The Angels Wash Their Faces (Warner Bros.) (1939)

CURRENT PUBLICITY — "THE ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES" DIRECTOR LONGS TO SHUT OFF KIDS LIKE FAUCET he “Dead End” Kids, the Sat Bros. Studio’s sextette of irrepressible, hard-bitten youngsters, occupy a _ peculiar position among the stars of the motion picture screen. None of the boys, individually, is a star, but the group itself has long ago been elevated to stardom and is so established in the minds of producers, exhibitors and the theatre-going public. Thus each of the Dead Enders— Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley and Bobby Jordan—is the sixth part of a star, and together furnish a convincing demonstration of the adage that in union there is strength. Ray Enright, director of their latest Warner Bros. picture, “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” which is the current attraction at the Strand Theatre, shook his head and sighed deeply one day as he contemplated their riotous behaviour between scenes on a great exterior setting representing the tenement district of a large city, where much of the picture’s action takes place. “There you see in action,” said Enright, more in simple wonder than in anger, “a six-pointed star that can’t be compared to any heavenly body except possibly a wildly careening comet— just an intractable outlaw of the skies. “The ‘Dead End’ Kids have great difficulty in restraining their playfulness even during the filming of a scene, and such a thing is not to be expected while they are rehearsing. Some boy is always grabbing another’s suspenders and releasing them with a loud whack, or stealthily tripping one of his co-conspirators to the accompaniment of a disarmingly innocent expression. “But there’s one thing you can’t get away from,” concluded Enright. “The ‘Dead End’ Kids are actors to their fingertips, and they can be depended upon to deliver a performance, individually and collectively, that never fails to ring true. “But I sometimes wish that it might be possible to shut them off like a faucet once shooting on a scene has been completed.” Football Brought Her Good Health Ann Sheridan, America’s “oomph” girl, contends that her childhood experience as a football player is one of the reasons for her present vigorous good health. And, lest this statement might be regarded as a typographical error, the glamorous Miss Sheridan hastens to give the definite assurance that while she was attending junior high school in Denton, Texas, she was a hardrunning backfield ace on the girls’ football team. The fact that they didn’t play against anyone except other girls on the same squad had nothing to do with the fact that they were getting a lot of healthful exercise and an occasional skinned knee, and that on one occasion the Sheridan girl accumulated a glorious shiner that lasted the greater part of a week. “That,” she now admits, “was one of the proudest experiences of my young life! Even the teachers seemed to gaze on the ‘shiner’ with something approaching awe, and I had a feeling that my black eye had raised me in the estimation of everyone in the school. Ann is now appearing in “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” featured at the Strand Theatre. Page Fourteen ‘OOMPH' GIRL ITS PENALTIES Ann Sheridan is finding out that her selection as “America’s Oomph Girl” is an honor that carries its penalties. The award was made while Ann was working in her latest Warner Bros. picture, “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” which is now playing at the Strand Theatre. “I’ve never been so unmercifully kidded in my life,’ Ann confessed several days later. “Open season on the ‘oomph’ girl has been declared at the Warner Bros. Studio, and wherever I turn I am subjected to a gentle but very effective species of ‘ribs’ and jokes. “The ‘Dead End’ Kids, that rambunctious sextette of scalawags, must lie awake nights, thinking up gags to spring on me. One day they put up a sign on my little dressing room on the stage, drawing attention to the ‘oomph’ girl inside—the only one in captivity. ‘Ten cents admission,’ said the sign, and they even made me pay a dime to enter my own dressing room! “They ‘accidentally’ bump into me as they pass, and exclaim, ‘Oomph!’ before they begin elaborate apologies for the collision. “Ronald Reagan was combing his hair at a mirror near me on the set, getting ready for the next scene, when the assistant director called for him. ‘Just a minute!’ shouted Ronnie, ‘I’m making myself glamorous!’ And as he hurried across the stage he called merrily, ‘Here I come! I’m Warner Bros.’ ‘oomph’ boy!’ “Ray Enright, my director, described a forthcoming scene to a group of actors. ‘Just as you men enter the warehouse in the darkness,’ he said, ‘there will be a big explosion. You know — OOMPH!’ And everybody on the set turned to me and grinned broadly. “And so it goes! Of course I realize that the subject will eventually exhaust itself, but I am beginning to wonder if I, myself, won’t be exhausted first!” Ann Sheridan, widen a bulls-eye on the Hollywood Didn’t Change TITLE GARRIES The Kids --It Is Vice Versa At the Warner Bros. Studio, where the “Dead End” Kids are under contract, folks are pretty upset about the fact that Hollywood has supposedly done something to the boys. They rise to protest that it isn’t true at all, that Hollywood has done nothing to the kids. It is the kids who have done something to Hollywood. No one who has worked in a picture with the boys is ever the same again. Although plenty obstreperous as a group, each one by himself is intelligent and good-natured. Billy Halop, for instance, is the most serious of the lot about his career. A tall, dark-haired kid who hasn’t stopped growing and who has been in show business since he was four years old. Now, at nineteen, he can look forward to the day when he is thirty-five and his trust funds and annuities will bring him in $100 a week. Leo Gorcey, now twenty-three, is probably the toughest of the lot—tough in the way any boy who worked as a plumber’s assistant would be tough. He drives too fast and is always getting arrested. Gabriel Dell is the son of a Long Island physician. The boy never showed any desire to care who can target without even pulling a bow, is starred with the Dead End Kids in “The Angels Wash Their Faces,”’ which starts its engage ment at the Strand The atre on Friday. Mat 205—30c SE ET a a aS Dead End’ Kids are ue row, I. to r.) Gabriel Dell and Billy Halop; (top row) Leo Gorcey, Rernard Punsley, Bobby Jordan and Huntz Hall. Mat 204—30c for the sick—always wanted to act—so his parents let him. But he hasn’t led a sheltered existence. To earn pocket money, he used to sell peanuts and popcorn at Madison Square Garden, deliver parcels and telegrams, sell papers and run errands. He has finished high school and hopes to see something of the inside of a university. Though only 18, Huntz Hall is his own guardian. A Los Angeles judge said he could be last year and Huntz claims the judge showed good sense. Hall is a tall, loose-jointed youngster with a twisted blade of a nose. He was christened Henry and is Irish, but his brother (there are 15 in the family) nicknamed him Huntz because he thought he looked German instead of Irish. Bobby Jordan, now sixteen, was chosen for the part of “Angel” in “Dead End” because he had the face of an angel a couple of years back. There is a trace of the angelic left in his merry face—but only a trace. He is still growing. Bernard Punsley is Jordan’s age—16. The son of a well-to-do New York merchant, Bernard wants to be a bacteriologist. He likes to act but doesn’t see much future in it. That’s why he’s saving all his money so he can go to college. He is the best-behaved of the lot, because his mother comes to the set pretty often and keeps her eye on him. “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” their latest Warner Bros. picture, now at the Strand Theatre, also includes Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, Eduardo Ciannelli and Henry O’Neill in the cast. Ray Enright directed the production. Correct Studio But Wrong Set Ronald Reagan, screen actor, appeared in court one day—but he began to think something was wrong when James Cagney walked in and sat down beside him. Reagan had been called for work in a court scene for “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture playing currently at the Strand Theatre, and he had arrived on the set early to sit on one of the benches and read the morning paper. Other members of the cast and crew appeared, and preparatory activity increased about him, but the actor did not look up from his reading. But when Cagney put in an appearance and began to pass the time of day, Ronnie looked about him in consternation. Immediately the situation dawned on him. He had blundered into a court room setting being used for the Cagney picture, “Each Dawn I Die,” and his company was on the stage next door! SORORITY RUSH MAKES STAR FEEL GROWN-UP Bonita Granville has ceased to be a little girl—though she will probably always be tiny in stature. But on the day before she began work in “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. picture now playing at the Strand, she experienced her first “rushing” at the hands of a Hollywood sorority, and feels that this proves that she has become a young lady. The diminutive Bonita, however, is already a veteran as an actress, with thirteen years of experience behind her, At an age when most youngsters are toddling about engaged in the interesting pastime of putting words together, all unmindful of the kindergarten still far ahead of them, Bonita became a member of the vaudeville act of her father, Bernard Granville, musical comedy star. For many years thereafter the tiny girl moved and lived in the world of the theatre making her Mat 104— 15c “The Angels Wash Their Faces” features Bonita Granville. screen debut as Ann Harding’s daughter in “Westward Passage.” But her big opportunity came when she was cast for the nowfamed “brat” role in “These Three.” This juvenile acting plum of many seasons definitely established Bonita as a young actress of unusual ability and she was shortly placed under contract to Warner Bros. EXTRA! The ‘Dead End’Kids Behave! The “Dead End” Kids, with a half-hour to spare between scenes of “The Angels Wash Their Faces,” the Warner Bros. melodrama that is now being shown at the Strand Theatre, went over to the set of “The Old Maid” to see Bette Davis act. A watchman at the door, having been with the lads during the filming of their first Warner Bros. picture, “Crime School,” barred their way. Assistant Director Jack Sullivan also waved a “thumbs down” signal. Director Edmund Goulding cast a glance of apprehension in their direction. So Billy Halop, their leader, wrote on a card: “The ‘Dead End’ Kids send greetings to Miss Bette Davis and express their great admiration for her work in ‘Dark Victory.’ May we watch her for a few minutes today, if we behave like gentlemen?” Permission was granted, and Billy’s promise of good behavior was kept to the letter.