PUNTERS' PARADISE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18920, 23 January 1936, Page 7

PUNTERS' PARADISE

UNUSUAL RACE MEETING FILMING OF ''THOROUGHBRED" SYDNEY. .Inn. 17. Some of the concluding sequences in the Cinesound film "Thoroughbred" were "shot" at Randwlck racecourse yesterday. Miss Helen Twelvetrees, the American star of the production, together with the male supporting artists and comedians and about 200 "extras," were busily employed throughout the day. Randwick racecourse, under the direction of Mr. Ken Hall and the assistant producer, Mr. Ronald Whelan, became a punters' paradise. Totalisator tickets on the winning horse were distributed free, bookmakers offered generous odds, and bettors staked large sums of money banded out to them for that purpose. Punters simply could not lose. That the winning totalisator 'tickets were not paid and that the money "won" from the smiling bookmakers was recollected by Mr. Whelan made no difference to what was a wonderful dream while it. lasted. The Rim "Thoroughbred" is a story of the Australian's inborn love of good horses, and when the picture is completed and shown publicly audiences will no doubt be reminded of Pilar Lap by the horse Stormalong. Mr. Hall expects that the film will be ready for release in about two months. The scenes filmed yesterday were a comedy sequence with Les Wharton as the urger's delight and George Wallace as the "tirger" who had found the perfect "mug," several race crowd sequences, and a dispute between Miss Twelvetrees and Mr. Frank Lelghton about the sale of Stormalong. PATIENCE OF DIRECTOR. The imperturbable patience of the director sound engineer, Mr. Olive Cross, and the camera-man, Mr. George Heath, was remarkable to u stranger to a film location. Everything would be ready for the scene to be "shot" when a rustle of wind would set up surging in the sound recording apparatus, or while a scene was actually in process of being taken it would be discovered that some of the "extras" had been unable to resist the temptation to stare directly into the camera. Half-a-dozen times a scene would be held up or ruined by some apparently trifling but actually vital thing. One "take" was happily in progress when a motor grass mower came near enough for its noise to spoil everything. The director stopped the action, waited until the motor was out of ear-shot, and then calmly re-took the whole scene. Even when several inquisitive and collarless persons wandered among the tophatted elite in the paddock and ruined the scene the director was the essence of politeness in his complaints. The most harassed man of all undoubtedly was the production manager, Mr. Jack Souter, who had to find lunch for 200 people. This task had its humorous side, but Mr. Souter was emphatic that it was no comedy scene to him.

During the filming of one sequence Miss Twelvetrees and Mr. Leighton were out. of the picture. Sheltering from the sun under the grandstand they .seemed to be engaged 'in a furious argument, but closer investigation revealed that they were merely rehearsing the next scene in which they were to appear.

The general goodfellowship of film players —principals and extras —was much in evidence and, despite the lonswaits and the frequent "take that again, please" from Mr. Hall, everyone present seemed thoroughly to enjov what surely was' the most unusual race meeting Randwick has seen. After a few more sequences have heen made the film will go into the cutting stage, and then "Thoroughbred" will be ready for its Australian premiere, when there will lie no sign of the tribulations and exasperations that were part of its making.