Evening star., 1936-08-30

Mr.. Irving Thalberg, the master mind
press agents to announce that Mrs. Il
greatest Juliet of all time" probably.
he Is slightly prejudiced. 1t is an
incontestable fact however, that in
order to make the picture it required
so many hours and days and months,
so much research by the professors
hired to keep the atmosphere purely
Elizabethan during filming, so many
retakes of the important stars who
wanted to look their best when jesting
or dying.
THUS the data locally dispensed by
Norman Pyle and John Worth,
who are committed to the task of
keeping Washington Romeo. Juliet
and Mercutio conscious for the next
few weeks. advises us that Miss
Shearer and Mr.. Howard played the
f2nous balcony scene in exactly 9
minutes and 63 seconds, believed to be
2 record. They spoke 1862 words,
mostly of love, and used up a fraction
.csS than a thousand feet of film.
While the lovers with their honeyed
words we're f1inging immortal arches
@: passion high in the heavens the
technical people were busy trying to
sort out 5000 fiagstones. 200 tons of
cement, 3 pounds of ginger root, $4,000
feet of lumber. 80 books of gold leaf
and few other items scattered here
and there to be nodded into settings,
torches. properties and real English
lax o..
When the feast of the Capulets was
on, seven men with seven mops zap
pr0ximately one per NAM raced
around wiping footmarks from the
polished floors of the Capulet castle
tM-G-M always cleans up after its
parties) A few minutes later some
more people would dash across the
floors to take another scene, discourag-
ing the mopsters or moppets.
Cedric Gibbons. art director for the
piece. studied 2,769 scale photographs
of Verona before he completed q
pictorial map of the city. the map
in turn serving as guide to erec-
ton of all scenery. Mr. Gibbons
wound up by building an entire cathe-
dral square, which covered acres
of land on the studio lot The 2,769
pictures didn't tire him at all. The
two camera crews that stayed in
Verona for four months collecting
the pix, however, came back fairly
weary. Said they felt they knew the
town too well after a couple of weeks.
FOR the convenience of those who
would go daft trying to figure
out how many f1agstones were
splashed with blood in the duelling
scenes, or which dish on the Capulet
table had been rubbed with ginger
root, the studio has prepared handy
little time table which will take the
observers mind of these subjects and
divert it principally to his watch.
Figured on the basis of an evening
performance starting at $40, with
an overture of 10 minutes and
short prologue to the play, the sched-
ule runs like this:
1856, Montagues and Capulets ar
rive.
8:38, they fight.
8:43, first glimpse of Juliet, as her
mother and her nurse tell her she
must be married soon.
$50. Romeo appears, "a jaded
young man, downcast."
1855, Queen Nab" speech by John
Barrymore as Mercutio.
9:03. Romeo and Juliet meet for
the first time.
9:10. We hear Romeo, hidden in
the Capulet garden. say, See how
she lays her cheek upon her hand"
Gil, "for five minutes the lovers,
bathed in moonlight, play on our
emotions"
e:21. Juliet sends her nurse to
A., Romeo to discover if his intentions are
honorable.
934. they are married. (Romeo
and Juliet, we mean)
9:38, Mercutio and Tybalt duel.
9:41, Mercutio dies.
9:45, Romeo meets and kills Tybalt
tthey didn't last long in those days..
9:48, Romeo is banished by the
Prince of Verona.
And so it goes, minute by minute,
something happening at 9:52, some
thing else at 1901 sharp, the lovers
dead at 10:45, the curtain at 10:46.
Inch by inch, second by second,
nevertheless, the play is reported to
have added up to one of the more
important achievements of a rapidly
maturing Hollywood.
Quotes from George Cukor, the
director:
1T was the easiest job ever had"