Peter Davies takes us behind the scenes of what was, till then, Britain ‘s most expensive production1944 Denham, England: Europe’s largest and most modern viable studios. Busy, quite dedicated to a programme of feature films, biased of course to productions that would sell Britain, emphasising the fact that even under the stresses and shortages of a world war, Britain could still produce such major subjects. Bernard Shaw, a prominent playwright of the day had written a unique play that was perfect in every way to illustrate the talents of the British feature film industry even in war-time. The J. Arthur Rank Denham Studios was ideal in every way to produce this story of Caesar And Cleopatra. [Production Number: GPM-12} 
A great cast was available (with a few imports), while all the talent and expertise of Denham would start many months of pre-production for such a subject. Technicolor would allocate 2 of the 4 three-negative cameras in Britain that would for a long time be the province of their technician, Ted Scaife. Technicolor’s British colour consultant, Joan Bridge, a protegee of Hollywood’s Natalie Kalmus, spent much time with the designers before continuing her work during production. | Technicolor Laboratories at West Drayton would offer all of its know-how. The large studio lots would completely transform. Huge sets started to appear; vast, splendidly conceived, perspective sets. These were not only to set the scene of Nile real estate but also to mask the oak trees on nearby hills. A unique production team under the excellent control of Tom White set-up this major production. There was an ambitious schedule just as there was a large budget. Nobody believed either of them. Quality of production was the driving theme. Artistes tests consumed thousands of feet of 3-strip negative, long before Day 1 on any set - interior or exterior. It was war-time 1944, with seemingly no spare people anywhere. Nevertheless, from time to time, more than 1,000 extras would be called. Shaw’s Caesar And Cleopatra demanded an elaborate screenplay. The flowery script gave a lot of space to innumerable philosophical truisms; ‘The white upon the blue above, is purple on the green below’. This was Nile country, and there was plenty of scope for rhetoric. Such a subject, such a Director - Gabriel Pascal - a Hungarian, had a contract with Bernard Shaw, that he alone would direct any film version of any Shaw play. Brian Desmond-Hurst would be Co-Director. Claude Rains as Caesar had a private army; ‘Caesar’s Geysers’ as they came to be known by the quite special 1st. Assistant Director, Bluey Hill. A. W. Watkins, Denham’s Director of Recording decided that Caesar would have John Dennis and John Cook as the production mixers, Stan Lambourne as boom operator, Peter Davies as sound-camera operator, Wally Day as sound maintenance engineer, Donald Bloxham as sound assistant. Caesar And Cleopatra production recording would use the studio’s standard equipment of the day; Western Electric Q channel, coupled by the cumbersome high and low level cables to the recorder control and the optical recorder in a Denham Sound Truck parked outside the stage. Microphones - the W.E. (ERPI) 630 dynamic type mounted on a Films & Equipment boom. |
