Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1938)

284 LET BEAUTY BLUSH IN FILM The ingredients for a cine dream of fair women s THE poet sings a song about the female form divine. But there's nothing more fascinating than that lady's face. You can discount the old adage which declares that beauty is skin deep. Blonde hair — blue eyes — olive cheek — all have lived a thousand years, their roots planted in the soil that produces and reproduces the characteristics of a race. Go to Holland, and you will find the candid face, the china blue eyes and the long, blonde braids. Go to Spain, and you'll meet the dark eyed senorita. In the Orient, she is slight and sloe eyed. In Germany, she must be buxom to be beautiful. The Beau Brummell of the arctic circle measures his best girl in terms of heft. In America, she must be slender, with a chaste face that is chiseled out of marble. And so it goes — each man to his fancy and no two nations alike — measuring the beauty of their women by standards all their own. Asia, Africa, Siam and Tahiti — the world is full of feminine beauty with which you can fill your movie album. If you live in a big city, such as New York. San Francisco or Chicago, you can get your collection together by ferreting out the various settlements. You will find them all — Greek. Italian and Arabian: German and Dutch and Scandinavian. The big cities are dotted with little communities transplanted bodily from the old country. Talk to the people, and they will talk to you; win them over, and they will pose for you — and, what's more, in their native costumes. Finding hospitality as they have within these shores makes them eager to return that hospitality whenever they can and with good measure brimming over! Of course, if you take that world cruise you've been promsing yourself for so long, the problem of collecting beauty the world over becomes a simple matter. You simply strap your camera on your back and pull on your seven leagued boots — and BETH BROWN , ACL you're off. Or, perhaps, you can gather the material during several different trips to Europe. Once you've made your pictures, the titles will prove no task at all. You let the lady's face tell its own story, and you will have a story that's well told. We flash on the opening title: Here are the beauties — We fade into: You are the judge of the world wide beauty contest. Our first shot is that of a street in Shanghai, China, and the title reads: Would you give the prize to China, jar across the sea? We follow this with a closeup of a flower girl. You may choose a Chinese princess. One or two shots of the lady are quite enough. Cut into your next title, reading: Or would you give it to Spain and flashing eyes like these? And now the seductive Spanish senorita makes her bow. Three short shots at most, mind you, even if she is a beauty. Your next scene and title are waiting, you know. The peasant girl of Germany — generous and good natured. We found one posing in a cornfield. We hope that you're as fortunate. Then we are on our way to Sweden with: Sweden s claim to beauty is this winning smile. If your subject won't smile for you, perhaps she will flutter her lashes like a fan. Just switch your title to suit the action. Here are three more titles that could be fitted to appropriate scenes. In Samoa, beauty is a primitive young thing. In Norway, it's a blonde. Little Serbia challenges the whole wide world — and this is why — We took a group photograph of a bevy of beauties, and from this we cut to one lovely miss in particular. Each race has its own peculiar characteristics — and so in Algeria we find — Here we inserted another busy street scene. From this we chose our beauty, fading into a closeup and following with the title : Beneath this mask of beauty, the innate pride of centuries. We shot the lady profile first, then full face, giving her another title and giving the picture the meat that it needed in order to make it the feast we hoped it would be. No, not only beauty, but astronomy, mathematics and philosophy had their beginning here in Algeria. Here, if you like, you can insert an immense closeup of Photograph above from Black Star; center, by Alliance from Black Star; at left, by Paul Coze from R. I. Nesmith and Associates.