Noahs Ark(Warner Bros.) (1928)

—— DOLORES COSTELLO in “NOAH'S ARK” with GEORGE O’BRIEN—The Spectacle of the Ages CE 13 UNDERGROUND WHERE AN £APLOSION HAS HURLED THEM, THE CHAPLAIN SPEAKS AND— FEATU RES FOR NEWSPAPERS SPIRITUAL MESSAGE IN “‘NOAH’S ARK” SAYS DIRECTOR MICHAEL CURTIZ Symbolism Plays Part in Biblical and Modern Sequences of Film “More than the art, more than the spectacle, I hope it shall be found there is great spiritual message in ‘Noah’s Ark,’”’ said Michael Curtiz earnestly, and in painstaking English. Michael, you see, is the director responsible for this sensational picture which will have its premiere at... . Theatreon.... Itis replete with technical wonders and breathtaking spectacle, but.... “For long years Warner Bros. have wished to make this picture. Then they see my pictures, ‘The Life of Napoleon,’ ‘The Moon of Israel’ and ‘Golden Butterfly’ made in Europe, and I am asked to come to America two years ago. Jack Warner wishes that I make my acquaintance with American mentality and lanouage before we shall attempt Scene fram Noahs Ark starring , Dolores Coste/lo with George Ob pen Q Warner Bros.Production Production No. 15—Cut or Mat By ALMA WHITAKER the big picture. So there were eight pictures, including “Tenderloin’ and “The Madonna of Avenue A,’ which two I like the most.. Vitaphone is easy for me as I was an actor before director. NOT ONLY SPECTACLE “When we talk of the Biblical picture, we know that just the Bible spectacle shall not do. Here we must have good business, good ,ait, put there shall be spiritual gréatness, too. Darryl Zanuck «eR ceives the inspiration. Always the author, the story is of first importance, then the actors, the technicians .... no creativeness of the director shall be of any use without these things. “We read and study much all aterature about the great Flood, and we see that ever throughout the ages human nature is the same. The peoples make much promise and no performance. There is no brotherly love .... so destruction must come that salvation may follow. So the flood of water in Noah’s day, then the flood of blood in the great war—always_ that people shall come nearer to God in brotherly love. ... BROTHERLY LOVE “Tt was easy that the technique should be perfect—but the spiritual theme—that we have yet to know. Much I hope. I would wish that as Flaubert in ‘Madame _ Bovary’ helped to solve the problems of marriage, we have helped to solve the problems of brotherly love between peoples... .” Michael Curtiz walks the room dramatically as he unfolds this philosophy. Dramatically he points his thesis—with illustrations from scenes in the picture—the rainbow in the sky after the Flood, the modern peace movement after the Ware: 43 “T should like that people could see it twice—first for the spectacle, second for the psychological and philosophical message, which is true for every soul which is at war with itself... .” he adds. Michael, a young actor of twenty-four in Hungary, directed his first picture. A French company had sent a cameraman, but couldn’t afford a director! Michael, interested, offered to assist the cameraman—with such success that he forsook a successful stage career for pictures henceforth, twelve years ago. “That was my first renaissance,” he told me. “People sneered, but I am believing in pictures.” INCREASING PRESTIGE There followed increasing pic‘ure experience both as an actor and a director in pictures—in France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden—with commensurate increasing prestige. ... “Then I am come to America for Warner Bros.—right at the beginaing of Vitaphone. That is my econd renaissance. It means that iow the door of all literature is open to motion pictures, that it transforms from an industry to a great art. Soon we shall master the sound .... and Shaw, Ibsen, Eugene O’Neill become possible. »¥tewill* become more swift because of our training in the silent drama. Gteat artists are more than pretty faces—artists in which the countries are so Meh... .” Oh, yes, Michael Curtiz is an exalted enthusiast about the talkies. “Il am proud to be of them,” he says, dramatically. ‘““Noah’s Ark’? Romances 170 Centuries From Each Other Absorbing romance spanning 170 centuries is unfolded in ‘Noah’s Ark,” Warner Bros.’ two million jJollar Vitaphone super-production, now drawing crowds to.... Theatre. The picture, in its ancient sequences, goes back to the time of Noah. In its modern scenes it includes the recent thrilling events of the World War, with its action laid in Europe, accomplishing a transition representing thousands of years from its earliest to its latest locales. In a unique manner a thrilling love story, portrayed by Dolores Costello and George O’Brien, is interwoven throughout the unfoldment of the massive spectacles uniting the two great cataclysms Hundreds of texts, includin thirty versions of the Bible, were investigated in the more than two years spent in the research to provide authentic background for the romance under the personal supervision of Darryl Francis Zanuck, the author. The thirty-eight-acre auxiliary studio of Warner Bros. was turned over to Michael Curtiz, the director, for filming the super production. Credit for the amazing photographic effects of the Flood sequences is given to Fred Jackman. The story is by Darryl Francis Zanuck. At the head of the all-star cast with Miss Costello and George O’Brien are Noah Beery and Louise Fazenda. More than 10,000 extras were used in presenting the revels of the ancients and the Deluge itself, Scene From Noahs Ark" starring Dolores se NS ostello with George O8-en @ Warner Bros. Production Production No. 16—Cut or Mat COSTUMES SPUR MISS COSTELLO TO PERFORM BEST WORK “Noah’s Ark’ Star Prefers Role in Rags To Ones That Require Stylish Togs By JEROME M. STRAUSS Dolores Costello finds costume pictures more inspiring than those of her own era. Not that Miss Costello is particularly concerned about clothes. She says she doesn’t care about dress. But she finds it more of an incentive to imagination to act in the garb of another period. “Pd rather act in rags than in clothes such as I wear every day on the street,” she said. “Merely wearing pretty clothes is a tiresome business. Somehow or other I find it more inspiring to wear the dress of some other period. Perhaps it is because I started in a costume picture, ‘The Sea Beast,’ with John Barrymore, and have done a good share of my work in costume pictures since.” All this led into a discussion of realism on The screen. Miss Costello is not fond of realism in so far as it means wearing modern clothes and depicting the everyday life of modern people. “People are not interested in seeing lives similar to their own portrayed on the screen,’ she thinks. “They have the same kind of troubles themselves. And people are not especially interested in seeing a display of other people’s ordinary troubles.” And as for realism as far as parties are concerned — Miss Costello, who is not particularly interested in parties, thinks that many depictions of them are. off key. (This subject, by the way, (Continued on page 24)