Boys Scenario

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

Boys Scenario

Theme Attracts Actor Charles Chaplin As Subject for Successor to Film "The Kid" YOUTH SELECTED FOR THE JUVENILE LEAD

By LUCIEN COROSI

Fifteen years ago Charlie Chaplin made "The Kid, with Jackie Coogan as his juvenile star. It was his greatest success. It urns also his favourite film. It is an open secret that eve:' since this the cinema s greatest genius has itched to make another film of children, the world which he knows so well and understands so much better than any of hit adult contemporaries.

BUT somehow, in those fifteen years, of all the thousands of books and plays and original ecenarios submitted to him, there was none that was entirely suitable. Early this year a hand-written scenario synopsis arrived in Hollywood addressed simply to Charlie .Chaplin. Perhaps it was this peculiarity (ah otherwise inflexible rule is that scenarios must be typewritten) that made the secretary look at it twice, and then decide to read it. By such chances is history made. Immediately he had read it, he took it himself to Chaplin, in spite of strict orders not to bother him with scenarios Unless they were exceptional. Story of Strike Several things struck the secretary. !The first was the age of the author, given on the cover of the manuscript as 12 years. This was confirmed by the writing, and also by the refreshing sincerity of the work. At tho same time, the story showed a great originality, accurate observation and an amazing .psychological insight. When he had read it, Chaplin smiled. He had found what he had been looking for for fifteen years. The story is hbout one of those strikes which have /become such a common feature of life in Detroit, capital of ;the American automobile industry. The

in the course of a conversation, Bob mentioned a 13-year-old friend of his, called Ewing, also tho son of an automobile worker, with a real talent for acting. Satisfactory Screen Tests Again it sounds incredible, but Chaplin does not make mistakes in these matters. Ho chose young Ewing (although ho will probably be known by a different name on the screen) to be his second Jackie Coogan after a series of very satisfactory screen tests. For the present, however, the future star is staying in Detroit, for Charlie is afraid lest the atmosphere and sophistication of the Film City should spoil his simplicity. Chaplin hopes to start on the film during the winter, or next spring at tho latest, the film he has waited 15 years to make, with a 12-year-old scenario-writer, and a 13-year-old costar, and a number of other important juvenile roles.

strike works up to a climax, and a || terrible battle between strikers and i police seems inevitable. Agents provocH ateurs distribute rifles to the workers, and the police are ordered to. evict at P all costs the workers from a building {fi .they have occupied. Massacre Avoided |§- Then a poor worker whom his coml| rades look down upon as crazy, and the g eon of a worker, who has already lost ' his older brother in a former strike, Conceive a plan to prevent disaster. ■ The plan seems foolish, but it suc's ceeds, and the strike ends, not in a '' massacre, but with the death of one I|| man only, killed accidentally by a shot ■ from the boy's revolver. iS To save his young friend from pun- [ I i&hment, his- family from disgrace and I: j his father from unemployment, the jj "crazy" worker takes the blame for the • shot, but he is acquitted in view of his fi services in ending the conflict. Of course, told like this it is a bit fp melodramatic, but it is full of human Uj interest, and it contains two magnifi- [|| cent parts, one ready-made for Chaplin !If himself, the other a grand juvenile role. "A Great Social Film'* |,'|f Chaplin immediately got in touch, I*s unobtrusively as always, with the pf author, 12-year-old .Bob Hepper, of Deplj troit, son of an employee of a large |; j motor-car works. The actor was delighted when he heard that the story f" i was taken from real life, the basic IV< facts coming from an actual strike some I j time ago in which one of Bob's young ft] friends played a heroic part. i "I will make it a great social film," fa said Chaplin, "greater even than 'City $j Lights.' ; 1 But before that there was one diffifcj culty to be surmounted —the thorny H problem of finding another Jackie ! ] Coogan to play the part of the boy. f 4 For a long time it seemed as if this might prove a stumbling block. Then,