COLOUR ENHANCES DRAMATIC EFFECT

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

COLOUR ENHANCES DRAMATIC EFFECT

Colour in a motion picture adds tremendous dramatic impact to important scenes, as well as adding beauty to production values. This is the opinion of Louis King, director of Paramount’s ‘South of Samoa,’ which has Dorothy

Lamour, Robert Preston, and Lyuno Overman in top roles. “ The importance of colour cannot be over-emphasised, when it is handled correctly,” King says. “ A new technique in the handling of colour has indicated the amazing dramatic benefits to be achieved. In the first days of the use of colour, it was believed necessary to splash as miich colour and as many colours as possible. To-day, colour is being used for effect—to create mood and to emphasise dramatic points.” Highlight of ‘ South of Samoa ’ is a tremendous storm. Miss Lamour, Preston, and Overman, marooned on an island in the South Seas, are targets for the holocaust. Towering waves crash and smash over the island, putting out a raging fire and sweeping all before it.

King has handled the colour work in sensational fashion. Flashes of the spectacular fire are intercut with shots of the smashing waves. The inferno is blazing orange and angry rod. The tidal waves, piled up by the typhoon, are blue and white. The clash of colours adds intensely to the dramatic effect. Cecil 13. de Mille, a pioneer in the use of colour years ago, is filming his first all-technicolour production in ‘ North West Mounted Police,’ and deliberately is employing this new technique. Filmed out of doors for the most part, the picture is filled with low-toned browns and greys of half-breed garments; yellowish-brown, aijd faded green of autumn trees, and similar subdued tones. There is only one flash of brilliant colour—the flaming scarlet coat of the North-west Mounted Police. Each time a “ mountie ” —Robert Preston, Preston Foster, or any of the rest —-appears on the scene, that red coat will be the dominant factor.