The Year Was 1938 – May 23rd

Roy Disney in 1938

• Roy Disney returned to NY from a 2 month trip to Europe where he set distribution for ‘Snow White.’ While in England he acquired the Tenniel illustrations on Cinderella which Walt will use for his next animated film. [It would take awhile for Walt to get around to this feature].
• Former US Secret Service head William H Moran to begin work today with writer Albert De Mond on a series to be based on his stories. [De Mond may have been reassigned for he does not show in the credits for the three Secret Service films in 1939]. (See May 16^th).
• Warner Brothers announces a sequel to the highly successful ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood.’ And they are targeting next spring for its release. They even have a script, an original by Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I Miller, entitled ‘Sir Robin of Locksley.’ Flynn and DeHavilland are tapped to repeat their roles. [Another idea that did not see the light of an arc light, despite this being a natural, and sure bet. Raine and Miller were behind the original. Raine kept busy in 1939 with four titles, including ‘The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.’ Miller met disappointment when a script he’d completed was given to someone else to do over. He left WB].
• The casting of Jane Clayton (Jan) in the latest Hopalong Cassidy film (‘The Return of the Fox’) at Paramount has been announced. The Miss Southwest from Tularosa, New Mexico already knows how to ride. Her father owns a 100,000 acre ranch there. She and Hoppy’s sidekick Lucky, Russell Hayden, plan to marry soon. [Come time to release the film, its title changed to ‘In Old Mexico.’ You might recognize her as Tommy Rettig’s mother from the early episodes of the TV series Lassie].
• Per Ed Sullivan, Katharine Hepburn is headed for New York, and opines that it is probably on Howard Hughes’ plane. (See May 11^th and May 18^th).
• Director Mervyn LeRoy in talking about his future film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ promises to have “cartoon tricks” in it, like trees talking to one another. [One of the biggies for 1939].

STARTING PRODUCTION

• ‘Paris Honeymoon,’ starts shooting at Paramount – director Frank Tuttle, starring Bing Crosby, Franciska Gaal, Shirley Ross and Akim Tamiroff.
• Arthur Lubin starts production at Universal today on ‘State Prison,’ starring Barton MacLane and Glenda Farrell.  [The title was changed upon release to the more actionable ‘Prison Break.’] This same day MacLane and Farrell struck a deal with WB to reclaim the roles they played prior in the Torchy Blane series. [Paul Kelly and Lola Lane took the roles in the fifth installment, but were not well received by the fans, hence the return of the original pair to the cop and reporter duo].

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The Year Was 1938 – May 22nd

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights

• Laurence Olivier turned 31 today. He was hard at work on the stage in England. He had made a couple of films in Hollywood, beginning at RKO in 1931, and again in 1933 for ‘Queen Christina’ opposite Greta Garbo. On that film he was replaced after two weeks when he was judged unsuitable for the role. Now, Sam Goldwyn was about to tempt him away from the stage and England with the promise of $50,000 and the role of Heathcliff in his production of ‘Wuthering Heights.’ One of the big films of 1939.
• MGM had the Marx Brothers and 20^th Century Fox the Ritz Brothers. Harry Ritz, one third of the Ritz Brothers comedy act, also turned 31 today – just two days after the release of their film ‘Kentucky Moonshine’ from 20^th Century Fox. He would be in front of the cameras soon in a Damon Runyon story ‘Straight, Place, and Show.’ The year 1939 would be up and down for them – on a high, comedy relief in the Don Ameche version of  ‘The Three Musketeers’ – and a low in ‘The Gorilla’ with Bela Lugosi. [Peter Lorre refused to play the Lugosi part; and the Ritz Brothers objected also but could not refuse to play without facing a law suit].
• Also sharing a birthday with these two was Alla Navimova (see May 19^th), who was born in Yalta (Crimea, then a part of the Russian Empire). She was just turning 59. The year 1938 found her back in LA after an illness cut short her return to the stage in NY. She took up residence in Villa 24 at The Garden of Allah. Ironically she had owned this former property once called Hayvenhurst. After she acquired it in 1919 with the profits from her successful silent film career, she named it after herself, calling it the Garden of Alla. When hard times came along she built 25 villas on its 2.5 acre plot and ran it as a hotel beginning in 1927. Over the years there were many famous celebrities that called it home – F Scott Fitzgerald, Greta Garbo, Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, to name a few.

The Year Was 1938 – May 13th

• ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ opens – a WB release, directed by Michael Curtiz, with Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHaviland, Basil Rathbone, Alan Hale. Also opening – ‘Vivacious Lady’ from RKO – George Stevens directing with Ginger Rogers and James Stewart.
• The WB publicity department to promote their Robin Hood film planted nearly 4,000 arrows in the lawns of local residents (Hollywood and LA). Particular attention was paid to the lawns of local newsmen, reviewers and columnists.
• Jackie Coogan faces off with his Mom and stepfather over the money he claimed was from his earnings as a child star. He claimed his earnings totalled 4 million, his mother counters that it was only 1.5 million, of which only $500,000 remains. They further claim that he had no rights to any of it before he became of age, and in addition had no claim to anything his father had bequeathed after the auto crash that ended his life. Jackie does not accept their answer and vows to press on in court.
• Director George Stevens is reported to be headed for Mexico to look for a location where an Indian (make that East Indian) village could be built. RKO is budgeting $800,000 to built it. But then again there is concern that Mexican President Cardenas could confiscate the site. [This would be for ‘Gunga Din.’ Stevens ended up going elsewhere].
• At RKO writers Ben Hecht and Charlie MacArthur have turned in the first draft for ‘Gunga Din.’ They solved the problem of turning a poem into a film by borrowing from their successful play and film ‘The Front Page.’ They transferred the story element in which the newspaper editor is trying to retain the services of his reporter who wants to quit – over to a military setting. In this instance a soldier who wants to return to civilian life has his fellow sargeants plotting to keep him in harness.

Swashbuckler

The long drawn out rasp of metal on metal accompanied the image of the sword being drawn from its scabbard. So began Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers. Throughout the title sequence a series of stop action multiple images of two figures locked in combat beautifully set the tone for the next hour and an half.

I was standing on the stairs of one of the exits, checking something behind the screen, when a customer who had recently entered came bounding up these stairs to bump the exit door open and let his pals in. I stepped forward and told the “doorman” that he could join his friends outside. Too bad, they missed out on what was going to happen next.

My friend Dave liked the film too. And it may have been the reason behind our seeking out a fencing club to join. We found one that met in the community center in the Green Lake area north of Seattle.

As for all beginners, there was no jumping into things the first day. Nor the second. Nor any time soon. Basics had to be learned first. How to stand. How to move. Forward and back. The stance at first was awkward, and self-conscious, but as you began to move, it became the most natural thing in the world. Your favored foot was pointed forward and your other heel in line with the front one and pointed at the perpendicular. And you sat into a crouch, with both knees bent, and with your weight balanced over the rear or anchor leg. The lower half of your body was changed into a giant spring, so it was explained. And you felt it, especially in rapid movement.

Then practice, practice, practice. Lunge and recover, lunge and recover. And then we were taught how to hold the foil. (Dave preferred the pistol grip; I preferred the regular). Lectures followed on the geometry of fencing. Everything comes down to two points: the point of your foil and that of your opponent, your line of attack or parrying of his.

I kept waiting for a reference to The Three Musketeers, but was surprised when the instructor mentioned a sequence from another film instead. He was demonstrating the balestra – a movement used to close distance quickly between yourself and an opponent. It is a fast hop, followed by a lunge at the other fencer. This was a movement that Basil Rathbone employed against Errol Flynn in the Adventures of Robin Hood. I remembered seeing it, but it was all so fast – a blur really – that it took this extra knowledge of what the move was to understand what had taken place.

[Actually at the time I was more fixed on another realization. When I saw Robin Hood – at the Harvard Exit, of course – it was double billed with another Flynn flick, The Adventures of Don Juan. Watching them back to back you notice things. In Robin Hood, I saw a scene in which a drawbridge drops down and a number of riders charge out in pursuit. The exact same footage was repeated in Don Juan. It was my introduction to library footage. Say the director or the editor needs to fill a gap in his story, rather than setting up everything for another shoot, you just see what you can use from what the studio has in its “library.” In this instance the makers of Don Juan (1948) went back and borrowed this footage from the older film (1938).]

The Three Musketeers had a long run at the UA Cinemas, from the end of March 1974 through to September. And I was able to check in often and observe the swordplay. About the time it left, I was also leaving the UA (that story later) and moving on to the 5^th Avenue Theater in Seattle. And you bet I was back when the sequel – The Four Musketeers – opened the next year. And I kept on fencing, even when we moved down to the Portland OR area. But that’s another story for another day – so stay tuned and Watch This Space.