Gold Is Where You Find It (Warner Bros.) (1938)

Master of Crowd Psychology, Michael Curtiz Had Won Fame Abroad for Directing Vast Screen Spectacles Before Coming PO Plolimood bt vet HOLLYWOOD, CALIF.—The only static thing about Michael Curtiz—he prefers to be called Mike—is his use of the English language, which he insists is quite as bad as when he passed the Statue of Liberty for the first time a dozen years ago. He speaks a number of languages fluently, and nobody gets more fun out of the obstacles the American tongue puts up to down him, than he himself. His own words boomeranged back to him in an amusing way recently. During the shooting of *‘Gold Is Where You Find It,”’ a public address system was being used on location to direct the mob of several hundred extras and Mike was having a little trouble bringing quiet to the set. He finally shouted through the microphone with some violence, *‘Anybody who has anything to say—please shut up!” Three or four seconds later the words came back like the chickens that come home _ to roost. ‘“‘Golly!’’ he exclaimed with a wry grin, ‘Somebody speaks lousy English around here!”’ While directing “‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’’ Curtiz announced to the embattled hosts that anyone getting hurt during the scene would get an extra day’s pay. Gong br-r-r-r-r-r-ed! Lights glared! Cameras ground! The battle progressed with bloodcurdling realism. At the end of the scene Mike inquired blandly, **Anybody hurt!”’ Everybody reported everybody in ship shape. ‘*All right,’” commanded Mike, so the story goes, ““Then we shoot it over!” Michael Curtiz’ long line of directorial achievements show that he gets results. That he wins the confidence and good will of everybody on the set is beyond question. It even may be that his ludicrously garbled remarks are made with a tongue in the cheek — “atch, : s Diy. Co toy Micz, ie since they add to the merriment of the company and their willingness to put their best into getting just the effect he wants to get. Mr. Curtiz is seen above in various sequences in ‘Gold Is Where You Find It.’’ At the left he is directing Claude Rains and George Hayes—=jin the rescue scene following the dynamiting of the mountain. In the upper picture he is shown with technicians on a raft getting the proper angle on the levee-builders along the river. Again he is showing George Brent, the lead —not visible—just how to disarm young Tim Holt (Jack's twenty-one year old son) in a scene at the mining town, TenSpot. At the right he is on the look-out with Sol Polito, veteran cameraman. The other illustration presents Michael Curtiz himself in a characteristic pose with script and the inevitable cigar. The making of *‘Gold Is Where You Find It’’ added some priceless lines to the Curtizian legend. When trying to get the utmost of dramatic intensity he said to Brent, “‘No, George. Not like that. Very deep from the stomach, should the voice come out!” To another actor whose reaction to a line he didn’t like, he said, *‘Be natural; don’t relax!’ To a sound man who was de’laying a scene because he couldn't get his boom in the right position, he remarked, “You're technical; not enough clever!’ To another he gave the rather disturbing direction, ““You should laugh like a seal,’’ and to yet another, ““When you move you should swish yourself here over!” Michael Curtiz has known the rough side of life and he has the art of making his players fight to the finish and like it. Realism [ 22 | is a fetish with him. As a young man he for a time posed as a professional strong man with a wandering carnival troupe in his native Hungary, doing it not only because it amused him and gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his unusual strength, but because the money he got for it helped to eke out his tuition at the university of Budapest and at the Hungarian Royal Theatrical Academy. His earliest ambition was to be an actor, and at twenty-five he was well on his way to realization, when the World War broke out. When his enlistment with the Austrian army ended he became associated with Max Reinhardt in his production of the Greek classic, ‘Oedipus Rex,” at the State Theatre in Berlin. Through his association with Reinhardt he was enabled to go to Norway as an actor—and remained there to become director of Nordisk Films. Returning to Vienna he produced and directed seventeen pictures and then began the wandering career that took him to Paris, Rome, Berlin and back again to Budapest, always directing pictures. Harry M. Warner, on a tour of Europe, visited a Parisian motion picture studio in 1927—and noted with keen interest the dynamic technique of a young director, who was, of course, our good friend Michael. A long-term Hollywood contract was the result. Of the 2 score pictures he has directed, “Captain Blood,” ‘“‘The Charge of the Light Brigade” and ‘‘Gold MOVIE DIRECTOR AT 7 DIRECTOR MICHAEL CURTIZ in a characteristic pose with cigar and script. Is Where You Find It’’ are a few of the most notable. “Gold Is Where You Find It,” his newest production, is a Technicolor picturization of a thrilling chapter from American history by Clements Ripley, which first appeared serially in the Cosmopolitan Magazine. The cast is headed by George Brent and Olivia de Havilland. Others are Claude Rains, Margaret Lindsay, John Litel, Marcia Ralston, Barton MacLane, Tim Holt, Sidney Toler, Henry O'Neill, Willie Best, Robert McWade, George Hayes, Russell Simpson, Harry Davenport, Clarence Kolb, Moroni Olsen, Grancille Bates, Robert Homans and Eddy Chandler. “Gold Is Where You Find It,’’’ a Cosmopolitan picture, is photographed in life-life Technicolor. It will be shown at the Strand starting next Friday.