Studio: international art (89.1925)

CINEMA SETTINGS: "THE THIEF OF BAGDAD"

' THE PALACE OF THE MONGOL PRINCE
IN "THE THIEF OF BAGDAD." ART
DIRECTOR, WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES

(Allied Artists Corporation, Ltd.)

CINEMA SETTINGS : " THE THIEF as there is in ordinary photography.
OF BAGDAD." a t> a 0 There are many tricks, of course, but

these do not here concern us, for, speaking
N some quarters there is a tendency to generally, effects must be obtained at the

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look with disdain on the cinema and all moment of exposure ; everything must be
its works, and a number of sweeping thought out and arranged in advance. And
assertions have been made to its discredit, in this preliminary arrangement film pro-
statements like : " Acting for the stage is ducers are relying more and more on the
an art: acting for the film is merely a advice and assistance of trained artists, a
trick." Yet when one considers that this The drama can, at a pinch, exist without
is a very young form of art, and one more- settings, and it has probably never com-
over which has to appeal to large numbers manded more enthusiastic audiences than
of people of widely differing tastes and in the days when it was deemed necessary
races and standards of education, one to apologise for " this wooden O " and
cannot but be struck by the high quality "this unworthy scaffold." But in an art like
of its best products. Before it reached its that of the cinema, where all the effects
golden age, the " legitimate " drama had are obtained from the visual aspects of
to pass through the evolutionary stages of things, the settings are, of course, of the
Mystery and Morality, and it would be utmost importance. And it is satisfactory
unreasonable to expect the art of the to find that film-producers are calling in
cinema to be hatched fully fledged. a decorative artists to design settings, thus
In cinematographic work there is not providing a fresh sphere of usefulness for
the same scope for continuous " faking" the artist and raising the standard of

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