Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood Take this set of drawings for a convict film. They give a very good idea of how Menzies designs an emotional setting, and they show what a variety of devices he has at his command. No. i : The House of the Crime. The criminal is to come downstairs unaware that some one is sitting at the hall-table in the dim light of the reading-lamp. In this case the interest is almost equally divided between the two figures by the separate lighting schemes ; it is intensified by the sloping line of the stairs and by the check pattern on the floor. The two different lightings separate the two actors from one another in an uncanny way, while a divided interest always gives a feeling of mystery ; the slowly increasing size of the murderer as he comes forward down the stairs increases a sense of anxiety in the audience, and, at the same time, the dithery quality of the check linoleum is transmitted unconsciously to the man sitting under the lamp. Smooth off this linoleum to a uniform grey and half the actors trepidation goes with it. The effect of pattern on producing emotional results is further shown by No. 2 : The Pursuit. The runaway passes out of the big door only as a silhouette. He disappears into the blackness, blots out the window for a moment, and reappears at last much smaller at the far end of the corridor, over which the telephone-wires and fire-escapes have already set up a series of agitated zigzags. The value of the black shadow in producing mystery is great ; or try the experiment of covering the fire-escapes and telephone-wires. See how the drama diminishes. No. 3 : The Prison Office. Straight lines, and very few of them ... no interest . . . doom and dreariness. The figures silhouetted against the light tend to lose their personality. No. 4 : The Reception. Convicts* faces in deep shade, personality obliterated, they are now no more than bodies in convict [182]