Cinema Progress (1935 - 1937)

CINEMA PROGRESS What Price R By Ram Bagai* ealism? Realism, Hollywood fetish which decrees that producers must make the unreal seem real, and must spend almost unreal sums of money doing it, is well illustrated in two forthcoming productions— M-G-M's Kim, now in preparation, and Samuel Goldwyn's Adventures of Marco Polo, soon to be released. For Metro's purposes, it was necessary to transport Kipling's India to Culver City, no matter how many ship loads of props it took, while all Goldwyn had to do was bring thirteenth century Pekin to some open fields 35 miles from the movie capital, at a cost of $20,000 per day. Props and research are the aspect of realism faced by M-GM ; location and budget problems that by Goldwyn. First, let's go to India. As in the quest for authenticity in The Good Earth, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer strives again to lend realism to a production. This time agents were sent out to bring back documents, pictures, implements, clothing, and anything else to aid in preparation of their forthcoming film — Rudyard Kipling's immortal Kim. Realism, Hollywood Fetish So, as this is being written, the fabulous India of Kim is already in Hollywood. The treasure of props from India, 4,279 individual pieces ranging from earrings of dancing girls to howdahs and camel trappings — are now being unpacked and catalogued at the large Culver City studio. Supervising the job is Hugh B. Hunt, a member of the studio's interior decorating staff, who traveled 25,000 miles in three months to make the collection. On this trip Hunt was accompanied by his assistant, L. R. Walker, and a photographer, A. J. Patel, both trained observers. "The first step before we sailed," said Hunt, "was to read the book and make what we call a 'breakdown', or detailed description of each scene, noting the 'props' used or needed, not only from the standpoint of realism, but for photographic value and atmosphere. Upon our arrival in Bombay, we had our plan of procedure mapped out, and had decided to follow the action of the story, scene for scene." The Punjab, or central state of India, is the locale of Kim, and Hunt made his headquarters at Lahore. From Lahore they followed the footsteps of Kim and the Lama over the Grand Trunk Road, wrhich cuts across India. They covered the 300 miles from Lahore to Benares by auto, stopping often to make panoramic photographs of the countryside and the life enroute. Travelling along the roads from town to town, they were amazed at the beauty and natural settings. Nature has been very generous to India — bestowing upon her something that can never be grasped physically by man — beauty and naturalness. Photographic film, however, seems to be the lone exception; for Mr. Patel took more than 10,000 photographs, which will be used by the art, wardrobe, makeup, property, and research departments, as well as the process shots for the special effects department. A motion picture buying representa ♦Hollywood representative of The National Call Delhi, India. — 9 —