The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra

Experimental - but accessible - movie describing the hardships of life as an extra in Hollywood that skilfully disguises the fact that it cost only $97 to make.

This experimental short film (around 1000') demonstrates some clever techniques for the time. Note the crossed title sequence so that neither director has top bill.

The camera work is by Gregg Toland who would later film Citizen Kane and Wuthering Heights. Rumour has it that the half lighting so characteristic of Toland's later work was achieved by accident when one of the two lights blew!

There is some interesting hand held camera work in there too.

If you ever want to know when Hollywood became such a stressful place, where people gave up their lives to be a star, usually with no return, this little short can point you to way back in the silent era.

This little heavy-handed sequence deserves a lot of respect for its experimental uses of models, lighting, and different camera techniques at the time. Today it comes off as a bit heavy handed, a bit too obvious. Even when you know what's they're doing or trying to do, you can't help but giggle: "Heh, those are models!" Still, they're interestingly designed models.

A lot of the stuff working around actors and characters would have been really strong if it wasn't really so comical (which doesn't really work within the structure of the film because the film itself is rather dark and direct). The fish-out-of-water way they open and close their mouths and the over-acting does help to give the film an absurdist feel, but it also helps to not take the film very seriously.

--PolarisDiB

The ultra-low budget of this film clearly shows in the extreme close-ups of faces, searchlights and office space (avoiding the need for background sets!) and stylised landscape model work: but it forms a surreal style all of its own, as extra 9413 learns to mouth 'blah blah blah' instead of talking and don bland masks instead of his own face... none of which does him any good in a world where the 'Casting today' signs always slide out further to reveal their true nature: "NO casting today". His female counterpart, dancing puppet-like to the director's tune (and perhaps his casting couch?) does rather better.

In this film, Hollywood is Hell and bliss is to become a free man and not a number. Sardonic social commentary without a single word.

For more detailed information on this 11 minute silent film short from 1928 see the IMDb comments submitted by another reviewer here who described this film very educational detail. I recently saw this experimental film and found it very strange and oddly entertaining. It stars unknown actor George Voya as The Star and Jules Raucourt as 9413. Raucourt had a brief film career in lead roles and became a character actor and ironically an extra himself in the later stages of his career. Here Raucourt is a Hollywood extra with the number 9413 penned across his forehead. Voya who never launched an acting career is ironically The Star with a star drawn on his forehead. Adriane Marsh is a Hollywood extra that makes good. Director/producer/writer Robert Florey is the cigar chomping, telephone talking casting director in close up of his mouth and hands only. A black background with shadowing is used with paper cutouts and masks used as props and scenery. Florey and special effects/ writer/ director/editor Slavo Vorkapich co-wrote and co-directed this film. It was also the third and final film that young cinematographer Gregg Toland worked on with Florey and Vorkapich. Toland would go on to photograph such films as Wuthering Hwights. Intermezzo, The Grapes of Wrath, The Outlaw, Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives and The Bishops Wife among the many films in his talented career that earned him an Academy Award and six nominations before his untimely death at the age of 44 from heart disease in 1948. It's interesting here to see the early work of the budding genius of Toland. Florey enjoyed a long career as a director of B movies before moving into television in the 50's and 60's and directing dozens of popular series episodes like The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Outer Limits and Thriller. Again it's interesting to the work of a man like Florey who had a 40 plus year career in film early in that career and on a small budget. This film has been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry and deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress. It's worth 11 minutes of your time to check it out if you are interested in the history and evolution of film. It's an experimental film and I would give this a 7 out of 10.