The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-05
BY UPCO ANAANA

Midsummer hears on lovely Tahiti, described on the French Colonial stamps as "The Pearl of the Pacific" Soon comes the rainy season and with it, doubtless, will arrive some arrogant aggregation of motion picture persons, Scornful of the weather which may find rain falling for as much as two weeks without cessation.
 Such was the case about ten years ago when M-G-M sent along a crew to prepare the way for the making of White Shadows in the South Seas" that O'Brien story which made vogue of the Society Islands for time.
 Robert J. Flaherty
 First arrived the business man. ager and a crew O. electricians, then Robert J. Flaherty, the di- rector, maker of such pictures as "Nanook of the North" "Moana of the South Seas," guy with a reputation which, later, was to mean nothing to him in terms of the large film company's demand for high-Speed production. Flah- erty worked on the system of get ting natives to play as many of the roles as feasible, the profes- Sionals to become secondary.
 Thus, the company, realizing his flair for obtaining native ex- pression might not fit him to direct the sturdy troupers of the screen, sent along Wilfred s. Van Dyke as co-director. This was the start of a highly successful flight to top directorShip for MT. Van Dyke.
 w. S. Van Dyke
 But MT. Flaherty made things most unpleasant for his co-direc- tor when, on sailing from San Francisco, he described Var Dyke Cor the interviewers so understood hin) as the assistant director" than which nothing is more un- important on some picture sets. MT. Van Dyke was a morose pass enger aboard the steamship Ma kura" as she plowed southWard to the islands down under.
 That, however, has importance later. At the outset, Flaherty hob nobbed with officials, with the residents both part-Tahitian and American, with many pretty na- tive girl for whom he had poten- tial place in his production. He conducted trip to Raiatea, d neighboring island, carting along many natives aboard the rented schooner to take under-Wate shots, some of the bathing scenes, If locale proved suitable. Time passed and he returned to find that his professionals" Monte Blue, the "hero," Robert Anderson, the villain" Raquel Torres, and Renee Bush, either of whom was to play the girl lead, had arrived.
 Search For Pool
 So, search started on Tahiti for a pool, out of the thousands on the island, where the bathing scenes might be shot. Meanwhile, carpenters, natives, electricians, grips, were engaged in building couple of villages, one to represent the virgin village" of the ancient TahitianS, the other, a pearl fish ing settlement, "Hikueru," tainted by the vices of the white man. the lustful pearl traders.
 You see, the story was all mixed up and the picture company had taken from OBrien's book the portions O'Brien had clipped in from Herman Melville's "Typee," and the main characters of the piece they planned to shoot were actually those of Melville, Fay away" "Napua, "Mehivi," and the others. This was discovered some considerable time later and pay ment was made in royalties just as the picture was released.
 Out at Hitiaa
 A pool was found, out at Hitiaa, where, a mile or so from the road, the company, sixty or seventy na- tives strong, and the others, three cameramen, myself attached to the Akeley, and more, journeyed daily for about a week ill order to shoot for a half hour when the clouds allowed, the sun shone. We left cars at the road after a sixty mile drive, gathered tons of parapher- nalia, the natives carrying most, of course, and struggled along a trail which intercrossed a sizeable brook several times enroute.
 Then. at last, we piled onto a bamboo raft, several at time, for the last push to the location. Poled through the fast current between perpendicular cliffs at least fifty feet high, we finally reached the pool.
 Foot of Waterfall
 Soft, translucent water in the shadows turned cold and current iSh at the foot of a waterfall