Wine, Women and Horses (Warner Bros.) (1937)

PUBLICITY GAMBLING NOT ALWAYS A SIN, SAYS MacLANE “Sure, gambling is a sin — if you lose when you have no business to.” Barton MacLane, inspired by the role he plays in his new Warner Bros. picture, “Wine, Women and Horses” settled back in his chair tv mdulge a _philosophical mood. “But it is obvious that no one can excape being a gambler regardless of his feelings on the matter. The gambling urge is born in all of us. In infaney we gamble a spark of life against tremendous odds that we will reach manhood. In maturity we are gambling against fate every time we step into the modern high-speed automobile, every time we brave traffic to walk across the street. “Whether we are business men or actors we gamble our talents on a chance to make good. We marry, taking another gamble that we will be happy. Everything we do is a gamble. Even though no money is involved we gamble when we play cards, pingpong, golf, tennis or engage in any sport, for the gambling urge is the desire to win. “Some men are born gamblers and there is as much _ honor among them as there is among the gentle old ladies who take a chance on a raffle in the name of charity. The honorable gambler has his ups and downs, but he would no more think of gambling money not his own or making anybody suffer through his gambling, than the little old lady would.” ; Featured with Barton Mace Lane in “Wine, Women and >] be a, Dawn Dartaa NT aw Bieeses C= wpe aves; avo W York stage actress who is making her screen debut; Ann Sheridan and Dick Purcell, and the supporting cast includes Walter Cassell, Addison Richards, James Robbins, Lottie Williams and Charles Foy, among others. Louis King directed the picture from a novel by W. R. Burnett which was adapted by Roy Chanslor. EXTRA ADEPT. MADE ADVISOR A Hollywood extra recently capitalized on a rather dubious possession of worthwhile knowledge. After several technical advisors could not agree on the correct manipulation of a roulette wheel and playing of the game for scenes in Warner Bros.’ “Wine, Women and Horses” featuring Barton MacLane and Ann Sheridan, now at the Strand, Director Louis King was informed that an extra, smiling amusedly at the proceedings, had been a professional gambler. King asked the extra for advice, which was promptly supplied — after he was made a “technical advisor.” OFFICIAL BILLING Warner Bros. 40% Pictures, Inc. present % WINE, WOMEN AND HORSES 100% with BARTON MacLANE ANN SHERIDAN 75% Directed by Louis King 20% Sereen Play by Roy Chanslor 10% From a Novel by W. R. Burnett 10% A Warner Bros. Picture 5% °° REVIEW Drama of the Race Tracks Thrills Mat 103—10c BARTON MacLANE ‘“Wine, Women and Horses,’’ a melodrama of the racetracks, the bookies’ windows, the spinning roulette wheels and the clicking dice, thrilled audiences at the Strand Theatre yesterday, when it had its initial showing. Horses, rather than wine or women, dominate the lively Warner Bros. show, although there are a couple of women. important to its plot, and the leading man, Barton MacLane, wins them both! For a change, and a pleasant one, Big Bart, who has almost always played tough muges if not downright villains, has a sympathetic, audience-winning part. His leading women are Ann Sheridan and Peggy Bates, both of whom give splendid performances. MacLane is shown as a genial, happy-golucky horse-player, moving from track to track, sometimes up in the money, at other times cold broke. His pal is pretty red-headed Ann Sheridan, a player herself and a trueblue sportswoman. They share their fortunes, good or bad. He gets a Christmas gift of money from a gambler whom he has tipped on a horse called ‘‘Lady Luck.’’ He gives up his smalltown hotel job, gambles with the money and runs it up into a big bankroll. Against her will, he takes Peggy to California for the opening of the Santa Anita track. ‘‘Lady Luck,’’ his favorite horse — =whi1. 4 hac elmwasre wantpad +n win’. _ ja ren W fii 0 cas aL Ww ays WwW Gila UO Wk a rane Featuring Ann Sheridan Strand Patrons Mat 101—10¢ ANN SHERIDAN ning. Ann, his old pal, is at the track, too. “Lady Luck’’ wins, and Bart and Ann cash in. But Peggy, his wife, refuses to celebrate with them, and when Bart gets home that night he finds Peggy has left him and gone to her little home town. The big race has weakened one of ‘‘Lady Luck’s legs. Her owner intends to run her again anyhow, but Bart buys her and retires her so the leg may be cured. Then his luck fails him and he is broke again. He seeks out Peggy, his wife, to find that she wants to divorce him and marry her childhood sweetheart, a local boy. This is O.K. with Bart. He restores ‘‘Lady Luck’’ to soundness, enters her in a big Santa Anita handicap, wins it, and he and Ann are back in the big money again. They discover then that they are more than pals, they are real sweethearts, and they agree to stick together forever. Others in the cast of ‘‘Wine, Women and Horses’’ inelude Dick Purcell, Kenneth Harlan, Walter Cassell, James Robbins and Lottie Williams. The picture was directed by Louis King from a screenplay by Roy Chanslor, based on a novel by W. R. Burnett. It is a fine human-interest movie suitable for the whole family. Besides the gripping story, the picture gives an excellent insight to one of the greatest and oldest of sports— horse-racing. The finest tracks and horses are paraded right before your eyes, making the picture more than-a story on a-sereen, —_ CU ost, Gh vUL yy NUL PRESS AND PROGRAM SHORTS Colorful scenes of the opening of the famed Santa Anita race track on Christmas Day, 1934, were re-enacted for Warner Bros.’ melodrama, “Wine, Women and Horses,” featuring Barton MacLane, Ann Sheridan, Dick Purcell and Peggy Bates. Hundreds of extras were used to make the scenes authentic in every detail. Barons of track Use of loaded dice means fight to an honorable gam Although American born, in Greenwich, Conn., the film actor, Dick Pureell, is a direct descendant of the Irish Loughmoe. He will be seen as a featured player in Warner Bros. race melodrama, Women and Horses,” at the Strand Theatre next Friday. ers for a time recently. The stars of the barnyard game were in the movies. Casting officials, required to supply players and spectators of the game as played in a small Middle-Western town for sequences in Warner Bros,’ “Wine, Women and Horses,” featuring Barton MacLane, Dick Purcell, Ann Sheridan and Peggy Bates, went “Wine, bler — but not on a movie set. Director Louis King Horseshoe pitching, favorite sport of Iowans at Long Beach, Calif., was without its star play to the Southern California beach city and found just the types they needed. couldn’t depend on Barton MacLane’s ability to roll a seven, eleven, a deuce or other number as required by the script of Warner Bros.’ “Wine, Women and Horses,” and so as many pairs of dice were used. Each pair was fixed so it would turn up one number and no other. An unusual large number of varied locations are to be seen in Warner Bros. “Wine, Women and Horses,” which features Barton MacLane, Ann Sheridan, Dick Purcell and Peggy Bates. Among the scenes are some at Lake Franklin, in the Santa Monica mountains, in various residential sections of Glendale and other towns, the Providencia ranch, the Pomona county fair grounds and the famed Santa Anita race track. A portable handball court was standard studio equipment during the filming of Warner Bros.’ “Wine, Women and Horses,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. The court was ¢arried from location to location and was used daily by Barton MacLane and Dick Purcell to keep fit. Mat 203—20c ‘“‘LADY LUCK,’’ the beautiful thoroughbred mare has just won the race which puts her owners, Barton MacLane and Ann Sheridan, at left, back into the black side of the ledger, and is therefore the object of their affection, in ‘‘Wine, Women, and Horses,’’ now at the Strand. BEING BEAUTY IS HANDICAP STAR LEARNS Pretty Ann Sheridan of the movies is a good Indian — as proud of her redskin ancestry as Will Rogers was of his. She is likewise proud of her collateral descent from “Little Phil” Sheridan, of Civil War fame. This charming red-head from Texas, with her merry smile and penchant for practical jokes, certainly does not suggest the country school marm she once hoped to be. “I’m afraid teaching school was always a somewhat nebulous possibility,” she said laughingly one day at lunch at the Warner Bros. studio cafe, when she was filming “Wine, Women and Horses,” the racetrack thriller that opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. The flame-topped Ann was a happy, carefree student at college when she was induced to enter the beauty contest that brought her a movie contract. When Paramount announced its “Search for Beauty” contest three years ago, John Rosenfield, drama critic of the Dallas News, induced Ann to enter the competition. “A beauty contest winner usually has two strikes on her before she gets started,” she says. “A few, like Joan Blondell, Mary Astor, Corinne Griffith and Clara Bow, have won great success on the screen, but for these few are scores lost in the shuffle. When the future seemed blackest, when her pride seemed to be giving its dying kick, her real break came. She was offered a contract by Warner Bros. studio and the leading feminine role op _ posite Pat O’Brien in “The Great O’Malley.” It was a role that showed her as a lovable school teacher! Nothing could hold back Ann Sheridan then. She scored in “The Great O’Malley,” in “Black Legion” and “San Quentin.” STAR STRANDED TRIES HIKING Barton MacLane has resolved to never again pass up a hitch-hiker. That is, providing the hitch-hiker is not too much bigger than the 200-pound Wa ner Bros. player. One recent evening MacLane ran out of gas on the San Fernando Valley boulevard while enroute to Santa Anita, to film scenes for ‘‘Wine, Women and Horses,’’ the racing melodrama that comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Normally Bart is as pleasant and harmless appearing a fellow as one could hope to meet. For these scenes, however, he was made up to represent a man who had hoboed this way across country on a freight train. His clothes were tattered and soiled; his face sooty and covered with beard. Optimistically MacLane stood by the highway attempting to thumb a ride over the two miles to Santa Anita. Passing motorists, took one look at him and speeded their cars past him. Finally he had to give up and walk the distance to the location where he sent a studio driver to tow his car in and fill it with gas. MAGPIES HALT MOVIE MAKING Angry magpies swooped down on the location of “Wine, Women, and Horses” in the Santa Monica mountains. The camera it seems had been set up in a tree which housed some of their nests. Not until whole lunch boxes had been thrown to them did they quiet down sufficiently for the “take.” Page Three