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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1936)
) w S. ? ' STY K vj Hollywood's Fencing Masters Work Overtime Teaching Actors Ancient Art They're shouting "En guards" all over Hollywood these days, what with the sudden swing to costume films ana the demand (or swordsmen who can handle a rapier without sticking themselves. Frank Cavens Is shown in the upper left photo giving a lesson to Dasil Rathbone, who, as Tybalt In Romeo and Juliet, has plenty of fencing to do. Center photo shows Claude Rains as Don Luis In Anthony Adverse, going Into his stance. Right, Rathbone in Captain Blood, the film that started all the stabbing. Clang of Rapiers Resounds In Filmdom As Movies Hark Back To Days of Duels Errol Flynn's Sword Waving in "Captain Blood" Started Renaissance of Villain-Puncturing Sjories That Have Hollywood Fencing Masters in a Flurry By Donna Risher THE gangsters are leaving Hollywood, and the I rat-tat-tat of their machine guns is being re placed by the swish of swords. On every studio lot, prop men are filling their boxes with ra piers and on every stage fencing masters in leather jerkins are teaching actors, who find it dif ficult to identify one end of the sword from the other, how to thrust and parry and how to whack away at each other with abandon. Dueling has come back to the films and the Hays Purity Squad is tickled to death. Somehow it seems more noble, or at least more romantic (in the films), to be killed by the sword than the machine gun. No doubt, it was "Captain Blood" that brought about the renaissance of the duel. The sight of Errol Flynn, in his skin-tight pants, and Basil Rathbone thrusting at each other with 5v 1 ' U Donna Risher rapiers revived great interest in the ancient sport. Immediately, along came "Anthony Adverse," with Claude Rains cutting holes in Louis Hay ward's pants, and that, it seems, is but the be ginning of what Frank McHugh calls "these doodles." For "Romeo and Juliet" is chock full of the sword-swishing battles. So is "Under Two Flags." In the former, the boys run their swords through each other with abandon. John Barrymore, the noblest duelist of them all, succumbs from a deadly thrust in the streets of Verona. Then Leslie Howard, as Romeo, steps out and with his shining rapier avenges the death of his friend, John, by killing Basil Rathbone. And just to make it stick no pun Romeo, for the third time, rolls back his lace cuffs and goes after Ralph Forbes, pinning him flat against a wall You and Shakespeare need not be surprised to see a whole sound stage turned into a battlefield, for when Hollywood takes up dueling, it does so in a big way. To Fred Cavens, graduate of a famous Belgian i : ;:: Vv,: tew- AJ' . 1 M - k ' FROM THE STUDIOS W- : .AAV rvaT- ' . . ALONG JtHE BOULEVARD fencing school, goes the job of teaching these ac tors how to handle their swords intelligently. THIS new crop of players is not like the bunch ' back in the old days when Douglas Fairbanks was carving his initials on the shirt fronts of his opponents with his trusty sword. Today, the mod ern boys must be taught to know the hilt from the blade, and Cavens is a busy as well as a patient man. He is encouraged in his job, however, by the knowledge that Shakespeare himself would have welcomed the movies as a medium for his sword fights. "Th;; Old Fellow often mourned," said Cavens, "the limitations of his own stage to show his bat tles. I only wish he could come back and visit Hollywood today to see these young, brave men battle." TWO years ago, two aspiring actors were living together on little or nothing a week. Fame came to one Robert Taylor but the other, Don Milo, remained in the small, bare room the two had shared together. Taylor, with his new found fame, could not forget. As soon as he became impor tant with his company, he got Milo a job as his stand-in. Then he proceeded to teach his friend privately, all the things about acting he himself was being taught Robert Taylor On The Set . with Gail Gardner Hollywood. DEAR FOLKS: I don't know whether you are a Spencer Tracy fan or not, but I do know he is one of the most interesting actors to watch while working. Spence is always in a good humor, and he doesn't care a hang how many visitors are on his set while he goes through his scenes. The other day he and Sylvia Sidney were mak ing a sequence in their latest picture, tentatively called "Mob Rule." The scene opened with Ed ward Ellis playing the sheriff. "Have some peanuts?" the sheriff asked, shov ing a bowl of salted nuts across his desk. Tracy leaned forward and took a handful, popping them into his mouth with quick flips of his hand. "Now you're talking my language, sheriff. I've" The sentence ended in an explosive cough. Tracy's face reddened as he spat out the chewed remains. "Cut," ordered Director Frits Lang. "Bring this peanut addict a glass of water, somebody." Tracy, coughing violently, pushed the bowl of nuts hnek across the table with a gesture of disgust. He looked over at the sidelines and said. "This guy" indicating Director Lang "is trying to kill me with salted peanuts a new variety of mur der. So far, ,1've had to eat 14 bags in succession." "Ah, no, Spence," spoke up a prop man with an injured look. "Only 13." The glass of water arrived. Spence drank eagerly. "Once more," Lang called. Tracy again went made camp for the night, Rainbow was supposed to wander off into a grove to find a small rabbit in a trap. As the dog freed it, he was supposed to give chase. THE scene was rehearsed three times, up to the point where the rabbit was released. Rainbow gave every evidence of being eager for the chase. Shooting began. Everything went fine up to the release of the rabbit, which unexpectedly bounced high into the air and landed almost on top of Rainbow. That worthy was so startled, so panic-stricken, that she fled instead of the rabbit. Everybody watching the scene doubled up with laughter. Cordially yours, GAIL. 1 "Too Many Parents" "I tried everything for constipation then I found the 3-mlnute way!" Keeling logv ' lift tirctl easily? Then say to yourself as millions of other people have Mviil : "I won't put tip a day longer with the trouMca that come from constipation. I'll take three minute off lomghl ami for those three minutes I II rhrw KKl'.N-A MINT, the ilrlioiom rhewing-irum Uxntive." Not like jolting "sll-st-once" rathiu-tiiw, KKKN-A MINT works pleasantly nd eooilv. There sre no eramping pains, no unpleiwant after-effects, nothing to cause a habit. Three minutes of your time is s small price to pay (or such easy relief from constipation. And it's the ideal laxative, for the entire family. KEKN'-.vMINT the three-minute wav is only Ific anil V5c a Don THREE MINUTES OF CHEWING MAKE THE DIFFERENCE Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney through the business of eating peanuts with a relish. This time it was a "take" and Director Lang so notified his cameramen, but to Tracy he said: "Sorry, Sence, you didn't put enough gusto in that. Do it over." Tracy gave a long, agonizing look. Again he gobbled up the peanuts. "Sorry," called I-ang. "You'll have to do that over. I just don't like the way you flip 'em." Whereupon, Sylvia came to Sponccr's rescue. She signaled him that the scene had already been "printed," and that Director Lang was kidding him. Tracy walked out of camera range. "I'll get even," he grinned at Lang. "This picture isn't fin ished yet by a long shot." He then walked over and offered Rainbow, his dog. a helping of the nuts. And while Rainbow was feasting, the cast had a good laugh over the dog. who the day before hud contributed the big gest laugh since the shooting began. IT HAPPENED on location. I Tracy and his dog were supposed to be travel ing in an old roadster across country. When Tracy Ji fmc ill S-CS .vjp :rAi - 1 astral Oh-oo-oo-oo, It's stopped! And Is Blllie Lee surprised? His new watch must have some connection with his big shoe, but we haven't yet figured It out. Gillie Is one of the start In "Too Many Parents." NOT long ago Taylor's influ ence got Milo a job in an im portant picture. Not content with his Boy Scout deed, young Taylor then declared a holiday and took his friend with him on a vacation to Soboba Hot Springs, because he felt his pal of coffee-and-doughnut days had earned a place in the sun. GRACE BRADLEY has asked for the famous dressing room on the Paramount lot which used to be occupied by Pola Negri, Clara Bow and faylvia Sidney. It is the only dressing room complete with kitchen facilities. Grace says she is going to keep asking until she gets it, as she longs to make her own soup for lunch. THE question, "What ever be came of Vilma Banky?" wa3 answered recently by the former Viennese star herself. She vis ited a set on which her husband, Grace Bradley Kod La Roque, was appearing in a scene. La Roque then revealed he and Vilma would soon celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. "We had a great big church wedding and there ,was a lot written and said about it," said La Roque. "We were also aware of what the Hollv- lasUngP"SSlm'StS Sa'd abUt SUh marriaSe not "These last ten years," cut in Vilma, "have been the happiest of my life. That ought to answer." Whereupon, Herbert Marshall ordered a cake on the set and the cast took part in another cele bration. ... MISCELLANY: Astrid Allwyn lunching at the Cafe de son, the dancer, as good as new after his operation, appearing on the boulevard in new Easter togs . . Shirley Temple running to capture her sheepdog, which scampered out of the studio grounds . . . Patsy Kelly, daugh ter of a New York cop', walking on air because shn hoo k- signed by Hal Roach to do fea- A,trid A"Wn ture productions as a comedienne ir.jtead of her usual screen shorts. -ROVER JONES, rotund, bald-pated "Puck" of nTn. w llnVvritcrS- haa Ho":ood bihng its na Is. He has threatened to publish the movie cap ital s oddest newspaper-the impish tabloid Jones has been circulating among film folks for the last four years. He calls it the "Wheeze." and prints it himself friends ' 11 rirculatcd onl' anng Jones' s PAGE FOUR B
