May 30

Claude Rains dies of an intestinal hemorrhage in Laconia, New Hampshire, 1967. The London-born stage actor made his first sound film, The Invisible Man, in 1933 for director James Whale, who was searching for an actor with a distinctive enough voice to carry a picture where the leading man is in most of the scenes but viewed only at the very end. In addition to the strong story, based on an H.G. Wells novel, the film boasted impressive special effects, including an invisible Rains removing his bandages—a trick accomplished by having the actor wear black velvet against a black velvet background. In 1950, Rains took his daughter to see the film in a revival house and explained to her throughout how it was made. The audience in attendance grew to watch the father-daughter pair instead of the screen.

April 7

Shooting begins on Now, Voyager, 1942. In the 1932 film The Rich Are Always with Us, George Brent places two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them both and then gives one to Ruth Chatterton. This scene is often forgotten as the precursor to Paul Henried’s identical behavior involving Bette Davis and a pack of smokes in Now, Voyager. It is one of the things the 1942 film is famous for, and, long after the film’s release, Henried was often asked by female fans to similarly light their cigarettes for them. Besides Davis, Henried and cartons and cartons of cigarettes, the biggest box office hit of Davis’s career also starred Claude Rains, who initially turned down the part, as he considered it rather small. The part was beefed up and Rains came on board, though Now, Voyager’s prolonged shooting schedule allowed the actor only a few hours between shooting his last scene for the movie and his first scene for his next project, Casablanca (1942).