Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 February 1938 — Page 12
: In New Film
ra
—
i AGE Taylor Has He-Man Role
'A’Yank at Oxford’ Gives Star Chance to Win ‘Male Fans.
By JAMES THRASHER ~ From now on, when you call Robert Taylor “pretty boy” you'd better smile. Because Ruby Robert has gone tough and two-fisted and athletic in “A Yank at Oxford.” , If-you feel like changing your tune concerning M-G-M’s matinee idol after seeing this picture opening at Loew’s today, you will be doing just what the studio hoped for—provided, of course, you are a man. Mr. Taylor's bosses had no fear about his feminine support, but they saw no reason why the reluctant male would have to be dragged to every Taylor picture. So they packed him off to England to make a different sort of picture which called for him to show off a bit of athletic prowess get mussed up by the boys, and display a Dizzy Dean personality.
Plot Not Too Fresh
Well, Mr. Taylor carries on, ahd admirably, but there is some little struggle with the story. First of all, the plot's chief concern is with the obstreperous American who goes to England and there comes in conflict with the older, more staid and dignified British culture. This is a premise which, I'm sure, has been worked over consistently since the Puritans first let down the bars on play-acting. There is also a secondary theme which will be recognized as the «william Haines” plot, if you can remember back to the days when that interior decorator was one of the most exasperating of screen characters. This plot always gave you @& young man addicted to - boasting, who usually had the stuff to back up his big talk. So it is with Mr. Taylor, who wins a Rhodes Scholarship and takes his ego and athletic ability from a small Middle Western college to Oxford.
And He Makes Good
There he falls in love with a lovely coed (Maureen O'Sullivan), earns the enmity of her brother by some rather unsportsmanlike tactics, and romps away with the 440, the half mile and anchor post on the relay team. About the time he’s gotten himself pretty cordially hated, the young American atones by a deed of selfless bravery. He saves his deadly enemy and prospective brother-in-law from a pretty mess by snaking the “college widow” out of the young man’s. room and into his own. There he is discovered by ,the authorities ,and “sent down” (kicked out, to us Americans). Comes now the American’s father in the person of Lionel Barrymore. He and Miss O'Sullivan fix things up by getting the “college widow” to put the blame on a willing recipjent. He is a timid student who has been trying to get “sent down” for years, so that he may inherit some money from a rakish uncle who met the same fate years before.
Star in Good Form
Unless you are one of the star’s confirmed fans, you may enjoy most of the performance of Griffith Jones, young English actor who played opposite Elisabeth Bergner in “Escape Me Never.” Vivien Leigh is splendid as the feminine “menace,” and there are excellent supporting parts by Edmund Gwenn, C. V. France and Edward Rigby. To this layman, Mr. Taylor seems to display good form as he whizzes around the track or strokes the crew to victory over Cambridge. He also puts up a corking fight with Mr. Jones. 0 In fact, it wouldn't surprise me a
lot if they slipped . Taylor into a leopard skin and let him pick up Tazan where Lou hrig left off.
115 HAIR STYLISTS WORKING ON FILM
rm —————
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P)— Makeup Artists Local Union No. 706 rejoiced today, what with 115 hair stylists being paid $2000 a day for one picture alone. The picture, “Marie Antoinette,” now being filmed by Metro-Gold-wyn Studio, set an unofiicial record for hair. The army of hair stylists is needed to arrange the powdered coiffures and wigs plus the hundreds of beards for the male players in the old French setting. The union, after supplying the huge order, plus 12 “body makeup” girls and 25 makeup artists, announced that only 50 of its members were out of work.
GUNS SCARE VILLAIN J. Carrol Naish, famed for his villain portrayals, currently featured in “Tip-Off Girl” is afraid
of firearms and has never owned a gun of any description.
Tonight Only NORTH PARK
~, MINSTRELS MURAT THEATRE
8:00 P. M. Admission 50c
g [17] A273 okt) Wl
‘BARN DANCE BAND TO PLAY
Here we have the Coon Creek
will be with WLW’s Renfro Valley Barn Dance
Girls Band, who performances.
troupe appearing at the Murat March 6 for four
Quartet Has Debut Here
First String Concert Wins Audience's Praise.
A logical complement to our new
interest in chamber music. The influx of new blood encouraged in the public a degire to hear works which, as “living” music, this community seldom is granted. And this desire found musicians capable and eager to perform them. ® . Consequently we have the Indianapolis Symphony Quartet. Its players are Boris Schwarz, the orchestra’s concertmaster; Avram Weiss, who shares the first violin desk with Mr. Schwarz, and Jules Salkin and Paulo Gruppe, who head the viola and cello sections. This group has been heard briefly before. But yesterday they played the first of three subscription concerts of an “intimate” nature. Their performance was at Dr. G. H. A. Clowes’ residence in Golden Hill, and they. were heard by an attentive and enthusiastic audience."
Brahms, Schubert Played
Brahms’ Quartet, Opus 51 No, 1, and the Schubert “Death and the Maiden” Quartet in D Minor comprised the opening program. It was a pleasure to hear these works,
and a greater pleasure to know, as Cap'n Henry has said, that this is “only the beginnin’, folks.” It would be a most captious listener indeed who would demand a finished performance from So0-young a group. For string quartet playing is, in many ways, the most exacting form of musical expression. It demands a rapport not; to be achieved hurriedly, especially by musicians busy with orchestra playing, teaching and other activities.
Next Concert March 17
So any rough spots were decidedly outweighed by the| feeling that we have at lest a resident quartet, composed of capable musicians who can be counted on to give us increasingly satisfying music. The next concert is scheduled for March 17 at Miss Lucy Taggart’s nome. It is to be hoped that by next year there may be a more extended series, at a larger and more accessible location and at a more moderate tariff. Meanwhile there is cause for rejoicing in this promising debut. J.T.
MINSTREL SHOW * SET FOR TONIGHT
The annual production of the North Side Minstrels is to take place tonight at the Murat. The show is sponsored by the Help, Aid and Assist Club of North Park Masonic Lodge, and was directed by C. Arthur Landes. There are to be specialty numbers by the Stockman Big Apple Dancers, Merle and Martha Metcalf, LaVerne Lamb and others. :
symphony orchestra is a growing |
IN NEW YORK— GEORGE ROSS
Theater Lures 'Angels' for Many Reasons, With No Collateral of Any Kind.
NEW YORK, Feb. 25.—The greatest show on earth is show business itself. It has the most fabulous cast, the most exciting situations, the glamour of the greatest financial risk in all modern industry.
ture, there is some degree of certainty as to the financial and fince outcome. In show business there is none. The amateur producer, provided he has a good luck charm around his neck, can select a hit as often as the most seasoned producer: Yet its romantic and fiscal, lure is such that it has made bedfellows of such vastly dissimilar characters as Waxey : Gordon, the beer racketeer, and the mighty Rockefeller Clan. The astute Rockefellers put a crimp in the world’s largest bankroll when they produced “The Great Waltz” and “Virginia,” both flops although ballyhooed at all Rockefeller gas stations (an advertising expedient not available to any other producer). Yet Alex Yokel, on the shoestring of $7500, ran “Three Men On a Horse” up to a quarter million dollars. Producers reap profits but almost never put up their own money. So difficult is it to forecast a hit that all but a few producers range from penthouse apartments to the Mills Hotel. They get their financing . from “angels” — backers —an amazing motley of ladies and gentlemen whose only trait in common is an abundance of gold.
A few enter the angel class because they deem the rewards worthy of the risk. A few march into the theater waving banners of good faith; others because of sentiment; a few due to real love for the theater; and a great many more because love moves in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. Angels Rush In—
Rowland Stebbins made a fortune in Wall Street and decided to put some of it into “Green Pastures.” Accustomed to a conservative 4 per cent yield, he blinked at the enormous returns and abandoned Wall Street.
Mrs. Cyrus McCormick of the harvester millions believes in the message of “Many Mansions,” just as Edgar Davis believed in the immortality theme of “The Ladder” into which he poured more than $1,000,000. Franchot Tone of Hollywood helps support the Group Theater because it gave him his start, and Fredric March dropped $65,000 in “Yr. Obedient Husband” because he loves the theater. Wazxey Gordon produced “Strike Me Pink” because it helped to evaporate some of those embarrass-
XL : TODAY AND - TOMORROW! “HIGH, WIDE AND IRENE DUNNE “HIGH, WIDE A Plus! “ROARING TIMBER” Jack Holt
WITH METRO-GOL MAUREEN
on
O’SULLIVAN : LEIGH LIONEL BARRYMORE
Balcony 30c After 6
ORIOUSLY
v, thrill to the romantic BE adventures of this twefisted Yank Athlete Abroad!
A YANK 2 OXFORD
DWYN-MAYER CAST VIVIEN
[LINCOLN
[TALBOTT STAG
rae THE | GARRICK
In almost any other business ven-®=
ing profits the Government was beginning fo investigate. Lewis Luckenback, the shipping magnate, gave Alice Alexander, a
22-year-old showgirl whose hair is |
blond and whose eyes are blue, $190,000 to produce a musical. She dropped it all in “Right This Way.”
: ‘ Jock and Jumbo
Jock Whitney supplied Billy Rose with $250,000 to produce “Jumbo” because he thought the mighty mite could show a profit.
Joseph Verner Reed is another who loves the theater. He saw Maurice Evans as Napoleon and wrote him a letter asking whether he was interested in doing Shakespeare’s “Richard II.” That letter led to a $50,000 subsidy and a successful revival even though Reed
“The Curtain Falls,” published a few months before “Richard” was produced, that he was disillusioned with the theater and would have no more to do with it. The WPA through the Federal Theater project was the angel behind Orson Welles, really significant forces'in the motlern theater. He laid “Macbeth” in Haiti, toyed with lights in “Dr. Faustus” and finally left the Government employ to help found the Mercury Theater, which has attired “Julius Caesar” in the trappings of a Fascist dictator and put on the ribald “Shoemaker’s Holiday” that had Queen Elizabeth in stitches when it was first produced 338 years ago.
UNUSUAL LINGUIST
Charles Judels plays comedy foreigners in eight languages without actually being able to speak any of the tongues. A native of Holland, the only time he was called upon to portray a comedy Dutchman was for “Tovarich” and he was ill and unable to accept the role.
had publicly announced, in his book |
one of the
| “Rebecca of Sunnybrool
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now W
YoApolie for Third Week)
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(emi Pyle, Page 17) «Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” still first in the hearts of their countrymen, moved over to the Apollo today to begin their third Indian-
apolis week,
‘Kenneth Collins, Indiana manager,
said the picture, in its two weeks
at the Indiana, drew the ~most®—
patrons in years. He would like to keep it there, but announced that prior bookings forced its removal to a smaller house. g ; The Indiana has tracted to show the following pictures in the next few weeks: “Sally, Irene and Mary,” with the Indiana University coed, Marjorie Weaver, Alice Faye and Fred Allen; Shirley Temple in k Farm”; Simone Simon in “Josette”; “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” featuring Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper; «Dr. Rhythm,” with Bing Crosby and Beatrice Lillie; William Powell and the French star, Annabella, in her first American picture, “The
Baroness and the Butler,” and “Col- |:
lege Swing,” featuring Burns and Allen, Martha Raye and Ben Blue. Radio City Music Hall figures, available this week, show that “Snow White” grossed more than $500,000 during its five-week run, This is the first film to play a five-week engagement in the New York theater, and only 10 previous pictures have had a three-week run. eee
'SING SING' SOLD TO MOVIE STUDIO
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P.).— Warner Brothers Studio today announced purchase of Warden Lewis Lawes’ book “Sing Sing,” to be made into a motion picture. Humphrey Bogart will be the star. This is the third book by the warden to be made into a movie.
WHAT, WHEN, WHERE
APOLLO
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” first Disney feature-length animated color cartoon from the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, at 11:47, 1:43, 3:39, 5:35, 7:31 and 9:27.
CIRCLE
“Gold Is Where You Find It,” with ! George Brent, Olivia De Havilland, Claude Rains and Margaret Lindsay, at 11, 1:50, 4:35, 7:25 and 10:15. “Midnight Intruder,” with Louis Jayward and Barbara Read, at 12:40, 3:30, 6:20 and 9:10. .
CIVIC THEATER
“Dollars to Doughnuts,” a musical oe by Charles Gaynor, Curtain at
INDIANA
“The Big Broadcast of 1938.” with W. C. Fields, Martha Raye, Dorothy . Lamour, Ben Blue, Shep Fields an Kirsten Flagstad, at 11, 1:13, 3:27, 5:41, 7:55 and 10:09. “March of Time,” at 12:37, 2:51, 5:05, 7:19 and 9:33. :
LOEW'S
“A Yank at Oxford,” with Robert Taylor, Maureen O’Sullivan and Lionel, Barrymore, at 12:30, 3:40, 6:55 an ‘
Love Is a Headache,” with Franchot Tone and Gladys George, at 11:10, 2:20, 5:30 and 8:45.
LYRIC Art Jarrett and others on stage at 10:10. 3:50, 6:50 and 9:40. : “The Kid Comes Back,’ with Wayne Morris and June Travis, at 11:54, 2:34, 5:34, 8:24 and 10:45. OHIO “High, Wide and Handsome,’ with Irene Dunn. Also “Roaring Timber,” with Jack Holt. ALAMO “She Asked For It,” with William Gargan. Also “The Game That Kills,” with Charles Quigley. AMBASSADOR
“Manhattan Merry - Go - Round,” with ‘Ted Lewis. Also “Under Suspicion ”” with Jack Holt. :
AND HIS 16—Entertainers—16
Admission Tonight, 400
REASONABLE PRICES
Cocktail Hour 4 to 6
131 N. Pennsylvania St.
t . BUFFET
Finest Cocktails
and Lunches
Mildred Morgan, Mgr.
Dancer to Reply To Father's Suit
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P.).— Eleanore Whitney, the dancing film actress, will return to Hollywood today or tomorrow to answer her father’s suit to force her to support: him. : . Allen Whitney, the father, said he had only 72 cents. He asked that Miss Whitney be made to pay him $25 a week from her $500 weekly salary. : Telephoning to friends here from Chicago, en route West, Miss Whitney said she had “danced until my feet hurt” to earn her own living since she was 10 years old. She is 20 now.
WRITER ALLEGES ‘ALI BABA! PIRATED
Eddie Cantor and 20th CenturyFox studios were sued for $1,000,000 today over the comedian’s latest picture, “Ali Babar Goes to Town.” “Andreas F. Michael, writer and composer, filed the suit. He said the picture was pirated from his musical comedy which was submitted to the studio and rejected.
Cie
Romantic Singing Idol
Judge Huge Straight | Tommy Mack and
‘Excited, Who's Excited’ ‘Cappy Barra,
Harmonica Ensemble With Leon LaFell
"A knockout af a guy . in a knockout of a show!
of “Kid Galahad” and “Submarine D-1" fame
AT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD THEATER
SOUTH SIDE
ORIENTAL 1105 S. Meridian
Double Feature S re = | “DAMSEL IN DISTRESS” : “FIGHT FOR YOUR LADY”
East at Lincoln Double Feature James Ellison , NNAPOLIS SALUTE” “GUNS OF THE PECOS”
2203 Shelby Fi New Garfield buble Feature “DAMSEL IN DISTRESS” John Beal “BORDER CAFE”
- FOUNTAIN SQUARE
Double Feature Jack ‘Holt
BY G-MEN’ “ON AGAIN. OFF AGAIN” Laurel & Hardy Comedy .
SANDERS * mi fai BLACK ACES” “THAT'S MY STORY”
GR OVE Beech Grove
“THOROUG!
ey HBREDS DON'T CRY” Marsha Hunt “THUNDER TRAIL”
‘AV A L ON -& Churchman
ble Feature , Ann Sothern “THERE GOES THE GROOM” “FIGHTING DEPUTY”
GRANADA Double’ Feature “BIG TOWN GIRLY . Bob Burns “WELLS FARGO” _
NORTH SIDE
Talbott & “22nd. Double Feature E Katherine Hepburn ___ Gladys George “MADAME X" z ; 30th at Northwestern “Special: Featu Jonanite MacDonald sn Jones oth and Miinols ys STEN AT Be
rau gn MERGE
LE -
NORTH SIDE Stratford ‘ “DEAD “LAST OUTLA DREAM if “BOSH OF LONELY VALLEY" Illinois and 34th RITE crn” Gladys George “MADAME X”
19th & College ouble Feature Sylvia Sidney 9
» Hollywood Sows Fame ° 00 Jack Holt “TRAPPED BY G-ME “LIFE BEGINS WITH LOVE” T Central at Fall Creek ZARING Double Feature Wheeler & Woolsey . “ON AGAIN--OFF AGAIN” Jane Withers “45 FATHERS’ - . : “16th & Delaware CINEMA Double Feature ° . Robert Young ‘NAVY BLUE AND GOLD” ___ “IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD” ; “42nd and College UP TOWN Double Feature : Franchot Tone “BETWEEN ‘TWO WOMEN" STRE
BE' Kenny Baker “52ND
ST. CLAIR *"nesele Fe
ayne Double Featire Gladys George “MADAME X” _ EMERSON = oubiesaie ‘ “DANGER PATROL” =
TT TT TTT TT ran BE ! Fa
oXOURE A
!
‘E. 10th | “Double Feature |
EAST SIDE
PARKER 2030 E. 10th St.
Double Feature “ALCATRAZ ISLAND aan
Wm. Powell “DOUBLE WEDDING”
8155 E. 10th St. RIVOLI Thres Laugh ow 1—Wheeler & Woolsey “HIGH FLYERS” 2—John Boles: “She Married An Artist” 3—Laurel & Hardy “BEAU KS” Start: Sun.—Claudette Colbert “TOVARICH’ “THE LAST GANGSTER”
TACOM A 2442 E. Wash. St.
Double Keaturs es “FIGHT FOR YOUR LADY”
BR r ‘Romero “ARMORED CAR” TUXEDO 4020 E. New York Double Feature y Clark Gable “MANHATTAN MELODRAMA” “BORROWING TROUELE”
IRVIN 5507 E. Wash. St. Doubl¢ Feature ‘Tan Hunter , “FIFTY-SECOND STREET” , Franees Farmer “EBB TIDE” HAMILTON *beusic Feature Double Featnre Karen Morley “ON SUCH A NIGHT” Leslie Howard “STAND-IN” 6116 E. Wash. GOLDEN Jesheraiies “LADY. FOR A DAY" «TEX RIDES WITH THE BOY SCOUTS”
r 2702 W. 10th St. TAT Double’ Feature “LAW FOR TOMBSTONE" Joan
Blondell “STAND-IN”
W. Wash. & Belm Double Feature
WEST SIDE 3
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P)—|
Movie Sea Lion
Bites Trainer
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P.)— Milton Kerr, trainer of the movie sea lion “Madame Fifi,” wore one arm in bandages today, after a wild scene during the filming of the picture, “Goodbye Broadway.” Suddenly going on a rampage on a sound stage, the 400-pound sea lion chased Alice Brady and Charles Winninger, players, and Ray MecCarey, director, into a corner where they barricaded themselves behind a table top. Moree Herring, a script girl, climbed atop a pile of scenery. “Trainer Kerr came running and was bitten on one arm in
roping one of “Madame Fifis® flippers. = Li
TAX LIENS FACE 2 FILM ACTORS
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (U. P.)— The Government, ‘checking up on motion picture stars’ income, asked additional payments today. Liens were filed in Federal Court for $188 from Harry Carey and $2262 from Richard Dix, both for the. year 1936,
DIRECTED POWER SR.
W. S. Van Dyke II, who is recting. Tyrone Power in “Marie Antoinette,” once directed the star's father, Tyrone Power I, at the old Fine Arts Studio.
Ril
with -s GEORGE BRENT OLIVIA De HAVILLAND CLAUDE RAINS MARGARET LINDSAY
tlie.
NEXT WEEK
IS WHERE YOU
He led himself into a
MIDNIGHT INTRUDER
with LOUIS HAYWARD BARBARA READ
a
BUDDY ROGERS & BAND IN PERSON
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