IDEAS FROM FILMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 27 February 1939, Page 14

IDEAS FROM FILMS

INTEREST IN SETTINGS Stars are net the only people in the motion picture business who get fan mail. At the Warner Bros.’ studios hundreds of letters are received every week by the art directors who design the settings for pictures. The bulk of the fan mail of this type comes from moviegoers who like certain sets and who want detailed descriptions of the furnishings used, or blue prints and floor plans of the settings. At the Burbank studios the art director who getc the greatest volume of mail is Robert Haas, whose most recent assignment was the designing of the settings for “Gold Is Where You Find It,” the technicolour Cosmopolitan production based on the historic struggle between the wheat ranchers and the hydraulic miners of California in the 1870’s. Directed by Michael Curtiz, “Gold Is Where You Find It” has George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains and Margaret Lindsay heading the cast. Sets which arouse most interest are cabin interiors, modernistic apartments and early American interiors. Whenever he employs an unusual fireplace. Haas says he is sure to receive a flood of letters asking for specifications. Cocktail bars also arouse a lot of interest, and hotel settings are keenly watched by people in that industry for new ideas. Many ideas from movies have been incorporated in new hostelries. At the moment, fans seem to be interested chiefly in cabins and in trailer interiors, though up to the moment no art director has really turned his attention to a trailer.