The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1931)

Thirty The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER April, 19.31 room .... there is no stage backing or imitation about the average set today in Hollywood ... a door is a door, and it looks like one! The vogue for sets a la cinema is no longer. These days a good cameraman will light anything within reason; the idea of leaving spaces for lights, etc., has passed; the art director today knows that with clever sets, a little knowledge or even cooperation with the cameraman, a set can almost z'epresent a four-walled room. At Paramount and Radio recently they had two complete flats comprising every detail common to the modern flat and in exact order. All the rooms adjoined in perfect order. In "No Limit," Clara Bow's next, one set was a replica of any modern flat and is built just as solidly as a great many. Casting is also given far more serious and expert attention in Hollywood than in Britain. Even the smallest part is "in character" .... amazing characterization in their picture helps to give the Americans that slickness and polish which is so often the saving grace of otherwise commonplace pictures. And again, as John Loder once remarked to me, in England all the film people "act" their parts; "act" them probably magnificently, while in the States, they seem to be in the part, not acting it! The Americans having cast their artists carefully, know how to "put them over" with publicity. In this, good photography, superb dressing, attractive hair coiffure, and a thousand and one details of the kind, play their part. An example of clever studio publicity was provided by the handling of Marlene Dietrich. She was sold as a box office draw before the release of her picture in a manner reflecting in credit and cash upon those responsible. Directors and Writers In Hollywood, where the cream of the world's literary talent has been whipped up of late, the feeling exists that British studios regard the scenarist as "less than the dust." It is certain that almost anyone is allowed to write British scenarios and, in one or two glaring cases, story supervision is in the hands of people with little experience and still less inclination to acquire any. The fact that John Van Druten, Michael Arlen, Benn Levy, Frederick Lonsdale, to name only a few, are in Hollywood writing screen originals, is proof enough that the stage play must now be very much adapted to the medium of the screen ... or not filmed at all! A few more original stories with some motion and less inane chatter would help a lot to help forward the British product against that of U. S. A. Tempo we don't appear to understand; why talk about it? Wherein Comment Is Made Upon the Very Frank Remarks of Cars fairs AMERICANS as well as Englishmen may read with profit the letter of John Paddy Carstairs in the Bioscope of London of recent date. They will discover that John Bull as always in his long history has alert scouts abroad, men with a capacity for saying things that may prove to be wholesome even though unpalatable in the taking. England can take it as well as dish it out, and by reason of its ability to do this it is to be respected and perhaps also feared. It is not within reason to expect that indefinitely England in a motion picture production way is to remain submerged. Aside from the handicap of a northern climate there is no tangible reason why Americans living on one side of the Western Ocean should make any better pictures than Englishmen living on the other. So Americans steadilv making hay while the sun shines will not neglect the potentialities of a commercial set-to in which England is one of the contenders. Carstairs says England must develop young talent — stars, directors and writers. England better go slow on accepting that advice. In the old days England had a habit of sending over pictures with the romantic feminine roles filled by women too mature for the particular part. She is doing better now. In America the hits in the feminine division are rarely made by those who cannot hang up at least twentyfive birthdays. Exceptions there are, of course, but not sufficient in number to get excited about, even including those accelerated what through courtesy we will call careers and created from various reasons. No Royal Road Some writers and some directors solemnly may assure you if they reveal what is on their chests that their gift is God-given and that they possessed it in full flower even in their youth. But the wise old birds who have been through the mill know that each is a trade, that of the writer especially; that not all of them can be a Dickens. Few writers make much noise before they are thirty-five and the majority of the successful ones are well beyond that. Dietrich's Pre-Publicity Carstairs speaks of Marlene Dietrich having been sold as a box office draw before the release of her picture and describes it as celevr studio publicity. It was simple enough. In advance of the release and in conformity with its practice it showed "Morocco" to the west coast correspondents of trade papers, of fan magazines, of syndicates, and more important than that to the representatives of the news associations, to men and women representing hundreds, even thousands, of newspapers. All of these individuals or a majority of them in their enthusiasm at the end of the showing "tipped their mitt" to the publicity office. That department was confirmed in its own opinion that "Morocco" contained something out of the ordinary, that an unusual personality had crossed the screen horizon. The executives were confirmed in their hopes. The advertising department got busy on a 24-sheet that carried the name of the newcomer and the public curiosity was aroused. It happened the picture made good on the advertised thunder. Dietrich was a sureenough star, as she never could have been had the production proved a flop in the view of the public. Incidentally Elstree's "Loose Ends", shown in Hollywood in March, will go far to demonstrate the justice of some of Carstairs' restrictions on the English studios. There was much in the picture that merited approval, but as it was attempted to point out in another column in a review written before the Carstair's letter was read there were a number of major opportunities overlooked to the detriment of the production. Cultured English Regarding the broad A and presumably other evidences of what some will call affectation to which Carstairs refers it is possible and rather likely he is being "kidded" when he finds that "most people liked it immensely and many were trying to cultivate it." The correspondent is right when he says he thinks "it is apparent that Americans do not resent what is called cultured English." Naturally not, for that particular article is not a monopoly of one side of the ocean, which ordinary construction of Carstairs' remarks implies it is. There is little difference in the dialogue of an English actor of rank and an American actor of rank when the two are thrown into the same company. "Cultured English" then is a common possession. But when an American actor goes to the extreme of out-Englishing the Englishman then an American audience is likely to squirm — and certainly will. Whoever puts on the linguistic dog will be laughed at. But by all means bring on that English thatched cottage — we want to see it and we want to see the hedges and the lanes. As to directors that is something else again. The fact always remains that given initial capacity for the work, the product of the matured craftsman must be infinitely superior (Continued on Page 33)