Two Against the World (Warner Bros.) (1932)

NOTE ON FEATURES Current Saturday or Sunday Feature Alice Doll, Professional Sereamer, Doubled for Many Hollywood Stars Constance Bennett ean not scream. Neither can Ruth Chat terton. Alice Doll has a job. Kay Francis isn’t so good at it either. Consequently When Miss Bennett comes face to face with murder in Warner Bros.’ picture ‘‘T'wo Against the World,’ now at the .................. . Theatre, she goes through all the motions of screaming. Actually she doesn’t utter a sound. ‘‘When I seream,’’ Miss Bennett explained, ‘‘all that comes out is an *e-e-e-k’.’’ She demonstrated, gently. ‘¢And if I really do scream as loud as possible, I can’t talk again for hours.’? “Don’t seream,’’ advised Director Mayo. ‘It would be too expensive.’’ We’ll send for Alice Doll. She’! scream for you.’’ Long ago, during the making of the picture, ‘The Mad Genius,’’ Director Curtiz filmed a theatre panic scene. It was filled with screams, cries, yells and confusion. At that time Alico Doll, and her peculiar ability to seream, were discovered. After the young bit player had been put before the microphone and had sereamed long and loud and in varied degrees of agony for Curtiz, she was put down on the studio casting office records as the official sereamer for screaming sequences. A star’s voice: is too valuable a thing to risk in the middle of an expensive production. The human throat is a delicate con traption and in some people ean be easily dumaged by straining. Alice Doll, whose throat seems to stand up well under the strain of repeated screaming, has sereamed for the best known stars of Hollywood. She varies her sereams to fit the personalities and the voices of the stars she screams for. Ruth Chatterton is not often confronted with the necessity of secreaming in her roles. In ‘‘The Crash’’ as in ‘‘The Rich Are Always With Us,’’ she goes through tremendously moving situations with searcely a rise in the tone of her voice. When she does have to scream it is a lowthroated series of ‘‘0-0-0-h’’ unless she twists her throat into contortions which are painful and apt to be damaging, and yells. Barbara Stanwyek is one actress who never sends for Alice Doll and who never needs her unique services. Miss Stanwyck is a champion sereamer among the leading women of the screen. In ‘*The Purehase Priee,’’ her latest Warner Bros. picture, Miss Stanwyck has a seene in which she lets loose a seream that is a master piece, There was some discussion before the filming of the scene as to whether or not Miss Stanwyck should be al lowed to risk her voice. She listened patiently for a little while and then turned to Director William Wellman and said decisively: ‘<T’ll do my own screaming.’’ She did—and director and sound experts all agreed that even Alice Doll could not have done it so well nor so convincingly. She has a hoarse, lowtoned seream which trails away into a piercing shriek. It is one of the high spots of the picture, dramatically and acoustically. If Miss Stanwyck ever wants to desert the screen as a star she can probably have Alice Doll’s job with Warner Bros. Loretta Young screams her own sereams in pictures, too, a high, immature, somewhat childish scream which promises in time to reach really admirable proportions. Kay Francis plays more stately parts and her emotions are seldom expressed by screaming. She ean scream but doing so ruins her voice for days, which makes her sereams too costly for movie use. Bebe Daniels, who sereamed so effectively in ‘*The Maltese Falcon,’’ in spite of the fact that she has an especially fine voice and a_ voice trained for singing, screams with short, sharp, staccato tones. Like Miss Stanwyck, her screams do not apparently damage her speaking voice in any way. Sereaming in pictures is of necessity limited to only the most necessary occasions. People in real life do not scream except under stress of certain emotions. The microphone is so adept at catching the terror of alarm of a woman’s seream that only occasionally is it good drama to startle an audience by use of this feminine characteristic. It is more effective, of course, because it is not resorted to very often. But there are times, as when Miss 3ennett comes face to face with murder and the murderer in ‘‘Two Against the World,’’ when Alice Doll’s services are of great value. Miss Bennett is supported by a cast of well known players, which includes Neil Hamilton, Helen Vinson, Gavin Gordon, Allen Vincent, Walter Walker, Roseoe Karns, Alan Mowbray and IIale Hamilton. ‘Two Against the World’’ is taken from the novel by Marion Dix and Jerry Horwin. It was directed by Archie Mayo. Current Saturday or Sunday Feature Constance Bennett at Work Constance Bennett, during the making of ‘‘Two Against The World,’’ the Warner Bros.’ picture which is the main attraction at the Theatre, made her home in a portable box about ten feet square and eight feet high. She did not really sleep in it nights, although she frequently took a short nap at lunch time. not actually working on th set. But she lived in it, when she was The box was arranged as a dressing room with a makeup table and chair, a rocker and a placed on wheels so that it could be moved as the various scenes demanded, from one studio stage to another on the Warner Bros. lot at North Hollywood. She also had her own portable victrola installed so that she could lis+o music while resting. A similar ‘yr was kept nearby for her is kept busy all day >onnett’s fan mail. ‘mately two “ of the eouch for her comfort. It was letters are requests for pictures and about a third of them are from foreign countries. Nearly all letters are written in English, however, although the foreign mail has increased very materially since Miss Bennett’s marriage to the Marquis de la Falaise. All requests for pictures are answered —with a picture. A number of people in Miss Bennett’s employ are always present on the set where she is working. These Nie x Because the name “Constance Bennett” is an open sesame to news columns, we are giving you an unusual number of Saturday and Sunday feature stories. You will find these features extraordinarily good, containing as they do the sort of material that editors and readers simply eat up. We suggest that you start planting these features about three weeks before playdate of “Two Against The World.” \ Current Saturday or Sunday Feature Only the Star Got Wet in ‘Two Against the World’’ They make it rain only on the just at Warner Bros. studios— just those they want it to rain on, for picture purposes — and nobody else. A studio rain maker is no charlatan. He has to produce rain on notice at any given spot, in any required quantity and for any desired length of time. So a crew was kept busy for several days preparing a rain to rain upon Constance Bennett in scenes in her new Warner Bros.’ picture, ‘‘Two Against the World,’’ which is now playing at the It was to be a good, hard rain. In ordering it director Archie Mayo paraphrased the circuit rider’s prayer in ‘‘The Little Sheperd of Kingdom Come.’? ‘«We don’t want any sizzle-sozzle,’’ he said. ‘‘We want a ‘sod soaker,’ a ‘gully washer,’ a ‘dam buster’!’’ Pipes were connected with the water supply and long lines of fire hose carried the water to the set, a city street scene, terminating at the canopied entrance of an apartment house. It began to be obvious that Miss Bennett, who had agreed to break her hard and fast rule against night work and was going to make the rain scene that night, would have a very wet time of it. A Wet Time for Star All of the thousands of gallons of prepared rain were for her alone. Director, cameras and camera crews, sound engineers and technicians, electricians, ‘‘grips’’ and carpenters all kept safely outside the downpour. Only the one frail lady was to be rained upon. Big Archie Mayo himself kept as dry as gun powder. Working for eight hours in wet clothes, water soaked shoes and in the sharp night air of an early California summer, Miss Bennett earned her rating as a trouper of the first class with the members of the crew making the picture, ‘‘Two Against the World.’’ The scenes were vital for the story but there are ways of faking them if a star should absolutely refuse to work in the water and under the conditions of discomfort which seem unavoidable on night loeation rain scenes. An All Night Rain But Constance Bennett, who works constantly under doctor’s orders and whose studio day has been shortened by an hour to allow for extra rest and to conserve her health and strength, knew that for the good of the picture she should make the rain sequence personally. All night long, from eight o’clock in the evening to four o’clock in the morning, she braved the worst that Warner Bros.’ rain maker could provide in ire ee Theatre. the way of a storm. That worst was plenty bad. Mayo’s request for a rain of generous proportions had been taken literally. As the star ran and stumbled on her way along the studio street, with the cameras and microphones trucking along with her, the rain maker threw his machinery into high. And how it rained! The water came down in sheets. With the help of wind machines this was whipped into a realistic night storm, through which Miss Bennett fought her lone way to the shelter of the apartment house entrance. Miss Bennett’s portable dressing room, equipped with special electric heaters, had been brought to the set and special coke burners were stationed about it to provide extra warmth and drying heat. The star was not taking the only risks involved in filming the scene. Should she catch cold from the exposure the studio would suffer financially due to the delay in finishing the production. Somehow she looked very little and pathetic running along alone in the rain and every member of the crew did his individual best to see that there were no unnecessary delays. At midnight the studio served a hot supper and the star had an hour’s rest while her assistants tried, with little success, to dry out the water soaked wardrobe which she wore in the scene. It was four o’clock in the morning and daylight before Mayo gave his approval to the final ‘‘ take.’’ ‘Two Against the World’’ is Constance Bennett’s second starring production for Warner Bros. as she previously scored a tremendous international success in ‘‘Bought.’’ The screen play was written by Sheridan Gibney from a story by Marion Dix and Jerry Horwin. The cast supporting Miss Bennett includes such splendid players as Neil Hamilton, Helen Vinson, Gavin Gordon, Allen Vincent, Walter Walker, Eulalie Jensen, Alan Mowbray, Roscoe Karns, Hale Hamilton and Oscar Apfel. a _,,,eensssssss//ss1:11_1_*11/) SSS EEUU enn EnEn EEE EEE include her secretary, her ‘‘stand in,’’ her hair dresser, her maid and at times, her chauffeur. They have all been with her over a period of years and the small group is as closely knit as a family. Between ‘‘takes’’ Miss Bennett seldom goes to her dressing room. Instead she sits with one or more of her retinue of people and works at whatever undertaking they are at the moment engaged in. During the filming of ‘‘Two Against the World,’’ this activity was knitting and a three cornered race went on intermittently all through the picture, ending finally in the completion of six white woolen bed comfortors for the Bennett beach house. Knits Between “Takes” The knitting and the race for knitting honors between the star and her associates became a matter of interest for the whole company. Miss Bennett explained to cameramen and carpenters alike that the comforts would cost seventy-five dollars each at a store but that she could knit them for eight dollars each—the price of the yarn. : ‘‘Besides,’’ she added, ‘‘it keeps me busy.’’ She often surprised Arehie Mayo, her director, by interrupting his di rections about a camera set up when he had no idea she was paying any attention to him, in order to make a suggestion. Mentally and physically she was very much ‘‘on the job’’ all day long during the production. ‘*All day long,’’? was from eightfifteen in the morning to four in the afternoon with an hour for luncheon. Because of her strenuous work Miss Bennett had put herself under the eare of a physician to conserve her health. For that reason she always quits work at four p.m. in order to be able to rest at home for a few hours before dinner time. After dinner she returned to the studio, looked at the rushes of scenes taken the preceding day and was at home and asleep by ten fifteen each night. Week-ends she spent at her Malibu cottage, twenty miles from the studio. After the completion of ‘‘Two Against the World,’’ she moved there for the remainder of the summer months. Dislikes Interviews She had practically banned all interviewers during production. She turned down a fine offer to make personal appearances because of audience fright. **T’d be scared to death,’’ she confessed. She has never appeared before an audience.