A Paramount Picture. A Cecil B. DeMille Production. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Screenplay by Lenore Coffee and Bartlett Cormack, from a book 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: January 26, 1934. Gross film rentals: $494,425.97 (to 1937). Net Loss: $260,765.35 (to 1950)
Cast: Claudette Colbert (Judy 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 Griflfies (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 of birth control? Or a character 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 horn-rimmed 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 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.1 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.
Under consideration for the role of Judy 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 of Temple Drake (Paramount, 1932) to look at William Gargan, and he liked what he saw; but he also watched Crime of the Century (Paramount, 1933) for Gordon Westcott, Disgraced (Paramount,1933) for Bruce Cabot, and Ladies They Talk About (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 of them, 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 of salaries 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 of the cast and crew leaving Los Angeles on August 25 and arriving on August 31. But in fact he was already registered at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel by August 22, and in a letter to fellow Paramount director Eddie Sutherland, DeMille noted, “[O]ur departure was something like an amateur first night.” Word of DeMille’s arrival spread quickly, and he received notes from Hollywood refugees Babe London and Lois Weber, who were then living in Honolulu. London, a heavyweight comic actress of the silent era, hoped that DeMille might have a part for her—but the limited roles in the script offered few parts for bit players. Director Lois Weber, although experiencing hard times in her own career, wrote to introduce a former studio worker in hopes that DeMille would hire him, but there is no evidence that he acted on Weber’s suggestion.
DeMille’s assistant director, Cullen B. “Hezie” Tate, boarded a ship for Hawaii on September 8, and the revised final script was completed by Bartlett Cormack in Kialua, Hawaii, on September 11.
While DeMille has often been pictured as a tyrant on the set, an image he did little to dispel because it gave him an edge in dealing with the egos and personalities of cast and crew, he could also be concerned and thoughtful of even the tiniest details. As he prepared to roll camera, Cecil had production secretary Emily Barrye issue the following order to the costume department: “MR. deMILLE WANTS US TO HAVE WRAPS AT LOCATION TOMORROW IN CASE MISS COLBERT AND MISS BOLAND’ S DOUBLES GET WET IN GETTING OUT OF BOAT AND WE HAVE TO DRY THEIR CLOTHES OFF.”2
As one might expect on distant location, the production had its ups and downs. When the first “day for night” scenes were processed and printed, the Hollywood studio expressed concern over the quality of the photography. These scenes were intentionally underexposed to enhance the night effect, but DeMille had cinematographer Karl Struss review his footage and defend it with a written opinion. “I feel that the negative for night effect that we have shot to date in the night sequence, in the boats and on the beach, is perfectly satisfactory as to negative quality, which scenes were shot in sunshine, sun behind clouds and in rain,” wrote Struss.3
But, while DeMille supported his cinematographer, he was not so happy with the still pictures he was getting. On September 26 Emily Barrye conveyed to production manager Roy Burns, “Mr. deMille is not pleased with the contrasty stills we have gotten the last couple of days.”4Always keeping an eye on publicity and promotion, DeMille felt that the still pictures taken during production were nearly as important as the motion pictures. He arranged for the developing of the still negatives to be entrusted to another photographer and to reshoot the stills that did not meet his standards.
The story of Four Frightened People concerns a quartet of travelers to the Far East who jump ship to avoid an outbreak of plague and end up trekking through deep jungles with the help of a native guide to reach civilization. The Hawaiian locations lend a reality to the plight of the characters, but because movies are at least 80 percent illusion, shooting the jungle scenes necessitated a certain amount of eye trickery. At one point in the film, the four frightened people are surrounded by tiny Sakai natives who hover overhead in trees armed with deadly blowguns. One of the natives is shot and topples to the ground from his perch. On-screen the scene appears to be photographed in the remotest part of the forest, but in fact part of it was shot within reach of the most modern creature comforts. On October 1, Emily Barrye noted to assistant directors “Hezie” Tate and Jimmie Dugan that DeMille “looked at the big tree in front of the hotel with the thought of using it for the shooting of the Sakai…. They are planning to miss the top of the building across the street but will want some of the small bamboo that we used in the Mardick village to silhouette in the F.G. [foreground]. He wants two or three small boys that climb trees well. Puff of smoke comes into scene before he falls.”5
Still, the tropical location was no picnic, and a number of the cast and crew were taken ill during the shoot. In reviewing cost overruns after Four Frightened People had wrapped, Emily Barrye outlined delays encountered when Claudette Colbert became sick:
On 9/25/33we did not shoot in the daytime on account of Miss Colbert’s illness but, rehearsed the doubles at the Banyan tree and hau6 and that night shot at the Banyan tree with Miss Colbert’s double and cast from six until11:45 PM, taking two pages of dialogue.
On 9/26/33, had a 12:30 call with the doubles and shot our long shots in the hau.
On 9/27/33 we again shot in the hau without Miss Colbert. On these two days we shot three-quarters of a page of dialogue each day.
On 9/30/33 we moved equipment back to this location and shot another five hours and forty-five minutes with Miss Colbert, necessitating re-lighting of set for long shot, taking three and one-half pages at dialogue.
On 9/29/33 we moved equipment back to the hau location after a half day’s work at the Mardick village, and re-lighted set to get close-ups of Miss Colbert and give her an entrance, approximately two and a half hour’s shooting and two and one-quarter pages of dialogue.
On 10/8/33 we moved equipment back to Kamani Grove on Warm Springs Rd. at Kapoho, and shot with Miss Colbert until four PM, getting three and one-quarter pages of dialogue. Had we moved into this location when we finished Mardick village it would have saved double moving of equipment and half a day, I believe, as the two locations were within a few yards of each other.7
Problems with equipment compounded the usual comedy of errors that can infect even the best-planned human endeavors. A September 29 report by Emily Barrye outlines the previous day’s disasters:
9/28/33 Shooting Mardick Village. 8:30 Call. Miss Boland half hour late leaving the hotel, at 9:27 only four boys made up and dressed. At 9:35 grass tiger built by prop shop not ready. Miss Boland saw a rehearsal with the double and then went to location dressing room to have her eye lashes put on and wardrobe. Had refused to allow anyone but Monty Westmore, who was getting the natives made up, to put them on. At 10:58 Miss Boland did not have her sandals. Milo Anderson brought one sandal. Mr. DeMille was informed that Vicky [Williams] was bringing the second. The second sandal arrived at 11:07. 1st crank turned at 11:12 but camera noise too great to shoot. It was the same camera that was repaired yesterday at the hau location. This delay caused us to have to go back to the Mardick Village again today and shoot for another half day.8
On October 3, the eighteenth day of shooting, getting the mechanical cobra to work caused a twenty-five-minute delay, and a typical tropical downpour required an additional twenty-minute wait.
The picture finished shooting in Hollywood on November 3, and on November 14 George M. Arthur, head of the Paramount cutting department, sent DeMille a postproduction schedule that anticipated a January 5, 1934, release date. The work print was to be shown to the music and sound departments on November 25. The following day the first negative cutting would take place, and dubbing prints would be made for sound editing and music.9
Sound mixing and music scoring would occur between November 27 and December 4, and the scored scenes cut into the sound negative on December 5, when the picture negative would be re-cut, if necessary, and a first trial composite picture and sound print made ready for a scheduled December 11 preview.
DeMille looked at the first two assembled reels on November 13 and screened the full picture with his staff on December 1 and again on December 3, offering specific notes for changes he wanted to make in the editing. Before he was able to finish supervising the cutting, he was called to Washington, D.C., to testify before the Board of Tax Appeals in an action brought by the federal government against Cecil B. DeMille Productions seeking back taxes in the sum of $1.6 million. Not knowing how long he would be tied up in the East, the director appointed a hand-picked committee to steer the picture through completion in his absence, including editor Anne Bauchens, long-time associate Mitchell Leisen, Adolph Zukor’s brother-in-law Albert Kaufman, secretary Emily Barrye, assistant director Cullen Tate, and writer Bartlett Cormack.
Only a few days behind schedule, Four Frightened People was previewed, at a length of ninety-six minutes, in Huntington Park, California, on Friday, December 15. For DeMille the occasion was “like giving birth to baby with mother away.”10 The screening was not helped by the fact that it was raining, the house was only two-thirds full, and the audience was made up mostly of kids waiting to see the Richard Dix war aviation picture Ace of Aces, when Paramount had been told by Fox West Coast Theaters that the second picture on the bill would be The Masquerader, a sophisticated drama starring Ronald Colman.
Reaction at the preview was mixed. The audience didn’t seem to appreciate the fact that the picture was shot in actual locations, and they had a general sense that the characters were not properly set up. These concerns would be addressed by adding title cards announcing that Four Frightened People was shot in the South Seas and giving brief background biographies of the four principal characters. Beyond this, the film seemed at least ten minutes too long, laughter erupted in some places where a more serious tone was intended, and the music sounded weak overall. After a meeting of the committee, Anne Bauchens prepared a six-page list of suggested cuts.
A print of the picture was airmailed to New York, and DeMille took this print to Stamford, Connecticut, for his own preview on Monday, December 18. In a telegram to Paramount production head Emanuel Cohen he noted, “Reactions of audience in main same as Huntington Park. Agree must eliminate thousand feet.”11 He instructed George M. Arthur to follow through With the cuts suggested by Bauchens, and suggested additional cuts of his own. In all nearly sixteen hundred feet of film were eliminated, and the picture finally went out with a seventy-eight-minute running time.
After screening the picture for himself, Emanuel Cohen weighed in with suggestions of his own, much to the disgust of writer Bartlett Cormack. “Unkindest cut of all,” Cormack wired DeMille, “was elimination of Little Miss Muffet line occasioned by Mr. Cohen’s bewilderment because Judy [Claudette Colbert] had said her name was Jones and here was somebody calling her Muffett. That finished me. They say there is a good living to be made in raising alfalfa.”12
The final hurdle for Four Frightened People was the New York censor review. They were aghast at scenes of a seemingly nude Claudette Colbert bathing under a jungle waterfall. In an impassioned plea to James Wingate of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, DeMille wrote:
Because of the objections raised by the New York censors to two scenes in my picture, FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE, I telegraphed our New York office as follows: “Advise Board of Censors there are no nude shots in the bathing scenes…. Girl under waterfall wears Annette Kellerman bathing suit, and all parts of body are covered.” I am surprised that the Board requests these eliminations as surely the scenes are staged in good taste, and all who have seen picture class these scenes as ones of artistry. I have never made a personal request to any censor board, but in this case I beseech you to reconsider, particularly as it cost us a great sum of money to take the company to Hawaii in an effort to obtain accuracy, artistry, and authenticity.13
The scenes remained in the film, but DeMille was not entirely honest with the censors. It is true that Colbert’s double wears a form-fitting body suit in the long shots, but in a closeup of Colbert, she is clearly topless—if only partially revealed for just a frame or two.14 One hesitates to call Frank Capra a liar, but in his book The Name above the Title, he writes of Claudette Colbert’s unwillingness to raise her skirt for the hitchhiking scene in her next picture, It Happened One Night (Columbia, 1934). Surely Capra was remembering a press agent’s fable—or perhaps DeMille had greater powers of directorial persuasion.
Part of a minor cycle of “back to nature” films, Four Frightened People was not a box-office success, and DeMille never again ventured into full-length comedy.