Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

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Every Tuesday be taken. You'll go out through Switha Sound and cut her off." "She's to be sunk, sir?" inquired the officer. "If they won't surrender." The destroyers set off upon their mis- sion, and David stood upon the bridge of the leading vessel, hoping against hope that his wife would not be killed. Switha Sound was left behind, but nothing could be seen of the St. Magnus out in the wide expanse of Sandwick Bay. "Funny," commented the commanding officer, lowering his binoculars, " there's no sign of the old tub yet." "Perhaps," gulped David, "they've altered their course again." The St. Magnus was making for the rendezvous with the enemy submarines at a speed that threatened ruin to her en- gines. Hardt's own vessel was crossing the bay at a depth of thirty feet when Sub-Lieutenant Schmidt caught sight of her through the periscope and called to Schuster. "Have a look, Felix," he said. "Isn't that the St. Magnus?" Schuster looked. "It's her all right," he confirmed. "What's she doing off her course?" "Looks a bit fishy," said Schmidt. "And we've got to save all the torpedoes." "Nothing in the orders to stop us send- ing up a couple of shells," decided Schuster, and he shouted orders. The submarine rose to the surface and Its guns were trained upon the St. Mag- nus. Hardt saw through his glasses from the bridge what was happening, and he yelled an order for the British flag to be lowered from the mast. He saw Schuster on the deck of the submarine and cupped his hands to his mouth screaming: "This is Hardt! Hardt is here! Hardt!" He screamed in vain, and in a panic he began to signal his name. "There's somebody semaphoring from the bridge," said Schmidt. "H-A-R " The guns I'oared, and the St. Magnus quivered from stem to stern as a gaping hole was torn in her side. Hardt clung to the rail of the bridge, and out from the saloon stumbled passengers and crew, the girl carrying the baby for its mother. BOY'S CINEMA "Keep your heads!" cried the captain. "Get your life-belts on!" Hardt descended from the bridge, barked orders, and the boats were lowered. The St. Magnus was sinking by the stern, the submarine had ceased to fire at her. The leading destroyer rounded a head- land, and David Blacklock, on the bridge, cried out: "There she is!" The commanding officer issued orders, but David shouted frenziedly: "Don't fire! She's sinking by the stern —they're taking to the boats!" "She's being shelled by a submarine," the commanding officer exclaimed a few minutes later. "We'll take a crack at her!" A sailor on the deck of the submarine was the first to notice the oncoming destroyers. He yelled to Schuster, and Schuster ordered a crash dive. The submarine began to submerge, and its conning-tower was disappearing when a depth-charge was released from the destroyer and there followed an explosion under water. A second depth-charge found its mark. Water gushed into the engine-room of the submarine, water spouted up from the sea like a fountain. . All the passengers and crew of the St. Magnus had taken to the boats except the girl, the engineer and the captain. The prisoners who had taken orders from Hardt were lined up on deck and Hardt was facing them. The girl was on his left, the captain on his right. "It's time you were off," said the cap- tain. "See her safe in the boat, James." The old engineer caught hold of the girl's arm and Hardt looked at her in a strained fashion. "It was my own ship that sunk us," he gritted, and then he tui-ned dejectedlv away and climbed the ladder to the bridge. The prisoners stood perfectly still, un- willing to leave the ship without the man they looked upon as their commander. The engineer tugged the girl away across the deck. The stern of the St. Magnus was com- pletely under water when the captain ascended to Hardt. II "What are you doing here?" he di^- mandcd gruffly. "Get off my bridge and get in one of the boats!" "If you don't mind, captain," said Hardt miserably, yet with a certain dignity, "I'd rather stay." The captain picked up two life-jackets. "Please yourself," he grunted. "Captain," said Hardt, "have you got a cigarette?" " Never smoke them. I've a pipe if you want it." "I've never smoked a pipe." " You've left it a bit late to learn." The captain began to descend the ladder, but he turned and flung one of the life-jackets towards the solitary figure on the bridge. It fell at Hardt's feet, and he looked down at it. But instead of picking it up he held himself erect and stared out across the water that soon was to engulf him. The girl was in the last of the boats with the captain, the engineer, and a member of the crew, and the boat was well awav from the sinking vessel when the boilers blew up. She looked back at the motion- less figure upon the bridge, and her eves became flooded with tears. David Blacklock saw the boat being pulled towards the destroyer, and with hi.^ eyes glued to his binoculars he cried jov- f ully: "She's there! I can see her!" By permission of Columbia Pictures Corporation, Ltd., from the film based on J. Storer Clouston's novel, "The Spy in Black," the principal players in the film being: Conrad Veidt as Captain Hardt Sebastian Shaw as Lieutenant Ashington Valerie Hobson as the Schoolmistress Marlus Goring: as Lieutenant Schuster June Duprez as Anne Burnett Athole Stewart as the Rev. Hector Matthews Cyril Raymond as the Rev. John Harris George Summers as Captain Ratter Grant Sutherland as Bob Bratt Torin Thatcher as Sub-Lieutenant Schmidt ADVENTURE ROLE FOR REGIS TOOMEY Prom the heaving deck of a subchaser, Regis Toomey will step into the ice-cold waters of the Idaho swamps. Toomey, who enacts Wallace Beery's second in command in Metro-Goldwyn- Maver's "Thunder Afloat," was selected for'the highly dramatic role of Weber, the Ranger who breaks his leg during the forced march to the Indian village of St. Francis, in the Technicolour production '■ Northwest Passage." So as not to betray the rest of his fellows to Indians who may capture him, Weber commits suicide. The sequence will be filmed in the swamps near Payette Lake, Idaho. WHEN THE WHISTLE SOUNDS IN HOLLYWOOD A Being a film star is not exactly like working in a factory, but every player lives by the sound of a whistle. Factory people start and stop work when the whistle blows, and everybody in Holly- wood, from the biggest star to the lowliest labourer, does the same thing. The Hollywood version of the whistle vai-ies widely, but still it is a whistle and it runs the town. And here is the reason. Making a picture is almost entii'ely a matter of time. For instance, all a studio gets when it hands out a contract is the actor's time. The same is true of everyone else connected with the production, and therefore time is the most important element in the studio. Taking it a step further, the major poition of time used in filming a picture is occupied by the cameraman in light- ing his sets. The camera is the essence of the whole thing, of course, and the cameraman must exercise great care in his lighting, because he is responsible for the quality of the photography. Players, directors and everyone else wait on the cameraman, and that is where the whistle comes in. They all keep an ear cocked in anticipation, because the cameraman's signal means a scene can begin. Every film photographer has evolved some kind of a whistle and each strives to outdo the other in originality. Karl Struss, cameraman for Bing Crosby on " The Star Maker " at Paramount, has an old-fashioned motor horn hooked to the side of the "blimp" that covers his camera. When his set is lighted, Struss presses the rubber bulb and the horn emits several raucous honks to call the company together. Theodor Sparkuhl, who worked for Pro- ducer-director Prank Lloyd on "Rulers of the Sea," uses a siren noise, but makes it with his mouth rather than a mechanical contrivance. Charles Lang, when ready to photograph Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in "The Cat and the Canary," sounded a bazoo that had a tonal quality oddly like that sound known as a raspberry. This is in keeping with the general idea of. Holly- wood whistles, for while they serve an important use the cameramen still try to inject a little comedy into the routine. The top whistlema'n among the photo- graphers is George Barnes, veteran lens expert, who has been vvorking with Fav Bainter and Frank Craven on 'Our Neighbours—the Carters." When George is ready he plays the opening bars of '-The Stars and Stripes Forever" on an ocharina, or sweet potato. There is no mistaking that signal! FATHERS AND SONS J Lon Chaney Jr. is faced with the problem which sooner or later faces everv son of a famous father, namely, moving out of the shadow of a great name. So Lon Chaney Jr. is not sorrv that he missed the chance of following in the footsteps of his father. He wants to break his own trail to the top, and he is confident that he has found the big opportunity in the role of Lenn'.e, in Hal Roach's production of John Stein- beck's/'Of Mice and Men." " I was tested for the title role in ' The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' and I didn't get it," Chaney said. " I'm not sorrv now. It's asking a lot to try to come "up to the performance of my father." The late Lon Chaney, Sr.. "the man with a thousand faces," starred in the silent version of "The Hunchback " back in 1923. It was generally considered his greatest triumph. "I saw a revival of the film just a few weeks ago," said Chaney, "and it made me realise more sharply than ever how good my father was—and what a tough time anybody will have trying to live up to the part. Anything I might have done would have been a pale carbon copy." But the chief reason he isn't sorrv h« won't do the 1939 version. Chaney ex- plained, is that he wants to carve his ov.n cinematic niche.