Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

The Movietone in France Femina Theatre last spring? Don't know anything about the talkies? All the better; they like to catch them raw, they say. Anyhow, the director told me to get somebody who was a gentleman, and I could think of nobody better than you." I swallowed this somewhat ambiguous compliment. II You will have to act the part of a man who wants a house built. You have to come into the architect's office, you step on the bulb of a toy rabbit, and it jumps in your face. . . . Quite easy. Only, of course, you will have to be passed by the director first. Now listen. You must ask for three hundred and fifty francs a day ; accept three hundred, but not a sou less. And, take my tip, don't understand too much French. If they find that you can speak French they will get you into an argument, and then, if you won't come down, they will lose their tempers, and very likely you may not get the job. But if you can't understand what they are saying they feel baffled, they don't know what to do. I had to walk out of the office four times before they understood that an Englishman means what he asks for." As we rumbled along through the Parisian suburbs C explained to me the situation : "Menjou has had some sort of a squabble with the producers over there, and so is now in France making a bilingual film." "He talked of the idea when we met him in California," I said. " Once you have the story and the scenery and the star, hiring another set of actors to play each scene simultaneously adds little to the general expenses, while it doubles the audience," said C . " But the trouble is to get the English actors. If they are specially imported from London they cost no end, so there is a big chance for anybody who lives in Paris and can act, especially if he has another job that [283]