Cinema Progress (1935 - 1937)

CINEMA PROGRESS tive in a foreign country need not search for ''props'', according to Hunt. "Everywhere," he said, "we were shown the utmost in courtesy and co-operation by English and Indian authorities. Despite daily temperatures ranging from 110 to 118 degrees, there was no lack of enthusiasm on the part of merchants and traders. Our task was to choose judiciously from the thousands of objects offered for sale. Those that could be reproduced as cheaply, or cheaper, in the studio property department, required that we purchase only samples, but even so we had to buy a bewildering assortment of 'props', such as musical instruments, camel saddles, pottery, brasses, Buddhas, shrines, cooking utensils, charpoys, slippers, dresses, and a hundred and one other things." Hunt is proudest of a Maharani's four-wheel bullock-cart, a museum piece, and exact duplicate of the one in which Kim and the Lama travelled down the Grand Trunk Road. Victor Fleming, who will direct Robert Taylor as the grown-up Kim and Lionel Barrymore as the Lama, is now working with Art Director Cedric Gibbons ; Superintendent of Properties, Ed Willis; and Hunt on the physical outline of the picture, which promises to be one of the most spectacular from the standpoint of settings, yet filmed in Hollywood. Now let's go to Thirteenth Century Pekin. Few outside of the motion picture business have any concept of the everlasting headaches produced by long and elaborate journeys on location. The average producer shuns them, and usually will resort to any legitimate means (process shots and painted glass shots) to avoid the cost and dangers attendant upon expeditions far from home. In a sense, going on location is similar in many respects to moving an army. Both have their advance guards, their transportation, feeding and housing problems, and they share alike in matters of sanitation, policing, and the observance of schedules. Lately, the most ambitious location enterprise is Sam Goldwyn's The Adventures of Alar co Polo, starring Gary Cooper in a story of thirteenth century China. Using a daily average of 800 extras in battle scenes and awesome Mongolian charges, it is obvious that pageantry of this sort cannot be made in studio stages. For this particular picture, two men were sent out to pick a site which resembled the Chinese scene of the story. These location scouts must observe definite rules. The perfect site must be without interfering houses, telephone poles, etc., must fit the action of the story; must have proximity to some source of food supply, electricity and water; and finally, must be adaptable to housing a large number of men and women. The location men then make a series of photographs of the country under consideration. These are taken back to the studio and in this particular case were presented to Goldwyn and director Archie Mayo for approval. A beautiful pastoral country a few miles from Malibu Lake and 35 miles from Hollywood was finally chosen and this then became the focus for an amazing industry. As soon as arrangements had been made with the owner of the property, some 200 carpenters were hurried to the spot. These artisans, working three 8-hour shifts over a period of 10 davs, constructed an authentic re — 10