Twenty years under the sea (1936)

THE MILLION-DOLLAR MYSTERY director's turn now. He didn't like the rest of the story. There was another pitched battle. Another terrific disturbance of positive hurricane intensity. The eminent director walked out. Back to his home in Denmark. He was through. We were now matched in stormy blasts. Hollywood and the Bahamas, three each. Mine might be termed Acts of God, but the studio storms seemed somehow to lack divine dispensation. A few weeks later I had shot all the remaining scenes. Now it was our turn to go home. Studio and Bahamas negatives were cached, put on the shelf to cool, and perhaps to solidify. Then a doctor was called, a reel film surgeon, for a major operation was necessary. Once more the story was rewritten, the main part of the picture recast, miles of it shot and reshot in the studio, sending the cost sheet creeping toward the second quarter million. At last it was finished. It was heading for Broadway and the great public's approval, when a strange voice was heard — a voice that was heard around die world. It has never died down, for its echo was destined to go on growing in volume. It was Al Jolson's voice in the movies. Sound had arrived! And instead of a great super-spectacle, our picture was a hushed and silent spectre. 223