"Half A League—"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22498, 15 August 1936, Page 16 (Supplement)

"Half A League—"

CURTIZ MAKES " CHARGE OF LIGHT BRIGADE"

If- one is a port writing a poem is fairly simple. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, probably dashed oil " The Charge of the Light Brigade " in o eonple of hours. " Half a leag 10, half a league, half a league onward," he wrote. " Into the valley of death, rode tlio six hundred I"

Michael Curtiz lb not a poet. He directs motion pictures. And lie's finding it a bit more difficult to film "The Charge of the Light Brigade " than it was to write the lyric, says an American writer.

Mr. Curtis; and his light brigade could be found any day on the rolling hills back of Calabassas You could not see the company from Ventura boulevard, but as you drove along you could hear the roar of the Russian cannon and sometimes see the flash of guns.

As often happens in the picture business, the charge was being filmed backwards. Mr. Curtiz and his cameraman, Sol l'olito, photographing tlio em! o( the charge first.

" Flash'd all their sabres bare, flash'd as they turned in air, sabring tlio gunners there, charging an army, while all the world wondered." 01 courso, Mr. Curtiz was not taking pictures of " all the world wondering." Ho is content to show how tlio Light Brigade " plunged in tlio batterysmoke, right thro' tlio line they broke; Cossack and Russian reel'd from the sabre stroke, shatter'd and sundered." It's <a tedious business, with long waits betwen scenes. Mr. Curtiz's balaclava seemed cluttered with blue trucks and lunch waggons and men and horses.