Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

58. Four Frightened People

58 Four Frightened People A Paramount Picture. A Cecil B. DeMille Production. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Screenplay by Lenore Coffee and Bartlett Cormack, from abook by E. Arnot Robertson. Assistant directors: Cullen B. "Hezie" Tate, James Dugan, and David MacDonald. Art director: Roland Anderson. Photography: Karl Struss. Film editor: Anne Bauchens. Music: Karl Hajos. Additional music by Milan Roder, Heinz Rhoemheld, and John Leipold Picture started: September 16, 1933. Picture completed: November 3, 1933. Length: 7,028 feet (eight reels). Negative cost: $509,006.96. Released: January26 , 1934. Gross film rentals: $494,425.97 (to 1937). Net Loss: $260,765.35 (to 1950) Cast: Claudette Colbert Uudy Cavendish), Herbert Marshall (Arnold Ainger), Mary Boland (Mrs. Mardick), William Gargan (Stewart Corder), Leo Carrillo (Montague), Nella Walker (Mrs. Ainger), Tetsu Komai (native chief), Chris Pin Martin (native boatman), Joe De La Cruz (native), Minoru Nisbeda (first Sakai), Teru Shimada (second Sakai), E.R. Jinadas (third Sakai), Delmar Costello (fourth Sakai), and Ethel Grifties (Mrs. Ainger's mother) Four Frightened People harks back to DeMille's comedies of the late 1910s, and because it is a departure from most of his sound films, many have taken it to be a tolerably stupid adventure yarn rather than the highly amusing social satire that it is. Who but DeMille would give audiences a Pekinese-toting feminist lecturing South Sea natives on the liberating rewards ofbirth control? Or acharacter like the native Montague, the "most white man on the island" (brilliantly played by Leo Carrillo), who believes that his borrowed necktie grants him immunity from savage violence? Or Judy Cavendish, the prim school teacher with homrimmed glasses who blossoms into a liberated woman clad in jungle leaves and leopard skins? Cecil B. DeMille began negotiating for the rights to Four Frightened People, the second film to be produced under his new three-picture deal with Paramount, even before the revised contract was signed. The Elizabeth Marbury Agency first brought the property to his attention, and on February 14, 1933, DeMille's office sent out an order to secure an option 267 268 / Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood on E. Arnot Robertson's novel. The owners held out for an outright sale of the screen rights, and Russell Holman and A.M. Botsford in the Paramount story department suggested a $5,000 payment for those rights.! The deal was closed on February 17, 1933, and script-writing chores were handed over to Lenore Coffee and Bartlett Cormack, who delivered the first script on August 11. Underconsideration for the role ofJudy from the beginning, Claudette Colbert was scheduled to finish her current picture, Torch Singer, on July 29,1933, and production plans on Four Frightened People were tailored to her availability. Paramount contract actor Herbert Marshall was also set from the inception of the project, but DeMille had made no decisions for the other male roles. As was his custom, he began casting by looking at various actors in earlier screen roles. On Friday, July 21, 1933, he screened The Story ofTemple Drake (Paramount, 1932) to look at William Gargan, and he liked what he saw; but he also watched Crime ofthe Century (Paramount, 1933) for Gordon Westcott, Disgraced(Paramount, 1933) for Bruce Cabot, and Ladies They TalkAbout(Warner Bros., 1933) for Preston Foster. However, on July 24, after taking a second look at Westcott in Private Detective 62 (Warner Bros., 1932) and Preston Foster in The Man Who Dared (Fox, 1933), DeMille lost interest in using either ofthem, but during this same marathon screening session he became intrigued with Leo Carrillo for the role of Montague after seeing Broken Wing (Paramount , 1932). Leo Carrillo's previous salary was noted as $2,500 per week with a four-week guarantee, but the deepening Depression brought a general lowering ofsalaries throughout the industry, and on August 1, the casting department informed DeMille that Carrillo would be willing to work three weeks for $5,000 flat. DeMille okayed the figure and allowed the studio to sign a contract with the actor. William Gargan would be paid $6,500 for a six-week guarantee, prorated at $1,250 per week thereafter. Charles Morton was hired to double for William Gargan, a major comedown for an actor who had starred at Fox in F.W. Murnau's 4 Devils only four years earlier. According to the original schedule, DeMille was to leave for Honolulu on August 19 and arrive on August 24 to scout locations, with the rest ofthe cast and crew...