American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1952)

remberg, Wurzburg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Mainz-Castel, Eberbach, Fllville, Biebrich, Kiedrich, Bad Reichenhall, Piebing, Rothenburg ob der Tau¬ ber, Schleissheim, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and the Rhine River island of Peters Aue. The 800-year-old Eberbach cloister, the fabulous Bavarian palace at Schleiss¬ heim, the quaint walled city of Rothen¬ burg, the medieval old city of Nuremburg, are but a few of the unusual set¬ tings for the film’s scenes. One of the most difficult problems was to procure enough German guns, tanks and other military vehicles to equip the Wehrmacht in the film. There were none inside Western Germany, the Americans had none, and it might have led to misunderstandings had they sought it from the Russians. After weeks of vain searching, pro¬ ducer Frank McCarthy located a virtual arsenal of captured German equipment in France. With the permission of high French military authorities, twenty truckloads of material, including anti¬ aircraft guns, more than 75,000 Mau¬ sers, and other equipment including toothbrushes, bootstraps, field telephones and mess kits, were shipped to the movie unit in Munich. The French insisted that their own officers and men go along to guard the weapons. But equally difficult for the producers was the problem of procuring authentic costumes. To obtain these, the unit advertised in German newspapers and, since under occupation law the wearing but not possessing of costumes was for¬ bidden, more than 1500 former German officers and men who had retained their uniforms, offered to sell them. The only type of uniform not offered was that of FRANK PLANER, A.S.C., twice winner of the annual Golden Globe Award for photo¬ graphy, directed the photography of "Deci¬ sion Before Dawn" for 20th Century-Fox. the black SS, since possession would have been a virtual admission of mem¬ bership in an organization since ruled “war criminal” by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals. So the unit wardrobe man had the SS uniforms made up from drawings. But the other 600 uniforms, representing 85 types of Nazi and Ger¬ man military organizations, is believed to represent the largest wardrobe and most complete collection today in the world of wartime German uniforms. The heavy weapons, which include lethal 88mm guns, Vierling four-barrel anti¬ aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, half tracks, machine guns, and rifles, represented every known piece of authentic German military equipment in disarmed Western Germany at a time that talk of rearming the Bonn Republic was widely circu¬ lated. Although the French government of¬ fered to loan the unit German Tiger tanks for the film, no insurance com¬ pany could be found which would insure the old vehicles. So the ingenious Mc¬ Carthy arranged to have American light and medium tanks painted in camouflage markings, given mocked-up German tank profiles, and driven backwards with guns reversed by GI drivers for the scenes. To transport the units and the sound, camera, costume, prop, and grip equip¬ ment, as well as personnel, the company traveled through Western Germany in a caravan of more than 40 heavy trucks, trailers, and busses. Frank Planer’s photography manages to capture the full scope of this sweeping narrative. Commenting on the adverse conditions under which the film was shot, he explains: “We didn’t have most of the things we were used to in the studio, so we were forced to rely on our ingenuity.” Fighting proved to be a major head¬ ache, since many of the interiors (such as the convent used as a major locale) covered vast areas. A great deal of the filming was done at night, which meant that great stretches of street or country¬ side had to be illuminated. There would not have been enough lights in Germany to achieve this effect by conventional means, but Planer managed it through skillful placement of light units to illumi¬ nate important planes of composition. He coupled this with the technique of latensification , in which the effective (Continued on Page 83) UNVARNISHED, glamorless photography brings to the screen such scenes as this LATENSIFICATION of negative enabled Planer to shoot scenes with all the stark realism of war-torn Germany under seige; and it is this such as this with little illumination, giving them the full quality in the photography that gives the production much of its greatness. pictorial impact one would experience at scene itself. o Fki’.ruary, 1952 Am Kin can ( an km atocraphkr 63