The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 29

I THEATRES if MOVIES Production Code Should Be Elastic, Says 'Moon' Author By JANE CORBY HERE must he a film code. But it should be up to bm date, intelligently administered, understanding and Josephine Hull Adds the Gold to the 'Gold Cadillac7 By LOUIS 8HEAPFER THE things we remember from plays years later aren't always the big scenes, if they Vere dramas, or what created the biggest laughs, if they happened to have been comedies, but are quite often relatively minor things. Why this should be I haven't the faintest idea, but only know that it is not infrequently the case. The moment that sticks most firmly with me from the early W40s "Arsenic and Old Lace," that wonderfully beguiling Diend of off-beat humor and murder melodrama, wasn't one of its highlights, In itself, but it delighted me no end. It was the spectacle bove all, elastic." That's the platform ofF.

Hugh Herbert, who wrote, among many other hits, the play, "The Moon is Blue," on which the film of the same name is based, with practically no changes in the script. The picture, which is currently being shown at 68 motion picture theaters in the metropolitan area, including 18 in Brooklyn and several in Queens and Long Island, was denied a Production Code seal, has been the subject of controversy, and has been banned in theaters in various cities. Mr. Herbert, in town for the city-wide neighborhood showing of the film, said that all the talk has helped the box office, pointing to the picture's 19-week run at the Victoria on -Broadway. However, he feels that his brain-child does not deserve the censure it has received in some quarters.

But he's not indignant about it. li Indignation doesn't pay off." said Mr. Herbert, who streak. "Anyhow, the 'Moon' is a kind of the present censorship code. It's the first ood picture which has been released without makes it a kind of pioneer film." believes that the motion picture industry JOSE FERRER AND JUDITH EVELYN, the original stars of Joseph Kramm's "The Shrike," are again teamed in I the Pulitzer Prize drama, which opens Wednesday for two weeks at City Center.

By Auerbach.Lvv Sakini Can Relax Now-He Has a Wig By J.A (. 1 rhargc- paid more than it's worth get me to bow out quietly and inexpensively by assigning me to a 10-line role in Hell and High They thought I'd United Prrss Staff Correspondent If David Wayne ever goes back to Connecticut or Massachusetts in the role of Sakini in "The Teahouse of the August Moon," he won't have to slip into beauty parlors by the back door and keep a sharp eye out for the law. feel too important to take such a small assignment. "But I fooled them. I did it.

And I got all that money." of Josephine Hull, startled by a knocking late at night, pitty-pattying across the stage toward the door, one hand held apprehensively near her face, that curious child-like expression, familiar to all her fans, in her eyes. There-was something infinitely endearing and richly comical in her toddling walk, the way she maneuvered her body, which Is built on the proportions of a short, though generous-sized, dumpling. What would, with almost any other actress, have been a commonplace moment, became with Mrs. Hull something memorable. If this bit of reminiscence gives you the idea that I'm a push-over for the lady and can he blissfully happy when she has the stage entirely to herself, is left to her personal resources, you are right.

I became one of her slaves with "You Can't Take It With You," the delightful Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman comedy of a family of whacky individualists. In that one. you may remember, she became a playwright simply because a typewriter had been delivered to the house, by mistake, and as an authoress found it easy to get her heroine into a monastery it was "visitors' day" where she remained for six years. In the two plays mentioned, in "Harvey," in numerous others, Josephine Hull hat for years helped to light up Broadway.

Now she la starred at the Belasco in a new one, "The Solid Gold Cadillac," which, embraced by an overwhelming majority of the daily reviewers, is a solid gold hit. As one of her long-time I'm happy that Mrs. Hull once more has the chance to dispense her special comedy magic to full houses, but as one of two dissenters who had major reservations about the Howard Teichmann-George S. Kaufman play itself, I'll have to be churlishly stubborn and continue to think that it is distinctly unworthy of her. Not that the play doesn't have its funny, even hilarious, moments, or that it isn't based on a fertile story idea.

It was the authors' inspired notion to cast her as a two-bit Investor in a multi-million dollar corporation whose timid, yet persistent, questions at an annual meeting send the directors into a panic. Everything is rolling along fine, just fine they vote one another raises, delegate themselves more authority and power, congratulate themselves on their business genius until she starts asking, among other upsetting matters, what the chairman of the board does to Justify his salary of 8175,000. Her voice could hardly be more hesitant, her manner more apologetic, but their explanations grow flatter and more confused and, on impulse, they decide to shut her up by creating an important-ounding, though actually useless, job for her. At least they think that it will be useless, just wasted, motion, but they have reckoned without the conscientiousness, the friendly, motherly spirit of their new employe, who wants to do her best for good old General Products Corporation. So she writes folksy letters, thousands of them, to the firm's small investors, chiefly housewives, widows, retired elderly souls scattered throughout the country, all of whom are happily surprised, of course, by this personal approach why I didn't know.

General Products Corporation, that you cared. By the time "The Solid Gold Cadillac" is over, Mrs. Hull has made a trip to Washington, found a staunch friend in the corporation's ex-president, stirred up a front-page rumpus, and helped her friend regain control of the firm, with herself in a top position. This is obviously an ideal Josephine Hull type of role and precisely the kind of fanciful shenanigans in which she can shine the bumbling, kind-hearted innocent who puts to rout some high-powered rascals. But too often, it seemed to me, the humor is forced, lacks direction and full-bodied invention, as if Messrs.

Teichmann and Kauf He now has a wig Gets Marilyn Wayne's latest movie has just opened. He gets Marilyn Monroe in 20th Century's Cinemascope "How to Marry a Millionaire." During his four years in Hollywood, he was in 16 pictures, most of which were crammed into the first two years. "After that things began to slow up out there and 1 was Wayne turned down the role of Sakini earlier this year without even reading John he said. "Playing it more than a year will be a pleasure and not a bore." Since he started his stage career here in 1937, with time Since he looks more like the Michigan native he is than the Okinawa native he plays, Wayne has to use considerable makeup. This formerly included a short haircut and the Patrick's play because thought he was going to Europe to make an independent movie.

A Second Chance dyeing of his blond hair work, Wavne has been mostly waiting for my contract bllH'k to end. I had one picture to ten productions and has hit the high average of five make after Millionaire- vvd ULU ne -saln- uul 1 the studio thought it afler that- and il was just cnance mat another "We found out that hair-dyeing for men is forbidden by law in Massachusetts and Connecticut when we took the play out for its pre-Broadway tour," the star said. "I had to have, a new dye job in New( Haven. I suppose the laws date' way back to olden times and probably bad something to do with curbing criminals. Three belong in the superclass "Finian's Rainbow," in which he played the leprechaun; "Mister Roberts," in which he was Ensign Pulver, and now "Teahouse," which should run through two seasons at least.

The only thing needed to should have a production code, Mr. Herbert also believes that "the public is its own best censor. Noboly ever made money off a dirty picture. 'The Moon' is doing a record business not because it was banned in some places, though controversy rouses public interest, but because it's a very funny comedy. It has had long runs all over the country, with theaters that normally keep a picture two weeks holding it for six or eight.

Mr. Herbert went on in his convincingly authoritative manner, "is a story about a girl who is militantly virtuous. There's nothing leering or salacious in it. It's as forthright as a Sunday School tract. It teaches that virtue is Us own protection and its own reward.

It tells a really charming story, about a nice boy and a nice little girl who fall in love. People are rooting for the girl. They want her to marry the and she does. "I like to write movies and plays about nice people." added Mr. Herbert, who has written a lot of both.

"I've been writing for 25 years and I've never used seduction as a basis for comedy." 1 wondered how it happened that "The Moon Is Blue" is being shown without a Production Code seal, and how the code operates anyway. Mr. Herbert, apparently familiar with the process as the back of his hand, went into the explanation at a fast clip: "The film producing companies control the Board of Censorship. The producing companies used to control the theaters too, but that's all changed now. The theaters can book what they like, whereas, a while back no theater could run a picture without a seaL" Administering the code, which is a definite set of regulations about what can't be done in the movies, is tfc business of a large force of trained people.

They read movie scripts, and call the attention of the author to lines or scenes to which there is some objection, under the code. The author then makes the required changes, in most cases, and resubmits the material. That's the simple way of doing it. But sometimes the material is borderline, and a lot depends on the way it is handled in the picture. So the administrator's office suggests that the producer go ahead with the picture, and let them see it in the rough stage.

Then if it still doesn't meet with approval, it can be changed without too much expense. Even the administrator is not the last court of appeal. The story may be sent directly to the presidents of the companies that control the board, and they may reverse the board's decision and bestow a seal upon the film. Individual States have their own boards of censors, which may also pass on a picture and order changes before permitting it to be shown within their jurisdiction. In the rase of "The Moon Is Mr.

Herbert said, it was shown to the New York State censors, among those of other States, and New York did not order a single elimination from the film. That indicates, he thinks, that the Hollywood Production Code is very clearly in need of revision. "In some ways it's idiotic," Mr. Herbert said. "Once I went to them with a story about a mother who wan; objecting to the marriage of her daughter to a playboy who had been married six times before.

They turned it down because this character had been married so many times. It violated the Code. It would be all right, they said, if he had lived with the women without marrying them. Finally they agreed to let the story pass, if the marriages were cut down to three instead of six What he likes best in the world, said Mr. Herbert, is to hear people laughing at one of his comedies.

"I love to go into a theater and hear them laughing at the jokes I've thought up." he said. "Now that 'Moon' is playing 68 theaters around town. I'd like to get on my bicycle and ride around to all 68, just to see people forgetting their troubles and enjoying it." After the play settled down at the Martin Beck, I decided make Wayne completely happy now is to get his family to eliminate the periodic dyeing by getting a wig. It does jagent, who didn't know I'd (ever been considered for the play, inquired about my availability. This time I read the play and grabbed the part quickly.

"I prepared for the part of an Okinawan by spending a lot pf time out in Hollywood with my Japanese gardener. John Sato, and my Japanese cook. Tomyo Tashiro. Between the two, I learned to talk what I suppose you'd call Japanese-English. The Okinawans.

after all, are pretty much like the Japanese. "The dialogue wasn't written in dialect except for an invented phrase here and there, and it was up to me to make it sound authentic." Actually, it wouldn't make much difference if Wayne snoke thp whole rolp of Sakini here trom Hollywood. Mrs. Wayne was in New York for the opening but had to return right away to their three small the job perfectly. I can even let my hair grow out now in stead ot sticKing to a crew children.

To accommodate the family, he leased a brownstone house belonging to Marlene Dietrich, and the family will move in around Christmas. Had to get a place with lots cut." Long Runs Wayne has settled down in "Teahouse" for another of those long runs that seem to be rather frequent in his career. "It's the sort of role and tort of play that would have me crawling to the theater so as not to miss a performance." of room three kids and already furnished. I've dragged I that furniture of ours out inj Hollywood across the country! about three times and I'm not I going to move it again. I've David Wayne Jap Gardner Helped in Sanskrit.

He's that charming i in it. Victor Borge's Six-Foot Fan Paced by Roz, All's Serene Backstage at Winter Garden Note From Canada: A Salami There are countless stories of understudies slicking pins into pictures of stars whose roles they desire, and just as many rumors of feuds between the leading actor or actress Most name performers get delicatessen king and a long-quite a bit of fan mail, but it is time Borge admirer, doubtful if any of the others "The salami arrived un-receives the strange assort-j wrapped except for the usual ment that Victor Borge findsjeasing, to which was attached man had improvised their script from day to day during rehearsals. 1 forgot' to mention that our aging heroine is an ex-actress and, while this leads to some of the show's funniest cracks and comic business, it may be the reason the playwrights were diverted from developing their broad, prankish satire on big business. But, whatever the quality of the script, everyone is In complete harmony on the little lady's performance. It is completely wonderful.

There is nothing funnier in the entire play than just the parade of facial expressions and the business-like air of this motherly-looking soul as she empties her desk of a startling variety of articles a flaming red galosh, a piggy bank, a coffee pot, a corset, a plastic raincoat with booties attached and her radiant beam of self-congratulation when she finds the other red galosh. It Is a gem of comic pantomime. It is also genuinely hilarious when she merely says, looking up at the frowning directors, "You're going to scold me." She is a rare one. In Loring Smith, as the firm's ex-president, she has a perfect foil, a fine comic actor in his own right, and there is very pleasant support from others in the enjoyable cast, but it is Josephine Hull who puts the genuine gold into "The Solid Gold Cadillac." or the lesser performers in a Broadway production, all of it lively "copy" that the press ptronrs trv tn conr-pal from theater through the in his mail box. Borge, who is a label with my name and rniiimnkts and the nuh-'5treets of New York in an ef' enjoying the success of his dress.

I'm surprised this one.L' tv, Mn. frt to helP "'b wnen ne neara ot ner career in his one-man Pd.sseu puMdi inspection in ham.en backstage at the Win- man. Herb Harris, a musician one piece. Anyway, it's the first ter on tne other hand,) in "Wonderful Town," informec Miss Russell that some of the mail I ever got marked 'insuf are a press agent's delight, foi "Comedy in Music," at the Golden, currently is exhibiting to frieijris the most unusual fan letter he ever received. It is a six-foot-long salami sent to him by Shoppsy, Canada's ficient he says.

The comedian also receives more conventional missives, even if the contents are not so conventional. Recently he had Rosalind Russell, star of "Wonderful Town," is really the darling of her regiment. Her friendly attitude sets the mood for all the performers, musi- boys in the orchestra wanted to help. Harris formed a band that he called the Crazy Five, although there were seven in the group, and they played Dixie tunes all day as the car carrying Miss Russell passed JLKLaW dressers, wardrobe worn- through the financial center would permit his phoneticjen and stage hands of Robert' Wall Street was not only treat-punctuation to be adapted to Frver's hit production. Jed to a sight of a smiling, wav-the classroom.

"It would be an the life of this show. ine Rolind and the band- Dut interesting, humorous and dlf- which gave its 300th perform-1 "le 5 i i tu her in ed by dressing their icieiii. way ot piesenung a les anre recentlv. there has been a she wrote, stage costumes and arriving unexpectedy at her point of departure to be her escort. Frequent Parties Parties in dressing rooms and backstage are frequent, held at the drop of the slightest excuse.

The men of the crew-built a dressing room on stage noticeable lak of friction. Certainly, cliques have been formed, but not in a snobbish vein, and anyone visiting backstage is immediately impressed with the atmosphere of friendly gaiety, tempered by the discipline imposed by stage manager Robert Griffith. Two Alternatives Borge hasn't made, a decision regarding this matter, but he is torn between two poles: if he I consents, "the younger generation will grow up to be Victor Borges and I will have to retire to the actors' home. If I refuse, then I will be neglecting a It seems that to the musical for Miss Russell so boys and girls, Rosalind Rus-i wouldn't have to climb sell can do no wrong. When the flights of steep steps to public service Several weeks ago a woman iwrote to him explaining tha she had purchased one of his record albums from a depart ment store.

On the way home new dressing room suite. That called for the star to thank the men with a champagne party after a performance. Because she was to dance with a group of amateurs to further the cause of the Boys Clubs of New York, Joe Layton, of the chorus, offered to rehearse the lads. Helen Rice of the chorus gave a recent solo recital at Carnegie, and the cast of "Wonderful Town" arrangement of her de luxe dressing room suite necessitated moving two featured men into one room instead of two, they accepted the change with grace, then discovered that she had sent her comfortable contour chair into their quarters as a "thank you." Should Miss Russell, a pushover for appearances at charitable functions, mention such an appointment, her colleagues are quick to she had left it on the B. M.

T. Would he be kind enough to send her a substitute? Victor! instructed nis secretary io ao so and a 45-rpm album was soon on its way. Next week another letter came from the woman, complaining that it wasn't a 45 she wanted but rather a 33tt. Not entirely a pushover, Borge suggested that she return the first and he would forward a new one. volunteer as aides.

jcame out in full force to ap- Helped Lighthouse plaud her. They paid for their Only recently the star helped seats, sent flowers, even gave the Lighthouse set up a caval- a reception for her afterward. FIRST BIRTHDAY "The Seven Yeor Itch," with Tom Ewell as a mildly errant husband and Neva Patterson as his wife, begon its second year Friday at the Fulton BROOKLYN EAGLE, NOV. 22, fS53 29 TWO RODuckj m.w Mli.uilOiM iw is.ng and headed by Yul Brynner and Constance Carpenter, gave its 1 1 00th performance at the St. James last Tuesday.

The next afternoon "Me and Juliet," with Isabel Bigley and Bill Hayes as its romantic leads, was given for the 200th time at the Majestic cade of automobiles which car-Rosalind's red roses were a ried representatives of thesplash of color on the platform. I.