There they were all standing around
- thirty-eight men and few of them with an excuse for being there.
No wonder, says Ernie Player, the cry went up...
Make Way for
SABRINA
There were thirty-eight men and a girl. Why thirty-eight
men? Because the girl happened to be ... SABRINA .
"There seem to be millions of people on the set," shouted
first assistant George Pollard wearily with justifiable overstatement. "It's
frightfully difficult to work. Please move yourselves."
They didn't move themselves. And few of them had the excuse
that they were there to work on the picture. Stock Car , with Paul
Carpenter, Rona Anderson, Paul Whitsun-Jones and Susan Shaw, was being
filmed at Nettlefold Studios. A part had been written in specially for
the girl who has done a miniature Monroe in Britain because of her appearances
with Arthur Askey on TV.
I can't honestly report that Sabrina shaped up as another
Jean Harlow - she looks very much like her, but the way. But she did well
enough. She was portraying the girl friend of Harry Fowler, one of the
stock car drivers in the melodramatic story.
"But I'm REALLY dumb," said Sabrina, talking
about the role. "She's too far forward or something," said
director Wolf Rilla, earnestly discussing Sabrina's position in a scene.
Sabrina had to react before the camera to a song called "There's
So Little I Can Do All By Myself." I hope the title isn't prophetic.
As it is, she's adequate enough in Stock Car - she's presented for
good-natured laughs, and who knows, she may indeed prove that she's no
show business joke.
It's a hard world, though, in which producers write in a
role for Sabrina when they seem reluctant to do so for other talented young
players.
All the same, I suppose that showmanship must have its say
in picture-making. If Sabrina can attact thirty-eight men on the set, what
might she not do at the box office?
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