Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-10-17
CONFESSIONS
OF 4 STAR
.4S Told TO
INEZ UMPH
CHAPTER NLNUI

MAKING a picture IS rather like
4N1 building house; no matter how
much money you allow for it. it's sure
to cost more than that. You cant get
the character man you want, and have
to engage another one, who wants more
money; you find that you can get a
wonderful Cameraman, who's worked
with Griffith or Mary Pickford for just
q little more than you'd thought you'd
pay some one else. Instead of building
part of a terrace overlooking the sea,
you find that newly rich millionaire
will be delighted to lend you his home
where YOU can shoot the real thing.
if you'll let his wife and daughters ap-
pear in the picture. You agree. but by
the time you've taken n mob Of extras
way down on Long Island TO his home
and bought their luncheon. you find
that. though you get better effect
the cost is something ghastly.
After days Of arguing, Derry let me
invest the money I'd saved in our pic.
turc He'd put IN all that he had and
was worrying about getting more; had
S1J 900. which wouldn't see us through,
but would make il possible for us to
shoot enough film so that we'd be able
to borrow more, using 1t as security
when We did have to borrow.
If you'v never had picture on your
mind you cant appreciate what 1t
means. You eat and sleep with that
picture. You wake up in the middle
Of the night wondering how that double
exposure is going TO look. or whether
that big set is too blooming big to be
lighted with the equipment you have.
The leading man has a bad cold what
If he should be laid up with pnenmonlu
and hold up production for weeks:
What II he died? You'd have TO get
somebody else 70 play his part, and re-
take all the scenes he's done. There :
rumor that some one else is making
picture that's almost identical with
yours, so far as the story is concerned,
and that it will be released full
month before yours is done. That would
kill yours, absolutely.
| Those are only q few OF the things
! that made Derry look gaunt and pale,
and that drove me TO the verge OF DIS
traction ] saw the world through n
haze Of worry. And my heart went out
to Derry, when I'd SEQ him on little
platform above mob of extras, llS
| cycs protected from the glare Of m"
| lights by dark glasses, putting his
! heart and soul into stirring them int"
the proper frenzy to go through their
! scenes MS they should. And then they d
dawdle. and different ones would try
10 stay in front of the camera as long
as they could, and they'd laugh instead
Of looking terribly excited
Directing Is hard work, you know.
It absolutely wears you out, Livery =
thing rests on your shoulders, and II $
up to you to keep things moving, TO
zee the picture clearly in your own
mind, and then make your people Worh
together SO that the picture is one har-
mOnious whole, instead of production
in which every one does things as be
thinks best.
We couldn't quite decide how we'd
show it first. We could have rented
projection room, Of course, and ask"t
The people who might release II l"l
us. but we didn't really want TO do
that. Then, too, there was tn" problem
of how To manage about letting II s.
( out; whether to see II we could get I
t biz company to handle II, ana pal
their price, or get one that WASH I 81
wcll known but wouldn't charge u
SO much money.
t and the money doesn't matter SO muc!
= "a The name we make" Derry decide
g et Inst. We'd been sitting in the funn,
!. little room that he used as an office, il
$ one corner of the studio that we wcr
$ using, And we'd talked picture-pictur
Y ~-nicture ever since dinner time. 1t wa
;, nearlv eleven then, and we still ha
n some work TO do. So we let it go q
z that. .l,,,.;,,, =.
Broadway theatre. We could ask ever
one then, and its being shown that wa
migbt help 1t later, people told us. Per
sonally, / didn't believe that. Ivc al
's ways felt that people weren't 50 muc
&c influenced by what New York thougr
OF a picture as a good many producer
seem to think
We we're in debt over our heads whe
is the picture was done. The day we sa
:. the finished print run of, Derry leane
st over and took my hands in his.
sz This is what we stand or fall b!
honey" he told me. ''What'll we
if it falls through"
4. ut won't fall through, Derry dear,
ne answered staunChly. But / did wor
I'd der, just a little, what was going
It happen to US.
1t We took a theatre-and oh, Nwhi
ithaseostsi Wa made AL srrangsmeRt