Director Who Films First Scene First

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 159, 1 April 1938, Page 16

Director Who Films First Scene First

T-TOLLYWOOD’ss method of making the last scene of a film first and the first last has been the butt of many jokes. However, Alexander Hall, who is director of Columbia’s new comedy, "There’s Always a Woman,’’ starring .loan Biondell and Melvyn Douglas, prefers to photograph his screen stories in sequeunee. He likes to shoot the first scene in a picture first, and the last scene last. In “There’s Always a Woman,” he is following this routine, as he considers it assists the actors to carry the feeling of the story. One scene, however, was not shot in , the actual sequence in which it appears in the picture. This scene shows Melvyn Douglas in a cafe, eating a huge steak with relish.

Under normal shooting schedule this scene would have been shot in the early morning, but Douglas protested. “Who can relish a steak early in the morning?” he asked the director. “At least make it noon.” Hall agreed with the star, and "shot around” the scene until close to the noon hour. Then a chef who was standing by prepared a threeinch steak and the trimmings and the scene was made. When the scene is shown in the complete picture, Douglas \vill not be just acting. He will really be enjoying himself.

jJJISS GLADYS SWARTHOUT,-bril-liant mezzo-soprano, world renowned through motion pictures and the New York Metropolitan Opera Company, has just completed her latest screen work for Paramount in “Romance in the Dark.” John Boles and John Barrymore will appear opposite Miss Swarthout.