Casting Most Important Factor in Picture Making, says Zeidman 🇺🇸

Back in the studio where he first served as an errand boy and later as press agent for D. W. Griffith more than twenty years ago, Bennie F. Zeidman is now the big boss, the producer.

Presented by David J. Hanna

Behind him are the reckless adventures in ballyhoo by which he persistently kept the name of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., spattered on the front pages of newspapers for several years, but he still retains that sense of showmanship that has been evidenced in his productions.

His present producing grounds had once been known as the Griffith Studio, where were sheltered the film endeavors of Doug Fairbanks, Beerbohm Tree, De Wolf Hopper and Weber and Fields. Later the name was changed to Reliance Studios, then, successively, the “Home of Fine Art Pictures,” Majestic Studios, Talisman, and more recently, Hollywood Studios. Currently he is there under the banner of Grand National, taking meticulous care with the production of “Girl Loves Boy,” co-starring the promising young team of Cecilia Parker and Eric Linden.

“It’s a lucky spot for me,” said Mr. Zeidman, who doesn’t seem to have any fear of being haunted by the financial bones of several “quickie” producers which have been interred there in recent years. “This industry has never been a question of hit or miss. If you have the material to work with, it doesn’t matter where you work it.”

Which reminded us of the legend that surrounds the actors who work in Zeidman’s pictures. One of the few producers in the industry who insists upon handling his own casting, it is an acknowledged fact that any actor working in a Zeidman-produced picture is the best of his type available. And so we queried our genial host regarding the great importance he attaches to the casting of his pictures.

“I have always contended,” he said, “that the most important part of any picture is its cast. Any story can be ruined by incompetent players, while an experienced cast can take much of the sting out of a weak, thread-bare story.”

Apparently not many of Hollywood filmmakers share Zeidman’s theory, if we to judge by the result of a poll on the relative values of story, director and east conducted some time ago by one of the coast journals. The replies favoring story and director far outnumbered those which gave the cast paramount position. We reminded the Grand National producer and he was off on his favorite theme.

“Let us proceed with the premise that a producer is allowed his choice of the three essentials and he selects a mediocre story and director, but chooses his cast with infinite care. The very presence of carefully selected characters will add credulity to the unfoldment of the story. Further, the actor of experience can usually direct himself to a great extent and, when the megaphoner is in doubt about how a scene is to be played, the knowledge of the capable player will prove invaluable. The sparkling, dynamic performances of adroit actors is forever causing audiences to overlook defects in plots.

“By no means do I imply that this is to be a rigid and standardized formula for picture making.” Zeidman continued. “Let us hope there are more and more good stories filmed and greater directors created, but, all things being equal, give me an A-1 cast.”

Exactly how much weight casting carries in Zeidman’s picture making was indicated to us by his remarks about present-day methods employed in this vital department of production.

“Casting today is deplorable,” he said. “The office of a casting director is more like an open market than a place where actors are selected for roles. To save their studios a few hundred dollars a day, these men are forced to bargain, squabble with the actors over their salary demands. And those few hardy souls who refuse to take the smaller salaries are then replaced by cheaper, less talented actors.

“Not only from an artistic angle is this a harmful practice, but from the financial side as well. For, like buying anything, the cheaper merchandise is almost worthless, and so it is with an actor who has not made the grade. His lack of experience necessitates retakes, wasted time and commensurate loss of money.

“As for me, I like to cast my own pictures. Each time I engage an actor I am confident that he will fit the bill, give a good performance, and, should by any chance his salary be a trifle more than someone else, I know I will be doubly recompensed in the end.”

Zeidman has earned his reputation as one of the most highly regarded independent producers through just such intense interest in the business and art of picture making. For Grand National he will deliver eight pictures during the current season, two of which have been completed, the third being “Girl Loves Boy.” His program is varied, ranging from that New England romance of youth, to zestful comedy in “Sweethearts of the Navy,” to the criminal melodrama of “Rogues Gallery.”

But it isn’t difficult to imagine this onetime glib, fast-talking press agent skipping from one type of picture to the other with the same facility a diva shifts from low to high C. An intriguing personality, this Bennie Zeidman, who started as an office boy and persuaded his boss to pay him an extra five dollars a week to get articles about his employer’s films in the papers, thus becoming the world’s first studio press agent, he still retains the charm and personality which made him a successful publicist. And through his many years of affiliation with the motion picture industry, he has absorbed a million dollars worth of experience, evidence of which you will find in any production boasting the B. F. Zeidman trade mark.

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Scenes are from “Girl Loves Boy,” B. F. Zeidman’s latest picture for Grand National release.

Collection: Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, March 1937