TRAFALGAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 25

TRAFALGAR

AMERICAN PLAYERS AND ENGLISH DIRECTOR COMBINED

At the wild, northern end o£ Catalina Island, a few miles west of Hollywood, is a narrow isthmus between two towering mountains. It was here, on the eastern side of this isthmus, that Corinne Griffith’s picture, “The Divine Lady,” was filmed.

Telling the immortal love story of Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson, “The Divine Lady” was in the hands of the English director, Frank Lloyd. Probably no stranger contrast was ever presented than at the time this film was being taken, with two score of old-time sailing ships, replicas of the British and French Navies, in action.

While their antiquated muzzleloadiug cannon roared broadsides at each other at close range, on the other side of the island Uncle Sam’s Pacific battle fleet, -with hundreds of auxiliary craft, including airplanes, was holding its annual manoeuvres far off the western side of the isthmus. _ While the frigates Vanguard and Victory, with which Nelson (played by Victor Varconi) won the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar Bay from Napoleon’s formidable fleet, blazed away with their old-fashioned guns, on the other side of the isthmus the great guns of the United States superDreadnoughts shook the island with reverberating broadsides that could be heard and felt for 30 miles. Several weeks before “The Divine Lady” company went on location, As-sistant-Director T. Preeland and Casting Director Dan Kelley began the selection of extras.

All, in this case, were men. They had to be hardy, for the days were spent on old windjamers at sea. They must look like fighting men of the British and French Navies of 1805. They must obey orders implicitly, writes a “Film Weekly” correspondent.

The life of extras, actors and technical men on location begins early. A bugle blows at 5 a.m., and breakfast is at 5.30. Another hour is spent in donning costumes and make-up. Meanwhile, the old frigates of this completely reconstructed fleet that fought momentous naval battles 125 years ago stand at anchor in the bay, attended by tugs. The windjammers are manned by their own crews and captains, who live aboard.