NEW HAWTHORNE STORY

Evening Star, Issue 23681, 14 September 1940, Page 5

NEW HAWTHORNE STORY

That no Hollywood producer has ever placed Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘ The House of the Seven Gables ’ before the cameras until now is somewhat surprising. When Universal Studios discovered that the Hawthorne tale had never before been filmed it quickly began preparations for its production. Jack Otterson, the studio’s art director, was sent to inspect, photograph, and draw plans of ‘ The House of the Seven Gables ’ of Hawthorne’s dramatic masterpiece. It was not until sets were ready for the cameras that the studio announced that the picture would be made. The cast includes George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, and Dick Foran. Miss Lindsay appears at Hepzibah, Sanders as Jaffray Pyncheon, Price as his brother Cliffoip, Nan Grey as Phoebe, and Dick Foran as Matthew Maule. Three of Universal’s stages were crowded with sots representing interiors of the ill-fated and forbidding mansion in which most of the action takes place, and drawings resulted in the creation of replicas of the main living rooms of the house, the upper and lower hallways, and the construction of a duplicate of the mansion on the studio’s back lot. Only slight changes were necessary in Hawthorne’s story, Hepzibah and Clifford, brother and sister in Hawthorne’s original tale, will appear as distant cousins in love with each other. Jaffrey, Clifford’s uncle in the book, will be seen as his cruel and grasping brother.