Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

44 MOTION PICTURE HERALD July 3 , 1943 in BRITISH STUDIOS By AUBREY FLANAGAN, in London ■ A production scene on the set at the Denham studio, during shooting on the film, "The Lamp Still Burns", based on the work of nurses. Leslie Howard, seen third from the left, above, was producer, with Maurice Elvey as director. Mr. Howard was Among the missing passengers and crew of the British plane believed shot down by enemy action during a recent flight from Portugal to England. Something near to a diplomatic tour de force has been created by a British film company and a neutral government in Europe with the shooting of location and crowd scenes for Two Cities' "Henry V" in Eire. The situation is politically not without significance, for the neutral government of Eire has behaved in the most friendly and cooperative manner in helping a British film company to shoot French settings and battle scenes for a film which will be released all over the world, including the U.S.A. So collaborative indeed have the Irish authorities been since the inception of the idea, so practical and wholehearted in their aid are all the Irish men and women involved that it is no exaggeration to suggest that the production of the film under these circumstances has made a measurable and noteworthy contribution to Anglo-Irish relations. The venture of taking an entire unit from Britain to Powerscourt, County Wicklow, would not have been possible without the aid of high officials within the Eire Government, and the good will of the Government itself. It would seem to have created a political and industrial precedent. Laurence Olivier Is Producer-Director The Two Cities unit, with Laurence Olivier directing and producing and Dallas Bower as co-producer, have been transported en masse, to the Powerscourt Demesne, Enniskerry, County Wicklow, and there are shooting Agincourt sequences for the film. Horses and horsemen, extras and general labor, have been obtained there with an ease impossible in a country at war. At Powerscourt now there are some 1,000 men and women banded together in the camp which has been set up in the shadow of Ballycorrigan. Of these 164 are Irish horsemen (including farmers, veterinary surgeons, doctors, one man of 70 and a boy of 15) and 500 members of Eire's Local Defense Force. 50 Key Technicians Came from Denham Only 50 key technicians and executives came from Denham. Costumes, technical equipment, props, cameras and the obvious impedimenta of production, came from Denham, where they were sealed in truck containers and unsealed by the Customs and Excise on the location. Ireland, the Irish authorities and Irish good will helped provide the corrugated asbestos for the buildings, the 58 army marquees in which the extras are housed, the food for the canteens, the material for the caparisons, the steelwork for the half-mile camera track and erection gantry, and the turf and wood which is used today where yesterday fuel needs were served by coal. All the material used, even the cloth, will go back, cleaned and orderly, to the Eires which provided it. The erection and organization of the camp has been an immense undertaking, and is, for Europe, unique of its kind. All the foot men and horsemen, playing day by day in the film, are organized and directed on the strictest military lines, divided into companies, commanded by officers, and subject to an elaborate and strict set of "Standing Orders," which cover such various matters as permits, canteen hours, campguards and police, camp boundaries and hygiene and sanitation. System Is Working with Complete Efficiency Such an institution would seem to appeal to the traditional Irish love of the dramatic and the military, for the system has worked with complete and unbroken efficiency. The local clergy are collaborating, and there is a Sunday mass at the camp itself, and a dispensation has been granted by the parish priest permitting those working on the location to eat meat on Fridays. Costumes and caparisons have been made on the spot under the direction of Roger and Margaret Furse, London costume designers and theatrical artists, and Art Director Paul Sherriff and his aide, Carmen Dillon, local girl who made good under Number One Irish Architect Vincent Kelly, who is today location manager for the film. In the armory Irish metal is beaten out into its appropriate Agincourt form to decorate, as visors and breastplates, the farmers, veterinary surgeons, doctors and gentry who are playing the role of the French Army for the film. Powerscourt, one of Ireland's most renowned beauty spots, was loaned by its lord, who daily promenades the location and sometimes drives through in a donkey cart or jaunting car. It has already, by the Technicolor results obtained, justified Laurence Olivier's sudden conviction when he saw it in May, that it was the ideal Agincourt, a conviction materialized into the creation of the, camp, the recruiting of horses, extras and labor, and the launching of actual production within three weeks. Already both American and British journalists, smelling a story, have betaken themselves to Eire, and there, under the wing of Larry Morrow, Dublin press representative for the film, and Eire outpost of Margaret Marshall's publicity department, have been gathering material, both photographic and otherwise. The significance of the situation has not been lost either on the Dublin press or certain London and New York journalists. It is the first step in the direction of a new era in Anglo-Irish production. Memorial to Leslie Howard Is Held in Mexico More than 1,200 persons attended the memorial tribute to Leslie Howard at the Balmori theatre in Mexico City last week. A special screening of "Mr. V," United Artists' release which Mr. Howard produced and directed and in which he played the leading role, was given at the memorial. A feature of the ceremony was a recording of Mr. Howard's voice speaking in Spanish and discussing the progress of the war effort, which was made in England several months before the producer-actor was reported missing when a plane was believed shot down enroute from Portugal to England. U.A. Shifts Salesman David Gould, formerly United Artists salesman in the Milwaukee territory, has joined the Philadelphia exchange in a similar capacity.