Watch on the Rhine (Warner Bros.) (1943)

PREPARED REVIEW -« BETTE DAVIS AND HERMAN SHUMLIN FEATURES (Prepared Review ) Strand Film, Watch on the Rhine?’ Wins Nenvs Reviener’ss Plaudits Lillian Hellman’s Prize-Winning Play, Transferred To Screen by Warner Bros., Nominated for an ‘Oscar’; Bette Davis and Paul Lukas Head Outstanding Cast “WATCH ON THE RHINE’’; a Hal B Wallis production directed by Herman Shumlin; screen play by Dashiell Hammett from the stage play by Lillian Hellman; additional scenes and dialogue by Lillian Hellman; music by Max Steiner ; a Warner Bros.-First National picture presented at the Strand Theatre with the following cast: Sara Miulllencs tens aceen angen Dette Davis ore Mullers 3 eae Paul Lukas Marthe de Brancovis.....Geraldine Fitzgerald Manny = PaLrelly-scsce rage etes Lucile Watson PNTISC ica eulah Bondi Teck de Branco David Farrelly... Phili von Rammeé:......240.8 Henry Daniell Joshuatscee folie ..Donald Buka Bodo ........ ric Roberts Babette ..... Janis Wilson Mrs. Mellie Mary Young Herr. Blechec............ Kurt Katch Dts al aUbet. ses ee tran tneses Erwin Kalser Oberdorff ............. -Robert O. Davis Sam Chandlev.... Clyde Fillmore Joseph 2... .Frank Wilson Higracel sins: Clarence Muse “Watch on the Rhine,” which opened at the Strand Theatre last night, is much, much more than stirring and dramatic entertainment. It is an experience in a motion picture theatre that comes alive, and is real as flesh and blood, pain and joy. The Warner Bros. studio has taken Lillian Hellman’s prize winning play and made it into an outstanding motion picture that will certainly be remembered when the time comes ‘round to award “Oscars.” It is billed as a film starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas, but when you come into the theatre you will meet Sara and Kurt Muller and that is how you will remember them, ,people whom you were indeed happy to know. It is the highest tribute that can be paid to acting. Miss Davis has added a new and distinct portrayal to the impressive list of characters she has contributed to the screen. In this film she is the gallant wife of an anti-Fascist, aware of the danger, but hiding her fears and postponing her hopes so that the urgent battle against Fascism can be maintained. Always a real woman, she becomes a symbol of the women of the world making stern sacrifice to preserve the decency of the individual and the sanctity of the family. Mr. Lukas acted out his role throughout its fifteen-month run on the stage before he transferred it to the picture. And let it be remembered that for this role he won the award of the New York Mat 104—15c¢ Donald Woods Drama Critic’s Circle for the season’s outstanding performance. Lucile Watson, George Coulouris, Eric Roberts and Frank Wilson are part of the fine cast that made the play a hit. They are also in the film version. Yet those of the cast, such as Geraldine Fitzgerald and Beulah Bondi, who were recruited in Hollywood, fit flawlessly into the pattern. Possibly this comes about because the picture’s first concern is to tell its story simply, straightforwardly. The setting is the gracious, sun-lit Washington home of Fanny Farrelly, wealthy society woman and widow of a Supreme Court Justice. To the peace of this home and the security of the Capital comes her daughter, Sara Muller, her German _ husband, Kurt, and their three children. A mood of wholesome joyous-: ness is beautifully evoked in the arrival of the refugees, while the picture skilfully sketches in the vague, disturbing elements of conflict and developing crisis. There is the mystery of Kurt Muller, a sick and weary man; there are the children who, in their bits of conversation reveal the complete lack of that carefree life which is associated with childhood; and there’s Count de Brancovis, a house guest, whose curiosity regarding Kurt is inordinate. Herman Shumlin, who _ produced and directed the play, superbly adapts his long and distinguished stage experience to the medium of the camera. His first directorial assignment in Hollywood is a triumph of straight story-telling on film, and each character and incident is an essential part of a dramatic unity. Dashiell Hammett, of “The Thin Man” fame, wrote the script, with additional scenes and dialogue by Lillian Hellman. Mat 207—30¢ Bette Davis and Paul Lukas are co-starred in Warner Bros.’ filmization of Lillian Hellman’s prize-winning stage play, “Watch on the Rhine.” The picture starts its engagement at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Herman Shumlin, Noted Stage Producer-Director, Is a Man of Few Words and No Publicity Shumlin Upset All of Hollywood’s Rules and Precedents When He Took The Prize-Winning “Watch on the Rhine’ There to Be Made Into a Movie; Screenland Couldn’t Believe It Had Finally Found a Truly Modest Man Hollywood, particularly — the Hollywood press and the Hollywood press agents, are looking at a man named Herman Shumlin with curious and unbelieving eyes. It may be, they confess, that after all they have found a truly modest person but it seems incredible. Mr. Shumlin is from Broadway. He produced shows on Broadway, hit shows like “The Corn Is Green,’ “The Male Animal,’ “The Little Foxes” and the play he made for the screen, “Watch on the Rhine.’ He had a fabulous N. Y. press agent, the infallible Dick Maney, who used to work for Billy Rose and the Aquacade. ‘‘Watch on the Rhine,” incidentally ran for 15 months and came to Hollywood with many of the players it made celebrated including Paul Lukas, whose return to Hollywood was a triumph. The picture, starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas, opens Friday at the Strand. But Mr. Shumlin, it seems, does not like his name in the paper unless it has earned its right to be there. He says, with incredible and disarming simple sincerity, that he doesn’t know much about motion pictures, that he can’t see why anyone is interested in him, that he is learning, busy and shy. Such an arrival attitude in Hollywood is unprecedented. The formula is this: actors are supposed to say that they miss the stage, miss the warmth of audiences, that they just can’t wait to do another play. Directors say that the screen is an interesting medium, but they must decry the commercialism of Hollywood and the obviously inferior performances of screen actors. Hollywood recalls with a shudder the bad taste of a certain brash Broadway producer who announced on his arrival to make his first picture that he would require all the sound stages in town if he really cut loose and expressed himself. “I’m too big for this place,” he announced. Then, he made a big, expensive picture which lost a lot of money. Mr. Shumlin made precisely the opposite approach. He came, almost humbly, in the spirit of one willing to learn. The first thing he did was to camp out on the set of “Now, Voyager,” to watch Irving Rapper direct Bette Davis. He explained he wanted to find out first of all how to start actors acting and then how to stop them. Then, he needed to know why a scene had to be shot more than once. That was to get close-ups, angle shots and long shots, he learned. Next, he disappeared for many days and was seldom seen. It was later discovered that he had closeted himself with the technicians and was learning camera angles and set designing. Now, he was ready to start work. He toiled for five weeks before beginning shooting on “Watch on the Rhine.’”’ When he appeared to start the picture, he had all his camera angles on paper and complete sketches of every act. He rehearsed the cast for two days. Two weeks later, he stopped production and_ rehearsed for another two days. This was a paradox because he called that rehearsal coincident with the arrival of Paul Lukas, who had just completed playing his role for 15 months and might be supposed to be letter perfect. Shumlin argued that the rehearsals would save weeks of time, citing his inexperience as a director, thus winning a point that experienced men have long fought for and failed to get. George Arliss is the only other one who ever succeeding in obtaining as many rehearsals as he wanted. With his actors, Shumlin is eager, serious and appallingly industrious. He knows every line of the script, and knows every flick of an eyelash of the business. The players—Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Geraldine Fitzgerald, George Coulouris, Lucile Watson and the rest—like to work with him. They say he knows precisely what he wants and how to get it. The press still eyes him askance. Here’s a man from Broadway who won't talk. It Used to Be the Nicest Dressing Room in HAfollywood—Until the War Visitors on the Warner Bros. lot have often admired Bette Davis’ pink-and-white portable dressing room. With its pastel interior, comfortable couch and smart dressing table with brilliant lights, it looks just like what a movie star’s dressing room ought to look like. Only it doesn’t any more. It looks more like a portable office on wheels, which is precisely. what it is. Bette, while working in “Watch on the Rhine,” the new film opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, became one of the leading spirits of the Hollywood Victory Committee, which is sending hundreds of stars out on camp entertainment and bond-selling tours. Almost single-handed she organized the Hollywood Canteen, which is modelled after Bette Davis’ Room Has Become Center of Activity For Many Recreational and War Campaign Groups; Directs Operations Between Camera Appearances the New York Stage Door Canteen and will provide an entertainment center for men in uniform. She also organized and equipped—and manages—a smaller Armed Services Canteen, which sleeps 150 men. Then she got up a tremendous garden party to raise funds for the Hollywood Guild and the Canteen. All this went on while she was re-decorating her house and poring over maps for several projected bond-selling tours of her own. The result is that Bette’s pretty dressing room is now dominated by a desk. It looks like the desk of a busy but absent-minded executive. It is cluttered with papers and scrawled notes, telephone numbers and pencils. The portable dressing room also has a telephone, a novelty on any set. Bette goes before the cameras, acts her part with the redoubtable intensity that marks all her acting, then hurries to her telephone and note pad. When Miss Davis gets on the telephone, a great many Hollywood people suddenly come more alive and start doing things they hadn’t thought about doing before—such as attending garden parties, donating their services for a Canteen, or making a trip through Kansas City, Chicago and Detroit on a major bond-peddling expedition. Meantime, an expert secretary, Mrs. Bridget Price, a lady with a wonderful British accent and an alarming flair for efficiency, operates for Bette at home, and Kempy, the star’s college-trained Negro maid, takes messages and makes appointments on the set. Among the three of them, they think up many things that ought to be done, and do them. It used to be the prettiest little dressing room in Hollywood. The war, you know.