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

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies

Hollywood, Behind The Camera

Part 3 of 3

Hey! Let's not forget about the writers.

For what is a film without a story?

Yes, while spinning tales, one is bound to create a story or two of their own - as in some very real drama behind the scenes.

Today's Let's Go To The Movies edition takes a final look at the 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, the screenwriters!

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Merrily We Go To Hell

(1932)

A ne'er-do-well drunken newspaper writer finally meets and marries the right girl. She sobers him up and gets him to get serious about his writing. Unfortunately their wedded bliss is interrupted when the writer's play becomes a hit and he begins to spend time with a woman n actress... a woman from his past. His wife, an heiress, decides that turn-about is fair play and picks a handsome man to escort her to various parties around New York. Eventually the writer wises up, quits drinking and sends the actress packing. Believing he's a changed man, the heiress takes him back.

 

This pre-code drama was directed by Dorothy Arzner, and stars Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney. It includes an early prominent appearance by a very young Cary Grant. 

Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher was a last minute replacement for Jack Oakie.

The word 'Hell' could not be used as part of the title in the UK. Instead, it was simply retitled Merrily We Go to ____. According to a contemporary article in Variety, the Los Angeles Times also refused to print the title of the film in its advertisements. However, they did print the title in its review of the picture.

Mordaunt Hall, film critic for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review upon its release.  Hall believed the film was wildly funny in stretches, and described the acting by the two leads as "excellent", but believed the scenes in which March's character was intoxicated went nowhere, and that the script was lacking. However, despite similar reviews, which often noted that it had been directed by a woman, the film was one of the most financially successful films that year.

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The Way We Were

(1973)

During post-WWII McCarthyism, a diametrically opposed couple come together only to find out that genuine friendship and physical attraction are not enough to overcome fundamental societal beliefs. Set in the period from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, this is a love story involving two markedly different people; Katie is an idealistic, uptight, Stalin-loving political activist, while Hubbell is an easy-going, athletic, All American-type, who also happens to be a talented writer. Their divergent personalities and the times they live in end up negatively affecting their relationship, proving sometimes love does not conquer all.

Adapted by Arthur Laurents from his own 1972 novel of the same name, this romantic drama was directed by Sydney Pollack and stars Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford.

Peter Bogdanovich was offered the opportunity to direct, but turned it down, a decision he later regretted.

Warren Beatty was originally offered the role of Hubbell Gardiner.

When Robert Redford procrastinated about taking the role of Hubbell Gardner, producer Ray Stark approached Ryan O'Neal.

Pollack assured producer Ray Stark that he could deliver Robert Redford for the role of Hubbell, which Laurents had written with Ryan O'Neal in mind. O'Neal's affair with Streisand was on the rocks, and Stark wanted to avoid conflicts between the leads.

A gay man, screenwriter Arthur Laurents based the film's plot on his own tempestuous love affair with bisexual film actor Farley Granger whom he met in 1948.  Their personality differences were immense: Laurents was Jewish and a political activist, while Granger was a carefree White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Much of the dialogue and plot developments are based on fact, including the initial seduction scene and the deterioration of the relationship due to Granger's inability to defend Laurents when he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Ultimately, Laurents was blacklisted on the grounds that a review of his 1945 play Home of the Brave had been published in The Daily Worker.

This film was one of the first Hollywood productions to tackle explicitly the blacklisting of actors and writers during the McCarthy era which had profound repercussions for the Hollywood community in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Laurents was blacklisted in 1951 while in Europe with Farley Granger. The United States State Department therefore declined to renew his passport for several years

Because of his own background, Laurents felt it was important for his heroine to be Jewish and share his outrage at injustice. He also thought it was time a mainstream Hollywood film had a Jewish heroine, and because Barbra Streisand was the industry's most notable Jewish star, he wrote the role of Katie Morosky for her.

During filming, Laurents was often frustrated by director Sydney Pollack's alterations to his screenplay. Laurents fought to keep certain lines and scenes in the film which Pollack wanted to change or to cut. Streisand remained Laurents's staunchest ally throughout filming.

Sydney Pollack defended his changes to Arthur Laurents' script, arguing that Laurents was unable to see past his political message to make the best choices for drama, and that in Laurents' original script Hubbell was merely a one-dimensional straw man to Katie, a thankless role Robert Redford was reluctant to play. Pollack claimed that the two leads needed to be equally matched.

The segment dealing with the McCarthy witch hunts was the most severely affected by Pollack's ill-advised cuts. It originally took up much more screen time. When the segment was cut to the bone, the chief victims of the cuts were Viveca Lindfors and Murray Hamilton whose roles were rendered little more than brief bit parts.

Redford was unhappy with cuts made to the film following a preview. He said, "I think we'd both have preferred a more political Dalton Trumbo-type script, but finally Sydney came down on the side of the love story. He said, 'This is first and foremost a love affair,' and we conceded that. We trusted his instincts, and he was right."

Streisand was upset about the scenes being cut. She explained in a 1999 interview, "There weren't many movies made about this period of time in the blacklist, and that's why it killed me to have those two scenes taken out. I was really heartbroken."

Arthur Laurents summed up his experience on the film, "To make a mantra of 'it's only a movie' was as useless and foolish as feeling pain. No matter what I felt or thought, no matter what I tried to accomplish or how, Sydney Pollack would ultimately have his way. That was what I had to face and accept. They didn't cry 'Author! Author!' in the movies, they never had. Now they cried 'Auteur! Auteur!' - even if the auteur fucked up the picture."

Laurents actually wrote a sequel to this film. Redford read it and never got back to him. When Streisand happened to come across it in a pile of scripts, she was on board, but ultimately declined because she didn't wish to work with producer Ray Stark again.

Barbra Streisand initially resisted singing in the film. Producer Ray Stark talked her into it.

When she heard the titular song for the first time, she loved it. However, she made two important suggestions which ended up transforming the song into something even better. She suggested a slight shift in the melody to send it soaring at a crucial point in the song, and she also suggested changing the first line of the song from "Daydreams light the corners of my mind" to "Memories light the corners of my mind."

Marvin Hamlisch originally did not include the title theme music in the final scene when Katie hugs Hubbell. After the first preview showing fell flat, he changed his mind. The studio didn't want to pay the $15,000 cost to redo the scene, so Hamlisch returned that sum out of his film paycheck in order to get the change made. It paid off... Hamlisch won two Oscars for his work on this film: Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Song. In addition, he won two Grammys - Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Song Of The Year.

Streisand and Redford had very different approaches to acting. Streisand liked to analyze the part at length and rehearse a great deal, while Redford was more of an intuitive actor, preferring to be more spontaneous. According to Pollack, "Barbra would call me up every night at nine, ten o'clock and talk about the next day's work for an hour, two hours on the phone. Then she'd get in there and start to talk and Bob would want to do it. And Bob felt the more the talk went, the staler he got. She would feel like he was rushing her. The more rehearsing we did, she would begin to go uphill and he would peak and go downhill. So I was like a jockey trying to figure out when to roll the camera and get them to coincide." Despite their differences, Streisand and Redford had a deep respect for each other and worked well together. They were opposite in many ways, just like their characters, and they used those differences to the benefit of the film.

In an interview before a live audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2012, Redford candidly admitted that one of the factors that led to the convincing romantic tension between Katie and Hubbell was the fact that Streisand developed an off-screen crush on him as filming progressed. While he didn't return her feelings, he recognized that she was giving a magnificent performance and he was determined not to allow anything to get in the way of that. Ultimately, he decided the kindest course of action was to simply pretend that he didn't notice her crush on him.

Redford said in an interview that, when he was asked what Barbra Streisand was wearing in bed the first time they made love, he replied "only Chanel No. 5"

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Tribute 

(1980)

A shallow Broadway press agent learns he is dying just as his estranged son by his ex-wife arrives for a visit.

Adapted by Bernard Slade from his play of the same name, this Canadian comedy-drama was directed by Bob Clark and stars Jack Lemmon Robby Benson, Lee Remick, Colleen Dewhurst, John Marley, Kim Cattrall, and Gale Garnett.

Playwright Bernard Slade wrote the lead character especially for Jack Lemmon.

The film was inspired by the life of talent agent Harvey Orkin.

Arthur Hiller was, at one point, in consideration to direct this film.

Jack Lemmon was nominated for the 1979 Tony Award for Actor in a Drama for his work in the Broadway stage show. He then recreated his role in this movie.

The film was entered into competition at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival in 1981 where Lemmon was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor.  He also won the Canadian Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor. In addition, Lemmon was nominated for Best Actor at the 1981 Academy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe.

An accomplished, self-taught pianist, Jack Lemmon wrote the musical theme for the movie.

This served as Kim Cattrall's debut on the big screen.

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I Ought To Be In Pictures

(1982)

An ambitious girl leaves New York for Los Angeles in the hopes of reuniting with her father, a working screenwriter. He hasn't been part of her life, as she was raised by her maternal Grandmother, who is now deceased. The girl arrives on a morning when her father's girlfriend - a hairdresser who does Jane Fonda's hair - has spent the night, leading to complications. What's a father to do?

Based on the Neil Simon play of the same name, this comedy-drama was directed by Herbert Ross and stars Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, and Dinah Manoff.

Herbert Ross, who directed this movie, also directed the play on Broadway.

Manoff, who is the daughter of actress Lee Grant, reprises her Tony Award-winning role from the Broadway production. She won a 1980 Theatre World Award, as well and was the only member of the original Broadway cast to reprise her role. Prior to this picture, Manoff had appeared in two significant and well-known movies: Ordinary People (1980) and Grease (1978). 

Matthau once said of this movie: "It's filled with very real emotions. There were a few seconds while I was acting when I flashed back to my childhood when my father deserted us. I was exhausted at the end of each day. Some roles are easier but comedy, such as Neil Simon writes, is twenty times more difficult than straight acting or tragic acting. I prefer the challenge of comedy. It requires a great deal more energy, a great deal of kinetic output."

The movie did not do as well as expected, either with the critics or at the box-office. It may have been the tipping point for Neil Simon comedies, which had saturated the market and lost their spark.

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Irreconcilable Differences

(1984)

A screenwriter and a director fall in love, get married, and have a daughter. Everything is wonderful, until their work distracts them from each other and their young daughter. They soon begin fighting and then divorce, only to fight even more. Their daughter, who spends most of her time with the family's Latino maid and childminder, eventually decides to seek legal emancipation from her parents, and to go and live full-time with the maid who has been taking care of her. The media picks up the story and have a field day with it, making things worse for all involved.

This comedy-drama was directed by Charles Shyer from a script written by he and his wife, Nancy Shyer. It stars Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, and Sam Wanamaker.

Loosely based on the marriage and divorce of director Peter Bogdanovich and producer Polly Platt. Sharon Stone's character is modeled upon Cybill Shepherd, a former lover of Peter Bogdanovich.

The expensive flop musical that the Ryan O'Neal's character makes as a vehicle for Sharon Stone's character is a thinly veiled reference to At Long Last Love (1975), the expensive flop musical which Peter Bogdanovich made as a vehicle for Cybill Shepherd.

When Bogdanovich's directorial career faltered, Platt became the successful producer of such hit films as Broadcast News, Say Anything and War of the Roses after having worked as a production assistant on Terms of Endearment.

Bogdanovich has said in interviews that this movie is "terrible", as it portrays him and Cybill Shepherd as the villains and presents Platt as the victim in a very one-sided manner.

Roger Ebert noted that the film also draws upon Nora Ephron's Heartburn for some of its inspiration.  Ephron wrote a bestselling novel about her husband's affair, just like Shelly Long's character, while, in real life, Platt did not.

The cowriters of this movie, Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer were, at the time of filming, like the main characters - a married couple who collaborated on movies. That is until they divorced in 1999.

Drew Barrymore almost quit acting after starring in this movie. According  her autobiography, Little Girl Lost, there was a lot of fighting going on between crew members. Apparently it took them up to 30-40 takes for some small scenes, because no one was ever fully satisfied with a single take. One day, Drew even broke down crying and ran to hide in her trailer because she was exhausted from all the tension and fighting. Upon completion of the film, she began to doubt her career choice because for her, acting was about fun and being part of a crew. 

Rumored to be at the crux of all the disagreements? Shelley Long's perfectionistic acting method acting, which proved oppressive, divisive and intrusive.

Ryan O'Neal took the role for no salary, just points, because he really wanted to do it, but they didn't have the money to pay the actors what they usually earned. He said he loved the movie and thinks it's some of his best work. "I love the movie," said Ryan O'Neal. "So I did it for no salary, just points. It was made for under $6 million, so they didn't have the money to pay us. Still, I think it's some of my best work. Maybe I should work like that more often."

The film was a minor hit and was well-received by the critics, who really liked the screenplay.

For their performances, both Long and Barrymore were nominated for Golden Globe Awards.

This film served as Sharon Stone's first nude scene.

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel!

The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand

from the 1973 motion picture The Way We Were