Camera Flashes

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

Camera Flashes

W I)Ot<;LAS will he starred in ••The Vampire Bat." a mystery thriller to he produced by Phil Goldstone. who made "O'Shaugnessey's Boy." Included in the cast will be Fay Wrav and Lionel At will.

piLJKiOERS will see scenes "shot," apparently, in the streets of Paris and in the famous sewers of that city when the new comedy. "Wolf's Clothing." is screened. Yet the picture was made in its entirety at Sound City, Shep-perton-on-Thames." Previous contracts prevented the cast from making a trip to Paris, and so the Gav City was brought from the Seine to "the Thames. This feat was accomplished by photographing a street near the" Champs Elysees and enlarging it up to life-size so that it formed a convincing backcloth for the action of the players.

ER OODFREY. celebrated Britisn stage director who went to Hollywood as dialogue director for "Blockade." in which Madeleine Carroll and Henry Fonda are co-starring, found his experience in "black magic" serves him well. Xeeding a man to do card tricks during a scene, Director William Dieterle induced Godfrey, who was an outstanding London stage conjuror for several seasons, to become an actor again. Already a member of the Screen Actors' Guild, Godfrey applied a character make-up and provided a series of sleight-of-hand tricks which not only fulfilled demands of the script, but delighted the cast and technical staff as well. ♦ ♦ -t- ♦ interesting and exciting screen personality who makes her appearance in the leading role of "Algiers," is Hedy Lamarr. famous Continental actress. Since her appearance in "Ecstasy" she has probably received more publicity in America than any other girl in motion pictures. She has been acclaimed the most glamorous foreign beauty since Marlene Dietrich. Charles Boyer and Johnny Downs faced real danger while making "Algiers." They appeared together in a "close shot" inside an open window, while a bullet from the street below shattered the plaster of the wall just above their heads. Here was an instance in which no doubles could possibly be used, since the two players stood in the immediate foreground. Accordingly the studio enlisted the services of Captain William Preston, former Texas Ranger and now one of Hollywood's crack shots. Stationed just outside the view of the camera. Captain Preston, at the proper instant in the scene, placed a rifle shot at a designated spot in the wall, which had been "backed" with several thicknesses of heavy pbulking to stop the bullet. The scene was filmed three times before it was satisfactorily recorded, with a new section of wall moved ; -to place after each trial. "No one could biame us." said Boyer afterward, "for wincin* a little and revealing a tiny bit of strain, as if were exacting something to yapiif W,. i c.ij'y were, von know."