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\nHere is the first of my used bookstore finds:\u00a0America\u2019s Favorite Movies: Behind the Scenes<\/em>, by film historian Rudy Behlmer.\u00a0Published in 1982, this now out-of-print work is a treasure trove of primary source material\u00a0for some of the most enduring classics of Hollywood\u2019s golden age. It covers\u00a0some\u00a0that I either don\u2019t know or don\u2019t care for, but it also includes many personal favorites such as\u00a0The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/em>,\u00a0Stagecoach<\/em>,\u00a0Casablanca<\/em>,\u00a0The African Queen<\/em>,\u00a0Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em>, and\u00a0High Noon. <\/em>These are\u00a0movies\u00a0whose staying power derives\u00a0largely\u00a0from the fact that\u00a0you don\u2019t have to be a stuffy film critic to appreciate them. No directorial narcissism or abstract mucking about, just good stories well told, made by people committed to getting it right, sometimes\u00a0at enormous personal cost. The\u00a0book also sets their production in rich historical context, explaining how they were affected by the Depression, WWII and the Cold War.\u00a0Herewith, a few quotes and notes that I found to be of particular interest (with trailer links in the titles).
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\nSnow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>Hand-drawn animation has always fascinated me, and while this isn\u2019t my favorite Disney movie, I can\u2019t deny its watershed significance for Disney and the history of animated film in general. Reading the story behind it gave me new respect for the creative\u00a0effort\u00a0that went into its production. For one thing,\u00a0there was the bevy of fresh\u00a0talent that had to be hired just for the realistic depiction of human characters. This was a godsend to hundreds of young men desperately looking for work during the Depression with art degrees they thought they would never be able to use. Overnight, the studio became an art school, with experts brought in to lecture on every aspect of film-making and every resource provided for the young talents to expand their knowledge. Animator Marc Davis recalls:<\/p>\n
Whatever we were doing hadn\u2019t been done before . . . . There was excitement and there was competition; everyone was young and everyone was doing something.
\nWe saw every ballet, we saw every film. If a film was good we would go and see it five times. At one time Walt rented a studio up in North Hollywood and every Wednesday night we would see a selection of films\u2014anything from Chaplin to unusual subjects. Anything that might produce growth, that might be stimulating\u2014the cutting of scenes, the staging, how a group of scenes was put together. Everybody was studying constantly. . . . We weren\u2019t making much because the Studio didn\u2019t have much, but it was a perfect time of many things coming together in one orbit. Walt was that lodestone. (p. 47)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nExcerpts from a story conference on the \u201cWhistle While You Work\u201d sequence show the thought and care put into making every scene as imaginatively detailed as possible. But Walt is the guiding force, blending imagination with a fine sense of pacing and focus. Take this exchange between him and another animator:<\/p>\n
Ham: Are there any gags on the animals themselves\u2014like bird trying to clean gourd; gets head stuck . . . .
\nWalt: Yes, that is what we ought to do, but not bring in gags that have nothing to do with cleaning . . . . Have rabbits dusting vigorously; dust gets the best of them\u2014they sneeze and keep on dusting . . . . At that point she would catch the squirrels sweeping stuff under the floor. They sweep dust to hole in baseboard to get rid of it; stuff comes flying out and rat comes out. . . . (pp. 52-53)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI loved reading about how the voices were cast too. The guy who played Sneezy had literally perfected a specialty sneeze and immediately called Disney when he saw in the paper that they were casting a dwarf named Sneezy. It took one audition for him to get the part right away.
\nThe Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>This sumptuous medieval period piece captures Warner Brothers in its prime, with the dynamite team of producer Hal Wallis, action director Michael Curtiz, Errol Flynn as the dashing Robin Hood, Olivia de Havilland as his graceful Maid Marion, and veteran baddies\u00a0Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone. It also features composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold at his romantic best. Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>composer John Williams has cited Korngold as a major influence, and his Oscar-winning score for\u00a0Robin Hood\u00a0<\/em>is one of his best works. However, this book\u00a0reveals that the Austrian-born composer initially turned down the offer flat, insisting:<\/p>\nI am a musician of the heart, of passions and psychology; I am not a musical illustrator for a 90% action picture. Being a conscientious person, I cannot take the responsibility for a job which\u2026 would leave me completely artistically dissatisfied\u2026 Please do not try to make me change my mind; my resolve is unshakeable. (p. 84)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But Korngold was Jewish, and when he heard that Hitler was in Berchtesgaden, he immediately accepted the offer and took a boat to Hollywood. It was February 12, 1938, and not a moment too soon before the Nazis would invade his property in Vienna. I was also fascinated to read that Robin\u2019s theme was adapted from some of his church music.
\nThe script went through many hands and many revisions.\u00a0Opening\u00a0with a jousting tournament was one of numerous rejected ideas. I was struck by the ease with which this script-writer, hardly a\u00a0pious sort as his salty language elsewhere shows,\u00a0makes a scriptural analogy to argue his case: \u201cThe archery tournament will certainly suffer pictorially if we stick a jousting tournament in the beginning. Christ\u2019s second coming in a cloud of glory would seem tame if we showed the creation of the world first\u2026\u201d (p. 71) It shows how ingrained the language of Christendom and the Bible used to be in our culture.
\nStagecoach (1939)<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>This is one of my favorite Westerns, and it launched the legendary career of John Wayne. I was intrigued to learn just how much of his signature style Wayne owed to John Ford\u2019s harsh but insightful direction in this film. Female co-star Claire Trevor remembers, \u201cAt one point, Ford took Duke by the chin and shook him. \u2018What are you doing with your mouth?\u2019 Ford demanded. \u2018Why are you moving your mouth so much? Don\u2019t you know that you don\u2019t act with your mouth in pictures. You act with your eyes!\u2019 It was tough for Duke to take, but he took it. And he learned eight volumes about acting in that picture.\u201d (p. 109) The sound man also recalls, \u201cJohn Wayne was having a lot of trouble with a scene he was doing with Claire Trevor. He just couldn\u2019t get it. So Ford told him: \u2018Just raise your eyebrows and wrinkle your forehead.\u2019 Wayne\u2019s been doing that ever since.\u201d (p. 110)
\nI also loved reading a\u00a0blow-by-blow from the legendary stuntman Canutt on his famous sequence where he falls between two galloping horses, gets dragged along for a moment, then lets go and allows the coach to drive over him. For\u00a0practice, he\u00a0would tie\u00a0himself to the back of a car and let it drag him along up to 45 mph before cutting\u00a0himself loose. \u00a0He modestly describes the final harrowing stunt\u00a0as \u201ckind of a tricky thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\nWayne shot me from the coach, and I dropped to the lead tongue. I swung under it and got hold of a long, slender bar I had fastened to the bottom of it. As I dragged along the ground I let my legs go limp from the waist down. Then he [Wayne] was to shoot me again, and I was to drop off. It was kind of spooky, dragging along and looking back at the horses\u2019 hooves. But they were running straight, so I let go. (p. 113)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Watch that stunt in this clip, beginning when he rides up on the pinto and jumps onto the coach horses:
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X4jF3xTxKWM?rel=0&start=235&end=260&w=500&h=315<\/a>\n\u00a0
\nCasablanca (1942)<\/a>: <\/strong>In case you don\u2019t know the story, this\u00a0World War II drama\u00a0is about\u00a0a hard-bitten cafe owner in Nazi-occupied Morocco (Humphrey Bogart). As refugees desperately try to leave\u00a0the country, he\u2019s faced with a crisis of conscience when an old lover comes back into his life with her husband and pleads for his help. The film\u2019s ending famously places honor and self-sacrifice over personal gain.\u00a0I\u2019ve got a whole book devoted just to this film and had read an excerpted version of Behlmer\u2019s\u00a0chapter on it before, but it was nice to read it unabridged here.
\nLike\u00a0Robin Hood<\/em>, this was a Warner Brothers picture, also directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal Wallis. Behind the scenes, Wallis\u2019s ruthless sense of editing and creative input were a huge part of what made pictures like these so successful. He simply had good ideas about everything, even things like lighting and music. Curtiz was an immigrant who never became fluent in English, yet he still produced amazing work despite being\u00a0unable to communicate\u00a0with anyone about the story. Script-writer Casey Robinson recalls, \u201cI think Mike was one of the great directors of scenes. He was one of the great directors with people, especially young people. He knew nothing whatever about story. To talk story with Mike was hopeless . . . He didn\u2019t get along with writers, because you couldn\u2019t talk to him, you know? . . . He saw it in pictures, and you supplied the stories.\u201d (p. 169)
\nRobinson was part of a team of writers\u00a0who worked on\u00a0the script, but there was only room for a couple of them to take the credit and the Oscar. Robinson himself declined screen credit for\u00a0his share of the work, though his input was essential in shaping the romantic arc, including the surprise resolution. In this old memo, he sketches it out for the producers [Spoiler Alert!<\/strong>]:<\/p>\nNow you\u2019re really set up for a swell twist when Rick sends her away on the plane with Victor. For now, in doing so, he is not just solving a love triangle. He is forcing the girl to live up to the idealism of her nature, forcing her to carry on with the work that in these days is far more important than the love of two little people. It is something they will both be glad for when the pain is over. (pp. 166-167)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This high-minded idealism reflected the spirit of World War II in general\u2014that everything else, including personal feelings and comfort, must be put aside for the greater good.
\nThe African Queen (1951)<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>Quite simply one of the best movies ever made, starring quite possibly the best American actor and actress of all time (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn). Set during World War I, it\u2019s the story of a British Methodist spinster and a hard-drinking riverboat captain who are forced to flee German-occupied African territory\u00a0together. The\u00a0odd couple forms an unlikely romantic bond that carries them through their harrowing adventures on the river. Shooting on location in Africa\u00a0was an absolute nightmare for the cast and crew. I\u2019m also\u00a0pretty up on this one because I have Hepburn\u2019s own excellent memoir on it, but this book gathers together\u00a0some fresh perspectives. The water was infested with disease-carrying worms, and although the cast and crew never intentionally went into the water, producer Sam Spiegel recalls that \u201cat one time or another, practically everyone fell into the water. We would quickly fish them out, dry them down, spray them with disinfectant and pray. The cast and crew uncomplainingly put up with more danger and discomfort than any other group I\u2019ve ever worked with.\u201d (p. 245) Bogart\u2019s wife Lauren Bacall also admired\u00a0the cast and\u00a0crew\u2019s grim resolve:<\/p>\nAt this point there were more sick members of the company than well. After four days, enough of the crew staggered back to their posts for shooting to resume. Kate reported to work bravely, but she still wasn\u2019t well. I would watch her in a scene while her face turned from red to yellow to green to blue. \u201cI\u2019ve got to go back,\u201d she would say, gently but firmly. Production managed to stagger along, carrying the decimated crew with it. (p. 248)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I also love director John Huston\u2019s reflections on the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn:<\/p>\n
Katie and he were just funny together, one calling forth that quality in the other, and the combination of their two characterizations brought out the humor of dramatic situations which, originally, none of us thought existed. Basically, the humor underlies the story\u2026 But it doesn\u2019t come out of the printed page. It was the surprising combination of Hepburn and Bogart which enabled the comedy to emerge. (pp. 244-245)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n