Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

90 Hollywood's Dumbest Actors Minnie, a mouse, is the star of Hollywood's quadrupeds. Willingly she rehearsed, with El Brendel and Bebe Daniels, the scene in "The Campus Flirt" where she ran up Bebe's leg. able. Emma is in constant demand for comedies. She is perfectly docile and responds promptly to direction, but her family reputation is bad. Strangers on the set start moving away when she appears. Extras answer their camera calls from behind screens or under boxes. People generally don't take to, Emma, somehow. In working with insects, animals, and rodents, directors have ! strange experiences. And sometimes the dumb creatures add valuable scenes not written into the scenario. When Cecil De Mille was filming H. B. Warner in that episode in "The King of Kings" where Jesus drives the money changers from the Temple, a flock of sheep was trained to stampede past the star. The scene had been carefully planned and was being satisfactorily executed. m~j££&~m*mgm, But as the flock went by Warner, who was standing /?y&j£|^fiB with his arms outstretched in supplication, one lamb ^■FrB^^^^ trailing in the rear stopped in its tracks, turned back gjj^B toward him, and bleated. Although this was wholly ajjg unexpected, De Mille shouted through his magnavox V for Warner to pick up the lamb and continue the scene. When the incident was shown in the projection room, ^H(F it was found to be so touchingly effective that it was ^ retained. De Mille used all kinds of birds and animals to sugI . gest the personalities and occupations of various char * acters in his great picture. Mary Magdalene, portrayed by Jacqueline Logan, first appears leading a beautiful ■ ^ leopard, but following her conversion she is shown with Mffjs a humble donkey. The gentleness of Mary the Mother l; is instantly recognized when white doves nutter about .^^j JP her and perch willingly on her shoulders and hands. Prancing black Arabian horses, ridden by armored soldiers, indicate the pomp and power of Rome, while the lonely state of the Judean people is suggested by their draft animals — oxen and water buffalo plodding under heavy yokes. Snobbish camels convey the attitude of the few wealthy Judeans. In order to have well-behaved doves in the picture, an expert was engaged to put them through a period of training lasting several months. As a result, when released they did not fly away from the set. The custom of using reptiles and rodents in films, and giving them important things to An iguana from the Bahamas has joined the film colony, and took a fancy to Marjory Williamson "The Show.' more good ones like that? If you have, you had better make this picture yourself." But Denny did the scene, just the same, and the acting of the ants was a feature. Johnny Hines owns a big parrot named Loretta who appears with him in some of his comedies. The bird carries a ten-thousand-dollar-life-insurance policy. Jack Comport owns the skunk which has been called almost everything from Emma to names unprint do, has grown rapidly during recent years. Snakes in pictures have become fairly common. Jack Allman maintains a den of rattlers, pythons, gopher snakes and blacksnakes in Los Angeles. He supplied the blackdiamond rattler which was the menace in the remarkable water-hole scene in "Wanderer of the' Wasteland," as well as the great python which caused tense moments in "The Lost World." He also owns a flock of chuckwallas and Gila monsters — enormous desert lizards: — which apContinued on page 105