Mail Order Bride (MGM) (1964)

SHE'S ALWAYS THE GIRL NOBODY WANTS! Lois Nettleton is finding out that persistence pays—at least on the screen. She has only played three motion picture roles to date and in each picture she starts out as “the girl nobody wants” but ends up in getting her man before the final fadeout. After a number of Broadway stage hits, Miss Nettleton made her film debut at MGM in Tennessee Williams’ “Period of Adjustment,” in which she played a girl whom Tony Fransciosa married because she was the boss’ daughter. Eventually, she wins his love. In her next picture, “Come Fly With Me,” she played an airplane hostess who is barely redeemed from a future as an old-maid by Karl Malden. And now in her third MGM drama, “Mail Order Bride,” she is seen as a girl whose wedding to Keir Dullea is a marriage-in-name-only. Dullea finally discovers that he loves his wife! He Knows His Saws When Keir Dullea read the script of his new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie, “Mail Order Bride,” and found that he had to build a house from hand-strewn boards, he wasn’t at all fazed. It seems that Dullea worked in San Francisco for a year-and-a-half as an apprentice carpenter before turning to acting as a career. In “Mail Order Bride,” an 1890 frontier drama, he and Lois Nettleton, playing the bride of the title, are shown completing a half-built ranch house. By the time it was finished, Dullea had given it professional touches that not even the script called for! Film Depicts Old-Time Western River Baptism An old-time mass river baptism is a colorful highlight of Metro-GoldwynMayer’s new outdoor drama, “Mail Order Bride,” starring Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton and Warren Oates. Set in the pioneer period of Montana in the 1890's, the action-filled story has a sequence in which a group of early settlers are baptized in a mountain stream while an organist pounds out hymns on an organ mounted on a wagon in the middle of the river. WINS BRIDE VIA MAIL ORDER CATALOGUE Lois Nettleton and Keir Dullea, two strangers who have arranged a marriage of convenience, find themselves beginning to like each other in **Mail Order Bride,’ new Metro-GoldwynMayer comedy-drama of the 1890 West. Buddy Ebsen and Warren Oates also star in the action-filled picture, filmed in the High Sierras in Panavision and color. Still 1813-10 Mail Order Bride Mat 2-C YOUNG WARREN OATES PREFERS HISSES TO KISSES IN HIS MOTION PICTURES This is the story of a good looking young actor who has no desire to win the leading lady in his movies. Just out of his twenties, he has made his reputation playing villains. He prefers it that Way. His name is Warren Oates. He most recently co-starred with Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in “Mail Order Bride.” And once again he played the villain. “It may seem odd to the average moviegoer,” he says, “but portraying the heavy often can be more rewarding than playing the hero. There are as many ways of enacting a villain as there are shades and degrees of evil. You have a wide choice of methods in making the audience hate you, For me, a hiss is better than a kiss. “Another nice thing about being the villain is that he lasts longer. He doesn’t come and go with each role like some actors who are never seen or heard from for months at a_ time. Usually he finishes one role and goes Marie Windsor persuades Lois Nettleton to accept an offer of marriage, even though it is only a marriage of convenience, in this scene from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s **Mail Order Bride.” Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea and Warren Oates also star in the action-filled comedy-drama of the early West, filmed in the High Sierras in Panavision and color, Still 1813-20 Mail Order Bride Mat 2-E right into another. There is always a demand for a villain, which is why I have spent the last few years trying to become a good ‘bad’ character.” Oates’ advice to youngsters who want to become actors is first to determine whether you want to be a leading man Or woman, a comedian or a character player and then work at it until you have achieved your goal. “This talk about there being little opportunity for new talent is nonsense,” he declares. “There are unlimited opportunities for young acting aspirants in the field of television alone, to say nothing of movies and the legitimate theatre. Not a year passes but somebody you never heard of before turns up and is launched into stardom.” Oates received his own start in television, playing a juvenile delinquent on the Jackie Gleason show. ‘‘The first of my villains,” he says. Then he worked as a “test pilot” for gags on the “Beat the Clock” show. If a pie in the face of Warren Oates was amusing, it was assumed it would be even funnier in the face of a contestant. He got the job when the spot was vacated by another struggling young actor who had snagged a part in a Broadway play. “The fellow I replaced became famous in movies,” says Oates. “His name was James Dean.” Warren continued getting better parts on television and in 1956, received star billing on the U.S. Steel Hour in a show called “The Three R’s.” “At this point, I felt I was ripe for Hollywood,” he says. “But I had only one thing in mind. I was determined to play the villain. A western called ‘Private Property’ started me off and after that I portrayed so many western badmen that I’ve lost count of the number of times the scripts called for me to be a killer or be killed.” Oates concludes by saying, “Character roles are fun to play because no two villains are alike. That’s more than can be said of most heroes.” Lois Nettleton Essays Her First Outdoor Role Lois Nettleton, one of the stage and screen’s most versatile and_ talented actresses, essays her first role in an outdoor Western action-drama in MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s “Mail Order Bride,” in which she plays the title role, with Keir Dullea as the reluctant bridegroom. Miss Nettleton made her film debut at MGM in “Period of Adjustment’ after winning the Clarence Derwent Award for her Broadway stage portrayal in “God and Kate Murphy.” Her second appearance.on the screen was in “Come Fly With Me.” EVEN “METHOD” ACTORS, LIKE KEIR DULLEA, GO ALL OUT FOR WESTERNS Western films, long a staple of the motion picture business, are becoming more popular than ever. Even the “method” actors are going for them. Keir Dullea is an example, The young actor who won outstanding notices for his performance in “David and Lisa,” now reveals his versatility in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s new western, “Mail Order Bride,” in which he co-stars with Buddy Ebsen and Lois Nettleton. “People call me a method actor,” says Dullea, “but Stanislavsky would probably turn over in his grave if he knew what his system looked like today.” Stanislavsky, for those who don’t already know, was the famous student of acting in Russia who wrote several books on the art. His theory was that an actor should feel and believe he is the person or thing that he is portraying. For example, if an actor is supposed to be a cat, he should convince himself that, for the moment, he is a cat. “Although I consider myself a method actor, I think that there are times when it can be carried too far,” avers Dullea. “Just recently, I saw a play in which an actor was supposed to be a chair. I could never do that sort of thing because I think it is pointless, The Method is useful in certain areas of drama but there are other areas where it has no practical application.” In “Mail Order Bride,” Dullea portrays a young devil-may-care rancher who has let his property run down since the death of his father. Ebsen, a friend of the latter, has the deed to the ranch, which he has been instructed to turn over to the son when he feels he is mature enough. Ebsen decides the only way the boy will ever settle down is to get a wife. He then proceeds to find a girl through a mail order catalogue, with the ensuing incidents providing both comedy and drama. Dullea says he accepted the part for two reasons. First, because he liked the script which provided him with a change of pace, and secondly because he thought it would be fun. He feels it is DANCE HALL SIREN Barbara Luna plays a dance hall girl of the West's early frontier days in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Mail Order Bride,”’ starring Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton. Miss Luna last scored at MGM in ‘Dime With a Halo.’ Mail Order Bride Still 1813-31 Mat 1-B Keir Dullea plays an untamed young hellion of the early West in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s comedy-drama, ‘*Mail Order Bride,” also starring Buddy Ebsen, Lois Nettleton and Warren Oates. Dullea, one of the screen’s fastest-rising newcomers, scored an outstanding hit in ‘David and Lisa.” Mail Order Bride Still 1813-1 Mat 1-A essential for an actor to enjoy the roles he plays. The part, as in most westerns, called for him to ride a horse and he took lessons at a Long Island stable. “But when I went to Hollywood for the picture,” he relates, “everybody laughed when I started to ride, just like in the piano-playing joke.” It seems the system they use in the East is not quite the same as western riding style. “It took me 19 hours of riding lessons in New York,” says Dullea, “but in Hollywood, it took the trainer only an hour to teach me to ride western style. I was assigned a horse to use throughout the picture and fell in love with him. I have made the owners an offer and if they take it, I am going to have the horse shipped to New York. We can take a daily canter in. Central Paice Dullea, who has appeared in most of the major television dramatic shows, expects to spend his acting career commuting between New York and Hollywood. “Tt’s all part of the change that has taken place in the industry,” he says. “In the old days, if an actor worked in Hollywood, he lived there. Today, a great many actors divide their work between stage, television and screen. That’s for me.” WHOOP-DE-DO PARTY CELEBRATES WEDDING Although Buddy Ebsen, who first achieved fame as a dancing star in Broadway musicals, has now become a dramatic actor, he gets one chance to show off his dancing prowess in a colorful sequence of Metro-GoldwynMayer’s outdoor drama, “Mail Order Bride.” In the new film, set against a background of 1890 Montana, Ebsen, as an ex-lawman, finds a bride (Lois Nettleton) for young hellion Keir Dullea, whom he hopes marriage will tame down, To celebrate the marriage, the townfolk and neighbors stage a party in the ranch house -Dullea has started but has never finished. Using the floor of the partly-built house for dancing, with the sides of the house wide open to the picturesque mountain country, they hold a real whoop-de-do celebration with a banjo player providing the music. Ebsen, with years of dancing behind him, was completely at ease in the oldfashioned steps. “Mail Order Bride” was filmed on locations in the High Sierras of northern California in Panavision and Metrocolor. Burt Kennedy directed the action-filled picture, based on a short story by Van Cort, and also wrote the screen play. Richard’E. Lyons is the producer.