Spectacular Film About China Budgetted at G.$1,500,000: Gary Cooper in Starring Role Though the aim of the silver screen, iє art, writes Douglas W. Chucchill from Hollywood to the New York "Times," drama and entertainment—a mark that is hit upon occasion—because of the financial proportions of the medium it frequently requires courage to point the lens, and more to turn the camera's crank. At the moment the existence of the Chinese is being made miserable not only in Shanghai but in Hollywood. The Tartar hordes of Kaidu, led by that indomitable soldier of fortune, Gary Cooper, have night after night stormed the outer gates of Peking while Samuel Goldwyn has sat placidly by and watched hundreds of thousands of dollars pour out of his pockets He saw à set which had cost him $92,476 blasted to pieces by men to whom he paid $23,000 a night, and he was content. The incident cost him probably $300,000, which means approximately $20,000 a minute for the time the action is on the screen. And that in any language, even Hollywood's, is'money. "The Adventures of Marco Polo" is budgetted at under Guild shop. They arrived at the lake at 6, and until darkness made shooting possible at 7:30 they were assigned their stations and instructed.
Rehearsals at. Night Rehearsals began with darkness, and until 5:30 in the morning, with time out for meals, they fought and bled for dear old Goldwyn, art and $23.84 a day. Location troupes are always fed, but Guild rules provide a hot meal every five and a half hours. At eleven they stopped and went to the field commissary. Feeding such a mob is a business in itself, and for years the Anderson brothers have taken care of the human needs of the players. They have immense field kitchens, tents, tables and a staff that knows of the cost of location trips to studios and, therefore, wastes no minutes. (The Andersons fed the workmen at Boulder Dam during construction, kept them happy and satisfied the exacting demands of the Government.) round $1,500,000.
When lunch was called for the 1,000
^Retakes" Impossible employees, awaiting them on every table was fried chicken, braised On the gently rolling ground near Malibu Lake a set approximately 500 feet long and 40 feet high, with a 80-foot superstructure at the gate, was erected. It was for a climactic Scene, and because of the destruction there could be no retakes unless another fortune was spent. For many nights detail shots had been made. Small bands of horses clashing, groups in hand-to-hand fighting, men falling from the walls. When the spectacle was ready to be shot, a surge of 300 horsemen crashed against another 300 men on foot guarding the gate. The horses had been taken to the location in the afternoon along with sixty wranglers, one for each five animals. The horses rented for $250 a head and each wrangler received $10.
In the late afternoon electricians, grips and carpenters arrived to place the set in order under the management of assistant directors. The extras reported at United Artists in Hollywood shortly before 5, received their call cards and loaded into 20 buses. When they entered the vans their day began, for which each was paid $23.84 for work and travel time beef, baked ham, cheese plate, cold meats, potatoes, lima beans, salad, sliced tomatoes, fresh fruit, canned pineapple, cake, coffee, milk and lemonade. The players were limited only by their ability to reach and: to eat.
With all the action and violence, but three men were injured during the entire episode, and they not seriously. Every safety precaution possible is taken nowadays and even the old-time stunt men who scorn all protective devices are restrained from deliberately exposing their necks. The S. P. C. A. keeps a vis lant eye on animals and their observers were present during detail shots and the spectacle. The day when horses plunged over cliffs has gone. Now piano wire is affixed to wide bands which hold the saddles and is stretched to booms high overhead, The horse gallops to the point on the bluff where it is to leap into space, and as he goes over the edge the wire is kept taut and slows the descent to half normal speed, which has thus far made injuries impossible. The cameras turn at half speed to
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