FACING DEATH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3148, 15 July 1914, Page 76

FACING DEATH.

KINEMA ACTOR’S ORDEAL. Quick death and a fearful one hovers above the twentieth-century movie thespian (says a writer in the New York Tribune). He knows it/and takes every precaution to avoid it. His company takes every known precaution; but the unexpected is forever happening, the unexpected that is not planned in the scenario. _ -■ Jimmy was the real handy man in the company when it came to making lions and tigers .eat out of his hand. He had played the hero when the lion was about to spring upon the bound and helpless heroine whom the villain had cast into the beast’s cage. Jimmy never batted his eye when he dashed into the cage and kicked that lion into its four corners. Therefore, when the time came for a real thriller with a lion, Jimmy was voted the hero’s job. The scene represented the interior of a great cave. Jimmy was playing the role of a powerful, brave youth of biblical fame. To show his absolute fearlessness and prodigious strength, he was to march into that cave and with his qwn hands slay the beast holding forth there. A Well-trained Lion. — That beast in this instance happened to be a lidh—a magnificent male that had figured in the production of more than one thriller. He was well trained, had never turned cross or ugly during the most humiliating tamperings with his strength and dignity and to all intents and purposes was thoroughly trustworthy. But Jimmy rehearsed the scene dav after day; for even he didn’t enthuse over the idea of gripping those huge paws with his bare hands and actually killing the- brute. Oh, yes, they had arranged to kill him right there before the audience! Jimmy was to begin his wrestling with the lion, and then the camera was to be stopped for an instant while the company’s physician stole up behind the animal and deftly injected a dose of morphia through .its hide with a hypodermic needle. As the drug took effect the lion’s play resistance would grow weaker and weaker, until in the grand finale Timmy was to fling the sleeping brute from him—dead! Very well; but the rehearsal of the hypodermic injection had never been atr tempted. Therein lay the trouble. Jimmy entered the cave, and the lion advanced to meet him as it had done in 50 rehearsals. Jimmy promptly grabbed its jaw, as per rehearsal, and the great struggle began, the beast submitting beautifully, while the camera men and the director chuckled with glee over the success of the scene. “All right!” called the director, motioning the camera man to stop grinding, and nodding to the physician. “ Hold your pose, Jimmy I Wo’re going to give him the dope.” The Unrehearsed Incident.— Jimmy and the lion did as they were told. '■The physician stepped behind the animal and jabbed in the needle. There was a sudden nervous quiver that shook the lion’s body and wrested its jaws from Jimmy’s lianas. , With a deafening roar of pain and rage it bounded backward a full 10ft and crouched, its tail twitching, its burning eyes fastened on Jimmy. “Run, Jimmy—run!” screamed a dozen voices behind the camera. But Jimmy didn’t. He couldn’t. In a roaring flash of golden brown the lion cleared that 10ft and crashed into Jimmy, bearing him to the ground. Its mighty paws with claws unsheathed raised to dash out Jimmy’s brains. _ But Two mighty explosions rent the air in the cave. The lion toppled back—dead. The director’s unfailing automatic .48 and his steady hand had .saved Jimmy’s life. All that Jimmy experienced was the pain of a few Sin gashes that grazed his jugular vein.

But the scene was a success. The first part was perfect. All that remained was for Jimmy’s wounds to heal, when he could easily walk into the :ave again and wrestle with another lion that had already been drugged.