REALISM OF SOUND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 16

REALISM OF SOUND

A VITAL FACTOR IN PICTURES W. S. Van Dyke 11. started something when he directed “San Fransisco.” He co-starred an earthquake with Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy, and made it one of the I film’s smash hits. Since then, great spectacle scenes have shared honours with the stars, when movie audiences and critics have passed out praise for outstanding performances. The locust plague in “The Good Earth,” the hurricane in “Hurricane,” and the fire in “Old Chicago,” all won plaudits for their thrilling entertainment. In these scenes, sound has been the keynote in producing an overwhelming impression of stark reality, the crash of falling buildings, the whir of locust wings, the roar of wind, and the crackling of burning buildings. Van Dyke, who is directing Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power in “Marie I Antoinette,” is working with Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer recording director, to produce a new sound sensation in the scene depicting the I storming of the palace at Versailles by i a Paris mob. ! “In this famous historical episode.” ■ said Van Dyke, “human emotions and i mob hysteria reached a crescendo of ( tremendous power. Sound will play an important part in making this scene remembered. The mob, composed mostly of women, formed in Paris marched the 17 miles to Versailles. The scene grows in drama and tension as the mob approaches the palace, finally breaking into the apartment of Antoinette and King Louis XVI. and

unleashing the oppression of centuries in one mad outburst. Van Dyke will make sound tracks of thousands of marching feet, the growing frenzy and cries of the marchers, the shattering of the palace doors, the horrified pleas of the lame and weak trampled underfoot as the mob storms through Versailles, and the ridicule heaped on the Frenca King and Queen. “With sound,” the director declared, “we can catch the spirit of the revolution, and give it actual physical force.” Van Dyke, who was an assistant director to D. W. Griffith during the filming of “Intolerance,” believes that great as the scenes were in that picture, sound would have made them more vivid. “Sound,” he said, “has become a vital factor in bringing realism to the screen.”