Molly's Decisions

Molly Ringwald was one of the most popular young actresses in the 1980's. By the end of the decade, she had her pick of roles, but she was extremely selective when choosing projects. Two roles that could have been hers became legendary career makers for other actresses:

 

Pretty Woman

 

Ghost

The Super Snowball

Making motion pictures has always been a costly business. With so many moving parts, it isn't difficult to see how a film's budget might spiral out of control. Louis B. Mayer at MGM dealt with costs by turning his studio into an impressive assembly line. Since most everyone at MGM back then was a full time employee, it was easy for him to operate this way. If an actor was being difficult, Louis B. Mayer could easily replace him with someone else working at MGM. If a script wasn't working, MGM could choose from numerous screenwriters already under its employ to fix it at a nominal cost. With the collapse of the studio system, however, this tried and true process became extinct. The new "free agent" model of film production would soon hold the potential to send movie budgets sky high.

 

The superhero franchise that started it all was Superman. Director Richard Donner literally invented the model for all of the superhero films that would come afterwards. Despite his success, Warner Brothers fired him during the production of Superman II. Without him, the franchise died out, reaching its sad conclusion with Superman IV. The huge success of Tim Burton's Batman, however, made Warner Brothers eager to bring back Superman in an entirely new series of films.

 

The film then entered a phase called pre-production. In Louis B. Mayer's heyday, "Pre-Production" was quick and streamlined. Studio executives would put together a film by digging into its personnel files and selecting the talent who would make the film. Since everyone was under contract to MGM, this process typically went quickly. The pre-production process for Superman, however was painful, lengthy and expensive. While MGM would just tell one of its staff writers to punch up a script, Warner Brothers would have to pay someone potentially millions of dollars to provide the same service. As a matter of fact, a script may go through numerous revisions and changes, requiring hefty payments to each screenwriter.

Having been released from the Batman franchise, Tim Burton was put in charge of putting together a new Superman. He enlisted Nicholas Cage, a Superman fanatic, to play Superman. Burton entered pre-production, soliciting scripts and story ideas. He easily went through millions of dollars before announcing that the film would begin filming eminently. However, Warner Brothers got cold feet and pulled the plug. By this time, Batman and Robin had underperformed at the box office and Warner had lost all interest in superhero films. It was an expensive decision.

 

Tim Burton's expensive pre-production costs weren't "written off" by Warner Brothers, however. The company had merged with AOL in the middle of the dot com bubble and when the bubble burst, things became grim. Warner Brothers wouldn't have to report the high costs of Superman's pre-production as long as it could say that it was still looking to make a film. This would be a great decision in the near term, because Warner Brothers wouldn't have to report a loss. It would be regretted years later.

 

When Bryan Singer was offered the opportunity to direct and produce a new Superman film, his production began life in a deep hole. Since Warner Brothers didn't report its costs from the earlier production, it would have to add them to Bryan Singer's production. It had become a toxic snowball, and would create a budgeting problem for the film. Despite not using anything that had been created by Burton, the cost of that production would haunt Superman Returns. While the film had other problems, the budgeting issue didn't help things. The film would go on to underperform at the box office, though it did have the positive effect of finally clearing that multi-million dollar charge off of Warner's books.

Death Note!

 

Death Note, the popular Japanese graphic novel, is a rarity, spawning interest in both its native country and in the United States. Both the Death Note animated series and the live action films have found their way to the United States, breaking sales records and inspiring Hollywood to attempt to adapt the series for American audiences. Unfortunately, this has been easier said than done. Though some big names have tried to attach themselves to the film, its American rights owner- Warner Brothers- has had a seemingly bumpy road getting the film made.

In Death Note, we learn about a mystical race of monsters called Shinigami, who each carry around a blank book called a Death Note. If a human's name is written in the book, he or she will die of a heart attack. Ryuk, a bored Shinigami, decides to drop his Death Note into the human world just to see what happens. It falls into the hands of a bright honors student named Light Yagami, whose father is a police detective. Light amazes Ryuk by instantly beginning to use the Death Note to kill criminals. Soon the world takes notice and dubs the mysterious vigilante 'Kira'. This also gets the attention of the authorities and a legendary detective known only as L. Thus begins a cat and mouse battle between Light and L.

Perhaps it's the dark material that has made this a difficult property to get off the ground; though its latest difficulties were caused by Batman and Superman. Massively underperforming, the film forced Warner Brothers to offload various projects. Death Note was one of them, though Netflix has picked up the project and it is currently under production. While the translation of the idea to American sensibilities is unknown, here is the currently announced cast:

 

Garry Marshall, Director

While he was arguably best known for his work in television, Garry Marshall was also a very successful director. Among his biggest hits were Beaches

 

"I am a total believer of making the process a good time - make it memorable, have some fun, try to shoot high in your quality and then don't get crazy, see what happens."

-Garry Marshall

He also directed Pretty Woman, the film that made Julia Roberts a star:

 

And who could forget The Princess Diaries?

 

If you’ve got the comedy eye, you can look at any situation and see the humor in it while others don’t.

-Garry Marshall

Saul Bass, Hollywood Icon

Saul Bass was one of the most iconic poster and credit sequence designers in Hollywood, a rare legend whose posters became as famous as the movies they promoted.

 

 

 

But he also designed various logos, including this one for Wienerschnitzel:

 

Not too many fast food chains can say their logo was designed by a legend.

Independence Day Weekend

 

Independence Day Weekend

 

Legends Week: Gene Tierney's Sad Night at the Canteen

Earlier this week, we highlighted the happy times at the famed Hollywood Canteen. Bette Davis and her Hollywood friends were creating wonderful memories nightly. However, not everyone who walked out of the the Canteen had a happy memory of their time there. Gene Tierney's experience in the Canteen was sadly tragic.

The beautiful Ms. Tierney was born into a blue blooded east coast family that looked down its nose at the acting profession. Acting was something that itinerant lower classes did. When her family visited a Hollywood Studio on vacation, a studio executive instantly offered Ms. Tierney a contract, but her parents refused to allow it. They wanted her to return to the east coast, become a debutante as befitting their wealth and get married. Her father convinced her to try out the debutante circuit and only consider returning to Hollywood if she didn't like it. She didn't like it and he grudgingly agreed to let her try out this acting thing. She returned to Hollywood and soon found herself swept off her feet by struggling fashion designer Oleg Cassini. Her parents forbade her from marrying him, but she defied them yet again. They eloped against her parents' wishes.

Ms. Tierney soon found herself pregnant, but she chose to keep it quiet at first. Studio policy was to suspend a pregnant woman's contract, leaving her without a paycheck until she gave birth and returned to her pre-pregnancy weight. Mr. Cassini's career had not taken off yet and they couldn't afford to go long without Gene's paycheck. Gene planned to work as long as she could until it was impossible to hide her pregnancy.

One fateful night, Gene decided to visit the Hollywood Canteen to meet and greet the soldiers. The night was uneventful, though Gene would take ill not long afterwards. She was diagnosed with the measles, possibly contracted at the Canteen. Her doctors advised her not to worry about her pregnancy and the effect the measles might have on it. Her daughter was born and began having issues. They soon realized that the measles Gene had contracted would cause lifelong health problems for her daughter. Gene was devasted.

Years later, at a meet and greet, a young woman approached Gene. Did Gene recognize her, she queried. Gene admitted that she did not and the young woman mentioned having met her years earlier at the Hollywood Canteen. She said that she was such a big fan of Gene's that she went out to see her that night despite having the measles. Gene chose not to confront the woman whose selfish decision had caused so much grief. She merely just retreated from the situation. It is not known whether the woman ever realized what she had done.

Famed British author Agatha Christie wrote a fictionalized version of the encounter in her book The Mirror Crack'd. It would be one of the rare times when a real life event was used as the inspiration for one of Ms. Christie's mystery books. In the 1980 film The Mirror Crack'd starring Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor played the fictional actress who is confronted by the selfish fan who would end up dead. Did the grieving mother commit a murder? Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple spends the film trying to find out. This film would inspire CBS to cast Angela in Murder, She Wrote.

 

Legends Week: Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Knock-Off

Bela Lugosi was already a legend in the late 1940's. Having starred as Dracula in the legendary Universal film of the same name, he had made a name for himself as a creepy, menacing monster. Unfortunately for Lugosi, his career fell victim to a checklist of Hollywood issues- he was typecast; the serials he had been making were all but dead due to the rise of television and he had become addicted to morphine. By the 1950's, he was taking any work he could get.

 

Meanwhile, the world (and especially France) had taken notice of a new comedy duo consisting of a straight man who would become a heartthrob and a crazy goofball who would literally do anything for a laugh- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Their success would spark a cavalcade of similar and copy cat acts flooding out to the various nightclubs. One of the better acts featured a Jerry Lewis lookalike named Sammy Petrillo and a passable Dean Martin knock-off named Duke Mitchell. Sammy's resemblance to Jerry Lewis was uncanny and caught the attention of Martin and Lewis' representatives. They did all they could to prevent Duke and Sammy from booking work at night clubs around the country. Desperate, they found their way to the one town that probably wouldn't care about unoriginality- Hollywood.

 

Hollywood's studio system ensured that the stars only worked at one place for years. This caused them to often go after similar stars who openly copied the original stars' schtick. The original star's complaints would go unheeded. After all, if they were locked up at MGM, why would Universal care what they thought? Mitchell and Petrillo were chased out of night clubs because Martin and Lewis' agents vowed that they would never perform anywhere that the faux duo had performed. While the bigger studios were uninterested in signing them, they found a more receptive audience at Poverty Row. After Universal Studios had found great success placing its legendary monsters into comedy films, Poverty Row was eager to try the formula themselves. Jack Broder Productions was a small independent studio just a few steps above Ed Wood with no chance of ever signing the likes of Dean Martin or Jerry Lewis. They couldn't be easily threatened, so they signed the bargain basement Martin and Lewis, who were eager for their big break, pairing them with Bela Lugosi, who was really just looking for a paycheck.

 

The mere slip of a film featured Bela Lugosi playing a mysterious mad scientist who turns dreamy Duke Mitchell into the fakest gorilla you've ever seen in the fakest jungle ever shown on film. The producers obviously hoped that viewers would mistake Sammy Petrillo for Jerry Lewis. (It was the strange time period when Lewis was considered a draw.) The film took barely over a week to film and cost just $50,000 to make. It was a modest hit, but it didn't have the effect that either Lugosi nor the guys had hoped for. Bela would go on to star in films for Ed Wood, while Duke and Sammy went back to their old gigs, performing in any club that would have them. Breaking up and reuniting more times than the real thing, the act would eventually end in 1981 after Duke Mitchell's death. Sammy Petrillo would occasionally come out of hiding, typically due to renewed interest in his faux Lewis act. He would never really forgive Jerry Lewis for hassling him all of those years, rejecting requests to make appearances on talk shows with him. He passed away in 2009, oddly the one person who would prove to harbor a grudge longer than Jerry Lewis.

 

Twilight Zone Day: Rod Serling at the Movies

Though he is best known for his iconic series The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling also used his talents on other projects, like the original Planet of the Apes.

 

Mr. Serling had a hard time adapting the book into a usable script and spent over a year working on it. His original draft featured topless ape women, but Twentieth Century Fox forbade it, to the chagrin of many a young man at the time. Originally, Charlton Heston resisted the project since he disliked the book it was based on. Rod's script, however, changed his mind.

 

At a time when the studio was barely hanging on, this high budget film was extremely important to Fox. Luckily it succeeded beyond its wildest projections. Certainly Mr. Serling helped save Fox.

Colonel Sanders: On the Big Screen

When it came to promoting his fried chicken, Colonel Sanders would literally do anything to attract attention. Instead of merely buying ad time on television shows, Colonel Sanders revolutionized product placement at the movies. His first attempt was the 1967 film The Big Mouth with Jerry Lewis.

 

In addition to his cameo in the film, a magazine campaign depicted both Jerry Lewis and Colonel Sanders enjoying a bucket of chicken. It would be all be downhill from here, however. Colonel Sanders would next appear in the modsploitation film Blast Off Girls, a low budget cheapie.

 

We've highlighted his last two appearances before. The first was originally sold to Colonel Sanders as being a spy film, much like a James Bond film, called Operation M. When audience tastes changed, the film had biker scenes edited in and a new, horrifying title- Hell's Bloody Devils. The film has the added notoriety of being partially filmed at Spahn Ranch during the sleazy heyday of the Manson Family. Charles Manson allegedly tried to get acting jobs for himself and his girls, but other than mooching fried chicken from the craft services table, Charles was unsuccessful.

 

Finally, Colonel Sanders would try one last shot at film stardom, starring in the bizarre 'today' picture The Phynx, in which a who's who of hasbeens get kidnapped and politely wait to be rescued by The Phynx. The film had a bigger budget, but it was a disaster at the box office. The Colonel would decide to retire from acting, passing away in 1980.

 

April 11th- At the Movies

Jackie Coogan had been a huge child star, often starring opposite the big names- like Charlie Chaplin. When he grew up, he was certain that he should have tons of money waiting for him, but his mother and stepfather gave him the bad news- he was practically penniless. How could this happen? On April 11, 1938, Jackie sued his parents to find out. His story would change the law for child actors, requiring their parents to put money away in a trust- still called a "Coogan Account" for the child to have access to after their 18th birthday.

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On April 11, 1955 the film Marty premiered. The film would be the first time a television production would be successfully made into a film. The film would become a huge success, winning a Best picture Oscar. The film would also be the first project featuring the young Jerry Orbach in an uncredited role.

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