A FAKED FILM

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1933, Page 11

A FAKED FILM

EXPLORER TAKES ACTION

A LIVELY CASE

There were sheading of • tears' and an exchange of angry^ unpleasant words in the Chambers of Federal Judge Alfred C. Coxe, when Carveth Wells,, the lecturer and explorer, and Mrs. Wells, his wife, complained that Samuel^Cummins, exhibitor of "Jungle Killer," a sound film being shown at the Central Theatre, had added so much irrelevant and "fake matter" to the picture that the words spoken now from the screen "sounded ridiculous" (says the: "New York Times").'" Mr. and Mrs. Wells had been the original speakers of the words, having made the "sound track" of the picture in an effort to "debunk" "big game" films. The situation was so bad, Mr. Wells, complained, and Mrs. Wells tearfully backed him up, that besides ruining his theme, the. additions, and also certain eliminations, now made it appear that he and his wife did not know the difference between a rhinoceros and a flamingo. - "Why it's outrageous," said the former president of the Explorers' Club. . . "In the present hippopotamus and rhinoceros scene," everyone hears me talking about flamingos: "In another place a herd of zebras is shown at a moment when I say: 'There is a gazelle.' It makes me out a perfect.fool." "Another thing I object to: When the sound track was originally made Mrs. W.ells pointed out that gorillas were being shown for the first time on the screen. 'That's the first gorilla picture I've seen,' she said. But since then there have been other gorilla pictures. We censored this part of the sound track and told Cummins to take it out. He kept it in just the same. Really it makes us a laughing stock." THE WBONG WAY. Another objectionable addition to the picture put in without Mr. Wells's authorisation was the snake scene, the explorer said." ' ' "In it's original form," Mr. Wells said, "it was interesting. The snakes were fighting and one devoured the other/ swallowing it -all. "■-■■■"" "This man," said Mr. Wells, pointing to Mr. Cummins, "showed - the fight backward so that it seemed as if the swallowed snake was being regurgitated;—most unscientific." - Mr. Wells explained that he had consented to "synchronise" the picture without realising when he entered into the agreement that some 800 feet of film, as has been charged, belonged to Frederick Beck Patterson. That part of the film has been cut out as a result of an action brought by Mr. Patterson against Mr. Cummins, and the latter, according to Mr. Wells, filled in at random with extraneous matter completely irrelevant to his theme that jungle-beasts are not.as ferocious as some have painted them. • ■■.--■■ ■ "There were a number of shooting scenes in the original picture," said Mr. Wells, who is opposed to shooting. ' 'But these are eliminated in the picture now." . •. V. —_■■ ".:•';•-".,":: The only shooting, he "said,:had.been faked, the targetJbeing a stuffed leopard which was pulled over by a string and made to £all on the ground. AFFECTED, i Eene A. Wormser, Mr. Wells 's attorney, told the Court that his client's reputation as an explorer and naturalist was being seriously injured by the fake effects and added matter. Mr. Wells, he said, earned about 40,000 dollars a/year;.'; -;■;; ■-■ ' -■• .--"■:'■■ -■■-=.y-..-■<■- _. Mr. Cummms/reprdsented byyfienry Pearlman," said that the. explorer had given his endorsement to, the picture by inviting 300 friends to "attend a private Ho said that it had cost a lot to produce, and that-he did not intend to be swayed in his own business policies by a "lot of temperament." .: ;-■.._ -,Mra. Weils pleaded with. Judge Coxe to order Mr. Cummins to cut out the entire "sound .track;" When the Judge replied that. he would sign an order directing- the exhibitor to cut out all of the '"track" that related to the pictures.he had-been forced to cut, Mrs. Wells Syept -more. "That," she said, "will be just as bad." ■■:■/■ , : ' "It's like using the voice of Douglas Fairbanks," she said, "in a Mickey Mouse picture." 1: Judge Coxe agreed to order the entire "track" eliminated if it were decided in another action to be argued later that Mr. Cummins had."used; part of the film, of still: another : plaintiff. Mr. Cummins attempted $0 talk to Mr. Wells as the two men were leaving the Court. :/ . ; . ° "I don't want to talk to you, Cummins," said the latter.-"You're a liar and a thief and you know it." ; "Yeah?" observed Mr. CuinmineL "that's what you are." ■