Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

And Now the Deluge! burst a mighty rush of waters, which swept souls, it appeared, into eternity. The Flood had come. This was the first great spectacle filmed for the picture. From points of vantage, one hundred and fifty sun-arcs poured their brilliant light upon the scene. These were augmented by ninetytwo rotaries, one hundred and twenty-eight side-arcs, and a miscellaneous array of lesser incandescent equipment. Fourteen cameras, in the hands of skilled men drawn from almost every studio in Hollywood, photographed the episode from every ad vantageous angle Guinn Williams, Louise Fazenda, and Dolores Costello in a of "Noah's Ark." crumble beneath the impact of tumultuous waters. Pagan idols, twenty, thirty, forty feet in height, had to come from the hands of craftsmen. The company went to work. Paul McAllister, veteran actor of the stage and screen, was selected for the role of Noah. The beautiful Dolores Costello was assigned the part of Miriam, leading feminine character in the play, and George O'Brien was borrowed for the role of Japhet, the son of Noah. The part of Nephilim, the pagan king, was given to Noah Beery. Louise Fazenda, Guinn Williams, and William V. Mong were cast in outstanding roles. Then the cameras began to click. One Sunday morning not many weeks ago, four thousand extras journeyed out to the old Vitagraph studio, in the northern section of Hollywood. Young men, old men, young women, old women, boys and girls went to participate in the great "Festival of Jaghut," given by the king preceding the flood. Inside the gates, their clothing 'was removed and their bodies sprayed with a brown liquid, to give them the appearance of the swarthy peoples of antiquity. Some were supplied with girdles, and to others went gorgeous costumes of jewels and beads, together with silken wigs. The occasion was to mark the exotic sacrifice of a girl — Dolores Costello — to the gods. Weird music was played. Barbaric weapons appeared. All the pomp and ceremony incidental to pagan worship entered into the gorgeous spectacle. Miss Costello, borne to the temple in a canopied litter; King Nephilim on his jeweled throne; armed warriors, palm bearers, cutlass wielders, trumpeters, slaves, dancing girls — a strange gathering. And then, at the height of revelry A human sacrifice stood upon the altar, before the king. A distant rumble became audible, slowly increasing in volume. It became a roar. Suddenly there was a crashing of beams, the temple walls swayed, and there scene from the modern sequence There could be no retakes, because the flood would reduce the set to a shamble. It was estimated that this sequence of the production cost Warner Brothers ten thousand dollars an hour. A wet and bedraggled mass of humanity crawled from the scene, when the shots were finished. "The Ten Commandments" had its hosts marching into the sea. "The Big Parade" has its contending armies struggling with weapons of modern warfare. "Old Ironsides" pictured a terrible naval conflict. But, for sheer massing and handling of living bodies in one brief, awe-inspiring scene, this bit of "Noah's Ark" becomes a precedent. Later on, the terrified, hopeless souls huddled on the peaks of the highest hills, watching the steady rise of waters, and facing their doom, were photographed. This continued until "every living substance was destroyed." In another section of the lot, the great Ark was under construction, in preparation for scenes which would be reached within a very few days. One mystery surrounds the making of the picture — one which the producers have elected to keep secret, until the picture is ready for release this fall. The story switches from the Deluge to events transpiring in the great World War. Just why, no one but the studio executives know. "It's something we do not care to give out," said Mr. Zanuck. "I know the transition seems strange, and yet the war sequences dovetail so perfectly with the biblical episodes, that the} seem to be an essential part of the production." In the modern sequences of the picture there is a romance, with Miss Costello and George O'Brien as its principals. Noah Beery plays roles in both sequences. Action switches from the Flood to the canteens in France, where Miss Costello is seen again, as an entertainer, dancing and singing before the doughboys. Louise Fazenda, as an innkeeper's daughter, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, as a rookie, lend comedy relief. Continued on page 104