HOLLYWOOD'S METHODS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD'S METHODS

HUGH WALPOLE'S VISIT FILMING "DAVID COPPERFIELD " Mr. Hugh Walpole, the noted English author who was commissioned by Hollywood to see that tho film version of "David Copperfield" did not contain errors in speech and atmosphere, had some amusing things to say about filmmaking at a luncheon on his return to London.

Mr. Walpole said ho went to Hollywood to advise on tho script, but was anxious to learn about production. By placating tho right men, and smiling at the right men, he had been allowed to stay on and take part in the actual making of the film. " Never in my life," he continued, "have I worked so hard. I was a kind of pupil. I say this because I have seen it stated that I wrote tho scenario. Actually I did as I was told —sometimes under rather brutal orders." (Laughter.) " ' Let's see what Dickens has to say about it, ' David Selznick (tho producer) or George Cukor (the director) would always say; and invariably wo found some bit of dialogue, some overlooked incident, that straightened things out."

Occasionally, Mr. Walpole said, he was allowed to write in bits. Once he did a whole scene, and thought it superb. Next morning he found it on the producer's desk with a very uncomplimentary and terse epithet scrawled across it in blue pencil. Mr. Walpole paid a tribute to Mr. Charles Laughton and Mr. W. C. Fields. "Mr. Laughton was invited to play Micawber largely at my suggestion," he explained. "Accepting with great misgivings, he shaved his whole head, and came along looking strangely, divinely perfect. " Then the acting began, and this weird figure was so wonderful that

all the babies began to scream and shudder. Mr. Laughton became more and more sinister, and at last, sacrificing much time, labour and money, told Mr. Selznick that his interpretation was all wrong and dropped out. Mr. Fields stepped in, and apart from his hair, which he had to keep because of another role, is the perfect Micawber —the 0110 player who contributes something of his own to the part."