Profiles of Cary Grant and Virginia Mayo

Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. When one thinks in terms of behind the scenes in Hollywood, the first thought no doubt is that of the stage hand setting the scene, the directors and his assistants, the script girl and electricians, cameramen and sound technicians and work, then the actual shooting.

The director's shrill cry cut as the scene is ended and then perhaps the viewing of the rushes in the screening room the next day. Well, of course that is what happens. But there is a whole lot more required to make the present-day motion picture acceptable to the discriminating theater going public.

Yes, and don't you think you're not discriminating? Just let some little thing be overlooked, and you will notice it in a minute, and it doesn't have to be such a flagrant era either, such as in a western I once saw.

I remember in the close-up of that western there were four horses pulling a stage coach, while in the distance shots of the supposedly same vehicle there were only two. No, it doesn't need to be as bad as that, not nearly, as any producer will testify.

That is one reason why all the big companies and many of the smaller ones keep large staffs of technical advisors on hand to supervise the smallest detail. Nathan, you tell us about how the technical advisor on Paramount's production, Frenchman's Creek, shall have timed back three centuries and kept it there.

Well, Madame Hilde Griner was technical advisor on that technical or screen romance. Her job was actually housekeeping on a grand and ancient scale. All dignified and white-haired, Madame Greiner was once dresser to the dowager Queen Mary of England.