1:14:00
for the moment of landing
on the stunt players.
1:14:02
But curiously,
it does not appear in the film.
1:14:05
Golitzen told me
that only one take was made,
1:14:08
and that the winch operator
mistook the take for a run-through
1:14:12
and failed to correctly drop
the chandelier.
1:14:14
Alex made a sour face
when he told me this.
1:14:17
Possibly it did not work well. Probably
it looked more like the flimsy that it was,
1:14:21
or it was too badly damaged
to be hoisted for a retake.
1:14:24
The final descent is a combination
of three travelling matte shots,
1:14:28
very briefly flashed, with editing used
to unify and carry the idea.
1:14:33
When we see the full-scale chandelier,
1:14:35
it is only after it is settled in the
auditorium with a cloud of dust around it.
1:14:58
It's amusing to watch Lon Chaney's
phantom untie a single hank of rope
1:15:03
to drop the chandelier in 1925.
1:15:06
For the silent film, Rupert Julian
and Charles Van Enger, the cameraman,
1:15:10
had animated their
full-scale chandelier in real time,
1:15:14
lowering it on a winch, a bit at a time,
and making single-frame exposures.
1:15:19
When run at natural speed,
the chandelier would appear to fall.
1:15:23
Claude Rains' "damn mask",
as Arthur Lubin calls it,
1:15:27
was an enigmatic, serene blue half-face
1:15:30
that echoed the plains
of Claude's own face.
1:15:34
"It looked exactly like Claude"
says Susanna.
1:15:37
"With its almond eyes and the whiskerlike
cut above Claude's mouth,
1:15:41
it had a certain catlike malevolence."
1:15:44
Foster believes that the mask
was designed by Jack Pierce.
1:15:48
Alex Golitzen's memory
is that it was designed
1:15:51
by Pierce's assistant, Buddy Westmore.
1:15:53
He was very firm and direct
on answering that, when asked.
1:15:57
The design was certainly
predetermined in preproduction,