SHOW MUST GO ON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

SHOW MUST GO ON.

Rather than spoil an important scene for "Devil and the Deep," when air from his artificial lung was lost under water, James Dugan, film actor, remained at the bottom of a tank during a severalminute shot and collapsed as cameras completed a record of the action. He was rescued by members of the studio fire department, who dived in and brought him to the surface. Being an athlete, he quickly revived without the use of artificial respiration.

The scene showed Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankliead and other characters in a submarine disaster escaping from a sunken ship. The players were in a glass-front tank, supposedly the escape chamber of the boat. In such compartments the crew enters with oxygensupplying equipment much like gas masks. Water then is let into the airtight chamber until pressure is equal to that outside. The escapers then go into the sea through a trapdoor and rise to the surface slowly by means of a rope leading to a buoy. This authentic method was duplicated for the scene, Dugan playing a member of the crew. The artificial lung permits one to remain under water for nearly 15 minutes, but as this scene started Dugan's teeth lost their grip on the mouthpiece and the air escaped. He could have risen to the surface, but this would have caused the entire scene to be refilmed. So, as three cameras recorded the escape Dugan held his breath until he fainted as the scene was completed.