THE "NEW SLANT" IN FILM PLOTS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 8, 2 October 1937, Page 10

THE "NEW SLANT" IN FILM PLOTS

The "new slant" in picture-malcing is to be melodrama motivated by character.' So Alfred Hitchcoclc says, uncJ as the inventor of most of the "slants" in English pictures during the past iifteen years he ought to know (writes the London Observer 's film correspondent). All the adventures in his new film, "A Shilling For Candles," are brouglit about by the natural behaviour of the ciiaraeters. Because a girl has been brought up in such and such a way, such and such a thing happens. Because the atmosphere of an Englisli home is so and so, this and that excitement follows. It is a aiurder story, but the "monaco" is not the criminal, not even the aecidental ell'ects of crime, but the caJculated, prudent, and wearing inlluence of the family circle — mostly aunts. "And you know," says Hitch darkly, "what aunts are." The lieroine of the story (Nova Pilbearu) is a Chicf Constable's daughter: good middle-cla-ss family, sehoolboy brothers, partics on Saturdays, and lots of inhibitions. "Like all the best daughtevs of the liigher constabulary, she is also a Girl Guide. One day she gives first aid, aceord-* ing;to the Guide rules, to a young man,(Derek de Marney) who has been grilled by tho police in a murder case. Her eighteen-year-oid svmpathies, part sentiment, part righteous indignation, are aroused, and when the defending solicitor gives, an accurate but glommy view of his chanees, it seems the most obvious thing in the world that she should help him to break prisou„ Picaresque Flight What follows .-is a picaresque flight. through lanes aiid fields and countryside in" her old two-seater. One night finds- tho fugitives in a deserted. mill, another in a disused mino, another in a

coal siding. Every turn in thej story is the result of some natural character trait. In the end, and speeifieally because the girl is what she is, acting instinctivcly on the impulse of her breeding, thcy Irack tho roal murdorer down. They caught him the day I wenl' down to Pinewood to wateh the shootiug. 1 had bceu advised not. to go that day, as "Hitch was liavmg troiible with a difficult crane shot and niiglit not be m tho mood for talking." Knowing Hitch, 1 fclt that he would be in a mood for talking to some pur-, pose. When I reached Pinewood, though, the battle was won. The monster crane, leaving behind it a carnage of tired extras and perspinng technicians, was meekly focussed on an orchestra dais, where a black-faced band. was playing. The drummer, George Curzon, suddenly staggered and collapsed amongst the instruments. The. "boys" crowded Tound him. while the gieat crane swept downwa-rds. "Mind youT heads! " yelled the assistant director. Hitchcock, found and heannng, mopped his brow with a large handkerchief. "Good, George, good. fake it onco again 1" Tell-Tale Twitcli "George is the murcJerer," he explained to me, "but uobody knows il except Ihe auclience. The only Llting that identifiea hiia ie a cortain twitch

of the-eycs, and in blackface, and from a distance, nobody can see it.- He doesn't realise that, though, ahd when he sees the girl in the ballroom he fancies she has recognised him. He takes a drug for his nerves, and as the drt^J begins to work his drummmg goes o.. beat — drags — " He scooped up George Curzan's sheet music to show me. Gurzon has learnt to play the drum for the picture, but the printed notes evade him. fc?o tliere are no notes written on his score, only "Ching oue, ching two" — and "Tiddy um ching." Also "Ticka-pom."' On the platf orm Curzon doubled up for the third time, and was caught by the white-coated "boys" ln toiaclrface. ,, '"That the drug working?" I asked. , "That's " .the drug working," said*

■Sfc Hitcli with grim satisfaction. "Then what?" "Then Nova pushes her way through the crowd and, like a good Guide, gives first aid again." "And sees his eyes?" I asked, beginning io get the notton. "And sees his eyes. " ' ' Brcad-and-Butter " FlliD Hitchcock calls his psyehological thriller "just a bicail-aud-bntter picture." "Blaekmuil," I fancy, was just another bread-and-butter picture. When Hitch makes his 'first colopr film ("a colour film, not a coloured film") Tt will probably also be a bread-and-butter picture. Knocking off cJasslcs in the ordinary way of business is one of his more remarkable quaiities. He has others. He likes to come on te the fioor with a senpt readv dowu to the last. eomma, the ciiaraeters te~ tenninecj, Ihe dialogue fool-proof. He likes to rough iu his own designs, on specially squared paper kept fo# him on the sct, with his broad draughtsman's pencil. • Hc likes to take the actors into liis coniideuce, get their co-operation, work with their brains and not just their bodies. He has Ihe mindv of a psyehologist, the ear of a musician, the f'ace of a cherub, .and Ihe malice of a sehoolboy.

and every actor in the British industry wants to work with him. Perhaps that is really the most pemarkablc thing of all.