AMAZING DETAIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 256, 28 October 1937, Page 3

AMAZING DETAIL

TESTS BEFORE SCREENING. “NIGHT MUST FALL.” Twice the film footage that tells the story of “Night Must Fall” was exposed in making tests for the screen play before production started for the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. In London, New York City, and Hollywood, camera crews recorded the work of actors suggested for casting in the production. Their acting abilities, appearances, and voices were compared to select the best person available for each role. As the cast supporting Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell was assembled, Director Richard Thorpe supervised further tests to insure the most effective appearance of each character’s costume and make-up under all circumstances of the novel drama’s action. Such tiny details as ear-rings were substituted several times in order to select the most fitting design. AH important properties likewise were tested and several of them were altered to improve their dramatic qualities. Imitation currency, for instance, which is stolen in the play, was tinted with dye to a slightly darker shade. A new type of film, sensitive to special lighting, also was experimented with and Director Thorpe declared it answered one of his difficult problems in the first murder sequence of the story. “Night Must Fall” is a story about a murderer, but it is not a crime mystery. What fascinated London audiences for 55 weeks of the stage play’s run there was the amazing effect upon a small rural household which resulted from the arrival of the undetected killer. While each of the several women of the house react differently to him, all are charmed by his blandishment. The girl who is most strongly convinced he is the killer, likewise is most infatuated. In playing the part of the ingratiating bellboy who kills so that he can experience a sense of power, Robert Montgomery has a role completely unlike any he has ever had before. Rosalind Russell, whose performance in the title role of “Craig’s Wife” was considered by American critics to have been one of the five best of the year, co-stars with Montgomery as the girl who loves the killer.