International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Fourteen The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Motion Picture Production South America May, 1934 IN By Jack Alton (A Letter from Argentine to the Editor) | HE Spanish Market, as you know, is the second after the English. I believe there are about one hundred and sixty-three million Spanish-speaking people, although many of different accents, but always Spanish. During the silent era of motion pictures this market was controlled entirely by Hollywood. Here and there appeared a few pictures of German origin, or a few French comedies, but the Latins preferred the quick tempo of American cutting. There were no so-called Spanish productions. There was no need for them, for a picture could be interpreted in various ways. A Spaniard saw it in Spanish. Then the talkies came and here the difficulties began. Subtitles, a strange language, misinterpretations, wrong translations, half of the screen covered with titles — one did not know where to look or what to listen to. And on top of all never in history has Hollywood sent out so many pictures of inferior quality. And so we arrive at the year 1933. People in the Spanish-speaking countries are getting tired of the gaba-gaba they do not understand. Pictures are too much nationalistic. Problems, that little interest the public of South America. Managers of local exchanges of American firms beginning to complain. Box office dropped considerably. So the producers got their heads together and soon Hollywood sent out a few so-called Spanish talkies. A well-known Spanish studio began to manufacture them like sausages. The result? Tragi-comic. Tragic for the box office and comic for the public. It so happened that the man in charge of Spanish productions in Hollywood sent out an S. O. S. for Spanish-speaking authors, actors, etc. He had no idea of the different accents ; during the most serious dramatic scenes the public burst out laughing. Why? Because one of the actors would speak in Mexican and the other would answer him in a Cuban accent. Soon appears a Spanish policeman and yells out in pure Chilean accent until the final result was that the picture flopped. Or, in another production, the leading man would make love to his senorita in pure Castillian that, to the Argentinian, is something like if they would show an Englishman making love in good old Cockney accent. Wouldn't you all laugh at it in Hollywood? Then again producers in Hollywood have little or no idea of local costumes and customs. Whenever the tango appears on the screen even in an English talkie people get a kick out of it and they love to see girls dressed up in Spanish shawls and high combs. True, here and there some of the American companies send the inspector down here to "study" conditions. He arrives with the Pan-American Airways, for he is in an awful hurry. The reporters await his arrival and ask him how he likes the country. He looks around on the flying field and answers in Spanish, "fantastico." They get him in a car and it being a hot day, the local manager takes him to the nearby seaside resort, where the press is invited. The Mogul announces the friendship between the United States and Argentine and his next year's program. Big applause and, while others still enjoy the imported French cham pagne he is on his way to the flying field with the detailed report that some stenographer has, in the meantime, prepared for him. He arrives in the States and reports his "studies." The next Spanish productions are even worse. The most phonetic of all Spanish accents and the most generally accepted in the Spanish world is the Argentine. Also the most motion picture minded of all are the Argentinians. As may be seen from the annual report of a Buenos Aires trade paper published during the season of 1933, 404 films were shown and only a small percentage of them in Spanish. Five of them were produced in the Argentine. Two of the five, the only two that can be accepted as pictures, were produced by myself. At least, technically they were O. K. and are making money. One of the other two for a local studio and the other two on my own account, even released by myself, which for a foreigner is no easy task. When I was in Paris (at that time in the post of chief cameraman of the Paris Paramount studios) I asked the president of the company about equipment, especially about lights. He took a deep breath and with the air of a "Thinkheknows" around him, answered: "Lamps! Ha! Ha! — we have more than enough!" Imagine my embarrassment when, upon my arrival in Buenos Aires, I found the ceiling of the new studio full of reflectors of the kind they use to illuminate a tennis court at night, or a huge ballroom. I died instantly. The other day I asked a local exhibitor his opinion about last year's Hollywood product. He took as an example "The Sign of the Cross," a De Mille production. "H'mm," said he, "very poor, empty theatres. People down here don't like artistic pictures. My customers in the neighborhood like Spanish pictures," and he mentioned a local made picture. When I heard that I almost fainted. Six times he re-booked it, a picture or rather a calamity of film strips on which the patches sound like huge guns; without a story, no sets, underexposed negatives, actors barking like dogs, something that never would have been accepted in the States as far back as 1800; the director of which would have been shot at sunrise in Soviet Russia — in other words, a crime against good taste and civilization. And this they liked. At the same time pictures like "A Kiss Before the Mirror," "The Rebel," with its gorgeous photography, "Cavalcade," the picture that went over like a million in England ; all these and others of similar quality flopped down here. They have a peculiar taste. Only ten per cent of the population have or form their own opinions ; of the others I can only answer with the following incident that actually happened to me. I asked a local yokel why he did not like a certain picture that was quite a success in Europe. "Read in the paper that it was no good," was the answer, and when he reads in the paper that a picture is good he swears it is marvelous. Building on my experience I produced my picture for the masses and not for the ten per cent. True, it was called everything by members of society, but in the neighborhood they are enjoying it and it makes money. After all that's what counts. (Turn to Page 27 ) Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.