Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Hollywood, Behind The Camera - Part 1 of 3

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

Hollywood, Behind The Camera

Part 1 of 3

Oh, those whacky producer and directors! All that behind-the-scenes drama - the power struggles, the money troubles, the casting decisions - it proved to be ripe material, the kind Hollywood couldn't resist. So, in the quest for on-screen magic, Tinseltown cannibalized it's own, putting it out there for all the world to see.

Today's Let's Go To The Movies edition is all about fictionalized accounts of some very real movers and shakers in the industry - which, of course, makes for the juiciest of gossip.

So, let's dig in and take a look at the making of these films about Hollywood's elite.

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The Barefoot Contessa

(1954)

At the funeral of an international star, several people recall who she was and the impact she had on them. A less-than-successful writer/director and a movie producer recall scouting her at a shabby nightclub where she worked as a flamenco dancer, convincing her to take a chance on acting and her first film. It was a huge hit. A PR man recalls the time she was in court supporting her father who was accused of murdering her mother. It was her testimony that vindicated him and she went on to become and even a bigger star. One of the richest men in South America then sets his sights on her and she goes off with him - to make another man angry - but the tycoon treats her badly. When she meets a handsome Count,  they fall deeply in love and marry... but theirs is not a happy life.

This drama was written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of a fictional Spanish sex symbol. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien.

While Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner had good chemistry on screen, off screen Bogart wasn't particularly impressed with her as an actress. He commented that Gardner gave him nothing to work with when they were performing together. Some believe Bogart's unfavorable view of Gardner was due to her divorce from his close friend, Frank Sinatra.

The statue of Gardner used in the film was by Bulgarian artist Assen Peikov. After the film, Sinatra bought the statue and installed it in the garden of his Coldwater Canyon home.

Gardner said in her autobiography that Bogart was not easy to work with, because he argued about everything.

Marlon Brando turned down the role later filled by Bogart, telling Joseph L. Mankiewicz, "I'm not making pictures about movie stars this year. I'm not even into being a movie star, myself."

Mankiewicz wanted James Mason, whom he had just directed in 1953's Julius Caesar, for the part of the nobleman. MGM executive Nicholas Schenck, who had a longstanding grudge against the director, would not release Mason for the film. According to Mankiewicz, he ended up with Rossano Brazzi, "who cannot act, cannot be sensual, could hardly speak English..." Interestingly, Rosemary Matthews, who was hired to help Brazzi with his English, and Mankiewicz would later marry.

Edmond O'Brien was always Joseph L. Mankiewicz's first choice for the second male lead, having enjoyed working with him on 1953's Julius Caesar. It was all the clowning around O'Brien did between takes which served as the basis for his character in this film. At first, O'Brien wasn't sure about taking the supporting role, as he was getting star billing at the time. But Humphrey Bogart convinced him that the role was a perfect match. Bogart was right; O'Brien won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his work in this film.

This was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's first production as a writer, director and producer, although he had previously produced and directed or produced and written several films. It was also the first for his own production company, Figaro, Inc., which had financial backing from United Artists, and his first film in color.

Ava Gardner was under contract at MGM, where Joseph L. Mankiewicz had just made 1953's Julius Caesar. During that production, he'd burned a few too many bridges. When he approached them about borrowing Gardner, they demanded $200,000 - twice what he was paying Bogart - plus ten percent of the gross. Not that Gardner profited... while she ended up costing Mankiewicz a cool million, MGM only had to pay her weekly salary of $60,000.

The studio was about to release the film's poster with no image of  Bogart, a contractual violation. Bogart had the matter rectified with the addition of a large line drawing of his face floating in the background.

Gardner's character is said to be based on Rita Hayworth, who was originally offered the part.  Hayworth was a Latina who later married a prince, Prince Aly Khan. However, some elements were lifted from Gardner's life, as well. The stormy relationship between the star and the tycoon is based on Gardner's former relationship with billionaire film producer Howard Hughes. French-Polynesian actress and dancer Anne Chevalier is also said to be an inspiration for the character.

Originally, Joseph L. Mankiewicz had planned to cast an unknown in the female lead, but after looking at the young Joan Collins and Rossana Podestà, he decided to go with a star.

Elizabeth Taylor was under consideration.

Linda Darnell, who was deeply in love with Joseph L. Mankiewicz, hoped he'd give the role to her. She believed the role was inspired by her, as well as Hayworth and Gardner, but Mankiewicz couldn't imagine her in the role. Not getting the role proved to be the biggest disappointment of her entire life and her relationship with Mankiewicz ceased soon afterwards.

Changes were made to the film's soundtrack just days before its New York opening. These were required after Howard Hughes threatened to sue.

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The Big Knife

(1955)

AKA: Hollywood Story

A successful Hollywood actor has opted for screen success over art. He must make critical decisions regarding his career, his marriage, his art and morality.He is pressured by his studio boss and manipulated into a potentially murderous cover-up to protect his career. 

An indictment of the amoral world of 50's Hollywood and its corrosive effect upon the artist, this melodrama was directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, and Everett Sloane.

The scandalous cover-up depicted in the film is supposedly based on a real-life incident involving a young John Huston. Louis B. Mayer apparently paid gossip columnist Louella Parsons a large sum of money not to disclose the incident in her column.

Burt Lancaster turned down the male lead before Jack Palance was cast.

Robert Aldrich rather cattily laid the blame for the film's box office failure at the door of Palance, claiming that he didn't have leading-man good looks. This obviously didn't either party too much, as Palance worked with Aldrich later in his career, starting with the film Attack the following year.

Because of its vitriolic take on Tinseltown, the film was unsurprisingly turned down by all the major studios in Hollywood. It eventually found a home at United Artists.

The original Broadway production of Clifford Odets' The Big Knife opened at the National Theater on February 24, 1949, ran for 109 performances and closed on May 28, 1949. Directed by Lee Strasberg, the play starred John Garfield for whom the role was written. He was supposed to reprise his role in the film version, but died in 1952 of a premature heart attack. Shelley Winters dedicated her performance to John Garfield.

The entire film was shot in 15 days.

The character of the studio head was based primarily on Harry Cohn of Columbia, who secretly recorded the conversations of other people by placing recording devices throughout the studio, and, to a lesser extent, Louis B. Mayer of MGM, who was a notoriously insincere crier, turning on the waterworks if he thought it would help him in negotiations. The hearing aid worn by the character was a nod to RKO's Howard Hughes, who was hard of hearing. 

Cohn took personal offense at the characterization. Two years later, Aldrich's career looked to be all but over when he was fired from a film at Columbia Studios called The Garment Jungle. Cohn happily handed him his marching papers once he realized midway through filming that this was the same director who had made 1955's The Big Knife. Although he was never officially blacklisted, Aldrich had great difficulty securing other film work in the U.S.  

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The Carpetbaggers

(1964)

Although a father and son never saw eye-to-eye on business issues, upon the father's death, the son, who up to that point had led a wild life, assumes control of the family business empire which is centered on a chemical company in Nevada. Trusting no one, he buys or squeezes out associates and adversaries alike, in order to run things his way. The junior tycoon then begins to diversify his business interests into areas which he either has an interest in and/or believes will prove to be industries of the future, including aviation and the movie industry. Haunted by his the events of his childhood, he, in turn, treats those around him poorly, including his stepmother, a woman he dated before his father married her and the daughter of a business associate who believes in his potential. The question becomes whether his lifestyle is sustainable, especially as people try to usurp him and those he trusts - his three best friends; an aging cowboy star, his business manager, and his butler - turn on him, no longer willing to tolerate his cruel behavior.  

Based on Harold Robbins's best-selling 1961 novel of the same name, this drama was directed by Edward Dmytryk, and stars George Peppard, Alan Ladd (in his last role), Carroll Baker, Martha Hyer, Bob Cummings, Elizabeth Ashley, Lew Ayres, Ralph Taeger, Leif Erickson, Archie Moore and Tom Tully.

Baker's character was believed to be inspired by Jean Harlow. Coincidentally, Baker would play Harlow herself in a biopic of the ill-fated actress the following year.

It was generally believed that the junior tycoon was based on Howard Hughes. In addition, there were characters based on to MGM's Louis B. Mayer, Hughes's long-term aviation buddy Glenn Odekirk, and Hughes's right-hand man, Noah Dietrich. 

Hughes was still very much alive at the time the film was made, and notoriously litigious. Perhaps for this reason, the opening narration carefully refers to the young tycoon as being "fabulous and fictional", with Peppard's character exhibiting none of Hughes's notorious eccentricities. However, the character's business interests in chemicals and aviation, and his takeover of a Hollywood movie studio, mirror things Hughes was famous for. In addition, Jean Harlow was given her big break in a film Hughes produced in 1930, titled Hell's Angels, and, just as Hughes took over the direction of that film (despite never having made one before), so the junior tycoon in The Carpetbaggers takes over the direction of his future stepmother's breakthrough movie. However, though the star and the tycoon have a tempestuous love affair in The Carpetbaggers, the real-life relationship between Hughes and Harlow is believed to have been entirely platonic.

Eddie Fisher originally owned the rights and planned for his then-wife, Elizabeth Taylor, to star in a film version alongside Rock Hudson.

In her 1978 autobiography, Joan Collins states she received a firm offer to play the Baker's role, but had to turn it down due to pregnancy.

On Larry King Live, Angie Dickinson said that the one role she regretted turning down was the one eventually played by Baker in this film.

Stella Stevens was a strong contender for the role Martha Hyer would play. Anne Francis had also campaigned for the part. 

This was the feature film debut of Elizabeth Ashley. Peppard and Ashley met on the set of this film, had an affair (despite Ashley being married to someone else at the time), and were then married two years later.

Advance publicity regarding Baker's nude scene did wonders for the film's box office performance. Baker compounded this interest by wearing a transparent dress to the US and UK premieres, attracting a lot of attention from the tabloid press. Though not included in the American release, due to The Screen Actors Guild contract prohibited nudity at the time, it still caused a sensation stateside. Baker has always denied that the nude scene was a publicity gimmick

In a 1964 New York Times article, Baker defended the nude scene, saying...

“She is alone in front of her dressing table. She has just stepped out of the bath and she is the kind of character to whom it would not occur to put on a robe. Doing the scene in the nude was my idea and I think it was a mistake not to show it.”

Sonny Tufts was a candidate to play the aging cowboy star, losing out to Alan Ladd. This was Ladd's final film before his death on January 29, 1964 at the age of 50.

Baker, who played Peppard's stepmother/lover, played his mother two years earlier in How the West Was Won. This, despite Peppard being almost three years older than Baker.

Generally regarded as a landmark film in the sexual revolution of the 1960's with its heated sexual embraces, explicit dialogue and scenes of sadism between men and women.

The fourth highest-grossing film of 1964.

The film grossed $40 million in worldwide box office receipts, against a $3 million budget.

Carroll Baker

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The Last Tycoon

(1976)

A young film producer is a rising star in 1930's Hollywood due to his ability to get anything he envisions done even if it means breaking a few rules. The latest film he's working on stars two popular actors and everyone is sure it'll be a smash hit upon completion. However, the times are changing - the first guilds and unions are being formed in Hollywood, but the headstrong producer is still sticking to his old ways of doing things in spite of the changing landscape. His main opponent becomes a union organizer, but the producer finds ways to deal with him as well. However, in his hubris, he crosses one line too many when he falls for a young troubled woman who is engaged to another. In pursuit of that romance, he neglects the young daughter of a studio executive who happens to also be his boss.  His boss becomes furious over this slight as well as the maverick filmmaker's other bad behavior and makes it his mission to take the producer down. Due to all the pressure, the producer's health begins to fail, leading to tragic consequences. 

Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final, unfinished novel, this romantic period drama was directed by Elia Kazan and produced by Sam Spiegel, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter.  It stars Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell and Ingrid Boulting.

the character of Monroe Stahr is based on Irving Thalberg, the production chief at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio during the late 1920's and 1930's. 

Fitzgerald based the novel's protagonist on film producer Irving Thalberg, who served as production chief at MGM between the late 1920's and 1930's. His boss in the film is based on Louis B. Mayer, the legendary co-founder of MGM.

Fitzgerald died of a heart attack before finishing the novel. Fitzgerald's old friend and Princeton classmate Edmund Wilson edited the uncompleted manuscript for publication. It was subsequently published, in its incomplete form, in 1941.

The story was Fitzgerald's last novel, as well as the last film Kazan directed, even though he lived until 2003. 

The film was the second collaboration between Kazan and Spiegel, who worked closely together to make 1954's On the Waterfront.

Al Pacino rejected the leading role, as did Paul Newman.

Peter Bogdanovich turned down the chance to direct.

Then, Mike Nichols was going to direct with Dustin Hoffman starring in the lead role.

But producer Sam Spiegel wanted Jack Nicholson for the part.

In the end, Nichols was replaced after disagreements with Spiegel. Allegedly, Nichols opposed the casting of Robert De Niro in the lead. Soon afterwards, Nichols worked on another project planned for De Niro, an original comedy script by Neil Simon titled Bogart Slept Here (which became The Goodbye Girl). This, too, came to nothing, amidst rumors of considerable friction between De Niro and Nichols.

According to Theresa Russell, Spiegel said he'd destroy her career if she refused to have sex with him. Russell told an interviewer that she refused, saying "If it meant the end of my career, then I don't have a career." She was cast anyway, making her film debut, and her work was highly praised, even by the many critics who disliked the movie. 

Anjelica Huston auditioned for the role of Russell played, but producer Spiegel wanted Susan Sarandon.

Romy Schneider turned down the role of played by Jeanne Moreau.

Sam Spiegel said about the film, "The greatest young actor America today is Robert De Niro, the greatest living director is Elia Kazan, and I may be the greatest producer of all time. How the hell could we make such a bad fucking movie?" 

Spiegel considered Elia Kazan to be one of his closest friends. Spiegel also had a father-son relationship with this movie's screenwriter, Harold Pinter. Kazan said in his autobiography that Spiegel was so taken with Pinter's genius that he treated the screenplay as sacrosanct, and wouldn't allow Kazan to change it in order to create more dramatic tension.

The film failed to receive the critical acclaim which much of Kazan's earlier work had received. 

Robert Mitchum was bemused by Robert De Niro's habit of remaining in character all day, and nicknamed the young method actor 'Kid Monroe'. Mitchum also recalled that Ray Milland gave anyone with hair a hard time. Tony Curtis later accused Milland of anti-Semitism during the filming of this picture.

Robert De Niro and Ingrid Boulting

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The Other Side Of The Wind

(1970-20018)

A famed, and infamous, movie director dies in a car accident. He was about to release his latest movie and a documentary camera crew had been following him around in the days preceding his death. We see the events leading up to his death, including the careers he destroyed, the enemies he made and the fate of his final film, The Other Side of the Wind.

This satirical drama was directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Orson Welles, and posthumously released in 2018 after 48 years in development. It stars John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, and Oja Kodar, who also served as Welles co-writer and lover.

Intended by Welles to be his Hollywood comeback, the film began shooting in 1970 and resumed on and off until 1976. He continued to work on it intermittently, editing the project into the 1980's. However,  it became embroiled in financial, legal, and political complications which prevented him from being completing it during his lifetime.

The film evolved from an idea Welles had in 1961 after the suicide of Ernest Hemingway. Welles had known Hemingway since 1937, and was inspired to write a screenplay about an aging macho bullfight enthusiast who is fond of a young bullfighter - the result was The Other Side Of The Wind.

Welles left behind nearly 100 hours of footage and a workprint consisting of how it should be assembled along with a few edited scenes.

It had a troubled birth... at one point during the original production work, one of the investors ran off with all the money. The main financier then became the soon-to-be deposed Shah of Iran's brother-in-law. Then, after the Iranian revolution in 1979, the footage was seized and locked in a vault in France. Welles took up a court case to get it released to artist ownership under the Napoleonic Code; he lost, with the French courts maintaining it was the property of the producer. Ultimately released, it became mired in legal wranglings between Oja Kador and Welles daughter, both whom claimed ownership of the film footage.

Oja Kodar screened a rough cut of the film for a number of famous directors in the 1980's and 1990's, seeking their help in completing the film. They all turned it down for various reasons. John Huston was terminally ill with emphysema. George Lucas reportedly claimed to be baffled by the footage, saying he didn't know what to do with it, and that it was too avant-garde for a commercial audience. Kodar subsequently accused Clint Eastwood and Oliver Stone of plagiarizing elements and the editing style of the film.

In August 2002, the Showtime Network announced that a deal had been reached to finish and release this film. Orson Welles' daughter then threatened a lawsuit, saying she owned the film. Shortly afterward, they backed out of the deal.

Peter Bogdanovich was working on completing the film, in order to fulfill a promise he had made to Orson Welles. He got a crowdfunding campaign off the ground to complete the film with Clint Eastwood and J.J. Abrams helping back it. And although more than $400,000 was raised, the campaign failed.

When the negative was released to finally edit the film in 2017, 1,083 film elements had to be fully inventoried. Interns - mostly film students - were hired to do much of the cataloging.

Eventually, Netflix became involved and the film debuted on the streaming service in 2018 to positive reviews.

Rich Little was cast by director Orson Welles as the second male lead in the film. Welles praised Little's acting, saying that impressionists seemed to make good actors. Little, however, had to drop out of the movie due to Welles' improvisational style of filming, as well as layoffs caused by budgetary constraints which resulted in the shooting schedule becoming not only unpredictable but practically interminable. When Little was unavailable for filming due to a previous commitment, a club tour, Welles replaced him with Bogdanovich, in whose house Welles was then living, and who had been playing a smaller role in the film.

The opening voiceover was originally scripted to be read by Welles, but he never recorded it. The producers considered cutting the sequence, but concluded it contained information the audience needed. It was Bogdanovich's idea that he record a version of the voiceover in character.

Although she co-wrote the screenplay, Oja Kodar's character never speaks. The title was inspired by co-writer/star Oja Kodar's assessment of Welles when she first met him.

Michel Legrand was brought in to create the musical score.

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And that's all for now...

Tune in next time.

Same place, same channel.

I'm Gonna Tell You What I Really Think

Robert DeNiro/Jack Nicholson/Theresa Russell

from the 1976 motion picture The Last Tycoon