Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-06-29

SoxerS would
queue up If a marquee were to read:
Tonight: frank Sinatras-2"!
The dual role Zone star playing
two parts in the same movie) is
back in vogue with bang Actors
are delighted-and why not?-since
this means twice as many closeups.
But camera men and technicians
are cussin' right out loud, for MAX
ing a pair Of actors sprout where
there should be one is tricky and
tedious job. 1t was bad enough in
days OF silent movies to match such
action, but with dialogue the prob
lem takes on the tone of a Russian
trying to translate a speech done
in Chinese.
It's an Epidemic
Over at Mutual, Fred MacMurray
is playing twin brothers in the COM
edy pardon My Past" on which
Leslie Fenton serves as both pro-
Queer and director. This comedy has
Fred playing two distinct charac-
tiers, one comedy, the other a heavy.
"AASAA / ooASA l. GU llOW 1lhcu Ut
ing split personality he quipped
back at me with: Don't forget,
Hedda, it isn't every man who gets
chance to shake hands with HIM
self. And it isn't every man who
gets the chance of being his own RI
val for the affections of pretty Mar
guerite Chapman"
Over at Warmers, Bette Davis is
having herself an emotional daisy
day as two girls-one good, t'other
bad-in "a Stolen Life" Bette's
tripie-threat gal on this. She's also
producing it. Bette about emotes
herself to pieces when she plays
single role, so you can imagine
what this is doing to her.
Cornell Wilde of "a Song to Re-
member is also hitting the dual
role trail in "a Thousand and One
Nights" technicolor extravaganza
of old Bagdad. Al Green, director,
had his hands full on this one, for
not only does Cornell do a dual stint
but Dennis Hoey works in double
exposure throughout the story, i'm
personating an eastern potentate and
his wicked twin brother, Hail. Ray
Rennahan, camera man, told me he
went berserk trying to keep the
characters straight on the film.
In Sacred Stiff" which comes
from Pine-Thomas, Lucien Little
field also plays two parts, eccentric
twin brothers, who get mixed up in
the theft of jewel-studded chess
set, of all things! Danny Kaye in
wonder Man" plays identical
twins, too.
The Hard Way
On the stage few plays have
had star play two separate and
distinct parts in the same show.
This causes the actor or actress to
make quick costume changes just
off the stage and switch wigs as
quickly as possible. But it really
takes movie camera to present
anything as boisterous and blatant
as Betty Hutton singing a duet with
herself in Here Come the Waves"
or Gene Kelly's startling alter ego
routine in which he serves as his
own dancing partner in "Cover
Girl"
The dual role, however, is as old
as the moving picture itself. Way
back in the days of shcTt-reelers
technicians discovered how to make
half film, take a scene, then wind
back and expose the other half
which had remained uneXposed.
Crude double exposure was thus OBJ
tanned, but it was far cry from
such smooth achievements as hav-
ing Fred MacMurray hand himself
letter in pardon My Past" or
Cornell Wilde's duel with himself in
"a Thousand and One Nights"
The stars enjoy the glory of a
snowy dual assignment. No, they
don't get twice their salary, but the
extra footage, applause and glory
make up for the lack of bulge in
their bank accounts.
A Great Opportunity
Well see if our big boys in the
studios can take it. They're getting
overseas shots like mad. Two top
men from each studio have been in
vited by the government to go over.
Idea is for them to be shown the
horrors of Naziism, Fascism, con-
centration camps, torture chambers,
so that from now on they can keep
this in mind when planning pictures.