This "smash" musicale shortly will be sponsored by the Grand management. Above are newcomers to the screen, Priscilla Lane and Johnnie Davis, while Dick Powell and Fred Waring are featured.
Polo" Samuel Goldwyn did nat include the coolies, but in every other respect the great Goldwyn wall resembles the original built centuries ago. It took Goldwyn's workmen four weeks to build.
Goldwyn is quoted as saying that if the picture is as good as the sets it will be a great epic.
The budget for settings alone amounts to £100,000, or just one third E: of the total production cost of the Picture. The Great Wall section cost 812000. Another set, ipe throne room of Kublai Khan, powerful 13th century Emperor who figures prominently in the story, resulted in a BW for £14,000, Adjoining it was laid down at a cost of nearly £19,000 a Chinese garden, with fish and lily pond, huge cast iron gates and tiled walks.
But the most lavish set of all also was built by 250 workmen who were engaged on its construction for one month. This is a sectional facsimile of the five-square-mile palace of Kublai Khan. The set is not as large as that, but it measures 1,200 feet long by 800 wide, and cost nearly £30,000. Near to this is being built a Chinese city which will be the scene for a spectacular battle involving hundreds of extras.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.