THREE MINUTES “TAKE” A STUDIO RECORD

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12486, 21 October 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

THREE MINUTES “TAKE” A STUDIO RECORD

The longest film “take” ever shot at Denham occurred Avhen the veteran, C. Aubrey Smith, as General Burroughs in “The Four Feathers,” and newcomer June Duprez, as his daughter Ethne, Avere in a scene lasting over three minutes. Under the glare of 14S high-in-tensity arcs, necessary for a technicolour picture, Aubrey Smith aiid June Duprez Avere in the magnificent flag-stoned courtyard of General Burrough’s Norfolk house, built for “The Four Feathers.” Ethne is talking to her father about Harry Faversham, to whom she is engaged. The actual dialogue betAveen Burroughs and Ethne lasted for two minutes fifty-one seconds, after Avhich General Burroughs led her round the courtyard and into the mansion, the Avhole scene taking three minutes and five seconds.

Aubrey Smith, Avho has played in more than one hundred films in England and HollyAvood, has never been continuously in front of the camera for so long.

STARS MUST BE FIT STAND-INS GET DOUBLES Pat O’Brien keeps in excellent physical trim always. And it’s well lie does, for in his current starring picture with Kay Francis, Warner Bros. “Women Are Like That,” it comes in handy. The first scene in the picture that went before the cameras called upon Pat to carry Miss Francis up a 42step flight of stairs. Certainly fewer tasks could be less onerous. But Director Stanley Logan made the scene five times before he was satisfied with it. And on the fifth trip, even the husky O’Brien began to feel a bit of a strain from the transportation of 120 pounds of statuesque Kay. Pat’s stand-in apparently can’t take it as well as the Irishman. During the usual camera and lightingpreparations for the scene, the standin made the trip up the stairs twice, toting Miss Francis’ stand-in, whose weight is just about that of the star. But the two .trips finished him. When they had to make some adjustments in the lights and another carry' was ordered, the stand-in appealed to Don Turner, a husky who had some leisure between scenes of “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” and Turner carried the lady. HUSHING A BABBLING BROOK Latest wrinkle in sound engineering was evolved by experts in charge of the recording of Warner Bros, technicolour production of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” in inventing a “creek .silencer.” The locations spot selected for one of the more important sequences of the story, in which Robin Hood and Friar Tuck stage a Homeric battle with broadsides in midstream, was at Chico Creek, at Chico, California. It was ideal in every respect so far as scenery and general set-up was concerned, but the sound men wrinkled their brows at a noisy rapids just a few yards away from the duel. It Interfered with recording of the scene. They went into conference and with the assistance of several grips soon conquered the situation. Long strips of heavy sacking were weighted down and spread over the fifteen yards of rock and small series of rapids. Their noise fell to a mere murmur, and it was possible to record clearly the dialogue between Errol Flynn, as Robin, and Eugene Pallette as the bellicose friar.

The famous warship, H.M.A.S. Australia, is no more. Her rusty hull, stripped of everything of value, rests on the bed of the Pacific, twenty miles east from Sydney heads, but the electric turbines which once provided power for her propellers are still doing an unfaltering job in an important branch of Australian industry. They form an integral part of the huge generating plant at the Cinesound Studios, Waverley, where 14 all-Australian pictures have been produced in seven years. They were installed 12 years ago. Designed for war-time, they have played their part in an industry which thrives in peace-time.