Film Tales

Film Tales

(Smashwords Edition)

by Robert Cettl

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© 2010 Robert Cettl

cover image (c) Ron Deviney

Contents

Introduction

Drama

Action and Adventure

Westerns

Hollywood Classics

Romance and Relationships

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Horror and Thriller

War Movies

Comedy

Hollywood Flops

Erotica

Exploitation Cinema

Cult Movies

Introduction

Watching movies is one of the great pastimes of the contemporary age. Whether one sees a film just for the entertainment value or out of a deeper appreciation, a love, for the art of film itself, the thrill of a good movie is a rewarding experience. Movies are everywhere. The still-new technology of DVD / Blu-Ray has revolutionized the availability of movies. Now, not only contemporary well-known blockbusters but films from previous eras, well known or forgotten or cultishly obscure, are being made available for viewing in ever greater numbers. And: often with packages of special features which enhance the viewing experience by giving it some sort of behind-the-scenes context.

The DVD / Blu-Ray experience is turning the pastime of watching movies into an informative and demystifying human experience. Where films were once just presented on a screen now with interactive chaptering, director audio commentaries, featurettes and special making-of documentaries, a given film is personalized for the home viewer in a way that films never were before. An inherent part of this new personalization of the movies is the opportunity to learn something more about the process that led to their completion. This allows the anecdote to take a life of its own as a valuable tool in the agenda of the DVD movie age.

The anecdote inherently humanizes the process of making movies. It can draw attention to a small error, it can highlight some of the creative differences involved in the making of a film, it can reveal the many decisions and tactics that go behind the making of classic scenes, it can expose the inter-relationships between the various people involved in the making of the film, it can elucidate the lesser known behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings of cast and crew, it can also explore the vagaries of the film financing process. In short, movie trivia can be a vital part of the movie-watching experience in the age of home theatre: a perfect complement.

This book is designed to be user-friendly. It presents trivia in the form of anecdotes that are modelled on the design of relaying information in DVD special features. As such, it is intended as just that complement to the movie-watching experience in the age of DVD and Blu-Ray, a light and fun but still informative journey behind the scenes of many of the screen’s most well-known and lesser-known films. Whilst most trivia gains from the reader having knowledge of the film concerned, the trivia anecdotes in this book are designed so that one need not have seen the movie referenced – that the story behind the film is the thing.

Each anecdote in this book is thus presented as a little story, a self-contained piece which illuminates some aspect of the film concerned. It is hoped that although this may qualify as trivia, the actual details of the story are not necessarily trivial, that there is present something greater about the story that the reader can take with them: some point, some humour, some information, something that makes watching and knowing about movies that much more of a fun and informative process. This book is borne out of a love of the movies as fostered by DVD, a sheer joy in the home viewing experience.

The chapters in this book present anecdotes according to themed topics. Each chapter is, for ease and familiarity of access, titled according to the main movie genres, as if one were browsing a movie store and confronting a huge array of films, both familiar and also unfamiliar. The anecdotes take these films and reveal a detail about them in the hope of making them more familiar, of generating interest in them. Thus, the majority of films covered in the trivia anecdotes are readily accessible on DVD and increasingly on Blu-Ray. Who knows, maybe if a reader is just a bit intrigued by an anecdote about the film they may choose to seek it out.

DVD and Blu-Ray make access to the entire spectrum of movie-watching an easy activity perfect for home entertainment. This book is designed to fit into that home movie experience, to so encourage an interactive engagement between a viewer and a film by revealing intriguing and often amusing anecdotes about it. Sometimes the film may be unfamiliar but that does not matter – the anecdote is self-contained and interest generating in itself because, as has been mentioned, it humanizes the movie-watching and movie-making process: becoming a light and informative journey through the vast back-story of the world of the movies.

Film Tales offers the chance to enhance one’s enjoyment of the movies, both of individual films and of the business and creative industry that exists around their making. Sharing such anecdotes brings one closer to the movies, enabling one to fully participate in a process that has made the motion picture the most significant of contemporary art forms. Sharing such anecdotes also humbles an industry which can seem as monumental and removed from ordinary experience as Hollywood. Sharing such anecdotes offers one essential opportunity – the joint chance to enjoy and be informed.

Drama

What is called drama for want of a better description perhaps is the mainstay of the movies. All Hollywood genres are technically forms of Drama, but it has come to pass that what we call drama now refers specifically to films shorn of other genre adornments and which explore the dynamics of human interaction on an inter-personal basis. It is the quality of human relationships that appeals to those who love drama – anything is possible but the key is the human dimension that contains and results from the action.

With drama such an elucidation of human interaction, it is perhaps unsurprising that trivia concerning such also exemplifies the process of human endeavour and understanding that underpins the means of communication. Sometimes the results reveal the underlying manufacture behind screen drama, other times they explore the relationships that develop when dramatizing relationships. But what is for certain once again, is the humanizing quality of this trivia, the pleasure that an anecdote can give as evidence of the intricacies of human nature involved in the creation of a film.

A Slap in Humanity’s Face

Director William Friedkin was 20 years old when he made the television documentary The People vs. Paul Crump about an African-American death row inmate and convicted murderer. The budding director had to film inside an actual prison, Cook County Jail, to interview the felon. During one such interview, Friedkin was especially determined to get a usable, out of the ordinary reaction. Taking advantage of a guard’s temporary absence, Friedkin prompted his camera operator to start filming and then quietly leaned in to Crump, engaging him in soft-spoken conversation. This continued for a while and then suddenly Friedkin lashed out, slapping the imposing inmate frequently and with some ferocity. The startled Crump soon did as Friedkin had planned all along – he was so startled he began to cry. Friedkin had his desired vulnerability shot. Sometime later, Friedkin’s film was credited with saving Crump from the electric chair and having his case re-examined. But when later questioned about the filming of that particular scene, Friedkin apparently smiled faintly, looked aside and mumbled oh, that.

A Bit of Hollywood Gossip

It is a common thing in Hollywood gossip circles to start innuendo or rumours about the stars, particularly regarding their eccentricity or vanity. The ego, narcissism and sheer toffy-nosed arrogance of stars and their elite, rich lifestyle thus often forms the basis for much popular tabloid journalism. Take this particular reported case. Actress / singer and noted Democrat Barbra Streisand was attending a Washington DC inaugural celebration for then elected US President Bill Clinton in 1992. At her hotel, she asked if the room reserved for her was the biggest suite available on the premises. She was told that it wasn’t actually the largest room but that the slightly larger suite (only by a matter of a few square inches / feet) was occupied by the parents of now First Lady elect Hillary Rodham Clinton and was ready for a private family celebration. Apparently Streisand said she didn’t care who the room was set aside for and demanded that the occupants be removed or Streisand, who absolutely insisted on having the biggest room for the biggest star, would pack up, turn around and take her starry presence to another hotel.

The Younger the Kid, the Bleaker the Underworld

The West German film of Christiane F. surprised many critics when it became the talking point of world cinema briefly in 1980-1981. This harrowing film chronicled the descent into heroin addiction and prostitution of a 13 year old girl. It was unflinching in every respect and its frank drama earned it much controversy, with many opponents wanting to dismiss it as pederastic exploitation. It was, however, based on a true story. A reporter for the German news magazine Stern was constructing a piece on the youth culture in Berlin at the time when he attended the trial of a 50-year old accused paedophile. At the trial was a young former drug addict and prostitute, Christiane. Although she refused to testify, the journalist tracked her down and convinced her to tell her story, tape-recording it as she went. The confession was a popular success when eventually serialized in the magazine over some twelve weeks. For the film version, the filmmakers immersed themselves in the drug culture and decided to use only non-professional actors. Their efforts at authenticity were almost derailed, however, when the film was distributed in the English speaking world: it was reportedly very badly dubbed by English actors too old and out of touch to capture the youth world of the film.

The TV Special That Couldn’t Attract Advertising

Although the harrowing Cold War nuclear drama The Day After screened in cinemas all over the world, it was in the US originally released as a tele-movie special. Then President Reagan’s office was alarmed by the production and on viewing it, made suggestions on how it should be edited lest it give the impression that nuclear weapons were a bad thing to have. Indeed, the US Defense Dept. would not co-operate with the filmmakers unless it was built into the film that the Russians fired their nuclear missiles first. To add to the troubles, when the TV studio sold airtime to advertisers, no advertiser was willing to buy airtime after a plot twist half way through the movie when the nuclear bombs were set off. The decision was made to air the tele-movie anyway but with the second half, the nuclear aftermath, shown commercial free. When eventually screened, it was enormously popular and heralded as responsible broadcasting: special 1-800 numbers were established to calm those viewers disturbed by the scenes of nuclear holocaust and after the screening a special debate was held over the validity of the concept of nuclear deterrence.

When Fisticuffs Break Out from Egos

Actor Sylvester Stallone was riding a critical and popular high after the success of the film Rocky. The acclaim generated by that film extended to Stallone’s reputation not only as actor but as screenwriter also. So, when Stallone was looking for a follow-up, he had his own creative reputation to contend with. He decided on the movie F.I.S.T, based on the life of notorious Unionist Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was from 1958 to 1971 the head of the powerful USA Teamsters Union and a man pursued by allegations of bribery and corruption before he oddly and mysteriously vanished in 1975. Stallone felt the subject would make a suitable venture for his first serious film; however, he was insistent on re-writing the script and it was on that note that he began to fight with director Norman Jewison and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. Little could be done to curb Stallone’s plans for the film: he wanted to re-envision it as a work that could bring dignity to working men. He thus had no like for the ending, in which the lead character dies, feeling it more appropriate to audience positivism if he lived. Stallone also dis-agreed with the individual takes Jewison used when editing and on the scenes Jewison left out of the movie. Stallone’s planned opus for the ordinary man flopped on release.

Talking About Monkey Business

In 1967, Dian Fossey went to Rwanda to study the endangered mountain gorilla. She became so fascinated and enamoured of these creatures that she then proceeded to study and live amongst them for some 18 years. Her studies, published in the National Geographic, were instrumental in helping save the gorilla from extinction and counter the popular opinion of these creatures as ferocious animals. The film version of her life was already in planning stage at the time of her death (murder presumably by angry poachers) when producer Arne Glimcher had arrived to meet her and was sleeping off the long trip. Glimcher examined her life in more detail and took his plans to Universal, unaware that another version of her life was being set up at Warner Bros. For the Warner Bros. project, the director was to be one Bob Rafelson, who wanted to portray Fossey as a raving lunatic, an approach that angered Glimcher no end. Eventually the two studios agreed to pool their resources and favoured the producer’s version, dropping Rafelson and replacing him with Michael Apted, a director then known for his affinity with documentary subjects and determined to make an uplifting movie of Gorillas in the Mist rather than a bleak vision of a crackpot.

Trouble Brewing in Mississippi

Mississippi Burning, about racism in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South, was considered a problematic venture because of its political content. Although the film opened to decent reviews, there came a wave of protest that undermined its box-office takings and endangered its critical reputation. Martin Luther King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, came out and publicly attacked the movie, but without having seen it. Her attack was on the basis that there were not enough African-American characters in the movie, nor black actors used effectively and that the movie was told from the perspective of the white FBI agents, racist policemen and corrupt officials. The producers retorted that that was the film’s story, that it wasn’t a documentary about the Civil Rights fight in the South. Nevertheless, hostility grew to the film along racial lines and the producers tried to defend the movie without attacking King’s widow directly. Although the film went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations it was overshadowed by Rain Man, and the charges of racial bias would continue to haunt the film throughout its general release.

When a True Story Isn’t Quite That True After All

Many films begin with a quote to the effect that this film is based on a true story. As such is usually the case, that introduction has been taken as accepted by movie audiences everywhere – an acknowledgement of the truth behind a film’s events. However, just on the odd occasion, there is