Universal Weekly (1933-1935)

"CAMERA THRILLS” WORE BULLET PROOF VESTS (ADVANCE) THEY wore bullet proof vests, steel helmets and gas masks. Their orders were to go wherever the fighting was thickest and get what they were sent after. There were only two of them, John McHenry and Mervyn Freeman and they were unarmed, surrounded by hostile forces. This scene did not take place in wartime France but in peactime America. McHenry and Freeman, Universal cameramen were on assignment to get the reels of the San Francisco general strike which form part of the Universal feature, "Camera Thrills" which comes to the theatre on Their risks included life itself. Six thousand troops armed with guns, bayonets, gas and armored cars were in conflict with the strikers. The civic authorities anxious to keep, news from going out, gave the camera men no help. They had to set up their own secret service but they shot the scenes. Took A Brave Man (CURRENT) IT takes a brave man to give the world a thrill and it takes just as brave a man to film it for the movies. How true this is may be seen from some of the experiences of one of the camera men who filmed the Universal feature, "Camera Thrills," now at the theatre. This cameraman's name is Joe Gibson and he would be surprised to be told that there was anything brave in the deeds he does as part of a day's work, although they would whiten the average man's hair. Gibson was once assigned to take a picture of how fast a motor boat could go. So he had himself lashed to the bow of Gar Wood's Miss America and got pictures of the craft speeding at 110 miles an hour. He flew with the U. S. Hell Divers and got reels of their dizzy escapades. He took pictures of Lee Bible driving a racing car at 202 miles an hour at Daytona Beach, Florida. Bible's car swerved and killed Gibson's fellow cameraman, Chas. Traub. A distinctly American form of entertainment called the Rodeo holds thrills for thousands. In this picture, the rider of a steer is being gored by the infuriated mount. From “Camera Thrills ” Thumbnail Synopsis MOST sensational events in the world of to-day: a screen parade of war, revolution, fires, flood and hairbreadth escape, the death of kings and perils by land, air and sea, filmed on the actual scene by daredevil camera men at the risk of their lives. FUNERAL PYRE FOR A BRAVE AIRMAN De Pined o starting on p transcontinental flight to Rome, cracks up in the most spectacular air shot ever made by a moving picture camera, a high spot in Camera Thrills. From " Camera Thrills ” REVIEW IF you have any doubt that truth can be stranger than fiction and a lot more thrilling go to the theatre where they are exhibiting a feature called "Camera Thrills" and you will have your doubts set at rest. Universal is sponsor for this picture and it is the most exciting thing of its kind this reviewer has seen in the course of several seasons. The scenes are tense in themselves and the action is heightened by a very effective monologue delivered by the narrator, Graham MacNamee, noted radio announcer and screen commentator. No better idea of the strenuous times we live in can be had than by seeing a picture like "Camera Thrills." The high light of the film is perhaps the assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia which packs a punch to the emotions like dynamite, but other scenes such as views of the strike riots in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and other labor storm centers run it a close second. Then there are air thrills, rodeo thrills, the Morro Castle ablaze, steeplechasing thrills and spills in merry England and others as good.