WANTED FILM CAREER AND GOT IT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1938, Page 11

WANTED FILM CAREER AND GOT IT

HANDSOME ENGINEER MADE A DECISION. Randolph Scott does not hold with tradition. He says that tradition is all right in its place, but there is no sense in going out of your way to adjust your life to it. He is the first to tell you that no Hollywood talent scout picked him out of a crowd, or handed him a screen chance amid a humdrum workaday existence. Rather than wait in vain for this legendary form of recognition to ; single him out, Scott decided on a screen career and went io Hollywood to get it. “I was a young fellow, trying to pretend I was an administrative engineer—whatever that is—when I realised that I really wanted to be in the movies,” says Scott, in his soft Virginian accent. ‘‘So I packed up a bag, left my home in Orange, Virginia, and went to Hollywood with the express purpose of getting in pictures. After I got there, I found the best way to get into pictures was to get on the stage, so I went over to the Pasadena Community Playhouse and hounded them until they would consider giving be. a part. One part led to another, and another led to an agent—and here I am!” The “here” refers to Scott’s current role as the leading man in Shirley Temple’s newest starring' picture, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

The rapier Errol Flynn uses in his swashbuckling role in “The Prince and the Pauper,” is a family heirloom, sent from England, and supposedly packed, at one time, by an Irish adventurer. The latter was a several-times-great uncle of the actor, according to family records. The rapier had lost most of its temper through age, so it was retempered at the studio, since Flynn had to fight a movie duel with it.

“PRINCE AND THE PAUPER.” FAMOUS MARK TWAIN STORY. According to Mark Twain, the late great novelist and humorist, his story, “The Prince and the Pauper,” is one of those things that “might have happened.” It is the tale of two boy babies born in London at the same moment in the 16th century—one being Prince Edward, heir to the Throne; the other being Tom Canty, brat of a ruffian and thief. And Twain had them resemble each other identically—meet —change clothes—get their childish lives all mixed up. It was a great novel. It became a great stage play. Novy it has reached its top heights as a moyie, which comes to the Regent Theatre next week, because at last the perfect players to fit the title roles have been found in Billy and Bobby Maiich. They’re a pair of what science calls' “identical twins.” Billy 'and Bobby Mauch, whom you may have heard on the radio within the past couple of years. They’re so much alike that even their own mother can’t tell them apart, except for one little thing. One of them is left-handed. In the movie Billy plays the Pauper, Bobby is the Prince. This is Bobby’s screen debut. Billy played Anthony Adverse as a child in the picture of

that name; later he was Penrod in “Penrod and Sam.” Never did stage or screen have such a pair of twins before. Usually one boy (or ' girl) played both parts, with trick manipulation. But here is the ideal set-up. Errol Flynn—of “Green Light,” “Captain Blood” and “Charge of the Light Brigade” fame—is starred with the youngsters. In the cast also are such players as Claude Rains, Henry Stephenson, Barton Mac Lane, Alan Hale, Eric Portman. Montagu Love, Phyllis Barry, Halliwell Hobbes, and a score or more of the same rating.

Eric Portman, recently recruited from the London stage for pictures, says his biggest difficulty in becoming used to Hollywood is the difference in food. "Everything seems so sweet io the taste,” he says, "but I'm getting accustomed to it.”

ARMY OF SONGSMITHS DID “REBECCA” TUNES. Ordinarily, only one pair of songwriters is assigned to a motion picture production. Two pairs make it a special production. And three pairs become news! Shirley Temple’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" her latest 20th Century-Fox picture, has three pairs, plus! The three pairs are Mack Gordon and Harry Revel, who wrote "An Old Straw Hat;" Lew Pollack and Sidney D. Mitchell, who contributed “Happy Ending.” “Alone With You” and “Crackly Grain Flakes;” and Sa-, mud Pokrass and Jack Yellen who wrote “Come and Get Your Happiness" fdr the picture. The plus is Raymond Scott and his Quintet, whose famous novelty number, “Toy Trumpet," has been versified by Pollack and Mitchel], and will be sung by Shirley in the picture while the Quintet plays. FRANK MORGAN IN LAUGH CAST. Genial, laughable Frank Morgan -of the quivering eyebrow and uncertain mein, is lifted to top billing in “Beg, Borrow or Steal,” hilarious feature comedy which opens at the Regent Theatre next week. Heading a cast of Hollywood’s best comedians, Morgan shares prominence with Florence Rice and John Beal, while in the cast are such comedians as Reginald Denny, George Givot, E. E. Clive, Herman Bing and Erik Rhodes. “Beg, Borrow or Steal” is described as a mad comedy in the vein of “My Man ■ Godfrey” and “Libelled Lady,” in which unabridged nonsense reign supreme and Morgan is complete master of the humorous situation. Morgan plays a bunko-steerer in Paris who t promotes a chateau on the Riviera to carry out a bluff made to his American family and to provide rich surroundings for his daughter’s wedding. JUNE MAKES DEBUT! Nineteen-year-old June Johnson, making her film debut in a light comedy role in ’’Double Danger,” a State attraction next week, is so tiny that she had to stand on a four-inch thick plank for close-ups with Preston Foster who is six feet 2 inches tall. June is slightly under five feet. Miss Johnson is the daughter of Chick Johnson of the noted comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, and made her first stage appearance when she was carried on as a “prop” by her father when she was five weeks old. She was reared “on the road,” had trunks for cradles and dressing rooms for playrooms. After having appeared in two New York musicals. Miss Johnson is starting out on a film career “on her own.”