The blue book of the screen (1923)

REALISM Francisco today is very different from the Polk street of Frank Norris' time. The fire of 1906 swept away the old and the new bears no resemblance to its predecessor. So this director and his aides were forced to search the older portions of the city to find a substitute building and neighborhood. They found it in a district that escaped the fire and stands today as it was thirty years ago. They To achieve this absolute realism, von Stroheim insisted on filming every scene of the picture against its original background and not against studio-made imitations, however perfect they might be. heim insisted on filming every scene of the picture against its original background and not against studio-made imitations, however perfect they might be. With this end in view, the director, accompanied by his production manager and his technical director, set out in search of their locales two months before the actual filming of the picture began. Much of the dramatic action of the story occurs in a single building — a structure with shops below and living quarters above. It was in such a building that "McTeague," the central character, had his office on Polk street in the old San Francisco. It was to this building that he brought his bride and it is of the denizens of this flat -building that Norris wrote. Around the corner in an alley (as told in the story) there existed the junk yard and hovel of the old Jewish junk dealer. Polk street in San found a building that fitted in exact detail with the building Norris described. They found an adjoining alley and facing on it a vacant lot that offered room for the construction of one of the picture's few artificial settings — the junk yard. Journeying across San Francisco Bay, they followed Norris' route to the B Street Station of the Southern Pacific railroad, and there again they found the humble cot They rebuilt stort lumber. fronts with second-hand tage where "Trina" and her family lived. 351