Fay Wray
THE VAMPIRE BAT was kind of an evil thing, You know what vampire bats do?
The technicality was transparency to transparency from the rear, and then re-photographing me in the foreground on the same level with that screen-so I couldn't really see what was happening at all!
The producers who wanted me to do it liked me and trusted me, and more than one scene was only one take, because I'd plan ahead what I thought would be appropriate for that scene-so one take was enough.
The only person who had trouble-or thought she did-was Jean Arthur, who turned out to have a wonderful voice. She left Hollywood and went to study in the East with Maude Adams, who was at a school in Ohio. She studied with her and I guess it helped her breathing.
The Most Dangerous Game was interesting because it had a concept. It wasn't a horror movie but it was horrible as an idea. Usually men hurl animals, and the idea was that a man arranged situations so that men were hunted by animals.
The fingers were pressed around my waist and then by leverage, they lifted me up into the air, and all the close ups were done that way.
THE CLAIRVOYANT was a good film because of the story value, I think. I liked working with Claude Rains; I had great admiration for him. He was a really serious actor. No fooling around and no nonsense!
THE CLAIRVOYANT had an interesting story and that is what is required, I think, in that genre.
That was' one time when my technique absolutely deserted me, I must admit. There was a wax face that he had created himself to cover his own ugliness. I was in his clutches and I had to hit him in the face.
That was a very dreary experience. Tiresome. I liked Merian Cooper well enough. He had this wonderful, boyish enthusiasm, and I was keen about his style and his friendship and what he stood for as a human being.
Sometimes when people get older, they are inclined to think, "Oh, dear, I'm older-oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" I think, "Oh, boy, how wonderful!"
Sometimes I worked with just a background of a rock or a tree or black velvet, and just had to imagine the whole thing.
So I was asked to do horror film after horror film, a series of about five, after that, and some of those were a little too gruesome. I wasn't too comfortable all the time in those. I didn't really care for them.
She wanted us to feel we were above everyone in the town. She really did tell us that we were related to Chief Justice John Marshall, and that may have been true. I never did bother to find out.
She had beautiful furs to wear for that role, and those white furs were very clean; they looked immaculate! On one occasion, she mispronounced a word and she apologized to the director. I thought that was wonderful!
Raymond Burr always read his material on camera and that was dismaying to me. I couldn't understand how anyone could depend on reading rather than memorizing. He had so much to do, perhaps you can't really blame him.
Ray Harryhausen is The Man Who Has Seen KING KONG 100 Times.
Pickfair.was always a nice experience. But, Joel McCrea always at the stroke of midnight he went home! He just disciplined himself that way, I guess.
Paul Lucas had a particularly amusing accent, so I chuckled. That was terrible; I shouldn't have done that, but he took it too big. He got up and said he couldn't work with people who laughed at him!
Oscar Levant was kind of wonderfully ridiculous, wonderfully show-offy. You had to laugh at him. One time, we went to a little luncheon given by the Goldwyns and he demanded that he be served in the entrance hall by himself at a little round table.