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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
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1 M - k ' FROM THE STUDIOS W-
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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