Question: What do you recall about making the first sound film? How did it differ from making silents?
Lila Lee: Oh, it was a tremendous difference--because no one really knew what they were doing. This was all so new, and also they had an entirely different type of people working. They'd brought in young engineers who knew nothing about pictures but were engineers. Of course, these young men assumed all the dignity of their elders, really--
Q: Very self-important. And their word was law.
Lee: Oh, indeed it was! And the poor cameraman was in a horrible position, because he knew how to film and was an experienced man in his business. He would say, "I have to photograph it this way," and then this young engineer would say, "But you can't do that, because we cannot get the sound."
Well, of course, eventually that was all taken care of, but during this process of change from silents to sound, the soundman was the most important person--and everybody despised him. We all hated him.
Q: Would you say sound brought with it the changes that turned Hollywood from the charming business of making pictures into the factory--big business--that it became?
Lee: Oh, I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Q: And the old-timers, such as yourself, sort of resented this?
Lee: No--I wouldn't say resentment, in that phase of it. But I think when you know your business very well, for someone to come in, just because of a technical thing, and say that you don't know what you're doing, is pretty irritating.
Q: Were the mikes hidden under sofas, etc?
d them under our arms, in our purses. I'll never forget this--and it might be interesting, because as I understand it, this is the first time it ever happened. If you recall, there was a period when everybody whispered. Before that, everybody yelled and screamed. There was a scene in this picture that I did with Jack Holt and Ralph Graves, that Frank Capra directed. Ralph Graves had been in a very serious airplane accident, and I was a nurse. I was supposed to be taking care of him, and I was saying, "Now, you'll be all right. Don't worry. I'm with you." We were in love, and he was moaning, groaning and so on, and I was saying, "Everything will be all right, don't worry."Well--the engineer said, "I can't hear you."
I said, "Well, for heaven's sakes, what do you want me to do? I don't want to blast into your speaker here, scream out: 'You're going to be all right!' This is the only way you can talk to a person that's ill and worried and badly hurt."
Mr. Capra said, "I think you're right. But the boys say they can't pick it up."
Well, I don't think I've ever been very difficult about things, but this I was really difficult about. I said, "You simply cannot have a woman telling a man who's almost at the point of dying, you can't have her screaming at him that he's going to be all right."
Frank said, "I do think you're right." It really hadn't occurred to him till this moment, because he was too concerned with other things. I said, "Just do me one favor--what's it going to cost you? I'll do it one way for your engineer, and then I'll do it the way I'd like to do it." We did it both ways--and of course, mine was wonderful. I don't mean it was wonderful because of me, but it was perfect; it was the way you'd talk to a man if he was ill and dying.
Q: How were they able to pick that up?
Lee: Without any difficulty. They just moved the mike in a little closer.
Subsequently, because of this, then it became the smart thing to do--whisper. You're probably too young to remember, but there was a time when everybody murmured so you could hardly understand them; they were just whispering like mad. They went just the other way. But this was the first time--I believe--that anyone ever spoke in a very soft, calm voice, rather than projecting as you would on the stage.
Q: We've also heard that sounds were so exaggerated--somebody walked across the floor, "thump thump," and if he turned the faucet on it sounded like a waterfall--twice as big as life.
Lee: Sure. But after all, this was all new.
Q: Did you know any of the stars whose careers were wrecked because of sound coming in?
Lee: I suppose so, yes. I suppose the most memorable one is John Gilbert. No, I didn't work with him, but I knew him very well. There again, it was a matter of Jack's voice-- I will say that it probably did not quite suit his personality. But with a little care and work, I'm sure that his voice could have been transmitted as it should have been. But everyone got into a panic. Here was a very highly paid star, a great star. I guess when he did his first talking picture, it didn't come off right, and it ruined him.
Q: Did you have dialogue coaches?
Lee: Oh yes! "Pearl-shaped tones." No, pear-shaped.
Q: Did they work over you, even though you came from the stage, or leave you alone?
Lee: I was left alone, pretty much. I think that's all very amusing--I also think it's very exaggerated.
Q: What happened after Flight?
Lee: I went to Warner Bros. and worked there for about a year and a half. Then I became ill. I had to leave. The nicest picture I did there was Drag, with Richard Barthelmess. There really isn't anything to recall about it, except that it was a very nice picture. Richard Barthelmess was fun to work with, and a very fine actor. I was directed by one of the best directors, I think, Frank Lloyd. (First National became Warner Bros., and that's where I was.)
I also did one of the first outdoor colored pictures in sound--a dreadful picture called Woman Hungry. It was taken from the play "The Great Divide," the famous Henry Miller play, but it just didn't work out. It wasn't very good and I'm sure it was very costly. I don't know that it was the first outdoor colored picture, but it was among the first. Yes, it was done in Technicolor. The thing that really amused me about it--we had to work in the desert, went up to Lone Pine--and because it was Technicolor, naturally everything had to have color. Well, the desert doesn't have very much color. So the men went around with sprays, putting a little dab of this and that on the cactus. That always amused me. No, they didn't spray the sand, but the cactus, just to give it a splash of color here and a splash there. After all, you had to have color.
Just as with sound, you know they had to have theme songs. It didn't matter what the picture was, you had to have a theme song and somebody had to sing it. At Warner Bros.--I'll never forget--we did a beautiful story by Somerset Maugham, The Sacred Flame, taken from a play of his--and Conrad Nagel and Pauline Frederick were in it. It was a very tragic and very beautiful story. I'll never forget--poor Conrad, for no reason at all, in the middle of the picture, had to sing this song to me about how I was his sacred flame. And we would get hysterical!
Q: In his own voice, or was it dubbed?
Lee: No, it was his own voice.
Q: He wasn't a singer.
Lee: He didn't pretend to be. But everybody had to do it. Here he was--the whole story was concerned with the fact that on our wedding day he was very badly injured--and there I am, wheeling him in the garden, and he says, "You are my sacred flame," and he'd look up at me, and of course I'd burst into laughter. Oh, no! Poor darling. At least I didn't have to sing it. But it was just horrible.
Q: Until what year were you involved in movies?
Lee: About '34, '35. I haven't done any pictures since then. I've been on the stage a lot.
Q: Did you leave Hollywood in '34 or '35?
Lee: I guess around '35. I think the last picture I did was one with Bill Powell at RKO called The Ex Mrs. Bradford. Again, I had a little illness, and I had to go away for a time. Then I came to New York, and since then I've been on the stage a good deal.
Q: Could we have your comments on what those years have been to you?
Lee: I have no complaints whatsoever. I think I've had a very nice time and a very fortunate time. I don't think I was ever what you'd call a dedicated actress. Perhaps if I had been, I might have stuck with it longer and maybe more successfully. Other things seem to have interested me more, or as much, at any rate.
Q: You're not disillusioned with Hollywood or the industry?
Lee: I'm not disillusioned about anything.
Do you want to talk about what the future of the motion pictures will be?--but on that I don't think I'm qualified to speak. Personally I think this challenge of TV has been wonderful for them. I think that during the war years, they were very smug. Every picture was financially a success.
Everybody thought they were pretty secure. Then along came this challenge.
Now, it may sound trite because it's quoting, but they'll make "bigger and better pictures." They won't make as many, but they seem to be better. I don't think the industry's in a bad way at all. I don't think it'll be the same type of industry as I used to work for, where there's a big corporation and you had this corporation behind you, which was a very nice thing to have. Now the actor produces his own pictures--or a group of people, a director-producer. I've seen several in the last few months: The Bridge on the River Kwai--magnificent; Sayonara--beautiful.
Q: You do think pictures are better today?
Lee: Oh, indeed I do.
Q: Better than some you appeared in?
Lee: Oh yes, I don't think there's any doubt about that. I think there's more care, more thought. Also, I think that the young people are much more talented than we were. I think--particularly where women are concerned--there's a tendency for everyone to look alike, which is unfortunate.
But as far as talent is concerned, I think they're very much more talented. I think we had more personality.
Q: Audrey Hepburn?
Lee: Oh, I think she's wonderful.
Q: Debbie Reynolds--if this is talent, I--
Lee: As far as that's concerned, I think she's adorable, and Miss Monroe I think is just charming. No, I haven't met her.
he girls of the new crop have it over Jean Harlow--Lee: No--in a different sense. I don't think there's a Gloria Swanson, a Greta Garbo or a Mary Pickford or a Nita Naldi. But on the whole, I think most of them are very much more talented. I just don't think that there are the definite personalities that there were. But that's true in life--you walk down the street and everybody looks more or less alike; everyone wears their hair the same way, dresses the same way; their whole method of living seems to be the same. Whereas in the days we were speaking of, who looked like Gloria Swanson? Nobody.
Q: I don't know how many men today equal the male stars of yesterday--not many--
Lee: Well, they don't interest me too much, but then that may be an age thing.
Q: Other than Yul Brynner, who's a remarkable personality. I wouldn't call him a great actor.
Lee: He probably is a great actor. I think he is. But a tremendous personality, yes. Exactly.
Q: How many people are?
Lee: I agree with you there. I don't think there are the great personalities.
