Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

Bringing Back the Thrillers 'we have to fall There are many feature stars who haven't lasted a tenth as long. Of course, neither Miss Cunard nor Mr. Ford could be expected to play the leads after so many years, so they support Allene Ray, who for six years was the Pathe serial queen, and Colonel Tim McCoy. Serials, with these players — except McCoy — are first loves; unlike one-time feature leads who have since "condescended" to serials, they consider the to be continued next week thrillers far more interesting than any feature could possibly be. "One day," they say, off a ten-story building, jump from an airplane down the smokestack of a steamer the next, and on the third be thrown into a den of lions. What eternal triangle can be anything more than just geometry compared with years of that?" The pace of the "chapter play" is swift in the studio as well as on the screen— or it used to be, before the mikes were put on the job. In the silent days, the average number of scenes shot in a day was around eighty, and once a record of one hundred and twentysix was made between sunrise and moonset, which is the serial day. But with the addition of sound, all that is changed. The Shots That Are Heard DURING the first four days' production of "The Indians Are Coming!" about sixty scenes were photographed each day. But the fifth day, when the switch was made to sound, only fourteen scenes were taken. And that was about the average for the rest of the picture. Still, the final footage is completed quicker than it used to be. A ten -episode picture used to take three months in the making; now it is finished in about four weeks. The answer is that dialogue slows up the action, greatly reducing the total number of scenes. Then, almost all the footage shot is actually used, because sound footage is much too expensive to be thrown away. The same thing has happened in feature pictures, also. A sound picture will run perhaps one-third to one-half as many scenes as a silent picture of equal length, so that the action, though more expensive, is much slower. Very few sound films are "overshot" nowadays. Dialogue is at least supposed to be in continuity, so that whole scenes can no longer be "lifted out" and simply thrown away. {Continued from page jp) It is exactly the same with serials in sound. Pauline still flees and the villain still pursues her, but she neither flees nor he pursues so far or so fast. Retakes in serials, of course, are practically unknown. So are second shots. Once is plenty, and it's on to the next scene. For this reason, if no other, the technical crews and cameramen used in the production of "chapter plays" are perhaps the most efficient in the business. They have to be. And the photography in a serial, where there is much work and very little fussing either To be continued: Allene Ray and Colonel Tim McCoy seem about to meet a fate as bad as death, for the Chief is saying, "The law of the red man is immutable— an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and two palefaces for every Indian killed" with players or with equipment, is usually excellent. What the Villains Voice COMPARED with making super-supers, the production of serials is like that of Fords against Rolls-Royces. It doesn't follow that one is any better than the other; they merely cater to a different clientele. Then again, it takes the profits on the serials to pay for the supers. What do they say in serials? Just what they used to say in the old melos — only more so. Scripts are virtually unknown; they usually make them up just about as the youngsters make up their neighborhood dramas in the back yard. The director knows approximately where he is headed, and that's all that's necessary. Then the "inspiration" comes something like this: "The heavy comes in and grabs you," the director informs the heroine, "and starts tickling the soles of your feet to make you tell where the diamond-studded cowbells are. You say: 'You can torture me till I swoon dead away, you yellow cur, but never will I reveal their hiding place!' — see? All right, we'll make it a close-up so that you can put over the agony. Let's shoot it!" And, forsooth, they do! "Aha, my proud beauty," leers the villain, "now I have you in my power! Marry me and masticate the mortgage, or — there comes the train that will crush out your life!" But the audience hears the faraway beat of racing hoofs. They know the hero is rushing to the rescue aboard that bronc, but the sound of the wheels grows nearer, the hiss of escaping steam grows louder. They go wild — and who wouldn't? Why Thrillers Are Popular PRESIDENT WILSON, between formulating his famous Fourteen Points, relaxed by reading detective stories. That's why serial audiences are not made up entirely of kids. "Unhand her, you viper!" pants the hero as he slides down from, the hurricane deck of his hoss, "unhand her — sock!" There is a thud as his fist connects, another as the villain connects with the floor — and what is half as satisfactory as a sock that may be heard, as well as seen? A knife hurtles out of the darkness and sticks in the wall an inch from the heroine's slender neck — with an audible " plop! " The sack is thrust over the hero's • head — and his gurgles are heard from within. The secret panel slides shut — with a muffled, unmistakable "click!" The trap-door gapes open and the detective falls through with a crash. That, and all the rest of the time-honored thrills now have thrills anew. The second talkie serial, "Spell of the Circus," is a thriller of the sawdust rings with Alberta \'aughn and Francis X. Bushman, Jr., featured in the trapezes and chicanery. "Fingerprints," a detective yarn now' in production, boasts Kenneth Harlan and Edna Murphy as leads, while "Mutiny," a sea story scheduled as the next, has not yet been cast. But all their breathlessness now will be tenfold, for the day of the silent serial is past. It had to come — even if it is a bit tough on the edges of the seats! You have been reading of What Menaces the Movies from the Outside. Read the INSIDE Story Next Month 86