The Petrified Forest (Warner Bros.) (1936)

In “The Petrified Forest” “THE PETRIFIED FOREST” Leslie Howard (left, standing) Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart (right, standing) and Dick Foran (seated) drop the masks of life when their hour of destiny arrives in the Warner Bros. drama ‘‘ The Petrified For est’? now playing at the Theatre. Playwright And Producer _ Of Stage Play Laud Film Jeclare Screen Version Greater Than Original Of “The Petrified Forest” The traditional conception of the playwright who tears his hair on witnessing the film interpretation of his brainchild received a severe debunking recently from no less a loyal apostle of stage dramaturgy than Robert E. Sherwood. Mr. Sherwood was heartily seconded in his tribute to Hollywood by Producer Gilbert Miller, heretofore inclined to an admitted skepticism of movie melodrama. The Messrs. Sherwood and Miller issued their startling and completely unexpected verdict after Witnessing a private showing of the film version of “The Petrified Forest,” starring Leslie Howard und Bette Davis and due to be shown the publie at the ............... Theagtresgn sic 5.5 : Mr. Sherwood, as nearly everyone knows, penned the stage version of the play, which was a Broadway success, and Mr. Miller produced it. Yesterday they proceeded, not without some trepidation, to the Warner Bros. oxecutive offices on W. 44th Street for their first look at what the movies had done to their play. Mr. Sherwood — all six feet four of him — was just a little incoherent when the lights went up. “I never dreamed they would follow the play so closely,” he exclaimed. “Why, do you know some of those long speeches that the hero gets off . . . well, I surely thought they would cut those in the scenario. Of course, I sort of hoped they wouldn’t because, after all, I took a lot of time and pains over those lines. “Then, there is the cast,” he continues. “It’s marvelous. I don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, but really I think the cast is a trifle better in the movie » than the play.” Mr. Miller, at this point, seized his. playwright by the arm and ecried, “I say, this gives me an idea. Do you know that bit of ‘business in the last act when the “hero gets shot? Did you notice that the movie changes it a trifle? What do you say to changing the play when we open it in London?” Sherwood pondered briefly and suddenly nodded in emphatic agreement. It seems that in the play: the hero simply asks the gangster to kill him, but in the movie version he throws himself in front of a door and thereby forces the gunman to open fire. “T had a tough time over that scene, rewrote it a dozen times,” Sherwood admitted. “It’s more dramatic this way. I wish I had thought of the trick myself.” Mr. Sherwood frankly admitted that he had been more nervous only once before in his life — when his first play, “The Road to Rome,” opened in Washington in 1927. He’s becoming more and more of a movie convert, he says, and will be off to England shortly to do a picture with his friend, Rene Clair, famous French director. Mr. Clair also attended yesterday’s preview. Here is what he had to say: “The quality of Sherwood’s dialogue is splendid, simple and direct. I liked the pieture very much. It is splendid'y made, has strong situations and beautiful photography.” Mr. Miller, after he had collected himself and conferred briefly with Mr. Sherwood, said: “This is the most entertaining motion picture I have ever seen. In fact, I might say it is the first time I have seen the movies equal the stage in adequately presenting a drama. I, myself, have been more or less skeptical about Hollywood productions in the past, chiefly hecause there are certain things which won’t pass the movie ecensors. But the censors don’t seem to have hurt this play a bit and I think that is very encouraging. The casting of the film is really marvelous.” Credit for directing the movie which seems to have proved a revelation to its author and producer goes to Archie Mayo. Petrified Forest Used As Symbol Of Lost Ideals There are no nuts in Grape Nuts. There is no pie in Eskimo Pie. And there is no forest, even a stone one, in ‘‘The Petrified Forest,’’ the Warner Bros. production which comes to the Theatre Ons ee the petrified forest of Arizona— that waste of stones that once were trees. In fact, the action of the piece oceurs within a few miles of the forest. But Robert Emmet Sherwood, used the stone forest more as a symbol than an actuality. The petrified forest of his tale is not the natural curiosity in Arizona. It is civilization which Sherwood represents to be fossilized. Sherwood has summed up_ his symbolizing in the speech Leslie Howard, as the disillusioned sophisticate, makes to Humphrey Bogart, who plays the part of a bandit killer. Says Howard: **You’d better come with me, Duke. I’m planning to be buried in the Petrified Forest. It’s the graveyard of the civilization that’s been shot from under us. It’s the world of outmoded ideas. That’s where I belong—and so do you, Duke. Both of us are doomed.’’ To which Duke replies: ‘Maybe you’re right, pal.’’ Bette Davis is co-starred with Howard in the film, while others in the cast inelude Genevieve Tobin, Bogart, Charley Grapewin, Dick Foran and Porter Hall. Archie L. Mayo direeted the picture from the screen play by Charles Kenyon and Delmer Daves. Howard Wears Lucky Coin Around Neck Leslie Howard, co-starred with Bette Davis in the Warner Bros., picture, ‘‘The Petrified Forest?’ NOW =sho wine At=thesc te Theatre, wears a thin, golden chain with a coin on the end of it around his neck. The coin is a British sovereign. It is the coin he held in his hand on the morning of the day he set off and found a job which turned the tide in his fortunes in London after the war. Publicity e ‘Petrified Forest’’ Bares Life Problems Of Today Desert Drama Is Symbolic Of The Dead Hopes Of The World’s Misfits By DAN MAINWARING They were carrying machine guns, revolvers and rifles through the door of the stage where they were making scenes for the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The Petrified Forest,’’? which comes. t6the. os So. a heatre: one. 2 ‘‘Another gangster picture,’’? we observed. ‘Not exactly,’’ said Leslie Howard, the star. He leaned Genevieve Tobin Miss Tobin is winning plaudits for her work in ‘‘The Petrified EM ORGSU2e AOL SING. 2 ee Theatre. Mat No. 111—10e Collects Tropical Fish Genevieve Tobin, now appearing Atabhe essa ee Theatre with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis in the Warner Bros. production, ‘‘ The Petrified Forest,’’ has the finest collection of fish in California. End Of The Road Leslie Howard, a lover lost in life, and Humphrey Bogart, a bandit who has outlived his era, make the strangest bargain ever known in ‘‘ The Petrified Forest’’ now playing at the eo a ie ee a ae ee Theatre. Mat No. 211—206 back in the canvas chair with his name on it, and filled his pipe. “There are gangsters and machine guns in it, but it isn’t a gangster picture.” “But there’s shooting in it?” “Oh yes,” said Howard. “There is considerable shooting. In facet, I’m shot and killed by Publie nemy Number One. Still, that doesn’t make it a gangster piecture. “Robert Sherwood, the author, has snared an unrelated group of truveiers, much in the manner of Gorki in ‘A Night’s Lodging,” he explained. “He lifted them from their normal paths to a new view of themselves and each other, revealing hidden aspects which somehow expose io them for the first time the meaning of that unknown and little explored relationship called brotherhood. “There are gangsters in it. And there’s a defeated author, a banker and his wife, a garrulous old man, a beautitul girl starving tor love, a college football player and a futile ex-service mun still strutting about in uniform. Sherwood has thrown them all together in a barbecue stand in the center of the desert. But they are more than men and women. They are symbols. Each character is symbolic of the class he represents. “As to the symbols Sherwood has set up, you’ll find in the role ot the author which I play, a summation of the dismay of the intellectual world. And behind this defeated figuré we see panorainas of frantic material development. Chaos whirls around him us he walks into the sunset toward the Petrified Forest. “Back of the speeches of the garrulous old man, one sees the whole colorful excitement of the pioneer west. “Behind the banker there is a parade of puzzled and weary business men, pillars that have Shaken loose. Behind his wife, a line of bitter-faced women staring through limousine windows. “Behind the ex-service men are seen ail the futile men, who with uniforms and _ affiliations and platitudes seek assurance of their own significance. “Behind the girl, hes the future, which summons different pictures to all, to some dark, to others bright and full of promise. “And finally we have the tragic, outmoded bandit, on his way to the Petrified Forest, soon to be followed, perhaps, by his legalized brethren. “We still didn’t look entirely understanding.” Howard sighed. “Just think of it as a finely written piece of work,” he said. “It should make a great picture. It made a great play.” “The Petrified Forest” is a dynamie drama of love and heroic sacrifice by Robert Emmet Sherwood, with Howard and Bette Davis in the stellar roles. Others in the cast include Genevieve Tobin, Humphrey Bogart, Charley Grapewin, Dick Foran and Porter Hall. The sereen play is_ by Charles Kenyon and Delmer Daves. Page Twenty-three