The Cine Technician (1939)

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L85 T BE (I X E-T EC II X I C I A X Recent Publications D -Jan., 1937 A Mongrel in Movieland SCRUFFY b\ Claude Burbidge. Hurst & Blackett, 5s. net " Now, Brownie was a member of a strange tribe called Cameramen. They are a warlike tribe and greatly feared in filmland. It is said that cameramen have killed many stars. On the other hand, it well treated, the\ become almost human and have done more for their victims than the outside world could imagine. This curious contradiction in their character is revealed in their war cries. 'Oh. save those arcs !' is frequently followed by the savage shout : "Kill those arcs !' So writes Scruffy of his boss, and his calling, in his autobiography. Our hero tells us thai some of his fathers were ver\ distinguished animals and his story carries us from Ins early days as a seven-and-sixpenny mongrel to stardom at fifty guineas a week. A dog's outlook is naturally different from a human being's for instance, the studio imitation streets with lamp posts as good as real were a great attraction — and a freshness of outlook pervades the whole book. In lus progress to stardom Scruffy speaks frankly of many subjects. He makes cracks at the many madnesses and inconsistencies oi film production. "No one could accuse the film people of sanity" he says. He is puzzled l»\ pro luction terms. "A unit in filmland denotes a number of persons and theri fori a contradiction in terms and does not make sense. This, of course, is in accordance with the highest traditions of the industry." He discovers that everybody is the most important person in films and that everybody can produce a lot of statistics to prove it. There are many delightful sallies. For example, assistant directors "imagine, like everybody else in films, that they are the most important people in the business and that no picture could he produced without their valuable co-operation. Their real job is to call out orders at regular intervals in a refined voice and lend tone to the whole proceedings. This gives them a sense of importance and does no harm to nobody, because nobody takes any notice." In short. Scruffy puts the whole industry in its place and lets us know quite clearly that he is the only person in film production who really matters. We congratulate A.t'.T. member, Bernard G. Browne, on discovering such a brilliant star and equallj scintillating author with. I course, the able assistance of Claude Burbidge. We also commend his wisdom for disappearing on the day the ho ik is published (S< ruffy whispers it's a honeymoon and he strongly approves of the bride). .Moreover, as we wish them all long life and happiness, we hope the holiday will be a long one in order to enable a leg-pulled industrv. technicians, and everybody else, to recover from possible squalls which might develop, if we hadn't a sense of humour, into more than a mere "Storm in a Teacup." G. H. ELVIX Till'. FACE ()X TTTF CUTTING ROOM FLOOR" By CAMERON McCABE. Gollancz. 7 6. Two-thirds of "The Face on the Cutting Room Floor" is damn good detective story. Film technicians. however, are warned that they will have to accept a Silent Automatic Infra Camera, smooth and noiseless, capable of working in light and darkness equally well, using nonHam reversal film which is automatically developed as en a it has been exposed and possessing a panning and focussing device which enables it to follow people without the aid of any guiding hand. The book goes all haywire tor the last third of its length. McCabe has rounded off his story with a magnificent trial and built up a grand climax -and then, presumably in his anxiety to attain originality, he adds a se\ cut j -pace epilogue which goes into long psychological explantions for the behaviour of all concerned— until we arc so bored that the committing of another murder on the lasl page does not interest us in the leasl Despite the anti-climax, "The Face ^n the Cutting Room Floor" i^ well worth reading, even if everyone speaks in parables and nearly all the characters seem to be raving mad. Therein, perhaps, lies its charm. RALPH BOND