Uncertain Glory (Warner Bros.) (1944)

Jean Sullivan, New Warner Bros.’ Star, Did Not Want To Be In Films Without doubt, the most unusual girl ever brought to Hollywood is Jean Sullivan, currently to be seen in Warner Bros.’ “Uncertain Glory,” starring Errol Flynn and Paul Lukas at the Strand. A few months ago the brownhaired, green-eyed, 20-year-old misS was a junior at the University of California at Los Angeles, with dramatic experience limited to a dozen campus plays. Today she is under long-term contract to Warner Bros. and in her cinematic debut plays the feminine lead opposite no less a star than Errol Flynn. “You must be terribly ex cited about all this,” it was suggested the first day she appeared on the set. . “Not particularly,” replied Miss Sullivan, without dropping a stitch in the knitting on which she seems to spend every idle moment. “You’re not excited?” was the incredulous comment. “Not particularly,” reiterated Miss Sullivan, “You see, it’s not what I want.” Here was a girl catapulted in a twinkling from obscurity to fame, leaping effortlessly over all the years of struggle that are the lot of most aspirants to film careers—but she’s not particularly excited about it. Here was a girl for whom Hollywood had swung wide the gates of opportunity for artistic achievement and material success without even .waiting for her to knock upon those gates—but it wasn’t what she wanted. Miss Sullivan, it seems, is in love with the stage. From the time she was ten years old her thoughts and hopes and dreams have centered upon a_ stage career. She had given motion pictures no consideration whatever, not even when a studio talent scout showed up with one of those fabulous contracts in pursuit of which so many girls devote years. Otherwise, Jean Clair Sullivan is an entirely normal girl. She was born in Logan, Utah, on May 26, 19238, the daughter of Colonel Alexander C. Sullivan, U.S.A., retired, and Mrs. Claire Cardon Sullivan. Her childhood and girlhood were those of any Army daughter. Jean spent her earliest years at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Tex. She went to grammar _ school while her father was stationed at Madison Barracks on Lake Ontario in upper New York State. Another transfer sent Jean to high school for two years at the University School, Columbus, Ohio, and yet another shift due to Army orders brought her to her screen debut opposite Errol Fl to the Strand on Friday. Still U.G.-28—Mat 209—30c Lovely young Jean Sullivan, Warner Bros.’ latest discovery, who makes ynn in “Uncertain Glory,” coming Se ee ee ES Southern California to complete high school at Los Angeles High from which she was graduated in June, 1941. Miss Sullivan’s interest in the theatre dates back to grammar school plays while her father was on duty at Madison Barracks. When she entered U.C.L.A., Jean majored in dramatics and minored in modern dance—both much against the wishes of her parents, who wanted her to take up something “more practical,” something “offering a chance to make a career.” Ralph Freud, head of the drama department at the university, _ perceived budding genius in the slender Sullivan girl the first time she stepped into a role. He encouraged her, criticized her, gave her every chance, including the leads in such plays as “Our Town,” “Engaged,” “Electra,” “Liliom” and “Alice in Wonderland.” She worked hard. Even her summer vacations were devoted to study, for she remained on the campus for summer sessions. Solly Baiano, head of the talent department at Warner Bros., saw her in “Engaged,” Sir William Gilbert’s comedy of manners, when the campus players presented it in December, 1942. Baiano was amazed at the girl’s finished performance; went back stage to talk to her and was captivated by her charm. He offered her a screen test. She evaded the offer. Then ensued the strangest chase in Hollywood history. For six months Baiano pursued his “discovery,” waving a screen contract. And for six months she dodged, demurred and evaded. It was sheer persistence that eventually wore down her resistance and won her consent to make the most exhaustive tests ever given a prospect by Warner Bros.—and to sign the contract that resulted. Thus, in her first picture, Jean Sullivan is a star, with the future bright and shining before her. But it isn’t what she wants! Veteran Stage Actress Steps From Retirement Into Lively Film Roles The list of plays in which Lucile (one small L_ there please) Watson has appeared during the 40 years she has been an actress requires several paragraphs of type in the Who’s Who of the Theatre and is somewhat a Who’s Who in itself. Starring or featured in those plays has been practically évery famous personage of the English and American stages. Her motion picture engagements have not been nearly as many, of course, but the roles she has done have all been important, the films all the sort that got not only high critical rating, but long lines of box. office patrons. Her latest occupation was as the mother in Warner Bros.’ “Watch on the Rhine,” which starred Bette Davis and Paul Lukas. Her present screen role 4 is again that of a mother—this time in Warner Bros.’ “Uncertain Glory,” starring Errol Flynn and Paul Lukas, now at the Strand Theatre. Miss Watson, widow of the late and well-known writer and editor, Louis Evan Shipman, is the daughter of Thomas Charles Watson, a major in the British army, and the former Leila Morlet. Miss Watson was born in Quebec, Ontario, Canada, but has long been a citizen of the United States. The date of her birth was May 27, 1879. She was educated in private schools and never was particularly interested in the drama, although she had, as she describes it, a certain native talent for mimicry and speaking pieces. Because of this talent “and necessity at the time,” she went to New York and enrolled in the Sargent School of the Drama when she was 21. Her first professional stage appearance was in “Heart Aflame” in 1908. From then until 1924, when she went to Paris, her stage engagements were uninterrupted. She made her home in France for nine years. On the death of her husband she returned to New York and the theatre, appearing in “No More Ladies.” Her first picture, ‘What Every Woman Knows,” ‘was made in 1934. That and “Watch on the Rhine” are her favorites of all the pictures in which she has appeared. Her best-liked play was “Yes, My Darling Daughter.” Miss Watson will soon be seen in two more Warner Bros.’ films, “My Reputation,” and “Until We Meet Again,” shortly to be released. Film Star Institutes ‘Gold Heart’ Award Paul Lukas, who won the Academy Award this year for his performance in Warner Bros.’ "Watch on the Rhine,"’ and who co-stars with Errol Flynn in "'Uncertain Glory," now at the Strand, is a sentimental fellow. Celebrating his sixteenth wedding anniversary recently, the star presented his wife with a little antique locket in the form of a heart. With it he sent this inscription: "For service far beyond the line of duty during 16 trying years." Raoul Walsh Directs Uncertain Glory The word “action” hag always been synonymous with Director Raoul Walsh. Action was the theme of his earlier pictures (“In Old Arizona,” for example) and now again in the new Warner Bros.’ film, “Uncertain Glory,” starring Errol Flynn and Paul Lukas, due at the Strand Theatre Friday. With Walsh directing, things keep happening on the screen. With a hand-rolled brown paper cigarette stuck to. his lower lip, black patch over right eye, thin hair in a tangle, shirt off, wearing faded denim pants, Raoul Walsh gets down to work and directs. Cavalry charges, Indian fights, battle scenes— anything with blood, thunder and a lot of dust and powder smoke are his special dish. The director has not always been hidden behind a megaphone. At one time he was much more likely to be found in front of a camera, not somewhere on the sidelines. In fact, for more than twenty years he prospered as an actor until a tragic accident cut short his thespian career and turned him to fulltime directing. The accident occurred during the filming of “In Old Arizona,” the first talking picture ever to be filmed out of doors. Walsh was playing a part in this film, and directing as well. One night the actor-director was driving across the desert when suddenly, out of nowhere, a_ rabbit sprang up before him and jumped clean through the windshield before Walsh could stop, duck, or anything else. A splinter of the shattered glass lodged in his right eye thereby destroying its sight. Raoul Walsh’s handicap (if it can be called a handicap since it is totally ignored by him) is, in a way, the world’s gain. Because, from the time he had to confine his activities to directing alone, he has been responsible for such memorable films as “They Died With Their Boots On,” “Gentleman Jim” and “Northern Pursuit,” to name just a few. Still U.G.-510— Mat 101—I5c Lucile Watson, who has one of the top roles in “Uncertain Glory,” now pleving at the Strand. Realism Stressed In French Village Now On Strand Screen Motion pictures themselves drove Paul Coze, French technical director, into motion pic ture work. Author, artist, authority among other things on the American Indian, Coze_ got pretty tired of the French villages he saw in pictures. They were all alike. They were, in his words, as self-same as the caption that preceded them: “Somewhere in France .. .” Coze vowed if he were ever called upon to advise on things French for films that at least he’d be original. His opportunity finally arrived when Robert Buckner, producer of Warner Bros. “Uncertain Glory,’ Errol FlynnPaul Lukas starring picture, currently at the Strand, called on the artist to aid with the film. Momentarily forsaking his oils and easel for his first job as technical advisor, Coze set about his job by giving the same attention to detail he’d formerly given to his painting, writing and ethnology. The result of his efforts can be seen in the little French village in “Uncertain Glory” so complete in every detail that Frenchmen viewing it have actually been seen to cry with homesickness. A tall, modest man, Coze tackled his current assignment with the same fervor with which he executed an exhibit of American Indian modern paintings for the U. S. government. Because he left France only a few months before the German occupation, Coze, through his friends in the underground, was able to secure authentic German posters in French listing names of Frenchmen shot by the Gestapo for sabotage. These he had photostated, “blown up” and placed in the shuttered shops of his French village. Another Coze touch is to be noticed in the French, provincial barber shop in the film. Outside the shop is a gold sphere from which hangs a horse’s tail—a small thing in itself, but just one of the many details which help stamp the scene as authentic. Because action of “Uncertain Glory” falls within a five-day period of winter, 1940 (France fell in June of the same year), Coze has been careful to have the extras and atmosphere players. respect the season in their dress and actions. One of the five days, for instance, is a Sunday, and on that day the French peasants wear the poor but scrupulously clean raiment of the French under the German yoke. For a Paris sequence, Coze shows for the first time on the screen the present-day French bicycle-taxis, in both single and tandem style. The taxis are simply bicycle-drawn rumble seats with bicycle wheels—one passenger for the single bike and two for the tandems. On the shutters of one of his shops are two inscriptions which in themselves are a short story. The first line reads: ‘Ferme pour cause de mobilisation,” or roughly, “Gone to war.” The second, scrawled in chalk beneath it, reads: “Prisonnier de guerre,” indicating that this citizen of fallen France has been interned by the Germans. Little things, these details, but the difference between a hastily thrown-together film and a picture which is helping to mirror today’s history.