Director’s Ruse

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 25

Director’s Ruse

i I RIVER CRAFT FOG-HORNS USED IN TALKING FILM ! TO REPLACE MEGAPHONE j With the advent ot the talkies, the handling ot' crowds in motion pictures has become increasingly difficult. Many intricate and ingenious codes of signals have been evolved, but perhaps the most original was one used by Rowland Lee during the filming of “The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.” One scene represented a section of the London waterfront. Lee used the different sound effects typical of the Thames down by the docks as special signals. The hoai-se moan of a foghorn gave the order for a police patrol to speed down the stretch of water that represented the Thames. The boat was laden with detectives on the way to raid a waterside den. The whine of the police boat’s siren was the cue for two of the actors, Warner Gland and Neil Hamilton, to tush through the doorway of the place Two blasts from another river boat in the distance was the signal for an outcry to be raised, and another blare from the foghorn meant that the lights behind the windows were to be extinguished.