Hollywood Shuffle: Soapdish & Hook

The lead role in the film Soapdish had originally been offered to Burt Reynolds. Burt was originally excited about the project, but his wife at the time- Loni Anderson- was not pleased at the prospect of her husband starring alongside his former girlfriend Sally Field. The part went to Kevin Kline instead.

The production of Soapdish was not smooth. Paramount ordered a ton of reshoots because it felt that the film wasn't funny enough. The delays forced Kevin Kline to pull out of Hook, ceding his role to Robin Williams.

The hoof.

The Sweater Girl

Lana Turner was given the nickname "sweater girl" after her first film for obvious reasons. Other actresses who took on the nickname were Jayne Mansfield and Jane Russell.

Spaceballs is 30!

Spaceballs is 30!

Originally titled Planet Moron, Spaceballs was released to the world thirty years ago today. Did You Know that it was filmed on the same soundstage as the Wizard of Oz?







While the film just broke even at the box office, its impact and legacy is much greater than some of the films that beat it, like The Secret of My Success. And nobody is celebrating that film's anniversary.

Movie Quote Weekends

Movie Quote Weekends

Tough Guys!

 

A Bad Decision...

 

Drink, Gamble, Dance...

Movin' on Up: Columbia Pictures

In Hollywood, there was a clear delineation between the major studios and the rest. While MGM, Paramount, RKO, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox were on top, there were lesser studios, who Hollywood considered being on "Poverty Row". These studios were the lowest of the low, producing independent films at a fraction of the cost of the majors. Viewers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 might recognize many of the Poverty Row Studios as producing most of the show's content. One studio, however, made it out of Poverty Row- Columbia Pictures.

 

Columbia Pictures made it out of Poverty Row based on the sheer willpower of its boss- Harry Cohn. Mr. Cohn originally began his show business career at Universal, where his brother already worked. The brothers left Universal with a friend to form Cohn, Brandt, Cohn Pictures- CBC. His partners might have set their sights low; after all, the studio was nicknamed "Corned Beef & Cabbage" by Hollywood, but Harry Cohn had big ideas. After buying out his partners, he changed the company's name to Columbia Pictures, introducing the famed torch lady. He also tried to improve his studio's output and reputation in Hollywood. Despite his prestige projects, he wouldn't succeed in raising the studio's image until he released Frank Capra's Oscar winning film- It Happened One Night. Cohn finally earned the respect he had long sought from the industry.

 

An Offer He Can't Refuse...

 

Happy Father's Day!

 

A Hollywood Finocchio?

 

MGM Week: The Dynasty Falls

The collapse of the studio system seemed like it would be catastrophic to Hollywood. The city was built on turning the art of Show into a business. Run by larger than life moguls, how would the studios survive the end of the system that had defined it for decades?

 

While the weakest of the majors, RKO, would unsurprisingly find itself DOA. Astonishingly, the industry would find its strongest studio stumble as well. The mighty lion of MGM would soon find his roar become a whimper. Why did this mighty studio fall? Was it the greedy venture capitalist who just wanted to strip mine the company to finance his casinos? As it turned out, the studio was already weakened before it fell to Kirk Kirkorian.

 

Some people traced MGM's fall to the loss of the company's top boss- Louis B. Mayer. How could a studio with such a charismatic figure at the top survive his death? Ask Walt Disney Productions. It survived the death of its founder who was arguably more tied to the company that bore his name than Louis B. Mayer was to MGM. Besides, many people felt that MGM was already in decline before Mayer's death.

 

Doubtless all of these things contributed to the studio's fall from grace, but the primary reason for the studio's failure was what made it successful during its heyday- its efficient method of making films. During the height of the studio system, MGM's massive overhead was more than paid for by its immense product. Louis B. Mayer never let his mighty studio's assemblyline lie fallow for too long. As times changed, Mayer's operations didn't change at all. It was a fatal mistake that spelled the end of MGM's dominance. Previously smaller studios like Columbia and Disney flourished, since their lack of overhead made them ideally suited to take advantage of the new Hollywood reality. MGM would literally become a shell of its former self; its vaunted backlot was parceled out for condos, with the remaining backlot sold off. Its legendary props were sold off, as was its film library. A sad end for the mighty lion.

 

MGM Week: Judy Garland's Rainbow

 

She was one of MGM's biggest stars. Judy Garland was seen as being the luckiest girl in the world- she had an expensive contract, the most coveted role in all of Hollywood and all at the greatest studio in the history of film. Unfortunately, it wasn't as great as it all seemed.

MGM felt that Judy was too fat and constantly put her on various diets. Watchful studio execs monitored everything she ate, giving her pills to speed up her metabolism in the morning and barbiturates in the evening so that she could sleep. It would create a deadly habit that would haunt her for decades.

 

Judy's tenure at MGM would symbolize the worst of the studio's excesses. Louis B. Mayer would often see his stars as property instead of the people they were. They were cogs in the MGM machine; factors that could be inserted into the machine much like anything else. Regardless of the Behind the Scenes drama, however, the action onscreen was often pure gold.

 

MGM Week: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot

They said it was Hollywood's greatest backlot, filled to the brim with more stars than there were in the sky. Hollywood didn't have real factories, but if it did, MGM's storied backlot would have been the biggest one. Run by Hollywood magnate Louis B. Mayer, the studio was a de facto kingdom with Mayer as the king.

 

Within his gates, Mayer was in charge. He had his own police force, a staff that catered to every whim that he or his stars might have and an enforcer who could clean up just about any mess.

 

On the lot, Louis B. Mayer controlled everything. If he thought you needed to be on a diet, you went on a diet. If he wanted you to be in a particular film, you did it. Even the Los Angeles police would defer to Louis B. Mayer.

While some people found this control to be stifling, the end result was legendary.

  

MGM Week: Leo the Lion Tames the Marx Brothers

 

Whereas most big Hollywood stars were created by the Hollywood machine itself, the Marx Brothers were already legends before they went out west to star in pictures. The Marx Brothers had already made a name for themselves in vaudeville and Broadway, having been encouraged from a young age by their parents to undertake artistic pursuits. They initially began as a serious act, performing music in opera houses. The brothers were extremely talented musicians who took their craft seriously. After Groucho improvised jokes onstage during an interruption by an audience member, the family decided to change their act to comedy, honing their legendary act on stages around the country.

 

Soon Hollywood came calling, hiring the brothers to translate their skills to films. Paramount was not the biggest studio around, but it was willing to allow the guys to film in New York and pretty much do whatever they wanted within reason. The brothers became a phenomenon, capturing the attention of MGM, the largest movie studio at the time. MGM went all out to attract the guys, promising just about everything except for full creative control. Since, as the saying goes, Chico needed the money, the brothers moved to MGM. Though they liked working with MGM executive Irving Thalberg, they weren't too enamored with MGM's factory filmmaking process. 

At MGM, it wasn't the talent that was king, but Louis B. Mayer. Actors were expected to do whatever they were told, the way they were told to do it. In the Paramount films, there was usually a snippet of a plot which just served as a vehicle to let the brothers do their schtick. At MGM, however, more importance was given to the co-stars and the B plot. Did anyone really care about the society matron that the brothers would inevitably offend or the young lovers who would eventually come together at the end of the film? MGM seemed to think so. When Irving Thalberg, who had been the biggest advocate for the Marx Brothers at MGM, passed away, the brothers left MGM for RKO, only to eventually return to MGM for three more films. They would mostly consider themselves retired until Chico persuaded them to make a two film return at United Artists. It turned out that Chico really needed the money.

While some of their biggest fans felt that the brothers were too restrained by MGM's strict system, Groucho himself felt that the Thalberg MGM pictures were the best of their films. Regardless, it is definitely easy to see the difference between the anarchic mania of the Paramount films and the more controlled factory polish of the MGM pictures.

MGM Week: A Legend Begins

 

During the golden age of film, no studio was more successful or more efficient at making pictures than MGM. Despite being one of the last studios to embrace sound, MGM dominated the movie industry in its golden age, becoming synonymous with big budget, high quality films. 

Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer was formed as a shotgun marriage between three different movie studios, each with its own strong willed leader. Marcus Loew was a theater owner who wanted a reliable stream of product to place in his theaters. He purchased Metro Pictures to supply him with the product he needed, but he soon found that film making was more complicated than he had originally believed. Metro's films were obviously of lower quality than those of other studios, so Loew decided to do something about it.

 

Goldwyn Pictures was in a tailspin. Its founder, Samuel Goldwyn, had left the company after a bitter dispute and the studio was seemingly directionless. Despite this, Goldwyn Pictures was producing amazing content in a stark contrast to Metro's lesser product. The company fell under the control of Lee Schubert, whose expertise lie more with live productions and theater exposition. Schubert approached Loew to discuss a merger. Loew eagerly agreed, hoping that this deal would resolve his quality issues. MGM's distinctive future logo would come from this pairing; Leo the lion had been a Goldwyn trademark.

 

Now the combined studio had theaters and quality, but it didn't have a studio head. Marcus Loew's trusted assistant, Nicholas Schenck was needed at the company's New York headquarters, so who could oversee the company's Hollywood production operations? Enter Louis B. Mayer. Mr. Mayer was running his own studio, but saw that he would eventually run into financing limits. His ambition and vision called for a much larger operation than he was capable of accomplishing on his own, so he saw an opportunity with Metro-Goldwyn. Marcus Loew now had all of the pieces in place; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was born.

 

Louis B. Mayer

This ideal situation would not stay ideal for long. Mayer and Schenck became bitter rivals who often had to be reigned in by Loew. Loew grew tired of being a mediator and sought to fix the rift. Unfortunately, he passed away before getting that chance. Schenck began solidifying his power and arranged a sale of the Loew family shares to the Fox Film Corporation. Louis B. Mayer was incensed and began an internal fight for control. Mayer took his fight to Sacramento, using his ties to the Republican Party to try to get the deal between MGM and Fox overturned. The delays and the Great Depression took their toll on Fox's finances and the deal was called off. This wouldn't be the last time that an MGM/Fox merger was proposed, but for now the deal was dead.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would go on to become a Hollywood powerhouse. No matter the public face it put on, however, the studio had some darker edges right beneath the surface. This week, we'll look at a few of these darker stories from MGM's history.

Movie Quote Weekends

Movie Quote Weekends

Shopping!

More Clean Versions!

Sony "Clean Version" DVDs

Sony Pictures has decided to offer "clean versions" of its DVDs for sale. What might we see soon?

Mary Bailey, No!

The Simpsons Movie!

An American Wife!

The Godfather, Part II

 

At the Hollywood Canteen

 

At the Hollywood Canteen