Penrods Double Trouble (Warner Bros.) (1938)

“++. Crowded with showmanship material. .».. and here’s Warner Bros.’ Campaign Plan to help you..... RE s Presenteg by Wy, Se STS Ad shown is Mat 301—255 lines—45c. Additional ads on pages 4, 5 Mh NE Loc ART OB B 4 ‘Wont JR. G-M rs RST NaTion ~ irik KATHLEEN L OCKHA ARNER Bros | mem Scns PS gy and 6. — — —— — => — — — — — = => — — — — — — —— — — —— — = — — = — — — — =>= — —— — — — — = — —aae — = = — — — — — — — — — — — — — —— — —— — — = — —S —— P. HERALD i —— —— —— — — = — — — —— —— — — —— a — —— —— —— — — — = —4 — = — —— = =>= my (Lead) ‘Penrod’s Double Trouble’ Coming To Strand Friday “Penrod’s Double Trouble,” latest. starring vehicle for the famous Mauch twins, has_ been booked as the next feature attraction for the Strand Theatre and will open there on Friday. This picture is the third in the Warner Bros. series based upon Booth Tarkington’s best-known representative of American boyhood, and it is also the third pieture in which Billy ‘and Bobby Mauch have played dual starting roles. The first was “The Prince and the Pauper” and the other was the second of the Penrod series, “Penrod and His Twin Brother.” In this newest picture, the startlingly identical twins are the leading characters in a novel story that combines the nostalgic humor of Tarkington’s famous stories with the up-to*date adventures of two modern American boys, and takes full advantage of their amazing likeness. In addition to providing a story that has more tense and exciting moments than the usual type of picture which features juvenile actors, the Warner studio has surrounded the twin stars with a highly capable cast, including Jackie Morrow and Phillip Hurlie again among the supporting juveniles, and featuring such expert adult players as Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, who have the roles of Penrod’s parents, and Dick Pureell and Hugh O’Connell, would make as sinister a brace of villains as ever were seen on the screen if the latter did not also spice his villainy with sprinklings of humor. It is Pureell, as a jumper wishing to revenge himself on the owner of a captive balloon, who sets in motion the most exciting sequence of the who parachute film, when he cuts loose a captive balloon in the basket of which Penrod has hidden. The boy, after travelling many miles in the drifting balloon, escapes from it by making a parachute jump. He is injured when he lands and it is many a day before he sueceeds in making his way back to his home town. In the meantime, the two villains have found a boy who so closely resembles Penrod that they plan to collect the reward for Penrod’s safe return by palming off the double on the missing boy’s parents. They don’t succeed, and the fact that they are on their way to prison at the end of the picture is due largely to the smart and brave work of Penrod’s Junior G-Men. The screen play by Crane Wilbur, based upon a plot devised by Ernest Booth, develops these incidents at a breathlessly exciting pace and it is all made entertainingly plausible by the direction of Lewis Seiler, who has long been noted in Hollywood as the film industry’s best director of juvenile actors. CAST OF CHARACTERS Penrod ea Billy Mauch Danny 3 oe . Bobby Mauch Tex Boyden ............. Dick Purcell ' Mr. Schofield .......Gene Lockhart Mrs. Schofield... Kathleen Lockhart Prof. Caligostro... Hugh O’Connell RAY Bitte ae Charles Halton Delia 5 8 Rodney Bitts ......Bernice Pilot a Jackie Morrow o.-Phillip Hurlic Verman (Advance) BOY ACTORS PLAY FOOTBALL ON SET 3illy and Bobby Mauch, the famous look-alike twins of films, Stage and radio, will get right up before any meeting to declare that movie youngsters have all the best of it in fun, training and education. And it’s hard to disprove the claim when they cite some of their experiences during the production of their latest film, “Penrod’s Double Trouble,” coming to the Strand. The twins and forty-two other youngsters who had parts in the film not only got expert tutoring in school work but had an allAmerican football star coach them in football throughout the making of the picture — and a famous dancing instructor taught them to strut the Big Apple! 3 s °@ Viogranh ina Mat 101—15e MAUCH TWINS — Hollywood’s famous look-alikes, Billy and Bobby Mauch: head the. cast of “Penrod’s Double Trouble” coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. (Advance) It’s Even Money You Can't Tell Which Mauch Is Which Despite the fact that not even their mother can tell those lookalike Mauch twins apart at more than five paces, choosy fans are indicating preferences. A total of 1867 letters, chiefly from juvenile fans, expressing a preference for either Billy or 30bby over his brother, has been collected. This twin or that, some say, “has a much nicer smile.” One is “serious as a deacon.” Or one “grins too much.” Before the filming of “The Prince and the Pauper” Billy had the bulk of the approving fan mail. It swung quickly to Bobby, probably because, for convenience, he was billed as having played the pauper, and audiences seemed to prefer that role. (Actually, in all their pictures, Billy and Bobby have appeared in both characters, if there were two, or in the case of Billy’s early films, such as “Anthony Adverse,” in which Bobby wasn’t cast, the latter often relieved his brother before the cameras. ) PRODUCTION STAFF Directot 5 Lewis Seiler Screen Play by.......... Crane Wilbur Adapted by ............. Ernest Booth Based on the Penrod stories by fe ee Booth Tarkington Photography by sp Reg Arthur Todd, A.S.C. ee ees Frank Dewar Dialogue Director Hugh Cummings Dance Numbers by......Matty King Art Director............ Hugh Reticker Sound by ........ Francis J. Scheid Gowns by N’Was McKenzie Just now the boys seem to be running neck and neck in’ fan favor, but it is entirely possible that there may be a strong shift toward one or the other with the release of their latest Warner Bros. film, “Penrod’s Double Trouble,’ which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. What happens, of course, is that the fans prefer one or the other role played, and don’t stop to think that both boys may have had a hand in creating a single character. There’s just no way of deciding which is the better. When they’re together in a single scene you can say, “the one on the right has the nice smile.” But you can’t say whether the one on the right is really Billy or Bobby. Neither can Warner Bros. and neither can Mrs. Felix Mauch, the boys’ mother. And just as you’ve decided that anyway, whatever his name is, you do like the boy on the right because he has the nicer smile, the two mischiefs shift smiles. Now it’s the one on the left who smiles most agreeably! Director Lewis Seiler of “Penrod’s Double Trouble,” is the first director to accept this situation philosophically. William MeGann, who directed two other pictures based on the famous Tarkington boy hero’s adventures, and William Keighley, who directed the twins in “The Prince and the Pauper,” cherished the delusion that they could tell the boys apart. They may not know for a fact, but fact it is, we are assured, that in all these pictures, the boys played each other’s parts. As in “Penrod’s Double Trouble,” they were billed to play certain parts, but actually decided between them what scenes they’d play — usually by tossing a coin.