolphe I’d wear a gingham apron were he to say the word,” declared Verree, the fascinating, perfectly poised individual whose ability to wear clothes in stunning fashion makes her the envy of women. Verree frankly dislikes being termed as “the best dressed woman” of the screen, or of any place. “I’m interested in having people look upon me as a competent actress, not a clothes-horse,” she declared, “and I'll tell you another horrible truth—Adolphe is happiest in old slacks playing with his dogs.” “The Firebird” is an ultra-modern story, revealing the secret love of a beautiful young girl whose emotions have been repressed by a conventional and_ aristocratic family. There is an all star cast which includes besides Miss ‘Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill, Anita Louise, C. Aubrey Smith, Dorothy Tree, Helen Trenholme, Hobart Cavanaugh and _ Robert Barrat. The picture was directed by William Dieterle from the screen play by Charles Kenyon based on the play by Lajos Zilahy. Verree Teasdale Held Up Wedding To Work In Film The romance of Verree Teasdale and Adolphe Menjou is a far different affair than the majority of Hollywood love matches. While most players have fallen in love with sizzling speed and culminated the affair with breathtaking elopements to Yuma, Arizona, or Mexico, Miss Teasdale and Menjou were engaged for months before they were actually married and had been sweethearts some time before their betrothal was announced. They even postponed their wedding so that Miss Teasdale could play the leading role in’ the Warner Bros. picture “The Firebird,” which comes to the .............. heave’ OW «5635. eee They had planned to be married on August 12, last, and Miss Teasdale had gone to New York three weeks before that to select her trousseau. While there a wire reached her from the Warner Bros. studios, asking her to take the leading role in “The Firebird.” She consulted with Menjou by long distance telephone and both decided it was the best film role which had at that time been offered her, and was too good to pass up. So Miss Teasdale cut short her trip in New York, buying in four days, a trousseau on which she had expected to spend three weeks. It was not until after she had finished the picture that the couple were married and went on their honeymoon to the Canadian Rockies. In “The Firebird” Miss Teasdale has the role of the wife of an Austrian diplomat who tries to sacrifice her own life to save the reputation of her daughter. The picture is one of the most unusual as well as one of the most dramatic to come to the screen. It is set in the colorful background of Austria’s gay capital. There is a talented all star cast which includes besides Miss Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill, Anita Louise, C. Aubrey Smith, Dorothy Tree, Helen Trenholme, Hobart Cavanaugh and Robert Barrat. _ William Dieterle directed the picture from the screen play by Charles Kenyon, based on the play by Lajos Zilahy, produced by Gilae Miller and adapted by Jeffry ell.