KNIGHTS OF THE CINEMA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXV, Issue 11755, 19 August 1913, Page 6

KNIGHTS OF THE CINEMA.

ADVENTURES OP AN , AMATEUR

FILM AOTOE.

1 had reason to believe that serious trouble was brewing this morning in (Jhepstow (remarks a contributor to she Express). When I lunched lit tho Beaufort Anns 1 silt between two men clad from toj) to toe in chain armour. They were eating ham and chicken, and one of these men said to the other: "Say, Steve, have you advertised for 200 men to storm the castle?' "I did, boss," said the other. "And did you telegraph for another gross of battle-axes?" "Sure," replied the other, striking a match on his gorget. Later on, in the corridor, where a Ked Cross knight was practising a ragtime step with another helmoted knight, 1. guessed the startling secret. It was nothing else than a deep-laid plan on the part of a number of:' Americans disguised as early Normans to carry Chepstow Castle by assault and battery. The local drill hall was chockful of swords, spears, and armour, and all the hotel bedrooms were booked by Knights Templars, Saxon, churls, varlots, ami damozels. When, after lodging information with the police, 1 learned that these wild scenes wore the natural accompaniment of the production of "Ivanhoo" by the Imp Film Company, 1 interviewed the manager, told him 1 could flicker about like anything, and asked for a job. "Sure, sonny,' , he said. "J. was 1 just looking for someone to play the ]»art of the .Norman soldier who is thrown, oil' the battlements by Ivanhoe. " Very Keen on Detail. lie was awfully keen on detail, that American producer, lie had mo thrown off the battlements live times before he was satisfied, and in my next great comedy scene, where 1 was pushed into the moat by a jester, he did not seem to care how much iilm he used as long as I learned to go in with the proper kind of splash.

Still, it is a great life being a film actor. You come down to some lovely place like Chep.stow, borrow an old castle or two, and sit round in a. gorgeous costume waiting until the sun shines, knowing that your salary is running on all the time, and that you are not wearing out your own clothes.

Film actors talk all the time their pictures are being taken. They say nice things to each other in the love scenes, mutter terse words in the sword lights, and this same jester who pushed mo into the water laughed out loud, just as though it were a real joke. When they go wrong and spoil the film, the producer also siivs tliinus. (

Our producer was a Mr JLerbert Brenon, who also played the part of Isaac of York. Like most Americans lie knew his ''Ivanhoe" through and through, and I heard him reproach a Saxon thane in the market square this morning because his sword was a generation out of fashion.

Further down the street he met a black-bearded Saracen, turned him to the light, and sent him home to put a line of No. (i grease-paint uiuler his eyes. Then he dashed oil in a motorcar, borrowed a forest for his Robin Hood scenes, and hired a score of horses for the great assault on the castle. Nothing will stop that castle beiug taken on Friday except bad light.

There have been quite a number of tidy little scraps, there since the haughty FitzOsborne set up housekeeping in 1067, but there looks like being real trouble at this affair on Friday. I have picked out a hefty battleaxe, and intend to fight for the fair Rowenn, who is Miss Evelyn Hope, the actress, and the persecuted Rebecca, who is Miss Baird, of America—Miss Baird is a. sort of gelatine Juliet in America—a queen of the "' movies. '' Since writing the above, the manager tells me he wants me to fight in the forest to-morrow with Richard Cceur de Lion, and then be thrown over a precipice into the river. Mr Scott Craven plays the part of King Uichard, and both lie and the precipice are very tall. 1 have ilecided to resign.