The Prince and the Pauper (Warner Bros.) (1937)

STORIES ON CAST AND PRODUCTION PUGETCIEY. <2 * * * “THE PRINCE , AND THE PAUPER’ Adopts °*Mental Training”’ For His Big Movie Roles Arch Villain Claude Rains, Of “Prince And Pauper,” Studies English History While Claude Rains is as far from being a copy book maximist as you would find in several weeks’ travel, he firmly ascribes to the theory that ‘‘a job worth doing is worth doing well.”’ Which probably is the reason why Rains is the leading character actor on the screen today and fast climbing toward stardom by his poignant characterizations of arch villains on the screen. Rains prepares for a role in a picture as thoroughly as a prize fighter getting ready to defend his title in the squared circle. But his preparation is mental. His advance work for his role as the sly Earl of Hertford in the First National production of ‘‘ The Prinee and the Pauper’’ is an example of how he gets himself in the proper mood for a part. His current picture will be seen at the ss Theatre, beginning MGR So siiecetnns ‘‘When I was cast for the picture,’? he says, ‘‘I immediately got a copy of Mark Twain’s great classic and refreshed my memory of the story by several readings. Then I visited the library and borrowed several English histories dealing with the period of the tale—the middle of the sixteenth century. ‘<T checked up the various historical figures who are prominent in Twain’s story, read everything I could find about their habits, their manner of dress and their general behavior. ‘<T found that there really was an Earl of Hertford in those days, and I learned that he was a pretty sly sort of fellow. ‘¢T read half a dozen books contemporary to the period and later looked over volumes of copies of the famous Holbein portraits of royalty of the day. From his portraits, for which the subjects actually sat, I was able to fix my makeup into an exact reproduction of what the Earl of Hertford must have looked like to his fellow peers in Henry VIII’s court. Rains finds that an exhaustive study of not only the character he portrays but of those who surround him helps him immeasurably in arriving at the right mental attitude. ‘The Prince and the Pauper’’ is Mark Twain’s immortal classic about the heir_to the British throne and the thief’s son who were born at the same moment in the 16th century, and whose lives became entangled because of a close resemblance. The Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, play the boys. Errol Flynn co-stars with them, and Rains, Barton MacLane, Henry Stephenson, Alan Hale, Phyllis Barry and Helen Valkis are featured in the large cast. MAESTRO DOES FILM SCORING Erich Wolfgang Korngold, celebrated Viennese composer, wrote the original musical score for ‘‘The Prinee and the Pauper,’’ the epic film adapted by First National from Mark Twain’s classic story, which opens at the ........ sdnblsennnons SN: WU essthiiciceetcias..0 Korngold, who has composed numerous operas, first was brought to Hollywood by Max. Reinhardt to arrange the Mendelsohn musical score for the film version of Shake speare’s ‘‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’’ Since that notable work, he has composed original musi¢al scores for ‘‘Anthony Adverse’? an4 **Captain Blood.’’ BART A HEAVY? NIX — SOFTIE! Barton MacLane, who is just , about ‘‘tops’’ as the sereen’s most hated heavy, is so kind hearted that with cats and dogs he’s befriended his ranch home is overrun and is too ‘‘soft’’ to get rid of them once they’ve wormed their Bart’s now a cruel villain in ‘‘ The Prince way into his affections. and the Pauper,’’ which comes to tee oc ... Theatre next “Off With Her Head!” ‘Any girl can lose her head,’’ said Henry VIII — and he wasn’t fooling. Montagu Love is the merry monarch, and Helen Valkis, as Lady Jane Seymour is his ill-fated third wife in the First National film version of Mark Twain’s immortal story of a boyish prank which threatened to wreck an empire, ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper,’’ now playing at the Theatre. Mat No. 206—20c MORE SCRAPS FOR MacLANE IN NEW FILM Barton MacLane, husky leading man, can dish it out and he also ean take it. He has to. It’s a dull picture for MacLane, former star halfback for Wesleyan University, when he doesn’t connect with someone’s chin or vice versa or maybe both. “The scenarists apparently keep a picture of me on the wall over their typewriters,” he says, “and every time they write a part they think I’ll do, they see that chin of mine and decide someone ought to sock it. If I had a glass jaw I’d have been: out of pictures a long time ago.” In “The Prince and the Pauper,” in which MacLane plays the role of John Canty, brutal criminal of the London slums, he hands out plenty of hard knocks to his son and to the Prince whom he mistakes for his son, and later kills a kindly old priest. But in the end he meets his just desserts when he tangles with Errol Flynn in the role of Miles Hendon, soldier of fortune who befriends the young prince, and is not only beaten but run through the body with a sword. The picture comes to the Theatre on . “The Prince and the Pauper” is Mark Twain’s immortal classic about the heir to the British throne and the thief’s son whose lives became entangled because of a close resemblance. Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, play the boys. The Interviews For Movie Dogs Now Hollywood Rule Every day this movie business becomes more complicated. The time has long since passed when a casting director merely calls up an actor or actress and tells them to report on a certain day for a part in a picture. Today, no one is east in an important role unless he or she has first been interviewed by half a dozen studio executives and made from one to a dozen screen tests. So eareful have studios become in seeing to it that only the exact player should be east for important pictures, that the ‘‘interview’’ system has now extended to dogs. Recently, Henry East, who makes a good living renting trained dogs for pictures, solemnly paraded into the First National studio casting office with half a dozen assorted canines on leash, having been called for an interview. With due ceremony, he was ushered to the offices of William Keighley, director, who was to use several dogs in the Mark Twain classic, ‘The Prince and the Pau per,’’ which comes to the Theatre on ....... Keighley, after consultation with Robert Lord, supervisor of the picture, and his assistants, accepted one of East’s ‘‘samples’’ for the producetion and a call was put in for another dog man to bring his animals for inspection. Errol Flynn is starred in ‘‘ The Prince and the Pauper,’’ together with the twin Mauch boys, Billy and Bobby, who . Toles. play the title Two Star Villains Appear In ‘Prince and the Pauper’ Claude Rains and Barton MacLane Have Strongest “Meanie” Roles In New Strand Film Two of the professionally meanest men in Hollywood— Claude Rains and Barton MaeLane — combine their talents for skullduggery and double dealing for the first time in ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper,’’ the First National picture which is now showing at the Theatre. Rains. a meanie of long standing on stage and screen, is taking up right where he left off in ‘*Anthony Adverse’’ making things tough for little Billy Mauch who played the role of the young Anthony in that great picture, for he again makes life miserable for the child in this Mark Twain classic. He has the role of the scheming, scoundrelly Earl of Hertford who, according to the story, attempted to seize control of England at the death of Henry VIII by usurping the post as regent to the youthful king. prince and pauper, when they exchange clothes for a lark, Billy Mauch under his sinister sway while his twin brother, Bobby, who is the real prince in the picture, narrowly escapes murder at the hands of Rains’ hirelings. In the mixup between young comes MacLane’s villainy is not of such long standing as that of the veteran Rains, but he makes up for lack of experience in downright cussedness that elevates his depravity to the same high level as his fellow player’s. In ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper,’? MacLane is cast as John Canty, thief, beggar, murderer and brutal bully of the slums. He plays the role with a gusto that earns him well deserved hisses from audiences. As the father of little Tom Canty, MacLane beats and mis treats Billy Mauch and later makes life miserable for Bobby when the prince, in the pauper boy’s clothes, is cast out of the palace and mis taken by MacLane for his own son. With so much villainy, there must of course be an heroic avenger, and Mark Twain provided him in the person of swashbuckling Miles Hendon, soldier of fortune, a role which fits Errol Flynn like a glove. When he enlists on the side of the outeast prince and his keen sword starts flashing in vengeance, the villains and persecutors of the youngsters start falling like leaves in a windstorm. It is a grand story—one beloved of millions. William Keighley directed it. NOBLEMEN MADE FOR THIS FILM English nobility had a field day recently at the First National studio when three Lords and one Earl were signed for featured roles in ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper,’? the Mark Twain romance now at the . Theatre. Eric Portman, contract player, was assigned to the part of the First Lord, Lionel Pape as the Second Lord and Leonard Willey as the Third Lord. Robert Warwick, who traces his ancestry back to noble Warwicks of England, fittingly was assigned to the role of the Earl of Warwick. Errol Flynn (center) and Bobby Mauch (right) pit rapier and club against knives and cudgels in one of the sereened in ‘*The Prince and th Pauper,’’ First National’s dramatization 16th Century Street Riot YOUNG ACTRESS GETS A BREAK Helen Valkis, recently recruited from the Pasadena Community Playhouse for films, gets her first important picture role as Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII in ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper,’’ which co-stars the Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, and Errol Flynn, and is now showing at the ............ Theatre. As the unhappy queen, Miss Valkis is the mother of the Prince, doomed to die beneath the executioner’s axe if she survives the travail of presenting an heir to the British throne. R of Mark Twain’s most beloved story, which opens at the Theatre on. Mat No, 209—20c most exciting street battles ever a Page Twenty-one P