The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

1925 ©irector 45 PEAKING of fish stories An interesting yarn has leaked out from one of the big studios regarding a whale. According to the story as told with many reiterations that names must not be used, the property department of this w.k. studio was called upon to produce a whale for a whaling sequence. With memories of The Lost H'orld and similar productions in mind, props turned to and fashioned a life-sized whale of rubber composition— a realistic replica of the monsters of the deep, fitted with mechanical devices operating a concealed propeller to provide motive force. Something like $20,000 is said to have been expended and with great eclat the “whale” was taken to deep water to do its stuff. Now natural historians tell us that a whale, while not a fish at all but belonging to the animal kingdom, spends much of its time on the surface, but frequently dives to great depths. This one did. It dived as soon as it was launched and the dern thing wouldn’t come up. According to latest reports it is still a denizen of the deep while efficiency experts at the w.k. studio are tearing their hair at the wastage of the thousands of dollars it is reported to have cost. * * * SHOOTING in technicolor is reported to be an expensive process and every precaution is being taken at the PickfordFairbanks studio to avoid retakes and excessive footage, all of which developed interesting angles during the shooting of a water scene in Doug’s new picture The Block Pirate. According to the script one of the band of bold bad pirates is supposed to jump overboard and swim to the shore where the cameras were stationed — four of them — to register the scene. He jumped all right but, while the cameras clicked off the footage, failed to reappear. Minutes passed and still the bobbing head of the swimmer didn’t enter the angle of the camera lenses. Finally he bobbed up and to the pleading and commands that he come out of the water, replied “I can’t. I lost my pants,” and with that he dived again in his mad search for masculine raiment. So far as history states he is still there searching for his pants. * * * IN fact many interesting things are developing at the Pickford-Fairbanks lot in the shooting of The Black Pirate. Realism has been developed to such an extent in the shooting of several scenes wherein skeleton fragments of pirate ships are being used to create the desired illusion, that the hydraulic rocking of the ships to simulate heavy weather has proved too much for numerous members of the crew by developing accute attacks of mal de mere. But realism isn’t by any means confined to hydraulically operated ships that rock and roll and pitch on a sea of sand and rocks. Certain scenes were being shot at Los Angeles harbor aboard the full-rigged ship the Lleivelyn J. Morse when a fiftymile gale sprang up, snapped the current lines and threatened to blow the Morse out to sea. The pirate band while good actors all, were not sailors and didn’t know what in heck to do. Upper and lower tops’ls were all set and the Morse was just rarin’ to go. Nobody knew enough about reefing the expanse of sail, according to reports, and there they were pulling on ropes until their hands were torn and bleeding, struggling manfully to “save the ship.” Finally by dint of hauling the yards aback they managed to get her nose headed into the wind until a tug came up and took them in tow. And an added touch of realism was given when, instead of blowing up a miniature “in a bath tub”, Doug took advantage of the stranding of the lumber schooner Muriel on the bar at the entrance to Newport Bay and arranged to blow it out of the water. Accordingly the Muriel was worked over to resemble a galleon of the 1 7 th century and blown up as a sequence in the filming of The Black Pirate, affording genuine realism and at the same time removing a menace to commerce and solving an accute problem for the owners of the derelict. SCREEN comedy usually attains to the heights of laugh-provoking humor after the film has been edited and titled and it is rare that gag scenes are as funny at the time they are being shot. But according to Arthur Hagerman Fred Guiol had a heck of a time out at the Hal Roach studios trying to shoot a scene in a new comedy in which Tyler Brooke and George Cooper have a partnership gag which caused all kinds of trouble. According to the story as related by Hagerman, Brooke is supposed to be a reformed crook. Cooper is his unreformed buddy, whose soul he is trying to save at all costs. About one-third of the scenes shot are of Brooke looking at Cooper and pleading with him to “go straight”. The humor of the scenes lies in just how much pathos and sadness they can get into these closeups — and many a closeup has been spoiled by both of them breaking into laughter right in the middle of the action. After a fine assortment of silverware and jewelry had dropped out of Cooper’s sleeves and trousers while Brooke was pleading with him, the whole troupe broke out laughing and spoiled the scene. The same stunt was repeated several times. Finally Brooke veiled at Guiol and his staff “If you men can keep your minds on your jobs for about one minute and not laugh at this gag, we can get it over. We don’t want an audience, what we want is silence.” •sfc ■=£ fi /CHURCHILL MARMADUKE”, V_> read the card presented Fred Schuessler, casting director at Universal. “Sit down Mr. Marmaduke,” said Schuessler, “What can I do for you?” Marmaduke settled himself comfortably. He was one of the fast-disappearing type of old-time Shakespearean players, a bit tattered, but still maintaining his dignity. “I came to see if perhaps you had a place in your company for one who has played MacBeth, King Lear, Othello and all the other great gentry of the stage,” boomed