American Cinematographer - May 1992 - 48

warden is played to the hilt by
Kevin Pike, who created one of the
screen's more memorable villains
in Matewan.

"Some of these kids
couldn't dance before," Laszlo

whispered. "Some of them never
sang before. What came out of
them is miraculous. We have a
wonderful bunch of characters -
not a weak one in the bunch. I think
in another 30 or 40 years they will
be remembered much as the Dead
End Kids are remembered today.
There's so much natural personal¬

ity - they're kids."
Producer

Finnell

ex¬

plained: "Kenny has had a lot of
experience with making non¬
singer/ dancers sing and dance, so
he felt confident that if

we

found

great young actors for the leads, he
would be able to make the music
end of it work. We were looking for

character, personalities and kids

Above:

who were unique and individual."

Publisher

Ortega, a tall and energetic
who appeared to ex¬
ercise a benign control over the
actors and even managed to seem
unruffled by the presence of a
mind-boggling number of backstage mothers, echoed Laszlo's awe
of the boys' abilities. "It's an
amazing experience," he added.
"All these kids have been together
six months. We gave them a lot of
freedom in the beginning when
they were workshopping, but they
really formed their own associa¬
tion, to really feel what it might
have been like to be unchaperoned
and to be in charge of their own

Joseph Pulitzer
(Robert Duvall)
tries to point out
the complexities
of his position,

young man

but a defiant
Bale won't

budge. Right:
The film's

buoyant

choreography is
on display as the
newsies bound

series
of barrels.

across a

mile or so to the east on the
Warner Bros, lot, with an interior
a

room

(visible through the win¬

designed as a big, night¬
marish cubicle packed with closely

the fact that he has worked

jammed two-tiered bunks. The
room, lighted (ostensibly) by
simple fixtures hanging from the
ceiling, was at the moment brimfull of boys - a claustrophobe's

ductions.

dows)

worst-case scenario. The exterior
was

effect-lighted for night with the

intensity and color to con¬
realistically with the yellowish
artificial light of the room. The
proper

46

Operating the camera was
the director of photography's son,
Jeffrey Laszlo, whose youth belies
crane.

on an

impressive number of major

pro¬

"They're going to break
of the kids out of jail but the kid
doesn't want to leave, so Christian

one

goes over the roof and lowers
himself down to the window on a

rope," Laszlo pere explained while
Ortega was prepping the actors for

trast

the scene. "He and the warden are
arch enemies because he broke out

Panaflex camera was about 15 feet
above the floor on a Chapman Zeus

of the prison by hiding on the top
of Teddy Roosevelt's carriage." The

American

May 1992

Cinematographer

lives. It worked for the movie but
it tended to get Andy and me a little
on the
edge sometimes.
"It comes off as something

special on the screen." says Ortega.
"We got a few bruises but we've
got a nice looking picture. You be¬
lieve they're homeless, you believe
they're orphans, you believe
they're abandoned and that they
depend on one another to really
survive, and that was the thing that
really wanted to see come

we

With Andy and Jeffrey
handling the photography we've
had a really wonderful team.
across.

Jeffrey's as much a dancer as any¬
body on the screen and his work
American Cinematographer - May 1992

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