Mail Order Bride (MGM) (1964)

BUDDY EBSEN BECAME “OVERNIGHT STAR’ AFTER 30 YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS! If you yearn for a career as an actor, it might be a good idea to become a dancer. That is the path to success followed by many of today’s male stars. ~ An outstanding example is Buddy Ebsen, currently starring with Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton in MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s “Mail Order Bride.” Ebsen started his career as a chorus boy in a Broadway musical. So did Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, George Murphy, James Cagney, Van Johnson and Clifton Webb. Some of them hung up their dancing shoes after making the switch to acting. Others combine dancing with drama. Ebsen claims he began dancing because he was hungry. “When you don’t have a job, you don’t have money and if you don’t have money, it is difficult to keep your stomach full,” he says. “I found I could dance my way to three meals a day.” Broadway, and eventually Hollywood, were impressed by Ebsen’s individual, stylized dancing. Within five years he became one of the top dancing stars on the New York stage and it was dancing that won him his first movie contract. “Do you still dance?” is the question most often asked of Ebsen today. “Yes, but—’ is the way he starts out his reply. “Yes, but the producers won't let me.” The tall, sturdily built actor, who looks no more like a dancer than Smokey the Bear, has been the star of television’s “Beverly Hillbillies” series for two seasons. “This series made me an ‘overnight star’ after 30 years in show business,” he laughs. In addition to his career as an actordancer, he is also an accomplished songwriter, night club performer and singer. Of these avocations, songwriting is his favorite. He has had 18 records on the music market, the most successful of which were “Wild Card,” “Behave Yourself” and “Be Sure You're Right and Then Go Ahead.” His first attempt at putting music to his lyrics occurred many years ago in Texas, when he was intrigued by the colloquial saying, “I’ll See You When the Roads Get Better.” That became the title of his first composition, which he sang in his vaudeville act. Later, a publisher became interested in recording the song but needed a number for the other side of the disk. Ebsen and his long time friend, Bonnie Lake, got together and turned out “Wild Card,” which was recorded by three major companies. When Ebsen lesrned that the RKO Studios were seeking a title song for the picture, ‘Behave Yourself,” he went to work, the result being his song of the same title. Three years ago, the actor and two Buddy Ebsen, hit of the **Beverly Hillbillies’? television show, now stars on the screen in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s action-filled outdoor drama, **Mail Order Bride,” with Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton and Warren Oates. Ebsen plays an ex-lawman in the new picture, filmed in the High Sierras in Panavision and color. Mail Order Bride Still 1813-36 Mat 1-C other songwriters formed their own company, Musicland. Ebsen’s partners are Fess Parker, his co-star in the “Davy Crockett” television series, and Paul Mzson Howard, composer of such hits as “Shrimp Boats” and “GandyDancers Ball.” To top it all, Ebsen is one of Walt Disney’s biggest recording stars. He has recorded five albums and 14 single disks for the Disney label. Today Buddy Ebsen is a dramatic actor, dancer, night club star and songwriter. But dancing was his stepping stone to success, UNIT DWARFS TOWN When a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer location unit arrived at Kennedy’s Meadows, Calif., for the filming of outdoor sequences of “Mail Order Bride,” they discovered that the unit outnumbered the population of the community. The stars, headed by Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates and Barbara Luna, together with Producer Richard E. Lyons, Director 3urt Kennedy and the crew of technicians, numbered 28 persons. The population of Kennedy’s Meadows totals—fourteen ! Keir Dullea and Buddy Ebsen ride the High Sierra country in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s ‘‘Mail Order Bride.”? Ebsen plays an ex-lawman who attempts to tame young hellion Dullea by forcing him to marry Lois Nettleton, a girl he has found through a mail order catalogue. Warren Oates co-stars in the comedydrama of the early West, filmed in Panavisionand color. Still 1813-7 10 Mail Order Bride Mat 2-B BUDDY EBSEN, KEIR DULLEA, LOIS NETTLETON, WARREN OATES STAR IN MGM'S WESTERN COMEDY-DRAMA, “MAIL ORDER BRIDE” In America’s frontier days, the mail order catalogue was the source of supply for almost everything, and in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer outdoor drama, “Mail Order Bride,” this convenient catalogue furnishes a wife for a recalcitrant young hellion. The situation is brought about when ex-lawman Buddy Ebsen rides into the 1890 frontier town of Congress, Montana, to tame Keir Dullea, son of his dead friend. If he refuses to marry Lois Nettleton, a young widow with a small boy, who has answered Ebsen’s advertisement and whom he hopes will prove a settling influence on Dullea, the latter will lose his father’s ranch to which Ebsen holds the deed. Dullea therefore marries Miss Nettleton, but it is a marriage in name only, She helps him rebuild his ramshackle ranch house and gradually an affinity grows between them and they pose as a happily wed couple, although Dullea is only waiting for a way to get rid of Ebsen before putting an end to his mock marriage. It is when Dullea’s double-crossing, cattle-thieving friend, Warren Oates, burns down the ranch house in a blaze which comes close to taking the life of Miss Nettleton’s young son that the story takes a tensely dramatic turn. Burt Kennedy, who wrote the screen play for “Mail Order Bride” and also directed the Richard E. Lyons production, has kept the action at a fast pace, with plenty of excitement engendered in such scenes as a free-for-all, chairflying saloon brawl and the climactic gun showdown between Ebsen and Oates. Nor has he overlooked opportunity for homespun humor and period atmosphere, particularly in a colorful old-fashioned dancing party celebrating the wedding and in a mass river baptism sequence in which an organist pounds out hymns on an organ mounted on a wagon in the middle of the stream. All of the film’s settings and backgrounds are strikingly beautiful since “Mail Order Bride” was filmed in Panavision and color on locations in the magnificent High Sierras of northern California. Buddy Ebsen, hit of the “Beverly Hillbillies” television show, is very much at home in the saddle of his exlawman role, as are also Keir Dullea, the award-winning star of “David and Lisa,” and Warren Oates, who has become a specialist in villain roles. Lois Nettleton, remembered for “Period of Adjustment” and “Come Fly With Me,” plays her first outdoor characterization with sincerity and conviction. Others adding to the interest of “Mail Order Bride” are Barbara Luna, Paul Fix, Marie Windsor and young Jimmy Mathers, as the fatherless boy. Buddy Ebsen drives Lois Nettleton to her wedding in this scene from the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy, **Mail Order Bride.”’ Ebsen is seen as an ex-lawman who attempts to tame young hellion Keir Dullea by forcing him to marry Miss Nettleton, a girl he has found through a mail order catalogue. Warren Oates also stars in the action-filled story of the early West, filmed in the High Sierras in Panavision and color. Still 1813-15 E Mail Order Bride Mat 2-D PERSEVERANCE ESSENTIAL TO ACTING ASPIRANTS, DECLARES LOIS NETTLETON What does it take to become a successful actress? According to Lois Nettleton, one of the fastest-rising young performers in motion pictures, the most important quality is perseverance. Miss Nettleton, who co-stars with Buddy Ebsen and Keir Dullea in the new Metro-GoldwynMayer film, “Mail Order Bride,” speaks from experience. When she first came to New York from Chicago, she secured a role in a Broadway play within three weeks. Things looked pretty easy to the young actress for three months, after which the play closed. She then began pounding the pavement in the usual procedure of besieging producers and agents. Eight weeks passed without tangible results but she refused to give up. “T kept telling myself that tomorrow would be the day,” she says, “but by the end of the eight weeks I was ready to go back to Chicago and start all over again. Nevertheless, my waiting paid off. A producer called me for a part in a play and at the end of its Broadway run I toured with the company.” Back in New York, Miss Nettleton appeared in a television soap opera. THE ADDITIONAL SCENE AND PLAYER MATS, SHOWN IN THE COMPLETE CAMPAIGN MAT ON ANOTHER PAGE, MAY BE ORDERED SINGLY. “Some of my friends thought I was foolish not to aim higher,” she relates, “but my feeling about it was ‘first things first.’ As it turned out, this show kept me going for two years. During this period I would go to the television station in the morning and study drama at the Actors Studio at night. It was a tough grind but anyone who expects to become an actress the easy way should go into some other business.” Miss Nettleton’s next step was to spend a summer with the American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Connecticut. Here, too, she had to bide her time. “T waited two months before I was given my first part,” she says. “But again the waiting proved to be worthwhile and by now I was beginning to understand the true meaning of the word ‘patience.’ Lee Strasberg, my coach at the Actors Studio, used to say, ‘Quitting is always the easiest way out.’ Nothing could be truer.” When she returned to New York that fall, Miss Nettleton hit the jackpot when she was chosen for a role in the Broadway play, “God and Kate Murphy,” for which she was given the Clarence Derwent Award for “best performance by an actress in a supporting role” by the New York dram critics. While appearing in this play, she was spotted by MGM _ producer Lawrence Weingarten, who signed her for her motion picture debut in the screen version of Tennessee Williams’ “Period of Adjustment,” which she followed with a starring role in “Come Fly With Me.” At this date, Miss Nettleton has more movie, stage and television offers than she can handle. The moral: perseverance pays. BOTH ARE “BEST” “Best Actor’ marries “Best Actress” in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s new outdoor drama, “Mail Order Bride.” They are Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton, cast as the respective groom and bride whose marriage is one of convenience only until fate steps in to change the course of their lives. Dullea won the Best Actor of 1962 Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for his performance in “David and Lisa.” Miss Nettleton won the Clarence Derwent Award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for her Broadway stage portrayal in “God and Kate Murphy.” Wilhané 22st eases ce Buddy Ebsen WEGiGOrey nse ee ee eee Keir Dullea AnniesBoley... 2s As ccd Lois Nettleton fo fot = See ne ee a i Warren Oates INC GRC scx en oon cate ee Barbara Luna Jessibinle ys. oe tek ca eh neste Paul Fix Honnde. oe a Marie Windsor Preacher, Pope..2 2/5 0s Denver Pyle |i ot) Se eeNuN et ie eee eee ere rey Bill Smith eisteroue. tee fest Kathleen Freeman Young Old Maid..._..--..--.... Abbagail Shelton INS Gis soles eee alee ee et Jimmy Mathers Produced by Richard E. Lyons. Directed by Burt Kennedy. Screen Play by Burt Kennedy. Based on a short story by Van Cort. Music composed and conducted by George Bassman. Director of Photography: Paul C. Vogel, A.S.C. In Panavision and Metrocolor. Art Direction: George W. Davis and Stan Jolley. Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Bill Calvert. Film Editor: Frank Santillo. Assistant Director: Eli Dunn. Hair Styles by Mary Keats. Make-Up by William Tuttle. Recording Supervisor: Franklin Milton. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Lois Nettleton plays her first outdoor portrayal in the title role of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s **Mail Order Bride,” also starring Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea and Warren Oates. The talented stage and screen star will be remembered for her fine performances in ‘‘Period of Adjustment”? and ‘‘Come_ Fly With Me,’ both for M-G-M. Mail Order Bride Still Nettleton-8096 Mat 1-E