SMUGGLERS’ ISLE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1928, Page 8

SMUGGLERS’ ISLE

BRITISH ACTORS IN BOOTLEG HAUNT. HOLLYWOOD, (California) Aug 8. The company making the new Ronard Column film, from Joseph Conrad’s “The Rescue,” under Air Herbert Brenon’s direction, had departed for a little island off th© Californian coast. The only means I found of getting across to them was to engage a far from reliable and often only partly sober German sailor, who after some argument agreed to take me in his fishing boat across the 25 miles. Two hours of pitching and rolling, and the blurred haze before us slowly changed to green until at last the island stood out bathed in bright sunshine. We landed in a cove below the film camp of twenty canvas-covered huts, with one long shed for dining room and a few smaller one for stores ami the camera men’s darkroom.

Rockey, thinly covered with oak, gorse, and cactus, the eight miles by three of the island, with its dozens of inlets and caves, might have been made for smugglers. CARGOES OF THE NIGHT. The cove I landed in is actually leased as a •holiday’ resort, though the owner, an alert-eyed sea captain not unlike Captain Kettle in appearance, does little to attract the summer visitor to the spot. Once he shipped wine and wool to the mainland. To-day Prohibition is a farce; instead of importing holiday-makers the island imports big cargoes of liquor which are mysteriously sent away again, under cover of night,' in fast motor-launches carrying no lights. At sunset the whole company returned from the day’s work aboard the eleven ships cruising off the island for the making of the film. Hardly staying to greet the newcomer, they rushed madly to the mess hut. Here came Air Herbert Brenon, the director,’ with a bedroom slipper on one foot on account of a sprained ankle, joking like the Irishman he is, and behind him Air Ronald Col man, the star, with, an appetite to match the stiff day’s work lie had done. ■- MAN OF MANY TONGUES. Am png the rest of them I found men from, all parts of the British. Empire. Air Phillip Strange, with his wife, the former Miss Madeline Seymour, fresh but frhni home; Mr. Harry Cording, r it huge Australian,' playing ,tlie part of native king;' the 6ft sin. Mr Bryon Tate, well known in polo circles, from Scotland; Mr Alfred Hickman, an Englishman with a long record if stage successes in New York ; and the wardrobe master, a Londoner, who Worked in that capacity many years with Tree and Irving.

The man in' charge of the radio (receiver I. found to he Emil Lefet, who flew in 1922 from Brussels across Europe and Asia to the Philippine Islands and is now assistant business managejr and interpreter iu films. Next day there was fog and;, ivork "-ns suspended. I called at the hut of Miss Lili Damita, newly come from Europe to be Air Golman’s leading lady On her door was a sign saying, ‘ Washing done here,” and inside an. animated young woman having her hair dressed in readiness for work.

The famous Hawaiian, Duke- Kalianarrioku, the worlds fastest swimmer for ten yearg, who is with the company as is also Sojin, joined us as we, went to luncheon,,after which the fog cleared away'. Brilliant sunshine shone on the blue waters of the cove, so translucent one could see clear to the 60ft deep sandy bottom, . with its strange marine flora, 'among which marvellously coloured fish darted. SHIP OF SILENCE.

After dinner I stepped regretfully enough into the motor-launch that carries film Ib.ack to the mainland and the studio daily. Half-way back the fog grew really dense, and as we chugged slowly through rough sea we saw two white lights directly ahead looming over us. The skipper stopped the engine and drifted while he took a sounding- Twenty fathoms.

Starting the engine again he sounded the siren as we gradually made out the black outline of a huge hulk at anchor. No riding lights. uNjot a sound. The skipper "decided not' to inVestgate further, and we crept cautiously on until we sighted land. He told me the silent ship was probably one of the many rum-runners, and ( the. further off from them the ordinary citizen stays the safer. . ' ’ .

Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure First aid for coughs ,colds, influenza —Advt.