‘STREET SCENE'

Evening Star, Issue 21054, 17 March 1932, Page 9

‘STREET SCENE'

1 PRIZE-WINKING PLAY FOR REGENT ‘Street picturised from the famous Pullt-cr Prize play by Elmer Rice, will bo presented by Samuel Goldwyn at the Regent 'theatre tomorrow. In directing the story of a warm-hearted romance and .a passionate murder against the living screen of a city street, King Vidor makes of ‘ Street Scene ’ his most ambitious effort since ‘ The Big Parade.’ •Sylvia Sidney has the romantic lead in the picture. William Collier, jnr., plays opposite her. Estelle Taylor appears in the exacting and difficult role of Mrs Murrant—which, to many of the play’s multitude of friends who believe ‘ Street Scene ’ to be as much a story of mother love as Goldwyn s earlier ‘ Stella Dallas,’ is the most important of all. Not so : acli with the street, but more so with the people whoso lives radiate from its rusty brownstono houses, is the play concerned. A girl who knows her mother is unfaithful, an insensitive, cruel father, a cynical old Jewish Socialist trying to read a purpose into life, young love trying to rise above the squalor and misery, a lonesome woman, hungry for some one to talk to, an Italian couple, longing for the baby they can’t have, the improvident poor—these are the strings that King Vidor weaves together as the play relentlessly moves toward the hysterical murder that neither ends the play nor solves life’s mystery. For the first time in screen history, in ‘ Street Scene,’ a picture is shot in its entirety within the confines of a single set. Following the stage outline, the entire action takes place on the street, mostly on the steps of the one house. The camera doesn’t enter the house, and there are no close-ups. King Vidor and Samuel Goldwyn meant ‘ Street Scene ’ to be a departure from the ordinary. At the same time, the camera is “a roving eye,” constantly on the alert, always in movement. For that purpose Vidor built a huge derrick device, similar to that of a fire-hose tower, which with the help of a hydraulic crane and pneumatic wheels, takes the camera from one window to another, from a basement to a rooftop, in and out, with inhuman ease and speed. At its peak, King Vidor and his cameraman sat through the shooting of the picture. Most of the original stage cast were brought to Hollywood for the picture. Captain Richard Day and Willie Pogany supervised the elaborate production details under the supervision of King Vidor and Mr Goldwyn for this United Artists picture..