THOROUGHLY DEAD

Evening Star, Issue 21622, 18 January 1934, Page 6

THOROUGHLY DEAD

HOW THEY BROKE THE NEWS ‘ Strange Evidence,’ a Paramount release, which will be shown at the Octagon Theatre, commencing to-morrow, is a new production made at, Elstree by Robert Milton, the celebrated director of a number of Hollywood successes. The film itself has a somewhat eerie atmosphere, and a peculiar incident which occurred during production suggests that even the studio staff were affected by the macabre character cf the story. A cathedral-like silence, which could ■ almost be felt, held the studio in its grip. Leslie Banks had to come in and tell Carol Goodlier that her screen husband was dead. The line he had to *speak was “ Andrew is dead.” Banks came on with a look of horror on his face, spoke the line dramatically, and as he did so every light on the ret faded and went out. A nasty silence which followed this unrehearsed “effect” was broken by the electricians who began to investigate. Then the scene was reshot, but at the very moment Banks uttered the words “ Andrew is dead ” the lights faded and went out again. When he came on the third time to make the scene he involuntarily glanced up at the lights as he spoke, as if expecting' them to go out again, and this ruined the shot a third time. . The director shouted “ Cut!” and ordered the unfortunate actor to try again. At the fourth attempt the scene was shot successfully, while the “ dead ” Andrew (Frank Vosper) looked on from the side of the set. , Others in the cast of ‘ Strange Evidence ’ besides Frank Vosper, Leslie Banks, and Carol Goodlier are James Anderson, Norah Baring, Frances Ross Campbell, and George Curzon. In the second attraction, ‘ I Love That Man,’ Edmund Lowe plays the role of a smooth confidence man who never hesitates to part an unwary victim from his money. Miss Carroll, who knows he’s a crook, falls in love with him and gives up everything to go with him on his profit-making tours of the country. By accident Lowe stumbles into a legitimate business venture, and is soon making more money than ever before. But a pair of crooks he walked out on in the old days appear on the scene and demand to be paid off. The picture reaches a breathless climax in the action that follows.