Filming "The Mikado"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Filming "The Mikado"

Director and Composer Victor Schertzinger Discusses Place of Music on Screen PLANS FOR SAVOY OPERA PRODUCTIONS

By R. B. MARRIOTT . "Producers have ruined many big musical aims and hlms-with-music. Most Hollywood producers—and a good many understand very little of music in connection with films. "Th&j know that music can enhance a straight him, and they know that the public likes musical films; get they are notf inUtnp to let men who know something about music, men who are mus • cians and composers, handle their work in their own way.

VICTOR SCHERTZINGER said this to me while we sat in the sunshine in the gardens of the Pinewood Club the other day. Tall, massive, grey-haired Schertzinger Grace Moore on the screen-map in "One Night of Love he wrote the musical numbers and background music for Ernst Lubitsch'B "The Love. Parade," and in that gave Jeanette Mac Donald the best songs she has ever had; years ago he wrote the scores for "The Birth of a Nation," Thomas Ince's "CivilisaJ/ion," and for other successes. He iB in England to direct "The Mikado" at Pinewood. This -is an ambition realised after years of struggle. "For years I have been battling with producers and directors, trying to get them-to recognise the vital importance of music in films," he said. "When I wrote the scores for films like "The Birth of a Nation," and "Civilisation," they were written for 60 or 100 musicians to play. "I remember some producers and a great many cinema managers thought that.it did not matter at all if they were played by an orchestra of a dozen or so. Influence of Talkies "I began my. first fight then. Incidentally, I had the great Roxy for an ally. He was a small cinema owner in New York and he realised the importance of music to a film, and he got as many musicians as he could in his theatres. "When the talkies arrived, music became a thousand times' more important. 'But still producers went on thinking that background music was good enough if it 'just filled in nicely* where necessary and was not obviously inappropriate. "You know, there is nothing like giusic to deepen the dramatic effect ol a film. In fact it can often speak and explain more subtly and convincinjgly than dialogue and action. "There are several good examples, of this, but generally there is no collaboration between composer and director. A real understanding in this direction would, I feel' certain, result in much better films. . "In the case of musicals —as distinct from films-with-music —it is always best to allow the composer to direct his

"Madame Butterfly and "La Traviata," is an example. "The ordinary filmgoer knows, however, when there has been no sympathy between composer (or musical selector) and the director. Somehow, he senses when there has not been a complete union of music and story, and consequently ho doesn't quite take to the film as a whole. . "He usually decides to forget about the' music and try to enjoy the story and spectacle and his favourite star. "Xhi9 often happens with big, spectacular musicals which have lavish Ecenes and in which every song or bit of music is played over and over again —as ii the makers of the film were afraid that tho music really was not very good arid that the only way of 'getting it over' was to plug it until fclio punlic wcra forced to listen. Collaboration in Production "How is it that the big numbers of lavish 'musicals are so seldom remembered and whistled in the street? "I believe it is because the producer, scene designer, spectacle builder and story writer have not been in complete sympathy, and the result of their naifcollaboration has been a mixture which can only live for the moment. "An unpretentious Bing Crosby film, w»i b its neat little songs, lasts longer in the public's memory. In Crosby films, composer, director and star work together to make a tuneful, entertainin;? film —and the result is that they 'get home.' " ■ Kclurt/.uiger believes that the public wants more musical films of the Grace Moore or Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson fckklv type. . ■ . "Some of the most popular stars in the world are the singers," he said, "lake :Nelson Eddy, Miss Mac Donald, Deanna Durbin, Bing Crosby, and Grace Moore, just a handful from a

More foreign Films • America is finding out that yoa cannot > kccp a good film down. The Motion Picture Herald records that the number of American cinemas showing foreign films has been tripled since 1935. , Excluding British pictures, 197 foreign films were shown in America last year. Sixty-five of them were German, 23 French and the rest Hungarian, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Czechoslovakia and Austrian. American film financiers do not like it. Thr'i point out that more and more restrictions are being raised against American films abroad and they don't call it a fair exchange. They may .take steps to stamp oat this groping growth toward a healthy internationalism. But it seems more probable that European countries would eagerly lower tariffs for a solid share in the American market.

own, work. It is a regular occurrence in Hollywood for a famous composer to be invited to write for a musical. As a rule he is given only the vaguest instructions. Hollywood Methods "He sits down and writes .in- the dark, so to speak. He probably has not even seen the story ,he is writing for, and it is unlikely that he has had a thorough talk with producer and director; v . y ' - . "When his music is ready it is nearly a 1 wayß "not quite suitable." And the upshot it that a few 1 of the composer's most" famous tunes are used, a staff background music man is caUed in, and. the famous composer goes away bewildered, vowing never to compose for the screen again." One of Schertzinger's greatest fights was "over' "One Night of Love." The executives concerned did not want him to direct it himself, though obviously, as composer and author, he was the one. man who knew everything about it. +i /'•* ■ ■■• Only after, a great deal of discussion and persuasion, and some extremely heated moments, was . Schertzinger given the task. J Good Musicals Popular "1 am j;lad to say that I justified myself," Schertzinger explained, "and I should put it on record that I was handsomely rewarded. '•'The public love a good musical or a film-with-music, provided the music is tuneful and easily memorised. That the public doesn't care for classical music has been disproved. "One Night of Love," with its selections from

long list. They sing good songs well and they keep their public." "But even they often suffer from that producer-director lack of understanding which I have been referring to. Don't we often hear filmgoers say: 'Oh, yes, -I like So-and-So; she sings awfully well, but why are ner pictures often such a mess?' "In' "A Hundred Men and a Girl" Deanna Durbin had that necessary sympathy—and what a success she had!" , . . "Is Miss £>urbin going to sing YumYum in "Th 6 Mikado?" I asked him. "Well, 1 caintiot tell you that yet," he replied. "We do not know who will be the "tar, but we must have someone who has ail appeal in America to help the film there —though, of course, "The Mikado" is a great favourite in America. "What I would like to say about it, however, is that we are not going to modernise it. I have had a number of abusive letters and postcards from people who have got hold of a rumour that we are going to change this and that in the story. Operas as Written "That is entirely wrong. We shall produce the opera as written. How could one, modernise it? It is either right as it is or it is not worth bothering with. . ' "What we hope to do is to make it intelligible to cinema audiences by clean international speech and good diction. "I have been,a Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiast and student for years; and throughout my musical and film career I have longed to film the operas. This chance is a dream come true. "If it is the success we hope, we shall film other Gilbert and Sullivan operas—exactly as they were written."