"THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 27 September 1924, Page 20

"THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.”

EVOLUTION OF A PICT ERE (Specially Written for the • Star. ) It started when Douglas Fairbanks came to us one day suggesting making > au Arabian Nights story W<* looked at each other with a dazed expression and retired to our respective shells to meditate on the form the story ought to take. Xotv. iu constructing a. story you do very much as you would in construction work in any other line you think of the fundamentals. In a story, those are life, trutii. feeling and flavour. You I mild your story on these foundations and then you test it. I la- it a theme, and will it stand up under ih<* burden of a theme? We submerged ourselves in all the known translations of the Arabian Nights— (-alland. Scott, Burton, l.ane, Forster. Hanley and Payne. Our research director started on a course of collateral reading, and lie brought us authorities on architecture, ornamentation, furniture, rugs and information on many other points. He gut illustrations, delightful old woodcuts and engravings. Tile Arabian Nights abound in ver*«v One quatrain, sis translated by Burton, reads: “ Seek not thy happiness to steal. ’Tis work alone will win tjiee weal. Who seeketh bliss sans toil and strife. The impossible seeketh and wasteth life.” This gave Mr Fairbanks hi- theme. “ Our hero,” he said, “must he Every Young Man—of this age or any age— who believes that happiness is a quantity that can be stolen, who 's selfish—at odds with tins world, rebellious toward conventions on which comfortable human relations are based.” Eventually came the days when the photography started, and it was the opinion of Mr Fairbanks that the settings looked as if they were anchored to the ground. 44 They have not the light and airy quality we want.” he said. 14 We must lift them off fhe earth.” Then ho tasked/or acres of polished pavement, capable of exquisite reflections. Around this the high walls, the minarets and domes, the balconies and ledges and the long stairways of our dream city of Bagdad were built. laid, painted many times with thick c oats of black paint, and then polished. We were forced to walk on this with rubber or felt soled shoes. No visitor, no matter how distinguished, escaped this rule. This nuisance in the shape of polished black gave us in pari that which we wanted. Around it. or on four sides, were the high silver walls of the City of* Bagdad. The reflections of these silver walls went deep into the polished pavements. So we hail gleaming high light.- along tli«‘ base lines which destroyed the appearance of solid foundation which had been an eyesore to us. To preserve and elaborate this illusion. the painters were instructed to graduate the silver walls- from the lightest shade that could he called silver to the darkest, mindful still of the quite ol' the earth—a city with silver gleaming at its feet. All this was not done without opposition. No photographer in the business favoured the idea as lie contemplated the difficulties of lighting and taking such radically different sot*>. Whereas the rule was always to avoid any decorative scheme that would produce halation, we were deliberately constructing sots just of that type But our photographer next was entranced by the possibilities of the scheme. He had reflectors as high as the side of a house, cliff users of various sizes and density, and studied the position of the sun in relation to the location to he shot at various time- of the day. 1 think the opinion will lx- that this photographer conquered. And all the time he was working he had in view tho tints and tones he would use

on tho finished print-uranium septa. Maxfield Parrish blue, rose and that uncanny green that we say presages something cataclvsmic in the weather j line. We discovered very early that human | beings could he* human, but that fruits I and flowers, trees and mountains were always just as they were. They all had to be made in property shops. Oneday the hoys filled a large jar with real flowers- li was a huge receptacle and they must have worked hard to ! find the- sort of blossoms and also i lie ’ quantity to fill such a jar. But: all their work wont for naught. The- effect of these real flowers against the highly imaginative background was grotesque. A RiMid story . an’t Iro stopped. It may roll tip like a snoiv-liall. an.l kr- i mm so large that it can't he hamTleiL i lint if it. i- nr,, :,| i; will rijrl.t it... lt. | with it. When the hall pets too hirtte.