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THE SIGN OF THE BOSS 141 "Who in the world is that?" DeMille asked in genuine surprise. "That's the substitute studio doctor/' an assistant said. "I know that/' DeMille said impatiently. "I mean the man using the frightful language." "That, sir, is you/' the assistant said. "Young man/' DeMille answered, after a painful silence, "that may appear to be me, but I assure you it is not. I never used language like that in my life!" A large segment of the film colony, however, will testify that there was nothing complex about DeMille's nature. In fifty years a considerable number had a chance to watch him in action. Quite a few felt the sting of his lash at one time or another, either as bit player or extra on one of his densely popu- lated sets. They are willing to vow that he was nothing more or less complicated than "a cruel and evil old man." This con- cept, if gained from DeMille's behavior during filming of crowd scenes, is not without some merit. On epic sets seething with extras, the boss was a convul- sive force. The memory of one case in point caused the staff to shudder for months—the siege of Fort Pitt scene in l/n- conquered. If they but knew it, the extras had more to fear from DeMille than from the Indian braves who were storming the walls and lobbing real fireballs into the fort. In the course of that day's shooting, we watched the boss driven to new heights of wrath. Time after time, the extras failed to give him the kind of reaction he wanted, "You're about to be scalped alive," he shouted at them through a microphone as he rode high on a camera boom. "Then suddenly you hear bugles and drums in the distance and you know you're going to be saved. Do you understand? You're going to be saved! You and your kids and your loved ones. So WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU JUMP UP AND DOWN, YOU CHEER, YOU GRAB SOMEONE AND DANCE, YOU GO CRAZY WITH JOY. Have you given me that kind of reaction? From the way you're acting I merely