Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

92 Continued from page 48 and, I believe, with a new scenario. The fantastic element was introduced into the plot. It was decided to use the wizardry of the camera to supplement whatever submarine shots were taken out of the original, and to build up a story that would transport the beholder out of the humdrum in more ways than one. "The Mysterious Island" will be radiant photographically. It is being made with color process throughout, which process in itself has been greatly improved in the past year and a half. You will find that even the drab machinery of the submarines looks unusually inviting, with the colored effect. The fanciful spirit of make-believe is in devious ways conjured from the start. Then when the submarines go down to the bottom, things begin to happen with a surge. Even on the way down there will be some better sight-seeing, I am told, than in the best kind of glass-bottom boat, such as is ordinarily used for viewing life under the sea. There will be all sorts of strange fish and sea monsters, threatening reptiles and animals of the deep — sharks, whales, dolphins, and what not. Their influence, in passing, upon the minds of members of the crew, particularly two bibulous sailors, played by Schnitz Edwards and Harry Gribbon, will be both thrillingly and humorously depicted. On the ocean's floor, the inventor and his companions will emerge in A Kingdom Under the diving suits,, be introduced to the tiny king of the underseas people, who is holding the triton as the symbol of his power. They will visit the cavelike homes of these sub-sea gnomes, and the resplendent temple dedicated to their watery gods. Later the inventor and the villain have a duel in diving suits. During this battle the villain is wounded, and the blood pouring from a hole in the eye piece sends the sea creatures into a frenzy. They become a menace to the human invaders of their kingdom, crowd about them and pursue them back to their craft, launching sudden attacks as they go. How all these scenes were made is a story in itself, but that will have to be told at another time, as many of the expedients used to lend reality to the pure make-believe are a secret as yet "The Mysterious Island" was considered a most difficult picture to make, because of the exacting camera work, and the perfection required in its every detail. It necessitated, too, the services of other players than those ordinarily found on an extra list, among them several hundred dwarfs, who had to be brought from all parts of the country. These impersonate some of the undersea inhabitants. The principal roles are played by Lloyd Hughes, Lionel Barrymore, Montagu Love, and Jane Daly, not to speak of the important parts taken by sundry finny and shelly troupers, who were performing most effectively at latest reports. "We have essayed throughout to keep the human note prominent in this picture," Lucien Hubbard, its director, told me. "We are asking the audience to believe in extraordinary, and perhaps improbable things long enough to find enjoyment in them, and we are doing it in such a way, we hope, that their imagination will be appealed to at every point. To insure this, as far as possible, we take them into the unreal world only after the story is well unfolded. We have reserved the fantastic for the climax, with due" and adequate preparation through a natural and logical train of events. "One thing that we had to be particularly careful about in handling this story, was to avoid doing anything that might not seem believable, because of the fact that it would have altered the course of human events. This was necessary because 'The Mysterious Island' is laid in the past. The principles which we employed are similar to those adopted by all writers of imaginative scientific fiction. "At the close of the story, for example, the inventor of the submarine destroys the craft that he built, and himself goes with it when it sinks to the ocean's depths. It is thus that we dispose of an underseas vessel constructed in so early a period as nearly ninety years ago." Continued from page 73 University of California. It will provide accommodations for two hundred girl students, and will be embellished and adorned in most attractive fashion, under Bebe's own supervision. That this means something is demonstrated by the fact that the houses Bebe has built at the beach, and elsewhere, have been most deftly and harmoniously arranged. Jolson Introduces Bride. As long as his pictures are so successful, nothing can keep Al Jolson away very long from the studios. He is at work on another talkie and "singie," and his bride, Ruby Keeler, is sojourning with him in Hollywood. Jolson introduced her at a midnight matinee at the Warner Theater, and she took a bow to enthusiastic applause. Al himself was in a capricious mood, and sang half a dozen numbers, new and old. He also regaled his public with his rapid-fire humor. Before one of the songs, Al chirruped to the musical director, "How Ho!l#\N?ood High Light: many notes to the bar? How many to the bar, did you say? What — four to the bar? Ah — speakeasy." Inconclusive Evidence. Walter Byron's initiation into the films is complete. He has been reported engaged, at least once. It wouldn't do for as handsome a leading man as he to be long overlooked in the inevitable round of romance canards, without which no single day or week seems to .be complete. The j'oung lady with whom his name was linked is Caroline Bishop, niece of Frances Marion, the scenarist. Seemingly no more significance than usual, nine tenths of the time is attached to the report. "As far as I know, we were not even seen in public together," said Byron. "Once we rode in the same automobile, but surely that isn't sufficient, even in Hollywood, to constitute one's being affianced. However, I don't as yet know what the customs are in this unique kingdom of the cinema." Byron is very pleasant. He has something of the Gilbert esprit, though it is English-accented. Chimes Ring Out Anew. Several stars have wended ttu. way weddingward, so to say. 1 nald Denny and Betsy Lee, fori Bubbles Steiffel, have been married a month, as have also Evelyn Brei and Harry Edwards, a film din Lina Basquette, and Peverell M; , '\ principal camera man on Cecil *4 ■ Mille productions, will be wed Only Evelyn Brent's mar was a surprise. And, as is the with nearly all marriages that surprises these days, the ceremony was performed across the Mej border at Agua Caliente, the swh resort toward which so many , ture folk migrate over the week Sonorous Reverberations. | Worth noting en passant, is the French phrase for sound pict is "film sonore." Ray Griffith, Continued on page 116