TALKIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Issue 2, 12 April 1940, Page 3

TALKIES

BRIGHT LIGHTS CAUSE TROUBLE FOR THE LENS Sparking' chandeliers with clusters of prisms were a source of er}'stallinc brilliance in Nineteenth Century Georgian homes, but they were just a headache to Gregg Toland. A.S.C., ace cinematographcr for Samuel Goldwyn who was assigned to photographing Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier in the pro duct ion "Wuthering Heights." With the characteristic thoroughness of set dressing, a huge seventycandle chandelier was hung in the centre of "Thrushcross Grange's'' great drawing room for the brilliant ball sequences of the film. Light scampered and bounced from the manifold facets ol the prisms and the general effect was pleasing to everyone but Toland to whom every Hash was a bright and uncontrollable spot on the film. For every ill, however, there is a remedy and this time it took the form of Fritz Oheger. unit painter, equipped with a spray gun filled with a curious mixture of floorwax, benzol and turpentine. No corner of the chandelier escaped that dulling spray. Light is captured and controlled although the texture of the glass is not paired as to its final effect in photography. Oheger also wielded his spray on silver table services, drinking glasses, polished brass or on any bright surface Avhich might have caught a light and thrown it like salt to blind the camera's eye. ENTIRE RAILWAY TRAIN REMOVED IN 8 MINUTES Setting a 1 rack-laying record by methods which combined railroading experience with motion picture ingenuity, a film company moved an 87-year-old locomotive, caboose and train of ilat cars across an Arizona State highway, requiring only eight minutes to lay the track, move the train and remove the rails so that automobile traffic could continue. Fifty expert track layers from the Southern Pacific Railroad set down the rails, a tractor pulled the train across, and it proceeded across another mile and three-quarters of newly-laid track to a desert location site near Red Rock, Arizona,, for the new Nelson Eddy starring picture, "Song of the Plains." The train was borrowed from the El Paso and South-western Railroad,, the locomotive being the first ever placed in service on that line. In the picture, which teams Eddy, Virginia Bruce, Victor McLaglen* Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, Guj' Ivibbee and Charles Butterworth in the leads, it is shown advancing westward across the desert in 1868. Five hundred extras were taken by special train from Tuscon for track-laying scenes in which two hundred waggons and their teams were driven acfoss the desert. Ten ox teams and twenty-five pack mules also were part of the caravan which moved through a spectacular setting of rugged canyon walls into the stretches of desert sand. MODERN YOUTH Joyce Mathews, member of Paramount's "Golden Circle"—a group of fourteen young men and women destined for stardom—has a leading role in Paramount's rib-tickling campus comedy, "Million Dollar Legs.'" Miss Mathews typifies the confidence Paramount officials have in the ability of the country's young sters. She is typical of modern youth in another respect in that she has the strength of character to go out on her own and carve a career for herself in pictures. Her father. James F. Mathews, a wealthy retired stockbroker, did all he could to discourage his daughter from a career in films. He even offered her a jacht. But she refused all bribes. Recently Mr Mathews came to Hollywood to visit his daughter. He saw her work before tlic camera. He was at last convinced that his daughter was right.