“HIS NATURAL LIFE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 141, 5 September 1927, Page 15

“HIS NATURAL LIFE”

STRAND ON FRIDAY The photographing of the big riot scene in the film, “For the Term of His Natural Life,” which will be screened at the Strand Theatre next Friday, had to be “shot” many times before it passed producer Norman Dawn’s approval. Once it had to be taken again because a chap named Walter got in the way. Walter was one of the supers in the picture, but was not engaged in the scene, which illustrated an attack by five hundred convicts on the warders. Everything was ready, and director Dawn gave the word “go.” Just then Walter wandered in front of the camera. The convicts, not knowing any difference, seized Walter, and, true to their instructions, “ducked” the warder in the pond of green slime and mud. When he came up he was pushed down again, and then, as he rose, the convicts, still following instructions, pelted him with bricks. Then the mistake was discovered, and Walter was lead out of the water and laid on the bank. When he recovered speech his first words were not to be found in the dictionary. Meanwhile, everyone was sympathetically swearing at Waiter. There were two other casualties also. One convict was accidentally hit in the stomach, and had to receive first aid, and a warder was accidentally knocked out. It took about live minutes to bring him round, after which he was taken to the hospital by the Parramatta ambulance.