Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

Talking Pictures skies brighter than ever when given different stories and different direction. Ability to sense where a star has been handled incorrectly is, of course, one of the special and valuable talents of a successful producer or director. While stars are being considered, it is wise to eliminate the common misunderstanding of the word "double." The man or woman in the street hears of "stand-ins," the persons who replace the stars in front of the photographic lights while long camera or sound recorder adjustments are made, and confuses them with "doubles." "Stand-ins" are not doubles. Unlike doubles they need not resemble the star at all. There has been much publicity given to the fact that stars do not do dangerous scenes; that doubles, persons who look exactly like them, are used, but this is untrue. Except in very rare instances, in which the star could not possibly master in a short time the physical dexterity needed to avoid injury in a dangerous scene, he or she does the action personally. As a matter of fact stars are very sensitive on the subject of doubles, and habitually refuse to have them, unless forced to do so by their producers. Wallace Beery, a very competent aviator, refuses to let anyone else do his airplane scenes. William Powell exploded in rage once when he heard some person in a theatre audience explain how a "double" had done the scenes in Libeled Lady, in which he is carried for hundreds of yards down the current of a swift, rocky mountain stream. [ H4]