The Invisible Menace (Warner Bros.) (1938)

(Lead ) BORIS KARLOFF, ‘THE INVISIBLE MENACE’ COMING For a long and profitable period on New York’s Broadway, a mystery-melodrama called “Without Warning” ran as a stage play. Now “The Invisible Menace,” a Warner Bros. picture production, with Boris Karloff as its star, based upon the play is scheduled to open next Friday at the Strand Theatre. The name Karloff mustn’t conjure up the idea that this is a horror show of the type that Boris so frequently makes. It isn’t. He wears no outlandish makeup, and appears not as a monster of any sort, but as a civil engineer of middle age. The picture is described as far superior to the stage-play, successful as the latter was. Besides being a mystery, it is also a comedy, with the humorous and romantic atmosphere carried by Eddie Craven, who plays the same part that he did on Broadway, and long-lashed Marie Wilson, portrayer of “dumb blondes.” The story begins on an eastern island used by the army as an ordnance arsenal. An officer has been slain. Several are suspected, including the mild-mannered Karloff. This is because he has had trouble, years previously, in Haiti, with the murdered man. There are a number of cut-back scenes at this point, illustrating what happened between the two men in Haiti. These scenes include a negro revolution and some weird, mystic voodoo rites. Not until the very end of the picture is the real murderer discovered and dealt with, in a smashing and surprising climax. “The Invisible Menace” was directed by John Farrow from a screenplay by Crane Wilbur, based upon Ralph Spencer Zink’s play. Marie Wilson a Native Pretty movie comedienne Marie Wilson is not only a native daughter of California, but she’s also a descendant of the founders of her birthplace. She was born in Anaheim, California, which was settled by German American colonization. Marie’s parents were with these original settlers, and when the state “boomed” a good many years ago, her father, a big land holder, became a real estate man and made quite a fortune. Now Marie is an important Californian in her own right. Her current picture is “The Invisible Menace.” Mat 102—15c UP-AND-COMING comedienne Marie Wilson discards her “dumb blonde” roles to play a wistful bride in “The Invisible Menace,” the mystery-melodrama at the Strand Theatre. Page Four Mat 202—30c LOVE IN THE ARMY is filled with thrills and chills for Marie Wilson and Regis Toomey, who are featured in “The Invisible Menace” coming Friday to the Strand Theatre. (Advance) ‘Dumb Blonde ’ Roles Carry Marie Wilson to Stardom Garbo isn’t really a hermitess. Katharine Hepburn isn’t a privatelife devil in Marie Wilson blonde she seems. human form, and isn’t the “dumb” A native Californian, Marie had made some progress in straight ingenue roles on the stage before she tried to crash the studios. A small part in “Call Me Neighbor” led to excellent feminine leads in the Los Angeles productions of “The King’s Pleasure” and “Girl Friend.” But did the scouts see her, or seeing, were they impressed? No! Did anyone seek her out after her flurry of stage success and offer her a movie job? A thousand times no! Instead Marie presently tired of waiting and sought out the movie moguls. She got the usual stalls, the old run-around. Then one day she sat waiting for the telephone to ring, and having nothing else to do, began to think. Mae West had an act. Garbo had an act. Marlene Dietrich had an act. So-o-o—Marie speculated —what could she herself do to attract producer attention? It was then that the “dumb blonde” inspiration hit her. She altered her makeup a bit to suit, adopting the odd curly hairdress she wears now, and accentuating her enormous eyelashes (they’re real, not artificial) with a makeup Director Turns Writer John Farrow, writer and director at Warner Bros., who recently directed Boris Karloff and Marie Wilson, Regis Toomey, Eddie Craven and a host of other prominent players in “The Invisible Menace,” the melodrama at the Strand Theatre, is turning historian. Author of plays, scenarios and several books and _ short stories, Farrow reveals now that he has been working for three years on an economic history of the world. The work will not be completed for four or five years. His recent book, “Damien the Leper” was a best-seller. which made them look like an absurd “store” variety. Then she visited a studio and tried out her act: some Gracie Allen-like cracks of which she had written and memorized in advance. That blonde was a golden key! officials couldn’t believe their eyes or ears. dumbness Casting They spoke cautiously. Surely this daffy dame wasn’t that dumb— this must be a gag! But Marie put over her act, got a screen test, and found herself typed as a dumb comedienne. Faithfully, she has carried out the “dumb” act into her private life, dropping it only when in the presence of her small circle of close personal friends. Despite it she became the most popular actress with fellow-workers at Warner Bros., where she is under long-term contract. She played “Camille” in a Little | Theatre not long ago, but on the screen she’s still the Marie Wilson everybody knows and laughs at. In her latest picture, however, “The Invisible Menace,” in which she appears with Boris Karloff and Eddie Craven and which opens next week at the Strand Theatre, she’s not so dumb as usual. In fact, at times she’s quite “smart.” And in getting the role she wasn’t dumb either. She’s the only woman in this film except for a small part played by Phyllis Barry. 150 Meals at Midnight One hundred and fifty meals at midnight! Just a movie location order for night scenes, filmed on the Los Angeles River bottom near Burbank, for Warner Bros.’ picture “The Invisible Menace,” which stars Boris Karloff and Marie Wilson. Part of the cast worked all day, and part all night but the same director, John Farrow, worked on both “shifts”’—getting a few hours of shut-eye between sunrise and 9 A.M. mornings, and a nap between 5 PsM:sand: 7 P/Me ‘The result of their labors will be seen at the Strand Theatre next week. Karloff in His Most Amazing Role! (Advance) No More ‘Horror’ Make-Up For Actor Boris Karloff Boris Karloff of the movies says he’s glad to get away from a steady succession of “Frankenstein” pictures. “By that I mean those roles that depend for part of their effectiveness on heavy or complicated makeup,” Boris explains. “The principal objections to this sort of role, from the actor’s point of view, apply most directly to the ‘unhuman’ makeups such as I have worn occasionally, and less directly to those which become purely character makeups. But occasionally I like to be pretty much the Boris Karloff of real life insofar as appearance goes. “In early episodes of my current mystery film for Warner Bros., “The Invisible Menace,” I wear practically no makeup. Later in the picture my makeup is merely a form of disguise and consists chiefly of a grey wig and eyebrows, and rather thick-lensed glasses. “To don or doff these requires but a few minutes, whereas I hate to think of the time, trouble and even physical pain involved in taking on and off and even just wearing some of my more elaborate makeups. However, that’s not the chief reason why it is a relief to be out of this sort of role for the time being. The change is one of acting technique as well. “It is both harder and easier to act in a Frankenstein type. of makeup. Harder, in that the actor (Advance) JOHNNIE FARROW TRIPLE-THREAT MAN OF MOVIES In the movies it’s an advantage to be a “Jack of all trades,” according to Director John Farrow. And it doesn’t necessarily imply, as the old saying would have it, that such a person is “master of none.” Farrow, who within the artistic and literary professions is something of a Jack-of-all-trades himself, believes mastery of the specialty which is one’s particular forte is increased by some knowledge of and practice in its allied branches. “I’m a better screen play craftsman (scenario writer) now that I’m a director,’ Farrow remarks. “Contrawise, I’m sure my experience in writing for the screen has been of advantage to me in undertaking the tasks of a film director.” Farrow has just completed his fifth directorial vehicle, Warner Bros.’ mystery-thriller, “The Invisible Menace.” It is a Boris Karloff starring picture, with Marie Wilson in the chief feminine role and Eddie Craven, of the original stage cast, Regis Toomey and others in support. It is coming to the Strand Theatre. An Englishman, and the _ husband of Maureen O’Sullivan, Farrow is a young cosmopolite who is widely travelled and highly cultured. He has written every sort .of thing, including stage plays, radio and vaudeville sketches, and lately the non-fiction best-seller, “Damien the Leper.” “The ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ stigma used to apply to workers in all trades, arts and professions, because primitive methods demanded a great amount of hard effort,” Farrow remarks. “No one had time to do justice to a vocation and still have the engrossing hobbies which are so useful and stimulating to us today.” is confined to pantomimic effects and whatever little dialogue he is given, and is deprived to a greater or lesser degree of subtler expressions—such as the movie closeup affords. Yet it is easier in a way because your means of expression are simplified. “IT am not forgetting that my career has become identified with the Frankenstein sort of thing, nor am I ungrateful for the sort of notice it brought me. I also take a good deal of pride in makeup— in trying to achieve more than the next fellow with it, and in wearing it effectively despite any pain or other physical inconvenience. “But before ever I donned fantastic makeup I was making a good living as a stage and screen actor. If some successful pictures of one type hadn’t gained one sort of reputation for me, ultimately, I think, a successful picture of another type would have come along to do the same thing. “There seems to be two things in this business: first, what a player makes of his own professional career; and second— at least as important as the first— what successful pictures do for him. Or reverse the latter saying if you will, and put it: what unsuccessful pictures do against him. The knife cuts both ways. Karloff will be seen in “The Invisible Menace” next Friday at the Strand Theatre. The picture was directed by John Farrow and has Marie Wilson as leading lady. Marie Gets Tribute “One of the five prettiest women in pictures” is the latest tribute paid Marie Wilson, Warner Bros. comedienne. Hans Mangeldorf, visiting New Orleans artist, so characterized her, as he saw her on the set of “The Invisible Menace,’ which is now showing at the Strand Theatre. Won’t Scare Kiddies Boris Karloff, bogey-man star, was on location for his latest Warner Bros. film, “The Invisible Menace,” which is now at the Strand Theatre, when some children invited him to play sand-lot ball with them. when they asked his name he told them it was “Smith.” Boris, a kind-hearted fellow, has that his own name scares ’em! He accepted — but found Mat 103—15c BORIS KARLOFF — master of “horror” roles, goes “straight” for his current starring role in “The Invisible Menace,” a thrilling mystery drama coming to the Strand Theatre Friday.