A Stolen Life (Warner Bros.) (1946)

Civilian Dangers Engulf Ex-Marine In Warlike Flood Glenn Ford, currently featured in the Bette Davis starring film, “A Stolen Life,” Warners’ new drama at the Strand, knows that bobby-soxers play rough. Ford, handsome Hollywood star who recently completed a two and a half year hitch in the Marine Corps, thinks the teen-agers are tougher than top kicks—and he has wounds to prove his point. The actor was recently asked to present a large bouquet of roses to Eva Wonderlick, winner of a “Queen” contest staged by the Air Transport Command. This he did, before a large crowd of boys and girls at the Royal Palm Hotel in Los Angeles. After kissing Miss Wonderlick and presenting the bouquet, Ford started for home. The girls in the crowd descended on him in a body. The actor took refuge in an elevator, MarNasde and finally retreated to a room on the second floor which manager Floyd Wilson had secured for him. But when the girls started breaking down the door, he took to the fire-escape ladder, pulled a latch and was summarily deposited on the ground after falling a couple of stories. “War,” says Glenn, “was considerably more gentle than those screaming kids.” Walter Brennan Waves Too Real On Warner Set Bette Davis and Glenn Ford, as well as most of the crew of Warner Bros.’ "KR Stolen Life,” now at the Strand Theatre, were all made sea-sick by the small-boat sequences shot in the huge studio tank stage. Wind machines, wave makers and a roving camera mounted on a gyroscope and dolly completed the illusion that proved altogether too real. Film Role Tempts Star To Try Hand At New Art Form Bette Davis, starring in “A Stolen Life,” the new Warner Bros. picture now at the Strand Theatre, is supposed to paint a portrait of Walter Brennan, a grizzled old lighthouse keeper on a lonely, wind-swept island. The painting was originally completed by Alexander Rosenfeld, since Bette herself is not as proficient with palette and brush as with the spoken word and registered emotions. However, during the hours Miss Davis spent pretending to paint the picture, she did touch it up in places. At the suggestion of Laguna friends, she may add “plus B. Davis” below the artist’s signature and permit the picture to be sold or auctioned off for the benefit of some deserving Laguna society. Unique in cinematic history is the opportunity Glenn Ford has to make love to not one—but two—Bette Davises in Warner Bros.’ "A Stolen Life," now playing at the Strand Theatre. The double measure of romance is due to the fact that the actress plays a dual role—that of twin sisters—in the film, which also features Dane Clark, Walter Brennan and Charlie Ruggles MAT NO. 2B in supporting roles. An Interesting Sidelight On A Seldom Publicized Facet Of Film Production—For Weekend Supplements ‘Old’ Pants Represent Days Of Patient Ageing The hole in the seat of Glenn Ford’s pants, worn by the actor in Warners’ new Bette Davis starring picture, “A Stolen Life,” now at the Strand, was no accident. The hole was put there deliberately, if not maliciously, by the Warner Bros. wardrobe department which had been told to prepare clothes for the young star to match the characterization he was to undertake in the picture— and the New England locale in which it was to be played. So the trousers with which Glenn Ford was provided in the lighthouse island sequences of the story of “A Stolen Life,” were held against a revolving buffer until the fabric was worn thin. Then they were placed over a sharp table corner and deliberately torn. After a few days of scrambling over the volcanic rocks of the sea-going location of the picture, near Laguna, the hole was spread and threatened to become too obvious and revealing. The wardrobe department came forward with a duplicate pair, however; a pair of trousers with exactly the same kind of a hole in exactly the same place as in Ford’s first costume trousers. Handled By Studio Expert The odd business of making new clothes old and old clothes older is handled at Warner Bros. studio by Fred Waring (not the orchestra leader) who is an expert in his particular line. Every garment in a studio wardrobe is carefully cleaned as soon as a player in a picture is finished with it—and often several times in between. This natural wear and tear gives Warner Bros., for instance, a gradually growing supply of worn clothing but there are times, such as the opening sequences of “A Stolen Life,” when this natural aging process is too slow for motion pictures. Are Washed For Days Suits and dresses are sometimes dumped into washing machines and washed for days at a time to give them a needed threadbare appearance. They are sometimes faded with strong soaps and rinses. Shoes, before rationing, were also aged when needed, by files and sandpaper. Now, because of their scarcity, there is less of that. Felt hats, to be aged, are held against a buffer to provide worn spots. When wrinkled clothes are needed, the garments are rolled GLENN FORD comes to the Strand screen Friday in the romantic lead opposite Bette Davis, star of Warner Bros.’ new film drama, "A Stolen Life." Also featured in the film in important supporting roles are Dane Clark, Walter Brennan and Charlie Ruggles. MAT NO. IK into bundles, dampened, put under a press and left under pressure overnight. That wrinkles them, all right. Dirty clothes are only so in appearance in motion pictures. In reality they are clean clothes spotted with paint, dusted with Fuller’s earth or rubbed with lamp black. There are hundreds of worn garments in the Warner Bros. wardrobe, all catalogued and ready for future service in scenes that demand such clothes. Even Glenn Ford’s hole-ridden pants were cleaned and put back in stock, after the film’s completion, to await another actor in another role which calls for a hole in trousers. Seeing Double Is OK But Star Balks At Double Doubles Playing identical twins in a film all day is difficult enough, according to Bette Davis, who should know, but to have the condition continue into evening hours as well is almost too much. Miss Davis, currently portraying twin sisters in Warner Bros.’ “A Stolen Life,” at the Strand, “played” to two other actresses portraying her other screen self who were later eliminated from the finished film by virtue of a “split-screen,” for eight hours every day during the picture’s filming. Thus she grew used to seeing “herself” in the persons of Elizabeth Wright and Sally Sage on the set all day. She was accustomed, in other words, to seeing double. But one evening, while dining at the Crillon restaurant, her senses almost left her when she saw two of herself entering the swank nigyht spot. The Crillon employs fulllength, rightangle mirrors Mat No: ie at its entrance Bette Davis hall as well as inside the restaurant proper. This was enough to give Bette a start. What topped her confusion however, was that, on leaving, she was preceded by two identical twins. It was this last that almost had Bette in the screaming stage. Star's Wardrobe Twice Usual Size Because her role requires her to play identical twin sisters, Bette Davis has a larger wardrobe in “K Stolen Life,” now at the Strand Theatre, than in any other picture of her career. Orry-Kelly designed the star’s clothes which are all ultra modern. “A Stolen Life” is Bette’s first film as a producer. Glenn Ford, Walter Brennan, Dane Clark and Charlie Ruggles are featured in the cast. Curtis Bernhardt directed the film. Anxious To Put On Weight? Here’s An Easy Way To Do It However it affects some people, the Marine Corps put twenty pounds on Glenn Ford. The actor served two years, eight months with the leathernecks and, upon receiving an honorable discharge, checked into Warner Bros. for the biggest role of his career as Bette Davis’ leading man in “A Stolen Life,” currently at the Strand. The ex-Marine had counted on using his own clothes as wardrobe for the picture but a quick glance at his suits and his waistline junked the whole idea. So Ford shopped for new clothes and a number of stock boys at Warner Bros. are wearing his pre-Marine Corps suits, courtesy of the actor. EE TT EL ELE LT SE ETE IT TL TTS LLIN TLE ILE EON LL LIED ALLE DLL NELLIE LEER DELS TEEN REN EDN LIE SELLE NIV DAE EE OE EL TN OT OSE Bt! fe)