Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood lake scenes had at last to be photographed with equal success on the Universal lot, where an artificial lake was quickly made at a hundredth part of the cost. During our stay in Hollywood this lake was serving a double purpose. A stout canvas screen divided it in two ; on the one side of the screen was part of a show-boat on the Ohio river, while on the other side was an old galliot surrounded by icebergs. One director determined to turn a great Roman film in Italy itself. He wasted a whole season and £18,000 in an endeavour to erect a replica of the Colosseum there, but finally had to return to Hollywood and build it there. What the Italian contractors could not put up in a year the local carpenters and plasterers built in six weeks. Yes, the movie play is like a suspension-bridge — it hangs from its high spots. But between are a number of interludes in the chain of circumstances, and naturally the artist cannot take charge of every detail, although in a perfect film he ought to do so. Films are primarily commercial rather than artistic ventures. So to fill the spaces there are technical experts, costume experts, furniture men, and decorators. The technical expert has often an uphill task if he is conscientious. One of our friends was an English officer who had to supervise the military rules and details of costume whenever the British Army was concerned, our censorship having shown itself quite pernickety over lapses in such matters, objecting to English officers appearing with uniforms half Americanized, or to privates dressed in what the French would term fantaisie. Yet even he could not persuade the actors in The Four Feathers to wear the correct uniforms of the Egyptian campaigns. They insisted on khaki, though khaki was not in general use until the Boer War. The actors [186]