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Rouben Mamoulian, Paramount, Astoria, 1929, from Beth Brown's novel. His first film. Helen Morgan is Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque star who has sent her daughter (Joan Peers) to a convent and now wants her back, away from the wheelman (Fuller Mellish Jr.). Mamoulian had the blimped camera moved on dollies when crews still bolted it down, and he recorded two tracks at once so a lullaby and a prayer could occupy the same scene. Shot on Long Island and in New York streets. National Film Registry, 2006.
In one programme
Mamoulian, from the theatre, refused the booth. A blimped camera on a dolly, New York streets, and two microphones on two channels so a lullaby and a prayer could share a scene. The engineers said it had not been done. The film is the answer, and it moves.
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