|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 47
We saw Werner at work in a distant corner and strolled over. The
director was bustling about feverishly. I do not doubt that the
grim necessity of preparing the picture for a release date which
was already announced had resulted in this haste, without even a
day of idleness in respect for the memory of the dead star, yet
it seemed cold-blooded and mercenary to me. I thought that
success was not deserved by an enterprise so callous of human
life, so unappreciative of human effort.
Most of the cast were standing about, waiting. The scenes were
being taken in a small room, fitted as an office or private den,
but furnished luxuriously. Later I learned it was in the home of
the millionaire, Remsen, close off the library for which the
actual room in Phelps's home was photographed.
Shirley and Gordon, I noticed, kept as far apart as possible. It
was quite intentional and I again caught belligerent glances
between them. On the other hand, both Enid and Marilyn Loring
were calm and self-possessed. Yet between these two I caught a
coolness, a sort of armed truce, in which each felt it would be a
sign of weakness to admit consciously even the near presence of
the other.
Werner was irascible, swearing roundly at the slightest
provocation, raging up and down at every little error.
"Come now," he shouted, as we approached, "let's get this scene
now--number one twenty-six. Loring--Gordon! Shake a leg--here,
I'll read it again. 'Daring enters. He is scarcely seated at the
desk, examining papers, when Zelda enters in a filmy negligee.
Daring looks up amazed and Zelda pretends great agitation. Daring
is not unkind to her. He tells her he has not discovered the will
as yet. Spoken title: "I am sure that I can find a will and that
you are provided for." Continuing scene, Daring speaks the above.
Zelda thanks him and undulates toward the door with the well-
known swaying walk of the vampire. Daring turns to his papers and
does not watch her further. She looks over her shoulder, then
exits, registering that she will get him yet.'" Werner dropped
his copy of the script. "Understand?" he barked. "Make it fast
now. We shouldn't do this over, but you were lousy before, both
of you!" Gordon extinguished a cigarette and entered the set with
a scowl. Marilyn rose and slipped out of a dressing gown spotted
with make-up and dark from its long service in the studios.
Underneath the wrapper the finest of silken draperies clung to
her, infinitely more intimate here in actuality and in the bright
studio lights than it would be upon the screen. I noticed the
slim trimness of her figure--could not help myself, in fact. And
I saw also that she shrank back just the least little bit before
stepping to her place at the door. It was modesty, a genuine
girlish diffidence. In a moment I revised my conception of her.
Before, I had not been able to decide whether Marilyn Loring was
a woman with a gift for looking young, or a flapper with the
baffling sophistication affected these days by so many of them.
Now I knew somehow that she was just all girl, probably in her
early twenties. The brief instant of shyness had betrayed her.
In the scene she changed. Marilyn Loring was an actress. The
moment she caught the click of the camera's turn there was a
hardness about her mouth, a faint dishonest touch to the play of
her eye, a shameless boldness to her movements concealed without
concealment. In the flash of a second she was Marilyn no longer,
but Zelda, the ward of old Remsen, an unscrupulous and willing
ally of the "Black Terror."
Werner damned the amount of footage used in the scene, then
turned to the next, with Enid and Gordon, in the same set, one of
the necessary retakes for which the room had been put up again.
Enid had not noticed me and I somehow failed to shake off the
feeling of fear that the glance of Millard had given me. Faint
heart I was, and the answer was that I had yet to win the fair
lady. To excuse myself I pretended she was different under the
lights. It was really true that, as Zelda Remsen, Enid was not
the fascinating creature I had met in Werner's office. There was
too much Mascaro on her lashes, too great an amount of red and
blue and even bright yellow in her make-up. In striking contrast
was the little coloring used by Stella Lamar, or even Marilyn
Loring.
Enid's scene was a close-up in which the beginning of the love
interest in the story was shown. I noticed that as the cameras
turned upon the action the girl inch by inch shifted her
position, almost imperceptibly, until she was practically facing
the lens. The consequence was that Gordon, playing the lover, was
forced to move also in order to follow her face, and so was
brought with his back toward the camera. It was the pleasant
little film trick known as "taking the picture away" from a
fellow actor. Enid was a "lens hog."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|