Here's an interesting curio for movie buffs, a brief "behind the screen" documentary produced at the peak of the Hollywood studio system. Although the short begins with quick shots of each of the major studios (Fox, RKO, Paramount, MGM and Universal) and a few words about each, the bulk of the action takes place on the Warner Brothers lot -- which is only natural, seeing as how this film was distributed by Warners.
At times this short feels like an example of the publicity puffery that filled the fan magazines of the day. The narrator calls Hollywood "the city of magic" and rattles off a few other clichés about aspiring stars and starlets searching for the Aladdin's lamp of success, etc. The home movie-style shots of the stars in relaxed moments also suggests a P.R. exercise: we watch Dolores Del Rio posing for stills, Alice White walking her dog, and James Cagney getting a light for his cigarette from a studio technician while the narrator assures us that Jimmy is a "regular guy." We get a very brief glimpse of choreographer Busby Berkeley at work, and a more extended look at chorus girls rehearsing a dance number that was probably staged for this film.
But when this mini-documentary turns to the technical side of the process it goes into surprising detail, giving the viewer a crash course in state-of-the-art filmmaking as it was practiced on the grand scale in 1935. There is discussion of sound recording technology (still fairly new, of course), the developing and editing of film, and several views of the personnel who handled these tasks, all hard at work. The machinery required for these chores at the time was bulky, elaborate, and fascinating to see.
Ironically, for the purposes of the demonstration these technicians and their devices are put to work on a comic sequence featuring comedian Hugh Herbert that hardly seems worth all the effort. We're told the scene comes from an upcoming feature but it appears to have been staged for this short, and it's not especially funny. So we're left with the impression of all these skilled technicians and their amazing machines expending great effort to bring the world rather lame, hokey entertainment. Something tells me that's not the impression the makers of this little documentary intended to convey.
At times this short feels like an example of the publicity puffery that filled the fan magazines of the day. The narrator calls Hollywood "the city of magic" and rattles off a few other clichés about aspiring stars and starlets searching for the Aladdin's lamp of success, etc. The home movie-style shots of the stars in relaxed moments also suggests a P.R. exercise: we watch Dolores Del Rio posing for stills, Alice White walking her dog, and James Cagney getting a light for his cigarette from a studio technician while the narrator assures us that Jimmy is a "regular guy." We get a very brief glimpse of choreographer Busby Berkeley at work, and a more extended look at chorus girls rehearsing a dance number that was probably staged for this film.
But when this mini-documentary turns to the technical side of the process it goes into surprising detail, giving the viewer a crash course in state-of-the-art filmmaking as it was practiced on the grand scale in 1935. There is discussion of sound recording technology (still fairly new, of course), the developing and editing of film, and several views of the personnel who handled these tasks, all hard at work. The machinery required for these chores at the time was bulky, elaborate, and fascinating to see.
Ironically, for the purposes of the demonstration these technicians and their devices are put to work on a comic sequence featuring comedian Hugh Herbert that hardly seems worth all the effort. We're told the scene comes from an upcoming feature but it appears to have been staged for this short, and it's not especially funny. So we're left with the impression of all these skilled technicians and their amazing machines expending great effort to bring the world rather lame, hokey entertainment. Something tells me that's not the impression the makers of this little documentary intended to convey.
