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ANN HARDING, the star of “ Prestige.’’
to have spent almost a million pounds on Hell's Angels. This was far more than he originally intended. It was to have been an ordinary feature production, with only a few aeroplanes. It expanded gradually.
Then came talkies, and a lot of the silent film was scrapped. The film was remade with sound and dialogue !
SEVERAL hundred thousand dollars went on aeroplanes and stunt artistes alone. It was a great film for the stunt men who risk their lives for scenes of this description.
Odd expenses of this kind are, in fact, mainly responsible for the heavy costs of a picture. For a recent Ruth Chatterton talkie. The Rich Are Always With Us, a large gambling scene was required.
The gambling apparatus — kept, of course, for
use in future operations— -cost forty thousand dollars ; roughly, at that time, ,£10,000.
Carl Laemmle will tell you that the three most costly houses in lus experience were those built for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. They were built of solid timber, and a hundred tons of plaster covered the walls. They cost respectively £17,500, £15,500 and £10,000. Yet they were used only for this one picture.
Charlie Chaplin's films arc among the most expensive ever produced. He is so leisurely, and a lot of the expense goes in overhead costs. He spent exactly thirty months on City Lights. The total expenditure was approximately £300,000.
A CONSIDERABLE percentage of this money went in the building of sets. Every scene, with two exceptions, was shot within the studio, and streets and buildings had to be constructed at a cost of about a hundred thousand pounds.
Several thousand extras were used in one way and another.
And, before the film was finished, 800,000 feet of negative had been exposed.
The most costly production of 1932 was undoubtedly Grand Hotel, a quartcrof-a-million pounds show.
In this case, the chief expense was the salary list ; the most costly of the settings was the vast reception hall, which ran into several thousand pounds.
The weekly salaries, however, approximated £6,000, and this covered the major stars alone. The film took about a couple of months to make ; though, of course, not all of the stars were actively engaged the whole of the time.
Almost £40,000 had been paid out in salaries by the end of the picture.
NOBODY could grumble at this value for money. What theatre could possibly put on such a lavish show ?
As is fairly well-known, Harold Lloyd keeps his studio staff on all the time he is on holiday. The costs are heavy, but this famous comedian apparently has a contemptuous disregard for money.
He spent £200,000 on the first two reels of Feet First.
It was a big gamble. These first two reels entailed a voyage to Honolulu, for which the Malola, a trans-Pacific liner, was chartered as a floating studio.
Not a foot of the thousands of feet shot on that trip was seen until the company returned to Hollywood, for no projection room was available. Had the sound apparatus gone wrong, or had the film been injured in any way, the financial loss would have been staggering. Luckily, however, the film was all right.
Yes, an amazing amount of money is spent in filmland every week.
But it pays. You and I see to that !
-o