The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-08-03
Film Company Enjoys Rhythm In Relaxation,
 Making Name Calling Just Snap Decision
Other Sets Idle Usually Because of Trouble on
 the Picture
BY PAUL HARRIsON
SAOA AhHAA~ANANSOAN NEA Service Staff Correspondent

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 Hollywood,-Maybe it's the wealth er, or some contagious form of mid- summer goodness. Anyway, there have been entire days when a tour of the studious would reveal aston- ishingly little in the way of purpose ful activity befittmg a big industry which expects to clear $50,000,0O0 this year.
 Movie people just won't work like mechanics on an automobile assembly line. The assembling of picture is retarded when some star decides to have headache or tantrum. When that happens, the set is closed to visitors and passersby assume that everyone within is working like mad.
 Truth is that closed set usual- ly means there's trouble on the picture and that not much is being accomplished.
 Even the most congenial com- panies relax on hot days. I watched a particularly thorough job of relaxing on the set of Forty Naughty Girls"
 The girls, clad in no more span gles than the Hays Office allows, were sitting in big circle play ing a game. Also in the circle were Zasu Pitts, Barbara Pepper, Director Eddie Cline, who used to be a Keystone Kop, and Benny Rubin, who invented the game.
 It went like this: Tn unison, all the players slapped their knees, clapped their hands and snapped their fingers. At the instant of snapping, one player would give the first name of a movie actor or actress, and the following player would have to respond with the last name on the next snap.
 Thus-slap, clap, snap, Greta; slap, clap, snap, Garbo; slap, clap, snap, Ginger; slap, clap, snap, Rogers. Sounds easy, bus the tempo was rapid, the rhythm hypnotic. When player missed he had to toss a renny in the ring and retire from competition. Last person in the contest got the pot Miss Pitts usually won. Octopus Mystery Nine years ago Warmers bought the screen rights to that old stage thriller, "The Gorilla" About the same time somebody wrote a sim liar play called "Shhl-the Octo- pus." So Warmers bought that one, too, fearing that somebody else might film 1t ahead of their "Go- rilla." Until recently 1t gathered dust on shelf in the story department. Then it was brought out, cast with Hugh Herbert in the role of a dumb detective, and put into production. Some extensive rewriting was found necessary. though, and now nothing much of the original remains except the title.
 Seid Herbert: T don't believe there's anybody on the lot who knows what it's about. All know is that it's hot in that plaster cave we have to crawl around in. We call 1t Pneumonia Alley.
 There isn't any real octopus. That's a name for tho villain. But we don't know who the Octopus IS. In fact, not even the man who's writing the scrip knows. The poor guy Is only a couple of paragraphs ahead of the camera. | "When I get up in the morning look at myself and wonder 1T I'm the Octopus"
 Making Their Splash Another picture shooting nearby is submarine D-l." A lot of for ner navy men are enrolled in this one and they don't have much to do.
 So now and then one of 'em sounds assembly on bugle and they all line up and resolutely march of a dock into the big tank in which their submarine is sup- posed to be laundering. Keeps them cool.
 Try. Try Again There's no horseplay on the Claudette Colbert-Charles Boyer picture, "Tonight's Our Night" The director. Anatole Litvak. works his people hard and long-or tries to- even on a day when everyone Is daffy with the heat. | Sweltering, I sat in the shade and watched a scene involving Miss Col bret three bankers, hotel keeper and d lot of extras. After several rehearsals the first take looked fine. So did the second, the fourth, fifth and seventh takes. But Litvak wasn't satisfied. After about a dozen attempts, the players were definitely jittery. Their makeup dissolved and they blew up in their lines.
 Half an hour later. when I left, they were still struggling with the brief scene. And I'll lay odds that the finished picture will use tAe first or second filming.
 Principal set for this picture is a costly and impressive reproduction | of a market square in poor sec- 1 ton of Paris. The pushcarts and stalls are filled with productions of fresh vegetables and even some real rabbits and fowl. But in the midst of this painstaking authen- ticity Is 6 typically goofy Holly wood touch-the oranges are made of tinted plaster.