The Gay Sisters (Warner Bros.) (1942)

Mat 201—30c Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent have the leading roles in Warner Bros.’ new motion picture drama, ‘The Gay Sisters”, which is now play ing at the Strand Theatre. Barbara Stanwyck’s Role Traces Actual Film Career “IT am,” said Miss Barbara Stanwyck, “just about reciting the span of my own motion picture career.” Miss Stanwyck had finished a scene for “The Gay Sisters” in which she currently is costarring with George Brent for Warner Bros. The picture is now playing at the Strand Theatre. In the scene — it was in a courtroom — Miss Stanwyck, from a counsel table, jumped to her feet and said, weightedly and _ sarcastically: “Your honor, for over twen ty years this mess has been going on! We’ve practically grown up in court. I knew what a subpoena was before I could spell cat! They’ve written books about this case, and teach it at Harvard!” » That was Miss Stanwyck’s speech. It referred to the will fight of the Gaylord sisters, but it could have, as Miss Stanwyck said, related to her own career. Miss Stanwyck has been in Hollywood some ten years; not twenty. But she has spent a major portion of that time in motion picture courts. Somehow lawyers, witness chairs and court room scenes seem to predominate in many of the red-haired Miss Stanwyck’s films. It is, of course, a tribute to her ability. For court room scenes — unless you’ve been reading Thorne Smith lately — invariably come under the head of drama. And it takes a good, dramatic actress to handle capably a scene of this kind. Miss Stanwyck’s first picture of note, back around 1932, was “Ladies of Leisure.’ There wasn’t a courtroom scene in Punts Camera 30 Yards And Gets Sore Toe What Barbara Stanwyck needed was a kicking toe. That is a sort of rubber gadget which football players fasten to the end of their shoes when they are about to attempt a place kick. For the personable Miss Stanwyck was doing a lot of kicking. In a scene from “The Gay Sisters” at Warner Bros., Miss Stanwyck had to kick a graflex camera right out of the hands of Hank Mann, veteran comedian. It wasn’t one of those standing kicks, either. Miss Stan wyck, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Nancy Coleman — the three “Gay Sisters” — were sprinting down a court house corridor full tilt when the kicking took place. Miss Stanwyck scored a direct hit each time, .the punt being good for about 30 yards, but it was a little tough on the feet, what with open-toed shoes, and all. 4 it, but there were plenty of lawyers. They swarmed all over the place, heavy-burdened with legal tomes, briefs, whereases and whyfors. The picture was a great success, and so was Miss Stanwyck. “Since then,” said Barbara, “every so often I’ve found myself either in a witness chair, at a defendant’s table, or in a lawyer’s office. I feel as if Blackstone were an old chum, and the United States Supreme Court a valuable ally.” Miss Stanwyck has gotten all kinds of verdicts from her various trials. In “Remember the Night” they sent her to jail; in “Ball of Fire” she talked her way out of trouble. She’s been sent up for everything from shoplifting to accessory before and after the fact, and she’s been released just as ingeniously and variously. “It is all,’ said Miss Stanwyck, “in the day’s work. And mighty nice work — in pictures — if you can get it.” Geraldine’s Brogue Changes to British Geraldine Fitzgerald was born and reared in Dublin and won her first important acting successes in London, but it has remained for Hollywood. to give her a British accent. She’s using it in “The Gay Sisters,” the Warner Bros. picture in which she currently appears at the Strand with Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent. And, just to add to the paradox, she’s playing § an American girl. The American girl happens to be one who married an English lord and went “veddy veddy” British while living abroad. Miss Fitzgerald wants that clearly understood. It is not her own accent. What little she has left of her own is pure “Dublinese.” Love By Candle-Light Exits For Duration Candle-lighted love scenes are on their way out in Hollywood. What with wax, fat, suet and such being on the priorities lists and citizens purchasing candles by the thousands for use in blackouts, the studios are hard put to maintain a stock of candles. In “The Gay Sisters”, for example, George Brent and Barbara Stanwyck were supposed to have a romantic scene over a candle-lit table in her apartment. But it was figured that because the candles would have to be of identical lengths in all angles and takes of the shot, two dozen candles would have to be used. Spacious Mansion Provides Setting For Warner Bros.’ “The Gay Sisters’ It took 24 men working 24 hours to “age” a house 24 years out at Warner Bros. studio. Library, hallway, stairs, bedrooms, kitchen, cellar and exterior got the treatment. This was all essential to the filming of “The Gay Sisters,” which will play at the Strand Theatre starting Friday. Opening in 1917, with a brief prologue, the picture speeds to 1941, and the decay of the house and its surroundings must tell quickly and effectively the decay of the Gaylord fortunes. Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Nancy Coleman — red heads all — play the Gaylord sisters; the “Gay” sisters as they are called. In the opening sequence they are played, respectively, by eight-year-old Mary Thomas; Carole Joyce Combs, 5; and Sharlene Salerno, 3. Donald Woods is playing the role of their father and Charles Waldron that of the family lawyer. It is a farewell scene, this opening sequence. Woods, in the uniform of a major in the United States Army, is bidding goodbye to his three daughters. He has just finished signing his will, a tremendous docu Family Films Present Problems In Casting Major headache for a casting director at any motion picture studio is a so-called “family” picture. He faces the task of lining up a number of players who bear a superficial resemblance to one another. But Steve Trilling, casting director at Warner Bros., recently found himself confronted with an even more pronounced = difficulty. For “The Gay Sisters” he had to line up not only three women who looked somewhat alike, but three little girls who could reasonably be expected to grow up to be the characters they represented. For the grown-up Gaylord sisters he located, with producer approval, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Nancy Coleman as Fiona, Evelyn and Susanna Gaylord, respectively. In a general way they are similar. Each is red-haired. Their features are not dissimilar. A difference in height or body structure was immaterial. But then came the rub. The opening sequence shows the three sisters as little girls. Trilling’s job was to locate three youngsters who not only looked as if they might be sisters but also as if they reasonably could be expected to grow up to be the Misses Stanwyck, Fitzgerald and Coleman, respectively. That they had to be able to act was a minor point. That could be taught to them. Trilling interviewed about 500 or so little girls before he arrived at his combination. Miss Stanwyck — as Fiona — found her counterpart in eightyear-old Mary Thomas, a competent and experienced little trouper. Miss Fitzgerald — _ that’s Evelyn — appeared in the person of five-year-old Carol Joyce Coombs, a real newcomer. And Miss Coleman — Susanna, of course — came to life in Charlene Salerno, aged 3, who made her screen bow in this film. The three youngsters, unlike their grownup counterparts, do not have red hair. ment, for it involves an estate of some $500,000,000. Studio designers and craftsmen have created a mansion in keeping with the wealth and opulence of the fantastic Gaylord family and fortune. The library is the last word in conservative yet rich elegance. The carpets are rich and thick. The windows are curtained with heavy damask. Every piece of furniture is the finest that money can buy. Electrical fixtures are elaborate and a huge, sparkling chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The fireplace is beautifully carved marble and the library walls are lined with priceless volumes. On the panelled walls are three paintings of persons who are never seen in the picture. Two of them are Gaylord ancestors. The third is a portrait of young and beautiful Mrs. Penn Gaylord, who went down on the Lusitania. The three little girls, Wood and Waldron finish their roles and vanish from the picture. Wood is killed overseas, Waldron dies and the little girls grow up to spectacular womanhood. And that’s where the wrecking — or “aging” — crew comes in. Working swiftly, they transform the elegant mansion into a dreary, battered semblance of its former splendor. The carpets are frayed and worn, as are the once magnificent drapes. The panels are stained and discolored. The pendants and crystal globes of the chandelier are chipped and broken. As in the opening sequence, the battered look of the home tells a story — of the falling of the Gaylord fortunes. We meet Fiona, Evelyn and Susanna, now grown, in the personages of Miss Stanwyck, Miss Fitzgerald and Miss Coleman. Their dialogue tells the story of the intervening years — a story of an “absolutely incontestable will’ that turned out to be not incontestable, and of a man, Charles Barclay, who bears a strange grudge against the Gay Sisters, and who has fought them in the courts for 23 years in an effort to break the will. Strange story twists and deviations appear as the film unfolds, and the reason for the hatred of Barclay — played by George Brent — is revealed. Irving Rapper, whose “One Foot in Heaven” proved so popular, directed from the script by Lenore Coffee. Hollywood All Agog Over Gig Young’s Screen Debut Hollywood is agog over Gig. This is no gag, but an accurate description of the reception given the announcement that a handsome young juvenile has been renamed and headed straight for screen fame at one and the same moment. But to get down to facts — Gig Young is his name. It used to be something else — Bryant Fleming — but that no longer matters. He was christened Gig by the public and, after a delay of not more than two hours, by the Warner Bros. Studio officials themselves the night they watched the first preview of “The Gay Sisters,” the new Barbara Stanwyck George Brent picture. That Gig Young stood out in a cast that included, besides the two named, such popular players as Geraldine Fitzgerald, Nancy Coleman, Donald Crisp and Gene Lockhart, is something more than accidental. The preview audience, selfconstituted critics, wrote many complimentary things about the picture and the work of the whole cast but they saved their choicest adjectives for praise of the work of the character “Gig Young.” A new career for the young man was started the very night of the preview, preceded by the change of name. “The Gay Sisters” will be remembered as more than a milestone in the career of Gig Young. It was his starting post in the most popular but difficult race in Hollywood — that which leads to stardom. There will be hurdles for Gig Young to negotiate along the course some time in the future but the Hollywood experience of others indicates that the start is the most important moment in any presumptive star’s career. New Painting Adorns Warner Art Gallery The extensive art gallery at Warner Bros. studio in Burbank had a new addition — a painting of Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Nancy Coleman. Alexander Rosenfeld, who has done a number of paintings for the studio, executed the canvas, which is used in “The Gay Sisters.” Portraits of players frequently are needed in pictures, and this one contributes an important point. Still GS 102; Mat 206—30c “There’s a beautiful scandal about to break right over our heads”, Barbara Stanwyck tells Geraldine Fitzgerald and Nancy Coleman in this scene from Warner Bros.’ **The Gay Sisters”, now at the Strand Theatre.