MAJESTIC

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 208, 27 April 1932, Page 3

MAJESTIC

| TO-DAY AND TO-NIGHT ! In reproducing the splendours of : eighth century Bagdad on the screen, for the First Nak'onal talking picture version of "Kismet," starring Otis Skinner, current at the Majestic Theatre, one of the greatest problems with which the producers had to contend was that of supplying sufficient servants for the spectacular court and harem of the Cabph. The servant problem, the oldest that the housewife knows, was made most difficult in this case by the variety of types required and the numbers which the magnitude and splendour of the settings required. The multitude of court attendants, attaches and guards which faithful reproduction of ancient Bagdad demands, ran well over a thousand. This figure includes only servants and soldiers and talces no account of the hundreds of other people used in street seenes, mobs, etc. For the. outdoor scenes an entire quarter of Bagdad was reproduced authentically from the best existing records, including the shops and bazaars for which this ancient crossroad of world trade was noted. Director John Francis Dillon states that there is no article used hy the ancients whether a necessity or a luxury, that could not have been found in the shops of his own Bagdad street, set up in California. "Kismet" was adapted from the famous stage success by Edward Knobloclc and presents Mr. Skinner in his first talkie picture role.