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Posted: |
Apr 25, 2023 - 10:51 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Producer David Weisbart and The Mirisch Company re-teamed on Elvis Presley’s next film, KID GALAHAD. This remake of the 1937 boxing film of the same name finds ex-G.I. “Walter Gulick” (Presley) taking a job as a sparring partner at a gym, whose owner, “Willie Grogan” (Gig Young), sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter and takes him under his wing.
Phil Karlson directed the 1962 film, although Elvis thought that Michael Curtiz, who directed the 1937 film, would have been the ideal director for his picture. Professional boxing coach "Mushy" Callahan trained Elvis for the fight scenes.
Elvis’ six songs from the film appeared on an RCA Victor EP album. The album was re-issued on CD in 1997, with the songs from Elvis’ following film GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! Jeff Alexander’s score appears as part of a music and effects track on the 2017 Twilight Time Blu-ray release of the film. KID GALAHAD grossed a little less than FOLLOW THAT DREAM, with a $6.1 million domestic take.
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Posted: |
Apr 25, 2023 - 11:38 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Walter Mirisch personally produced 1962's TWO FOR THE SEESAW, a spicy and poignant love story about a free-spirited Greenwich Village girl, “Gittel Mosca” (Shirley MacLaine), who hooks up with brooding Nebraska lawyer “Jerry Ryan” (Robert Mitchum).
The film was based on a 1958 Tony-nominated play by William Gibson. Mirisch had acquired the rights to the play at the request of Elizabeth Taylor, who was interested in playing “Gittel Mosca.” But Taylor’s long-running obligation to CLEOPATRA (1963) rendered her unavailable, and she was replaced by Shirley MacLaine. William Wyler was Mirisch’s first choice for director, but he declined in favor of a year-long vacation, so Robert Wise, in his second film for Mirisch, directed the comedy-drama.
Although the original story featured only two characters, the film would include five additional characters mentioned in the dialogue, along with fifteen peripheral roles. Nevertheless, Wise estimated that eighty percent of screen time would be devoted to the two principal characters. Despite the intimate nature of the story, Wise and cinematographer Ted McCord decided to employ wide-angle Panavision lenses to capture the image of two adjacent apartments. To overcome the cinematic limitations of the intimate setting, Wise photographed the actors using close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots, and added movement by having them perform mundane tasks, such as lighting cigarettes or tuning a radio. The film was shot sequentially to stress the development of and relationship between the two central characters.
Years later, Robert Mitchum spoke of the meticulous working methods of Robert Wise on the film: “Bobby even times a kiss with a stopwatch. He marks out the floor at seven o'clock in the morning, before anybody gets there. Lays it all out with a tape measure. True. It's very difficult to work that way. … Shirley said, 'Why doesn't he go home? He's just in the way...' "
Andre Previn's score was released on a United Artists LP, and was re-issued on CD by Kritzerland in 2009. Several journalists predicted an Academy Award nomination for MacLaine. Although their predictions were incorrect, the film was nominated for Cinematography—Black-and-White, and for the original composition, “Song From TWO FOR THE SEESAW (Second Chance),” by André Previn and Dory Langdon. The $3 million production had disappointing box office, grossing $4.6 million domestically.
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The 19 January 1961 Daily Variety announced that a film version of the stage musical IRMA LA DOUCE would be produced by Joseph Pasternak for United Artists. The project would be a reunion of the team that created THE APARTMENT (1960), including actors Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond, and writer-director Billy Wilder. Pasternak did not stay with the project, and The Mirisch Company was credited as producers.
In the film, when policeman “Nestor Patou” (Lemmon) falls in love with prostitute “Irma” (MacLaine), he doesn't want her seeing other men and creates an alter ego (“Lord X”) who's to be her only customer. The film was described as a straight comedy, with emphasis on a love story, rather than a musical, since Wilder didn't feel comfortable staging singing and dancing numbers. (However, at least one song, “Dis-Donc,” and some instrumental music from the stage show were ultimately included in the film.) In addition, columnist Earl Wilson claimed that only one line of dialogue would be retained from the original play.
In January 1962, it was announced that Charles Laughton had joined the cast. As the start of production approached, in July 1962 it was reported that Laughton was experiencing health problems, but would likely be well enough to begin work in mid-September 1962. Within the month, however, Laughton underwent surgery and he was replaced by Lou Jacobi, as bistro owner “Moustache.” Laughton died on 15 December 1962.
The production unit spent two weeks in Paris for location filming. The Paris excursion was highlighted by Jack Lemmon’s marriage to actress Felicia Farr. Billy Wilder and regular Jack Lemmon director Richard Quine were joint "best men " at the ceremony.
Back in Hollywood, a Paris set was constructed on a Goldwyn sound stage at a cost of $250,000. When the Mirisch brothers’ octogenarian father, Max Mirisch, visited the set, Shirley MacLaine made considerable effort to divert his attention, fearing the elder Mirisch would be offended by the sight of prostitutes. Mirisch Company attorney Ray Kurtzman appeared on screen as a prostitute’s customer, and the 15 July 1963 Los Angeles Times revealed that Wilder hired his butcher to play a butcher in the film.
The company received several other visitors during production, including Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown of California, actor Tony Curtis, author Henry Miller, entertainer Maurice Chevalier, and a group of French officers and midshipmen from the training ship Jeanne D’Arc, which was docked in Long Beach, CA.
Wilder shot two endings to ensure approval by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Several months earlier, Wilder said that he was willing to release the picture without MPAA approval. The production went six weeks over schedule, but the stars generously waived the fifty-percent pay increase due them under the existing labor laws. Lemmon, who was detained for most of this extra period, was rewarded with a higher share of profits.
Wilder attempted to sell his sprawling Paris sets, which included 48 buildings and three converging streets, to Universal Pictures for the upcoming production, WILD AND WONDERFUL (1964), known at the time as “Monsieur Cognac.” The 13 December 1963 Daily Variety announced that portions of the set would be included in the “Hollywood Pavilion” at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
IRMA LA DOUCE opened on 5 June 1963 in New York City, and 3 July 1963 in Los Angeles. Although reviews were generally positive, the The New York Times complained that the film, at 149 minutes, was much longer than necessary. It was also declared “morally objectionable in part for all” by the Catholic Legion of Decency. Regardless, the public responded enthusiastically, with the $5 million production grossing $25.2 million in the U.S. alone, and coming in as the #6 film of the year at the box office. It was the longest-running film in the history of St. Paul, MN, despite the city’s large Roman Catholic population.
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Actress (Shirley MacLaine); Cinematography—Color (Joseph LaShelle); Music—Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (Andre Previn). The film won in the latter category. Previn and his wife, Dory Langdon, also wrote the theme song, “Look Again,” which was recorded by several prominent artists, including Jack Lemmon. United Artists Records released the soundtrack LP. In 1988, CBS re-issued the album on CD in the Netherlands. The first U.S. CD release was a 1990 truncated one from MCA, with the CD split between seven tracks from IRMA LA DOUCE and ten tracks from 1963’s TOM JONES. In 1997, Rykodisc released the full LP program on CD in the U.S.
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Posted: |
Apr 26, 2023 - 10:20 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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According to interviews with producer-director John Sturges, he had been intrigued by Paul Brickhill’s 1950 book THE GREAT ESCAPE for many years and credited his success with The Mirisch Company's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, for making it possible for him to make the film. Sturges’ Alpha Corp. and Mirisch were co-owners of the picture, with United Artists supplying the funding for it in exchange for exclusive distribution rights.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN co-starred Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn, who were reunited in THE GREAT ESCAPE. Sturges noted that he had tried in vain to interest various studios in adapting Brickhill’s book for the screen, but they felt that the picture would be too depressing and would not appeal to women because there were no female characters.
Walter Newman worked on the screenplay, fleshing out an initial treatment prepared by William Roberts. Newman’s work created the initial basis for many of the characters and the details of the escape, but because Newman could not finish his screenplay in time to finalize the funding, he was replaced by W. R. Burnett, who was announced as the screenwriter in a July 1961 Hollywood Reporter item. Sturges revealed that a total of six writers worked on the screenplay, of which there were eleven versions. The director admitted that there was no complete script even after filming began, and that writing continued throughout production.
After Burnett had completed his work on the script, writer James Clavell, who was credited above Burnett in the onscreen credits, was hired to add more detail to the English characters. Clavell continued working on the script on location, and later, during production, Ivan Moffat was brought on to enhance the action sequences and expand the part of “Capt. Virgil Hilts,” played by McQueen. Moffat was responsible for the recurring baseball tossing that Hilts uses to pass the time in the cooler. Clavell also wrote the 1963 novel “King Rat,” a much darker view of POW life in a Japanese prison camp, which was adapted into a 1965 film.
Sturges originally wanted to shoot some second-unit, establishing shots in Germany, with the majority of filming to take place in Idyllwild, CA, in the mountains near Big Bear, where the prisoner of war camp would be built. According to Sturges, they were prevented from filming in California because the Screen Extras Guild would not give them the necessary cost-cutting concessions to hire nonprofessionals for the more than 600 extras needed for the production.
In order to keep the budget under $3.9 million—the amount loaned to The Mirisch Company and Alpha Corp. by United Artists—the filmmakers decided to shoot the picture entirely on location in Germany. The interiors, including the interiors of the barracks and the escape tunnels, were shot on two sound stages at the Bavaria Studios in Geiselgasteig, near Munich. The entire exterior set of the camp was built on the backlot of Bavaria Studios, in what was considered to be national forest land. In order to receive government permission to clear the area and construct the camp, the filmmakers agreed to replant the area after production, as well as redistribute the uprooted trees throughout Germany. The camp area, recreated by the design team from historical research, covered approximately 500 yards by 300 yards and took about six weeks to build. Although several other location sites had been planned initially, in order to save money, most of the sequences showing the various prisoners fleeing, including the film’s iconic motorcycle chase, were shot on location in and around Füssen, Germany.
After McQueen took note of James Garner’s character’s (“Flt. Lt. Robert Hendley”) distinctive attire and number of lines in the script, he protested and requested that his part be enlarged. McQueen walked off the picture for six weeks while changes were made to the script. The entire motorcycle sequence was added specifically for McQueen, a well-known dirt bike enthusiast, although sources conflict about when the sequence was written, whether it was before or during production, and also about exactly how long McQueen held up production.
Stuntman Bud Ekins, a close friend of and double for McQueen, performed what became an iconic action film stunt: the motorcycle jump over a six-foot-wide wooden fence as Hilts attempts to cross the Swiss border. Due to insurance reasons, McQueen was not allowed to make the jump, but did perform the other elements of the biking sequences, including doubling as the German cyclist chasing Hilts.
In her memoir, McQueen’s then wife, Neile, stated that if she were to select a moment in McQueen’s career that launched him into international stardom, it was the cycle jump, which for many years was credited to the actor, not Ekins. In a mid-1970s interview, Ekins confirmed that he did the jump, for which he was paid $750, and also that he was hired to create the motorcycles used in the sequence, which he constructed from new British bikes modified to resemble World War II-era German vehicles. THE GREAT ESCAPE marked Ekins’ first feature film work, after which he went on to work as an actor and stuntman in numerous other pictures, including McQueen’s 1968 hit movie BULLITT.
Sturges revealed that the film was made with the intention of having an intermission after the death of “Archie Ives” (Angus Lennie), but despite the picture’s nearly 3-hour length, it was shown without interruption. THE GREAT ESCAPE was one of the top-grossing films of 1963, coming it at #14 at the domestic box office with a $15.8 million gross. It received an Academy Award nomination for Film Editing. Critics generally praised the film, with trade reviews correctly predicting its box-office success, and even those critics who were not enthusiastic, such as Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, still finding its story engrossing. Most reviews agreed with Time, which called the picture "simply great escapism," and Arthur Knight in Saturday Review, who called it "the most exhilarating and sobering adventure of the year."
THE GREAT ESCAPE remains one of the most popular World War II films of all time, marked not only by McQueen’s motorcycle sequence, but Elmer Bernstein’s distinctive, rousing score. The picture was selected as #19 on the American Film Institute's 2001 list of the one hundred most thrilling American pictures of all time. Bernstein re-recorded excerpts of his score for a United Artists LP, which was first re-released on CD by Intrada in 1992. Bernstein recorded a slightly longer version of the score in 1999 for RCA, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2004, Varese Sarabande unearthed the complete original score tracks for the film and released them on a two-CD set. Intrada re-issued that release in 2011, along with the UA re-recording, in a three-CD set.
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Posted: |
Apr 27, 2023 - 1:56 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Although 1961’s THE CHILDREN’S HOUR was not a big commercial success, producer Walter Mirisch tried again with a screen adaptation of another of Lillian Hellman’s plays, TOYS IN THE ATTIC. The story found shiftless ne'er-do-well “Julian Berniers” (Dean Martin) returning with his child-like wife, “Lily” (Yvette Mimieux), to his shabby New Orleans home, where he is greeted by his adoring spinster sisters,” Carrie” (Geraldine Page) and “Anna” (Wendy Hiller). He confesses that he has lost his shoe factory in Chicago but insists that he is, nevertheless, rich; and he showers them with expensive gifts, including two tickets to Europe. Carrie, possessed by an incestuous love for her brother, is incredulous, while the more skeptical Anna becomes suspicious because Julian refuses to explain the source of his sudden wealth.
It was widely felt in 1963 that Dean Martin had been cast purely for box-office reasons, and some critics were condescending about his performance. However, the two very eminent stage actresses who played his sisters, Page and Hiller, both let it be known that they had been most impressed with both his work and his professionalism.
George Roy Hill directed the film. George Duning’s score was released by Film Score Monthly in 2003. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (Black & White) (Bill Thomas), and was nominated for the Best Actress Golden Globe (Geraldine Page) and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (Wendy Hiller). The $2.1 million production did poorly at the domestic box office, with a $2.6 million gross.
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In STOLEN HOURS, “Mike Bannerman” (Edward Judd), a famed racing driver and an old flame of hers, is worried that “Laura Pember” (Susan Hayward) may be ill. Tricking her into a doctor's examination, she discovers she is; a brain operation to remove a tumor is performed and her symptoms disappear. All isn't well, however, but she is unaware of it, and she and her doctor (Michael Craig) fall in love. Finding out she is not actually cured, Laura renounces her new love and goes back to her old "jet-set" ways, wasting the time she has left.
Daniel Petrie directed this 1963 drama. Denis Holt produced the film, a remake of 1939’s DARK VICTORY, for The Mirisch Company. Mort Lindsey provided the unreleased score. The film grossed a weak $2.6 million at the domestic box office.
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Following the success of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Yul Brynner signed a three-picture deal with the Mirisch Company. His first project under the deal was provisionally titled “The Mound Builders.” The Mirisch Company proposed making a film about the peoples of pre-Columbian Mexico, and Brynner accepted the starring role based on a “preliminary treatment.” Walter Mirisch originally intended for Anthony Quinn to co-star opposite Brynner, but George Chakiris, who also had a contract with the Mirisch Company, got the part. The film, eventually titled KINGS OF THE SUN, concerned the clash of the Native American tribe of chief “Black Eagle” (Brynner) with the Mayan tribe of “King Balam” (Chakiris).
David Weisbart was initially identified as the producer. Nine months later, Lewis J. Rachmil was announced as Weisbart’s replacement. Rachmil began scouting locations in the Mexican state of Yucatan. Director J. Lee Thompson tested Julie Payne and Sharon Hugueny for the female lead “Ixchel” before deciding on English actress Shirley Anne Field. Field had intermittent romantic involvements with Thompson, to whom she was under “personal contract.”
Principal photography began 7 January 1963. An eleventh-century Mayan city was constructed on Mexico’s west coast near Mazatlan. Film stock for the production was purchased in Mexico City, but shipped to Deluxe Laboratories in New York City to be developed. The process resulted in Thompson and Rachmil experiencing a two-week delay before viewing their daily footage.
First-unit filming in Mazatlan was concluded on 10 March 1963. A second unit, under the direction of Tom Shaw, was expected to stay on location to shoot additional battle sequences. The remaining cast and crew moved to Churubusco Studios in Mexico City for four weeks of interior scenes. Additional locations included the state of Querétaro, the city of Merida and the ancient ruins at Chichen Itza, both of which were in Yucatan. Noting that the only surviving remnant of ancient Mayan culture was its language, publicist Jim Denton believed that contemporary Mayas knew nothing of their ancestral heritage, evidenced by their frivolous attitude toward appearing in battle scenes.
According to J. Lee Thompson, Mexico’s censorship board objected to an historical inaccuracy in the film, and demanded the addition of a foreword to the Mexican version to explain the error, voiced by a Mexican actor. The screenplay and all daily footage needed the consent of board supervisor Carmen Baez, prior to any approval by the production team, Mirisch, or distributor United Artists (UA). Actor James Coburn provided voice narration to the English-language version, but received no screen credit and only minimum union wages.
Yul Brynner agreed to make a public appearance tour on behalf of the picture, reportedly his first. UA planned to open the film in New York using its “Premiere Showcase” method, in which concurrent openings were scheduled throughout New York City, with the necessary inclusion of a Broadway area theater. However, UA was unable to find an available Broadway location to participate in the debut of KINGS OF THE SUN.
The film opened 18 December 1963 in Los Angeles, CA, followed by a 25 December 1963 debut in New York City. Reviews were unenthusiastic. Although when first announced, the film’s original cost was projected at $2.5 million, the 7 January 1963 Los Angeles Times estimated the final budget at $6 million. The film had a domestic gross of just $4.6 million. An article in the 2 September 1964 edition of Variety listed it among UA’s recent “flops.”
Walter Mirisch later reflected: “KINGS OF THE SUN was not successful, either critically or commercially. It wasn't made for the right reasons, and that is most often an insuperable handicap. Our creative team lacked passion for what we were doing, and its commercial values could not overcome that. Not being enthusiastic about it, I should have taken a position. By just letting the project move from one stage to the next, I allowed it to progress further than it should have. Arnold Picker [of United Artists] was enthusiastic and kept pushing it, but the problems of making the film and its content were not his responsibility. I always blamed myself for its failure. I had thought of it as a vehicle for the star power of Yul Brynner, who was an important international star by then. But that was not a good enough reason for doing a film about which I had serious misgivings”
Elmer Bernstein’s score was not released. In November 2003, Bernstein re-recorded selections from his score with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for what was to be a release on his own Amber label. However, Bernstein died before that release could be completed. In 2006, James Fitzpatrick volunteered his time to assemble the disc, which was released by Film Score Monthly as part of their box set “Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection.”
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Posted: |
Apr 29, 2023 - 1:10 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE PINK PANTHER was the first feature film from the newly formed production company of director Blake Edwards and producer Martin Jurow. Their G–E Productions allocated $3 million for production. The pair garnered additional production support from The Mirisch Company, which had a long-standing distribution arrangement with United Artists.
It was initially suggested that Audrey Hepburn would star in the role of “an Indian princess.” Edwards, who directed Hepburn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961), may have underestimated the star’s commitments to other projects. Soon after, it was indicated that actress Nancy Kwan looked likely to play the role. Over the next month, various contemporary sources speculated that Cyd Charisse and Claudia Cardinale were being courted to appear in the film. By September 1962, Cardinale’s casting was confirmed. She would join the ensemble cast of Ava Gardner, Peter Ustinov, David Niven, and Robert Wagner. Cardinale could not speak English, so Princess Dala's dialog was dubbed by 20-year-old Gale Garnett.
Less than a month before the start of production in Rome, Ava Gardner was replaced by French supermodel-actress, Capucine. It was reported that Gardner and Edwards “could never reach terms.” Producer Jurow clarified that he had dropped the Hollywood star because of her “excessive fringe demands,” including a weekly allowance for what amounted to a personal staff—a chauffeur, secretary, hairdresser, and makeup and wardrobe assistants.
Soon after Gardner’s departure, Peter Ustinov dropped out of the production, reportedly because Ustinov's wife felt that the hiring of Capucine would affect the caliber of the production and told him to withdraw. This left the filmmakers scrambling to find a new “Inspector Jacques Clouseau.” Edwards later stated that their desperation was short-lived: “The happy idea of Peter Sellers came up. [He] arrived on a weekend in Rome, and we were scheduled to shoot on Monday. We went over the script together and out of our conference, the entire concept of the character was changed.” Clouseau, originally conceived as a “straight, sober-sided dignified cop,” became, at Sellers’s urging, a “funny, pathetic, bumbling, lovable” fellow.
"For years I'd been getting bits of what I wanted into films, as writer or director . . . but I had never had an area in which to exploit my ideas to the full," Edwards said. "Then along came Peter, a walking storehouse of madness, a ham with an almost surrealist approach to the insanity of things, and we found an immediate affinity."
With Sellers in the revised role of Clouseau, casting had to be reconsidered “all the way down the line,” according to a 30 November 1962 Daily Variety news item. A “high society party-thrower” role had been offered to actress Kay Thompson. However, a conflicting report suggested that Hermione Gingold had been tapped to play the “Elsa Maxwell type” cameo. Shortly thereafter, various sources confirmed that Brenda de Banzie had joined the cast as socialite “Angela Dunning.”
Though pleased to have found Sellers, the filmmakers filed a lawsuit against Peter Ustinov for his untimely departure from the project, claiming that their plan to begin filming on 5 November 1962 had to be postponed while they “reorganized” the production schedule. The Mirisch Company sought $175,000 in damages from the actor, declaring that commitments to starring roles needed to be honored, lest the motion picture industry become “seriously impaired” by actors’ whims. The result of the lawsuit is not known.
Sneak previews of THE PINK PANTHER were held in August 1963, in Los Angeles, and September, in New York City. Although the film was released overseas in late December 1963, the picture’s official U.S. theatrical release was pushed to March 1964. United Artists secured Radio City Music Hall for the New York opening, a coup for the studio considering they had not had a film in the prestigious theater since 1950’s THE MEN.
Reviews were mixed. Daily Variety acknowledged the “jerky machinations of the plot” and “occasional lapses” of logic, but declared that Sellers’s “sharp performance” as the clumsy Clouseau would someday become a “vintage record of the farcical Sellers at his peak.” The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were more dismissive of the nonsensical onscreen antics, particularly when the slapstick elements seemed forced or labored.
However, critics praised the opening title sequence, which featured an animated feline character, the “Pink Panther,” making mischief with the cast and production credits. The main title sequence was credited onscreen to DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, a production company recently formed by film editor David H. DePatie and animator Friz Freleng. Both men had worked at Warner Bros. for many years, and had just taken over production of the studio’s commercial and animation divisions when Blake Edwards asked them to devise something for the opening of his film. The result was the sly, debonair Pink Panther, which was chosen by Edwards from over a hundred alternative panther sketches.
DePatie and Freleng speculated (perhaps self-servedly) that their work on THE PINK PANTHER added $1.5 million to the picture’s intake at the box office, which totaled $16.8 million domestically. In the wake of their cartoon character’s successful screen debut, DePatie and Freleng were offered a renewed contract with Warner Bros. and the opportunity to work out of their DePatie–Freleng studios in Burbank, CA, making six short films starring their animated Panther. United Artists planned to pair each short with an upcoming theatrical release, reviving the trend of showing a stand-alone cartoon prior to the feature presentation. This start ultimately led to the production of 124 Pink Panther cartoons that were released to theaters through 1980, all a presentation of Mirisch Films, Inc.
Henry Mancini re-recorded themes from his film score in September 1963 for an RCA LP. The LP had its first RCA CD re-issue in 1989, and was remastered for a 2001 Buddha Records re-issue. The original score tracks have never been located.
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Posted: |
Apr 30, 2023 - 10:36 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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During World War II, Norwegian underground leader “Erik Bergman” (George Chakiris) informs the British of the location of a German V2 fuel manufacturing plant. Situated beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of an easily defended fjord, the factory can be destroyed only by collapsing the cliff on top of it, using light Mosquito aircraft. Wing Comdr. “Roy Grant” (Cliff Robertson) and his 633 SQUADRON is assigned the task.
This Mirisch Corporation production was directed by Walter E. Grauman, who was well-suited to the task, having been a bomber pilot during World War II. No filming was done in Norway. For scenes set in Norway, the mountains of Scotland were pressed into service. Executive producer Walter Mirisch filmed in the UK to take advantage of tax breaks, known as the Eady Plan. The movie recouped its entire costs at the British box office, making the film’s $4.9 million U.S. gross “gravy,” as it were.
Ron Goodwin’s score for the 1964 film was released on a United Artists LP, but only in the UK. The LP did not get a U.S. release until 1974, when it also appeared on cassette. The LP was re-issued on CD in 1990 by EMI (paired with Goodwin’s WHERE EAGLE’S DARE). Film Score Monthly released a slightly expanded version in 2005 (paired with Goodwin’s SUBMARINE X-1).
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Posted: |
May 3, 2023 - 10:38 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Following the successful French production of Marcel Achard’s 1960 stage play, “L’idiote,” American writer Harry Kurnitz adapted the story for U.S. audiences. Under the title A SHOT IN THE DARK, the show debuted 18 October 1961 at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, where it played for nearly a year before launching a national tour. Just one day after its final Broadway bow, in was reported that Anatole Litvak planned to direct a motion picture version starring Sophia Loren. In November 1962, the Mirisch Corporation hired Alan Coppel to write the script. Although filming was expected to start the following spring, it was not until 9 May 1963 that Daily Variety reported the casting of Peter Sellers in the leading role.
In October 1963, Litvak left the picture due to illness, and Blake Edwards was hired in the dual role of director and producer. Edwards only agreed to work on the project on condition he be allowed to make “drastic revisions.” Having just completed photography on THE PINK PANTHER, Edwards decided to refashion the script as a vehicle for Sellers to reprise his role as the bumbling police inspector, “Jacques Clouseau.” After five weeks of rewrites, the updated draft bore little resemblance to Kurnitz’s source material. Walter Matthau, who was signed to repeat his character from the stage, left the picture in light of the changes. Production was moved to November 1963, with locations set in Paris and London.
Just weeks before filming began, Sophia Loren was recovering from throat surgery in Milan, Italy. Three days later, she was deemed “too ill to work,” and the Mirisch Corp. began to search for her replacement. Shirley MacLaine was reportedly considered, but the role went to Romy Schneider. Shortly after production began, however, Elke Sommer stepped in for Romy Schneider, who had not yet completed her assignment on GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (1964). Sommer used $100,000 of her paycheck to “buy her way out” of two German film commitments in order to make A SHOT IN THE DARK and sign a subsequent three-year contract with MGM. Burt Kwouk made his first appearance as "Kato" in the film. "Kato" was a Japanese character named for the similar character Kato in the Green Hornet radio programs and film serials of the 1930s and '40s.
A SHOT IN THE DARK opened on 23 June 1964 at the Astor and Trans-Lux East Theatres in New York City, just three months after the U.S. premiere of THE PINK PANTHER. The film’s Los Angeles opening was preceded by a ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre honoring Sellers by cementing his hand and foot prints outside the venue.
While the 22 June 1964 Daily Variety review noted that the film’s proximity to the spring 1964 release of THE PINK PANTHER may have diminished the “spontaneous novelty” of Clouseau’s antics, critics generally praised the character’s return, as well as the performances of Sellers and Sommers, and its positive reception led to a joint production deal between Blake Edwards and the Mirisch Corp. A SHOT IN THE DARK bested the box office performance of THE PINK PANTHER, with a domestic gross of $19.3 million, making it the #5 film of the year.
Henry Mancini’s score for the film did not even get an album re-recording, as so many Mancini scores did during the 1960s. The composer did, however, re-record two cues for release on an RCA 45rpm and inclusion on the LP “Mancini Plays Mancini (and Other Composers).” The original tracks have never been located.
The Pink Panther cartoon character does not appear in the film’s credits. Instead, Depatie-Freleng Enterprises created an “Inspector” character that appeared during the animated titles. The audience at the preview enjoyed the cartoon title sequence so much that it gave the credits a standing ovation, and the theater had to stop the movie until everyone settled again. As with the credits of THE PINK PANTHER, the credits sequence of A SHOT IN THE DARK led to a series of theatrical cartoons based upon The Inspector character. Using Henry Mancini’s A SHOT IN THE DARK title music as its theme, 34 theatrical cartoon shorts were produced between 1965 and 1969 by DePatie–Freleng and released through United Artists.
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Posted: |
May 5, 2023 - 12:02 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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As announced in March 1963, the provisionally-titled “The Dazzling Hour” was to be English comedian Peter Sellers’s first starring role in a U.S. production. Screenwriter/associate producer I.A.L. Diamond had recently signed a three-picture contract with the Mirisch Company, which entitled Diamond to work exclusively with his writing partner, director-producer Billy Wilder. The team initially planned to produce THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, but postponed it because intended star Peter O’Toole was unavailable. Wilder noted that “The Dazzling Hour” was “very vaguely based” on the 1945 Italian play, “L'ora della fantasia” by Anna Bonacci. On 31 January 1964, the Los Angeles Times reported that Wilder had changed the title to KISS ME, STUPID, although he claimed the decision was not final.
In the Mirisch Company film, jealous piano teacher “Orville Spooner” sends his beautiful wife, “Zelda,” away for the night while he tries to sell a song to famous nightclub singer “Dino,” who is stranded in town. Orville then arranges for Polly the Pistol, a waitress and prostitute from a nearby roadhouse, to pose as his wife.
Three songs featured in the film were unpublished compositions by the late George Gershwin, with new lyrics by his brother, Ira Gershwin. Although Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen were originally hired as songwriters, Wilder said that they had other obligations. The three songs were selected from seventeen unpublished Gershwin works due for publication later that year. At least thirty-three more completed Gershwin songs were still awaiting publication at that time.
On 25 February 1964, Academy Award-winning costume designer Orry-Kelly died. Until he was hospitalized sixteen days earlier, Orry-Kelly was creating Kim Novak’s (“Polly’s”) wardrobe for the film. He was replaced by Bill Thomas. An unidentified chorus dancer walked out of rehearsals, complaining that her costume was too revealing. Thomas concurred, saying that the outfit consisted of merely “three feathers and a bead,” assembled on fabric that gave the appearance of nudity. The designer of the costume was not identified.
Principal photography began 6 March 1964, with the primary shooting location being Stages 3 and 4 of Goldwyn Studios in West Hollywood, CA, which included a set depicting the town of Climax, NV. Cinematographer Joseph La Shelle stated that the design of the replica town allowed him to “shoot a 360-degree circle with no difficulty.”
Nearly three weeks into filming, Dean Martin (“Dino”) told the 26 March 1964 Los Angeles Times that production was briefly delayed because Peter Sellers (“Orville”) was nursing a sty on his right eye. However, on 6 April 1964, Sellers suffered a heart attack. Jack Lemmon, a close friend of Sellers, and husband of co-star Felicia Farr (“Zelda”), claimed the actor appeared to be “approaching nervous exhaustion.” The 8 April Los Angeles Times stated that Sellers might be replaced by either Danny Kaye or Tony Randall. Although Sellers was guaranteed $300,000 for his role, there was no indication as to whether his replacement would receive the same amount. Later that week, the 11 April 1964 Los Angeles Times announced that all footage featuring Sellers would be discarded, and re-shot with character actor Ray Walston in the role of “Orville,” beginning 13 April 1964.
The Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company paid a $1.5 million claim against Sellers’s unexpected departure. In May, the production was threatened with a second delay after actress Kim Novak’s chronic “back ailment” was aggravated by a fall on set. She entered the hospital, but expected to return to the studio without interrupting her scheduled scenes. The 11 May 1964 Daily Variety claimed that Novak was in traction for a pelvic condition, and she hoped to leave the hospital that day.
By 20 June 1964, Peter Sellers had returned to England, where he reportedly made disparaging comments about the Hollywood movie industry. The cast and crew responded by sending Sellers a telegram, which read, “Talk about unprofessional rat finks!” Included among the signers was Felicia Farr.
After completing principal photography on 7 July 1964, Wilder and his crew began filming in the Nevada cities of Las Vegas and Tonopah. No principal cast members were involved. Las Vegas locations included the Sands hotel and Fremont Street.
Following an October 1964 sneak preview in New York City, distributor United Artists (UA) decided to re-edit the completed film. Although the picture received the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) seal of approval, UA asked Wilder to remove some “rough” dialogue, which preview audiences found offensive.
KISS ME STUPID opened on 18 December 1964 at the Vogue and Fine Arts Theatres in Los Angeles, accompanied by the animated short subject, “Pink Phink” (1964), the first of the “Pink Panther” cartoons. The New York City opening at the Astor Theatre followed on 22 December 1964. Reviews were generally negative, with Daily Variety calling the film “a dirty sex exercise,” and The New York Times describing it as “long on vulgarity.”
The picture was condemned by the Legion of Decency, making it the first major-studio feature to receive that classification since 1956. As a result, UA relegated the release to its subsidiary, Lopert Pictures. Mirisch Company president Harold Mirisch admitted that the re-edit was an unsuccessful attempt to placate the Legion.
Andre Previn’s score for the film did not get a release. One cue from the score (“Zelda's Theme”) appeared on the 1965 United Artists Records compilation LP “The Wonderful World of Motion Pictures—New Themes and Original Sound Tracks.” The $3.5 million production of KISS ME, STUPID had average grosses of $4.5 million in the U.S.
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Posted: |
May 6, 2023 - 12:41 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The Mirisch Corporation re-teamed with producer-director John Sturges for the fourth time for the 1965 thriller THE SATAN BUG. Adapted from an Alistair MacLean novel, the film finds insane scientist “Dr. Hoffman” (Richard Basehart) stealing several vials containing a lethal germ culture from a government lab. Hoffman has been unhinged by the notion of the government playing God, and now it's his turn to do the same. Hot on his trail are “Lee Barrett” (George Maharis), a scientific investigator, and “Ann” (Anne Francis), a general's daughter.
Anne Francis hadn’t had a part in a theatrical film since her lead role in 1960’s GIRL OF THE NIGHT, having spent the preceding five years in television.
John Sturges had wanted a gigantic climax to the film on the Los Angeles freeway, with the population trying to evacuate the city before the plague begins. Sturges wanted something exciting, huge, and with thousands of cars glued into a behemoth traffic jam. But the mayor and city hall of L.A. refused. Sturges was greatly disappointed in this.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score did not get a release, and the master music tapes were thought to be long destroyed. But two reels turned up in the collection of Bob Burns, an industry figure who had archived countless movie props and artifacts. The two units of the stereo masters represented around half of the score. Film Score Monthly combined the 30 minutes from these tapes along with cleaned up cues from the film’s monaural music-and-effects track and cobbled together a one-hour 2007 CD release.
Estimates of the film’s budget vary wildly, from $1.8 million to $6.0 million. (The higher figure seems unlikely, given the film’s low-wattage cast.) The picture had a below-average domestic gross of $2.6 million.
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The Mirisch Corporation’s fifth film with producer-director John Sturges was the 1965 would-be epic comedy THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL. In the film, mining boom city Denver finds itself approaching the winter of 1867 with only a 10-day liquor supply. To remedy the situation, the city fathers consult respected town drunk “Oracle Jones” (Donald Pleasence) for help, and he envisions bringing 40 wagon-loads of whiskey from Julesburg. The 600-whiskey-barrel wagon train is arranged by rabble-rouser Republican distiller “Frank Wallingham” (Brian Keith).
Teetotaling editor “Hobbs” (Whit Bissell) wires “Cora Templeton Massingale” (Lee Remick) about the liquor run. She’s an attractive widowed temperance leader leading an unauthorized march at Fort Russell to outlaw whiskey, who then forces Fort Russell commander “Colonel Thaddeus Gearhart” (Burt Lancaster) to escort her temperance women activists to intercept the whiskey train. The wagon train is under the protection of “Captain Paul Slater” (Jim Hutton); he’s romancing Gearhart’s daughter “Louise” (Pamela Tiffin), who just happens to be part of the temperance movement. In addition to these problems, the Sioux, under their comical chief, “Walks-Stooped-Over” (Martin Landau), and a Denver citizens’ militia under the direction of “Clayton Howell” (Dub Taylor) are also heading for the whiskey train.
The film was based on a 1963 novel, Hallelujah Train by Bill Gulick. A title change from “The Hallelujah Train” to THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL was announced in the 9 July 1964 Daily Variety. United Artists decided on the change to avoid confusion with another of its 1965 U.S. releases, THE TRAIN, also starring Burt Lancaster.
Shot on location in Gallup, New Mexico, the film had its share of behind-the-scenes crises. Second unit director Tim Zinnemann recalled that Gallup in the early sixties was "a truck stop on the old Route 66. It was a very rough town...There were a lot of bars, and everybody went to all of them, and everybody got into trouble." Some of that trouble spilled over to the set, and it was reported that Lancaster did not get along with two of his co-stars, Brian Keith and Lee Remick. Another problem, according to actor Martin Landau, "was bad weather continually. The day would usually start beautifully, and then the afternoon storms would come up." Worst of all, stuntman Bill Williams was killed while filming a sequence that had called for him to jump from a wagon before it went over a cliff. Williams, a former rodeo performer, reportedly missed his timing and was crushed by the wagon.
Despite the Mirischs’ concern about the expense of shooting in 70mm (something they had vowed to avoid after WEST SIDE STORY), THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL was photographed in the Ultra Panavision 70 format by three-time Academy Award-winner Robert Surtees. The roadshow 70mm prints were released in Cinerama’s single-lens projection system.
The final $7 million cost of THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL was an estimated $1.5 million over budget. United Artists intended to spend an additional $3.5 million on prints and advertising. Preview screenings of a 181-minute version of the film were held in Minneapolis, MN, and Detroit, MI, where audience responses confirmed the need for a shorter running time. Thus, filmmakers proceeded with plans to cut the film down to its final 165-minute length. Even so, reportedly some theaters made the choice to shorten the film from 165 minutes to 145, to optimize the daily ticket sales.
The film was a dud at the box office, finishing well out of the top 50 films of 1965, with a $3.2 million gross. However, another 1965 “epic” comedy, Blake Edward's THE GREAT RACE, was a smash, coming in at #5 for the year and grossing more than $30 million.
Elmer Bernstein's score was re-recorded for a United Artists LP, which was re-issued on CD by Varese Sarabande in 2005. The original score tracks have been damaged beyond recovery.
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Posted: |
May 8, 2023 - 12:50 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In April 1963, it was announced that British director J. Lee Thompson would make RETURN FROM THE ASHES in Hollywood, as a co-production between his Malibu Productions and Arthur P. Jacobs’s APJAC Productions. The rights to Hubert Monteilhet’s 1961 novel, “Le retour des cendres,” upon which the film was based, had reportedly been acquired from filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot, who had previously planned to make a French adaptation. Clouzot had initially sent the Monteilhet novel to J. Lee Thompson’s agent, with the remark that Thompson might be interested in adapting it; years earlier, the two had met and befriended each other at the Cannes Film Festival. Ultimately, APJAC dropped out and the Mirisch Corp. took on the project.
In the film, a Jewish woman, “Dr. Michele Wolf” (Ingrid Thulin), interned in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, returns to her Paris home after the war's end. She's unaware that her husband, the handsome gigolo and chess master “Stanislaw Pilgrin” (Maximilian Schell), has been having an affair with her stepdaughter “Fabienne” (Samantha Eggar) in her absence.
Peter Fonda, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, and Warren Beatty were offered roles, but all declined. Gina Lollobrigida was initially cast as “Dr. Michele Wolf.” However, two months later, the 9 January 1965 Los Angeles Times reported that Lollobrigida was suing United Artists and the Mirisch Corp. for $1 million, over a “contractual controversy.” Her replacement by Ingrid Thulin was announced four days later. Filming began the following week, on 18 January 1965, in London, where the picture qualified for an Eady subsidy. The final budget was cited as $1.4 million. The 1965 film was a complete failure at the U.S. box office, grossing less than $150,000.
John Dankworth’s score has not had a release. Dankworth recorded the film’s main theme for the 1974 RCA compilation LP “Movies ‘n’ Me.” Vocalion re-issued the LP on CD in 2010.
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Posted: |
May 9, 2023 - 11:23 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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After Bradford Dillman had completed his contract at Twentieth Century Fox, he co-starred with Suzanne Pleshette and Ben Gazzara in A RAGE TO LIVE for the Mirisch Corp. The film was based on John O'Hara's 1949 novel, for which Mirisch had paid $100,000 plus 25% of eventual profits for the screen rights. The film went through several scripts, with the final one updating the pre-World War II-era setting to contemporary times. The story centered on the premarital and extramarital affairs of emotionally and physically needy "Grace Caldwell" (Pleshette). She eventually marries "Sidney Tate" (Dillman), but becomes involved with "Roger Bannon" (Gazzara), a self-made building construction manager.
Although Walter Mirisch met with Sue Lyon about appearing in the film, Suzanne Pleshette eventually won the leading role after signing a multi-picture deal with the company. Nude scenes shot in a studio required a “closed” set, with news reports claiming that Pleshette delayed filming of one particular sequence for an entire week after requesting that producer Lewis J. Rachmil and director Walter Grauman “devise a contraption” to keep her from being exposed to the crew while the camera focused on her bare back. A Daily Variety item stated that Grauman shot two versions of a seduction scene between Pleshette and co-star Ben Gazzara with the intention of later deciding which would be more appropriate to show the Production Code Administration for review.
This was Walter Grauman’s second film with Mirisch. He later signed to direct three more films with the company. For unspecified reasons, the release date of A RAGE TO LIVE was delayed for a year after completion of production and post-production work. Nelson Riddle's score for the 1965 film was released on a United Artists LP. The film's soundtrack was highlighted by its main title song, which Ferrante and Teicher not only recorded for the soundtrack but wrote themselves. The LP was re-issued on CD by Film Score Monthly as part of their MGM Soundtrack Treasury box in 2008. The $3 million production was not a box office success, and Suzanne Pleshette once told Johnny Carson during an interview on “The Tonight Show” that this was the worst movie she felt she had ever done.
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Posted: |
May 10, 2023 - 1:16 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Kirk Douglas’ second film for the Mirisch Corporation was 1966’s CAST A GIANT SHADOW, which was co-produced in connection with John Wayne’s Batjac Productions. In this film about the early days of Israel, an American Army officer “Col. David ‘Mickey’ Marcus” (Douglas), is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. Wayne himself had a cameo role as an American General, “Mike Randolph.”
Producer-director Melville Shavelson was a screenwriter when he paid $12,500 of his own money for the option on Ted Berkman’s 1962 book, Cast a Giant Shadow, which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had recently dropped. As Shavelson explained, he wrote a treatment and made the rounds of Hollywood studios, but none of the executives, particularly Jewish executives, were interested in a story about “Mickey” Marcus, a Jewish-American who became Israel’s first general, in 1948. Shavelson ascribed the rejections to “the fear that permeates this industry,” partly because of the possibility that studio-owned theaters in Egypt would be appropriated, but also because “the pogrom mentality has not yet vanished from Hollywood.” Finally, he interested John Wayne in the project, and then went to Mirisch, whose Mirisch Corporation was financed by United Artists, a studio that “had already turned down” CAST A GIANT SHADOW.
The 27 May 1964 Variety announced that the Mirisch Corporation, Shavelson’s Llenroc Productions, and Wayne’s Batjac Productions were preparing CAST A GIANT SHADOW as a “multimillion-dollar joint venture.” Location filming would take place in New York, Washington, D.C., France, and Israel, and the production had obtained permission to portray several “world figures,” including President Harry Truman, George Patton, Maxwell Taylor, and David Ben-Gurion. Ultimately, however, no filming was done in Washington or France, and other than in documentary footage, none of the personages were portrayed in the film under their own names.
In October 1964, it was reported that Italian actress Claudia Cardinale was flying into Los Angeles to discuss taking the starring role of “Magda Simon,” a fictional character created as Marcus’s Israeli love interest. Roughly five months later, the 8 March 1965 Daily Variety mentioned that Israeli actress Daliah Lavi had been “paged” for the same role. In the end, Senta Berger played the part.
Shavelson reported that the Israeli Army had given him a price list of men and materials it would rent him during his eight weeks of exterior shooting in Israel. Per day, several tanks would cost $300 each, and 800 soldiers would cost $2 each. The production, Shavelson said, would cost $5 million, including interiors in Italy, and take seventy-four days to shoot. (Later sources placed the budget at just over $4 million.)
In May 1965, after eight hours on the first day of shooting battle scenes, the rented Israeli soldiers and tanks were suddenly called away because of a “skirmish” between Israel and neighboring Jordan. Arab snipers killed five Israeli civilians within two blocks of the production. Filming mob scenes was a problem because, as Shavelson told the newspapers, the only available Israeli extras were newly-arrived, unemployed settlers, who came from many countries and spoke different languages and dialects. Not even Israeli police were fully able to control them.
Mickey Marcus’s American widow, Brooklyn schoolteacher Emma Marcus, visited the production in Israel, in May 1965. Shavelson asked if she was offended by his creation of a fictional love interest, Magda Simon, for her husband during his time in Israel. Mrs. Marcus reportedly replied, “I don’t know if anything like that happened, but it could have.” She added, “I have only one request: Don’t make him dull.” In the film, Emma Marcus was played by Angie Dickinson.
Shavelson’s film company was forced to leave Israel a week early, not because of hostilities between Jews and Arabs, but because the cast and crew’s Tel-Aviv hotel reservations expired, and there were no other rooms available to accommodate them. The production moved to Rome on 19 July 1965 to film interiors at the Cinecitta studios. John Wayne, who was scheduled to join the cast in Rome for “a week or two” to make a cameo appearance as a composite of two American generals, claimed he did not want star billing in CAST A GIANT SHADOW, because it would deceive his fans.
The production’s final night of shooting took place in the Alban Hills above Frascati, Italy, which stood in for the hills of Jerusalem during a battle between the Arab Legion and elements of the Israeli Army. The company had been unable to complete the scene in Jerusalem because of the aforementioned housing shortage.
The Screen Extras Guild (SEG) did not oppose Shavelson’s use of non-members to provide “authentic” Israeli crowd noises and songs during the “additional dialogue recording” (ADR) phase of post-production in Hollywood. He defended hiring members from a local Israeli student organization, saying that if “the SEG can come up with 140 extras who can speak and sing Hebrew, then we’ll be happy to use them.”
A special “roadshow” premiere, with reserved seats, was set to be held at the DeMille Theater in Manhattan, the Fantasy Theater in Rockville Center, NY, and the Cinema 45 in Totowa, NJ—areas with large Jewish populations—on 29 Mar 1966. A month before the three-theater premiere, the 28 February 1966 Daily Variety reported that advance ticket sales had already passed $200,000. Two months later, on 20 May 1966, the film was set to open regularly on the West Coast at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
Reviews were mixed. The 31 March 1966 New York Times complained that Marcus “emerges as a contrived hero” in “a confusing, often superficial biography.” The 21 May 1966 Los Angeles Times agreed, stating that Shavelson made the “all but incredible” Mickey Marcus “simply too hard to believe,” and, “in attempting to tell us too much, has not told us enough.” CAST A GIANT SHADOW got a poor reception at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, as “boos were mixed with cheers at the end of the showing.”
CAST A GIANT SHADOW grossed $7.9 million at the U.S. box office. Elmer Bernstein’s United Artists score LP was released on CD by Varese Sarabande in 2002.
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Posted: |
May 11, 2023 - 11:47 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Two studios rejected the film adaptation of Nathaniel Benchley’s 1961 novel, The Off-Islanders, before the Mirisch Corporation and United Artists offered financing to director Norman Jewison. Both companies also approved Jewison’s plans to film on location with a cast of highly skilled but lesser-known actors. The screenplay by William Rose was intended as a foundation for the improvisational talents of actors Jonathan Winters, Theodore Bikel, Carl Reiner, and Alan Arkin in his first featured screen role. A letter to the editor in the 8 March 1965 Daily Variety noted Jewison’s desire to cast Russian actors as a “cultural exchange” with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and criticized the director for wanting to hire “communists.” The screenplay was reviewed by Soviet officials, who made such recommendations as giving Russian characters more authentic names, and developing the romance between the characters “Alison” (Andrea Dromm) and “Kolchin” (John Phillip Law) However, Jewison received no response to his request for an international coproduction.
Eschewing the novel’s title, the comedic picture played on Cold War tensions with the title THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING Carl Reiner had his first feature film lead role with the picture. In the story, early one September morning, a Russian submarine draws too close to the New England coast when its captain wants to take a good look at America and runs aground on a sandbar near an island off Cape Cod. A 9-man landing party headed by timorous “Lieutenant Rozanov” (Arkin) is sent in search of a motor launch to help free the submarine. The men arrive at the house of “Walt Whittaker” (Reiner), a New York City playwright anxious to get his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and two children off the forever-damp island now that summer is over. Failing to convince the Whittakers that his group are Norwegians, Rozanov draws a gun and promises no harm to Walt if he will simply tell them how to get a boat so that they can quietly go away.
The 1966 release was the #7 film of the year at the box office, grossing $24.4 million. The only CD release of Johnny Mandel's short score LP has been in the FSM box set "The MGM Soundtrack Treasury" in 2008.
The film received four Academy Award nominations: Actor (Alan Arkin), Writing--Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Film Editing, and Best Picture. It lost the Best Picture Oscar to A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. The film won Golden Globes for Best Actor--Comedy or Musical (Arkin) and Best Motion Picture--Comedy or Musical.
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Posted: |
May 12, 2023 - 12:18 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Author and screenwriter William Peter Blatty's second film with producer-director Blake Edwards was the 1966 World War II comedy WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY?, made for the Mirisch Corporation. Blatty wrote the screenplay from a story by Edwards and Maurice Richlin. In the film, a strategic Italian village agrees to surrender to the Allies only if it's allowed to organize a celebratory festival while giving aerial reconnaissance the false impression of fierce ground fighting.
The title of the film came to Edwards when he was asked the question by his son Geoffrey. Since Edwards was having marital problems at the time, he did not want to leave the United States, so Mirisch agreed to film the movie in Lake Sherwood, California, for $5 million that included the construction of a large Italian village set. Blatty recalled that he and Edwards originally agreed to make the film grim and without comedy for the first twenty minutes. This idea was shelved after watching a scene where "Captain Cash" (Dick Shawn) visits Charlie Company at their chow line, holds out his hand, and one of the GI mess orderlies ladles beans into the Captain's hand.
The production ran over-budget, coming in at $7 million. The film took a loss at the U.S. box office, grossing just $6.5 million. Henry Mancini re-recorded his score for an RCA Victor LP, which was first re-issued on CD by RCA Spain in 1999. The original tracks have not been located.
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