Brilliance (27 page)

‘I like this house, Daniel,’ she said, looking up at him where he had come to stand beside her. ‘It feels like a home.’

He bent down and kissed her. ‘I’m glad to hear that,’ he said softly, ‘because I want you to be happy here.’

The tea and crumpets arrived. Lisette, accustomed to pale tea with a lemon slice, found the contents of the teapot far too strong, but the buttery taste of the crumpets pleased her, although she thought they were probably very fattening.

Afterwards Daniel took her upstairs to her bedroom, which had a four-poster bed and where a young housemaid was unpacking a trunk. The girl, blue-eyed and round-faced, her fair hair pushed into a mob-cap, sprang to her feet at once.

‘You are Daisy Robertson,’ Lisette said. ‘Mrs Pierce told me your name.’

‘Yes, miss.’ The girl had a pretty smile. ‘I’ll come back later.’

She scurried away, closing the door after her.

Lisette looped her hands behind Daniel’s neck, smiling into his face. ‘I’m so glad I came. This is such an adventure. We have the whole world to conquer. When do we start?’

He grinned as he went to turn the key in the lock. ‘Not quite yet,’ he said, coming back to sweep her into his arms and across to the bed. They fell laughing on to it together.

Later he left her to go to the studio and check on what had been done in his absence. ‘I’ll not be long. We’ll go through some scripts later if you’d like.’

‘Yes, I would.’

He was gone far longer than she had anticipated, returning with his chief cameraman, whom he introduced as Jim Baker. He was a short and smiling freckle-faced fellow with carrot-coloured hair, who shook her hand heartily.

‘Glad to have you on the team, miss,’ he declared warmly. ‘All has gone well in the boss’s absence and orders for our productions keep flooding in.’

‘I’m delighted to hear it,’ she replied, liking him. ‘Daniel has told me that there is to be another public cinematograph show very soon.’

‘That’s right! Every night next week at the Queen’s Hall – that’s the resort’s local assembly rooms. On the Guv’nor’s instruction I’ve been using the camera around the resort and the surrounding district. People like to see themselves on the screen. The programme will end with a couple of short comedies. They’re always popular and tomorrow – if the light is good – we’ll be making another.’

He talked on enthusiastically for another ten minutes before leaving and even then he paused to look back at her. ‘Our cameras would love you, miss. I hope the boss will persuade you to change your mind.’

As the door closed after him Lisette turned to Daniel with her eyebrows raised enquiringly, a smile playing about her mouth. ‘And what exactly did he mean by that? Or can I guess?’

‘Naturally I told him that although you had done some amateur acting you have no wish to appear on the screen. But now he has seen you he would prefer you to be in front of the lens instead of out of its range.’

‘Ah!’ she said merrily. ‘He doesn’t know yet how good I can be at sound effects behind a screen instead of being on one. He might like me to be in charge of them at the Queen’s Hall performances! Just as in my magic lantern days!’

He grinned at her joking, hugging her to him. ‘No! But one day we’ll have coordinated film and sound without any assistance. Colour, too.’

She leaned back to look searchingly into his face. ‘I can anticipate colour, because already the Lumières have tried hand-tinting every frame of a film. I’m told they have created one animated picture where a dancer’s dress changes colour all the time in a butterfly dance. Everything in this new industry is advancing so quickly. But sound?’ She frowned uncertainly.

He grinned at her confidently. ‘It will come eventually. How that will happen I’ve no idea, but I have already tried the experiment of filming a woman singing while recording her on a phonograph. Naturally the coordination was not perfect, but it’s a beginning. Meanwhile, those working at capturing good sound on mechanical instruments are working as hard in their field as those of us in the animated picture industry.’

‘I think it’s all wonderful!’ she declared. ‘Now, where are those scripts you were going to show me?’

They sat by the fire and went through some of the scripts together. Most of them were comedies, but Daniel’s true interest, yet to be tried, was in short, simple dramas that could be easily followed and understood.

He wanted to be early at the studio next morning and Lisette intended to go with him, but when she awoke it was half past seven and he had already breakfasted and gone. As it was a brilliantly sunny morning she supposed that work would start early and he would want to make the most of the daylight hours.

When she was bathed and dressed she went downstairs to find Mrs Pierce prepared to fry her a full English breakfast. Although she had enjoyed many such breakfasts with Daniel when they were touring she had long since reverted to croissants and jam. Here she substituted toast and marmalade.

When she was about to set off on foot for the studios one of the film crew arrived in Daniel’s car to collect her. ‘I’m Mike, miss,’ he said, reaching down a hand to help her up into the seat. ‘Have you seen any picture making yet?’

‘Not yet. I’ve been looking forward to today.’

They talked as he drove her along the lane until he turned through an open five five-barred gate by a sign that announced SHAW STUDIOS in large letters and underneath in smaller ones ‘Hothampton Meadow, Bognor’. A great mediaeval barn and a number of converted farm sheds and stables had been adapted entirely to the new use of movie making. It was a busy scene. Carpenters were sawing and hammering, painters were at work on some scenery, and a boy was filling buckets with water from an outside tap, which he was placing in a long line by the barn wall.

‘That’s a fire precaution carried out routinely whether we are in production or not,’ Mike explained, indicating the buckets. ‘Celluloid film is highly inflammable and there have been disastrous fires in two or three places that have made many people wary of attending performances.’

Daniel had seen her and was already coming across in her direction, but then Jim Baker, a pencil tucked behind one ear and a script in hand, waylaid him. Leaving the motorcar she went to join them. Jim greeted her warmly.

‘Good to see you here, Miss Decourt.’ Then he turned again to Daniel. ‘The steamroller will arrive at eight o’clock and the prop man has half a dozen of those life-size cut-outs in case of damage.’ He squinted up at the sky. ‘I think today is going to be good to us.’

Seeing that they were too busy talking over the project in hand to notice her leave, Lisette withdrew quietly to make a tour of the studio buildings. The only one newly built was an office with Daniel’s name on the door. He had told her that there was an adjoining room to his office where he and Jim would view whatever they had taken during the day and it was also where the splicing and editing were done.

In the vast interior of the ancient, oak-beamed barn she stood to look around at what she had been told were called ‘sets’. It was like being backstage in a theatre with canvas scenes of a drawing room, a kitchen, and other interiors stacked against the walls. There was furniture too, a bed, cupboards, tables and so forth, which would be used with the various sets. As she stood there two of the film crew had started to pull forward a low-wheeled wooden platform to draw it outside through the barn’s great open doors.

‘What’s that for?’ she asked, moving out of the way.

One of the men answered her, able to tell by her French accent who she was, but neither he nor his companion paused in their task. ‘It’s needed for all sorts of things. Sometimes as a floor for an indoor scene with a backdrop, but mostly for pushing forward a cameraman to follow a scene or drawing him backwards. Today Jim Baker wants to take some shots from a high angle. So we’re going to erect a stepladder on it for him.’

She decided she would not miss that, but continued her tour, opening the door of one shed and seeing what she first thought were beer barrels before realizing that they were the metal containers that kept the reels of highly inflammable celluloid safe from a chance accident. Seeing a middle-aged woman unlocking the door of another smaller building Lisette introduced herself.

‘What goes on under this roof?’ she asked with interest.

‘Come in and see for yourself,’ the woman invited pleasantly. ‘I’m Mrs Leigh. My husband is one of the carpenters here.’ She led the way in and Lisette followed, seeing immediately that it was a wardrobe room, for there were two sewing machines and a long table for cutting cloth.

‘So you are the studio dressmaker!’

The woman nodded. ‘That’s right. I have to make any special costumes that are needed and repair whatever gets torn or damaged in any way.’ She opened in turn the doors of two enormous wardrobes to display the assortment of garments within. ‘The chests of drawers here are also full of shawls, purses, fans, socks and all sorts of other things that get needed from time to time. I’m always on the lookout for second-hand clothes that can be washed and mended and used by the actors. The budget for my department is very small. So if you have anything you don’t want to wear any longer—?’ She left the question hanging in the air.

‘I’ll remember what you’ve said.’

‘Good. Everything helps. If you’d like to go into the shed next door you’ll find Ethel Davis in there. She works with me when she’s not dealing with make-up.’

Lisette found Ethel setting out theatrical make-up on a dressing table by the window. She was a young, bright-eyed woman and pleased to talk.

‘I apply the make-up to both the actors and actresses.’ She unscrewed the lid of a large jar filled with some greenish-white cream. ‘This is what is used on the face, and there has to be plenty of dark make-up to accentuate the eyes of both men and women.’ She picked up one of the lipsticks. ‘This helps to give the heroines the look of having rosebud lips like the Gaiety Girls on those postcards and the pretty girls you see on chocolate boxes.’ She glanced up at a clock on the wall. ‘Mr Arnott will be in very soon – he’s in the comedy being filmed today.’ Then she looked towards the window. ‘I can see he’s coming now. He’s a real belly laugh on the screen, but he’s as miserable as hell in ordinary life. I’ve noticed that with other comedians.’

Lisette met Arthur Arnott on the doorstep. He was a rotund little man with a round-cheeked, impish face that looked as if it should be well-used to laughter, but there was no gladness in his eyes and he introduced himself very solemnly, giving a bow.

‘My pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Decourt.’

She left him to Ethel’s attentions and when she had seen everything she returned to the gateway where the steamroller had arrived in the lane. It was hissing and steaming, giving out its aroma of tar. Its driver, sitting high in his seat like a king on a throne, was wiping his hands on a greasy rag and listening attentively as Daniel told him precisely what he had to do. By now a stepladder had been mounted on the wheeled base that Lisette had seen earlier and Jim was high on it with his camera ready at the angle needed to follow the action when he would be pushed or pulled according to what was needed.

Arthur soon arrived in his chalky make-up and wearing a top hat and a checked suit that was short in the sleeves and legs, which added to his comical appearance. Immediately work started, but there were various hitches and delays before eventually, after several retakes, the film was completed. Throughout it had brought loud bursts of spontaneous laughter from those assisting, for it was as if before a camera Arthur became completely transformed. Here was a defiant little man with an amusing strut, taking a leisurely stroll in the middle of the lane and deliberately ignoring the steamroller approaching behind him. Sticking his nose up in the air, he strode ahead, refusing to get out of its way and, if any attempt was made to pass him, he dodged leisurely one way and then the other. The driver, coaxed by Daniel, shouted and gesticulated wildly in fury, giving his best while keeping his vehicle on its unremitting course. At the right moment Arthur nipped out of the way and a dummy was thrown down in front of the rollers to be replaced by a flat cut-out of Arthur on the far side as the driver drove on. When the film was spliced Arthur would appear to spring up again unharmed while the driver stood up to shake a furious fist after him as he ran away into the distance. A fade-out would swallow him up.

Applause greeted Arthur as he returned from his final spurt of speed, but he did not acknowledge it, changing once more into the gloomy individual unknown to the cameras.

Work continued throughout the day and set a pattern for the following weeks, everybody at the studio getting a day off on Sundays if there had been enough good weather for maximum filming during the week, otherwise it was work as usual. On free Sundays Lisette and Daniel drove out into the country where they walked through the woods and followed the gentle grassy slopes of the bow-backed Sussex Downs. She loved the views that stretched as far as the sea, pierced by the distant spire of Chichester Cathedral

The public performances at the Queen’s Hall had been a great success and there had been non-stop performances to accommodate all who wanted to attend. Afterwards the programme moved to a hall in Chichester where it received the same approbation, Jim having used the camera on scenes and events there too.

With the coming of the warmer weather Lisette sometimes went swimming, hiring one of Mr Jenkins’ bathing machines located west of the pier. Why they were called ‘machines’ she did not know, for no machinery was involved. They were just huts on large wheels with a door at each end. One entered at the rear and there was a bumpy ride down the beach until the machine was hub-deep into the sea. There the horse was unhitched and led back up the beach while the occupant, now in her bathing costume, could emerge directly and modestly into the waves. When her swim was over the procedure was reversed, the horse being hitched to the opposite end of the machine to draw it up the beach again. Daniel was never able to swim with her on these occasions, for bathing was segregated, but there were warm nights when they went down to the sea away from the resort and discarded their clothes to swim naked together in the moonlight-flecked water.