TALKIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 191, 26 July 1940, Page 7

TALKIES

TIRELESS EFFORTS BEHIND THE SCENES ACHIEVE "THE HUNCH-' BACK" SPECTACLE When film audiences gasp at the menacing figure of Charles Laughton as Quasimedo, or thrill to the exciting climax of the mob storming the towering cathedral walls in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame/' they rarely give thought of the labours of literally thousands of unsung workers without whose share gigantic productions like "The Hunchback" would be impossible. For example, Art Directors Van Nest Polglase and A 1 Herman ard responsible for the detailed 1 ullsized reproductions of the noted cathedral of Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, the Palais de Justice, the Court of Miracles and other his-tory-making locales. They perused hundreds of architectural photographs, sketches and . illustrations before they could draw the blueprints for the public squares and the acreage of streets and buildings adjoining the main structures, as well as for the eerie caverns and cellars that constitute the beggars' retreat in the Court of Miracles. Darrell Silvera, of the property department, dressed the sets with) more than 10,000 items, ail inventory of which covered forty-two single-spaced typewritten sheets, ranging from a torturer's wheel, to the hundreds of articles in the shop windows of the buildings, such weapons as 1000 spears, 500 halberds and 700 swords, furnishings and decorations of the rooms, and the toys and gambling equipment of the concession in the five-acre Feast of Fools setting. The wardrobe department numbering thirty workers supplied 3500 costumes a day—ragged beggars' garb, soldiers' coat of mail, helmets and jackets,, nobles' velvet finery, shopkeepers' attire —for as many extra playei's. Nearly seventy make-up men and hairdressers applied 2000 beards and assorted chin-whiskers, fitted and arranged 2500 wigs and checked the make-up of each of the thousands of players. And not to be forgotten are the members of the casting and. transportation. departments who assembled and carried this young army out to the location and back each day in as many as ninety-live big passenger buses; hundreds of carpenters, painters, masons and briolv layers who built the vast, setsi and streets from the Polglase-Harman plans; film cutters; laboratory work ers and musicians to create the musical score. Altogether, including the thousands of extras, it took exactly 6187 persons to make "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"—among whom are quite . notable Charles Laughton in the title role, and Sir Cedric Hardwickc, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara, Edmond O'Brien, Alan Mar shal, Walter Hampden and Katharine "Alexander.