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Page 111
"You don't want Millard to get away," I whispered.
Kennedy sent Mackay to stop him. The author accompanied the
district attorney willingly.
"Yes, Mr. Kennedy?"
"As soon as this scene is over we're going down to the projection
room; everyone concerned in the death of Miss Lamar and of Mr.
Werner."
The scenario writer looked up quickly. "Do you--do you know who
it is?" he asked, soberly.
"Not exactly, but I will identify the guilty person just as soon
as we are assembled down in front of the screen."
Shirley had left the studio floor, apparently to go to his
dressing room. Now I noticed that he returned and passed close
just in time to hear Millard's question and Kennedy's answer. His
eyes dilated. As he turned away his face fell. He went on into
the set, but his legs seemed to wabble beneath him. I was sure it
was more than the weakness resulting from his experience in the
fire.
Kauf's voice, through the megaphone, echoed suddenly from wall to
wall, reverberating beneath the roof.
"All ready! Everyone in the set! Masks on! Take your places!"
At a signal the orchestra struck up and the couples started to
dance. It was a wonderfully colorful scene and I saw that Kauf
proposed to rehearse it thoroughly, doing it over and over
without the cameras until every detail reached a practiced
perfection. In this I was certain he achieved results superior to
Werner's slap, dash, and bang.
Then came the call for action.
"Camera!" Kauf began to bob up and down. "Into it, everybody!"
For fascination and charm this far exceeded the banquet scene
which we had witnessed in the taking previously. The music was
surprisingly good, so that it was impossible for the people not
to get into the swing, and the result was a riotous swirling of
gracefully dancing pairs; the girls, selected for their beauty,
flashing half-revealed faces toward the camera, displaying eyes
which twinkled through their masks in mockery at a wholly
ineffectual attempt at concealment.
Enid maintained her stately carriage, but made full use of the
dazzling whiteness of her teeth. Early she permitted the
attentions of the cowled monk whom she knew to be her lover.
Marilyn was everywhere, making mischief the best she could.
Shirley stalked about in his satanic red, which would photograph
black and appear even more somber on the screen.
Of course the whole was not photographed in a continuous strip
from one camera position. I saw that Kauf made several long shots
to catch the general atmosphere. Then he made close-up scenes of
all the principals and of some of the best appearing extras. At
one time he ordered a panorama effect, in which the cameras
"pammed," swept from one side to the other, giving a succession
of faces at close range.
Finally everything was ready for the climax. Shirley had been
playing a sort of Jekyll and Hyde role in which he was at once
the young lawyer friend of Enid and the Black Terror. Unmasked
and cornered at this function of a society terrified by the dread
unknown menace, he was to make the transformation directly before
the eyes of everyone, using the mythical drug which changed him
from a young man of good appearance and family to the being who
was a very incarnation of evil.
For once Kauf did not rehearse the scene. Shirley was obviously
weakened from his experience and the director wished to spare
him. All the details were shouted out through the megaphone,
however, and I grasped that the action of this part of the dance
was familiar to everyone; it was the big scene of the story
toward which all other events had built.
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