Hand of Clay

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 5 (Supplement)

Hand of Clay

USE IN ARABIAN FANTASY! The story of the Piimt and the I bottle is ono of the best-known tales ; in the Arabian Nights Kntenainment, and when Alexander Konla decided 1 to include it in his new tcehnieolour : production "The Thief of Bagdad," he! was faced with a very ditlicult technical problem. ]nthe picture, '"TheThief ofßagdad," | played by Sabu, finds a bottle on the seashore and imprisoned in the bottle, is the Djinn. a tiny figure four inches j tall. Hex Ingrain, a< the Djinn, ini-j p lores the hoy to release him. When he is freed he expands into a colossal figure two hundred leet high, completely dwarfing the city of Bagdad. j For the sequence which follows this Sabu is seen .standing, a minute figure, in the paint of the Diinn's hand, which j studio technicians produced by model-| ling a hand of clay. Front the wrist to the tips of the fingers this measured : some forty foot and required seven tons of clay. When the modelling was completed, thirty-six sectional moulds were made and these were assembled over a col- j lection of extremely complicated machinery which caused the hand to open and close in a natural manner, j When the whole band was completed t it was sprayed with over I 1 1!* coats of j rubber cement which took the place of j the skin and allowed the hand to clench j while masking the joints in the mould, j