Advice from the Don

 

Eddie is a Snoozer Too

The movie business was a tough one, even for the moguls who built it up from scratch. The world was fickle and there was no telling what the public might embrace. One thing was for certain; if the public rejected something there was no going back. The Wizard of Oz was supposed to be a franchise for MGM, though when the movie disappointed at the box office, Louis B. Mayer wrote it off and sold the movie rights to his friend Walt Disney. As far as Mr. Mayer was concerned this franchise was DOA. Of course, the film's repeated exposure on television would transform this movie into a classic. It would be too late for a sequel, however.

All that changed with the advent of cable television and home videocassettes. Cable networks like HBO had hours of time to fill every day, so rather than just buy blockbuster films to air, they would often fill out their schedules with lesser films. Films like Eddie and the Cruisers.

 

Eddie and the Cruisers had been a critical and box office dud. The film hardly made a splash in theaters but it was nice enough for HBO. The pay channel put the film about a "legendary" singer who (SPOILER ALERT) fakes his own death in a selfish fight with the record label that leaves his bandmates without jobs or a future into heavy rotation. The film found an audience who seemed to enjoy the film's bizarrely 1980's soundtrack (despite this being a 1960's band) and movie producers made a note of its popularity. A videocassette release was even more successful, turning this Hollywood dud into a sleeper hit. The studio could have just sat back and raked in the windfall. This being Hollywood, however, the executives decided to spin the roulette wheel and did something unprecedented- they authorized a sequel to a film that had failed at the box office.

 

They took the charisma-free lead actor, sent him to Canada, surrounded him with a bargain basement cast and spit out Eddie and the Cruisers II. There were high hopes for the film this time, since the hope was that Eddie's numerous fans made from HBO would flock to theaters this time. Despite featuring a bargain basement Lily Tomlin and 1/3 of the original cast, the low rent film did even worse than its predecessor, quickly losing the money and goodwill drummed up by the first movie. While the first film became a mainstay of DVD dump bins around the country, the second film is often difficult to find; assuming that one is looking to find it, that is.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mel Brooks!

The Man Without the Golden Seal

When Frank Sinatra first saw that he was being offered the lead role in Otto Preminger's The Man With the Golden Arm, he didn't think twice about accepting it. Even though he hadn't completely read the script, he figured that a prestige picture directed by the legendary Otto Preminger was sure to be a no-brainer. Instead, he ended up finding himself at the center of a media firestorm in 1955.

 

While the story about a drug addict was a bit edgy, it didn't glamorize drug addiction, so neither United Artists nor Otto Preminger suspected that the film would get rejected by the MPAA. In the pre-ratings era, movies were not given ratings; instead, they either were approved or rejected. Typically, a film that showed the bad side of addiction or crime would get an easy approval. Otto, United Artists and Frank Sinatra had no reason to suspect that the film would get rejected. Otto warned United Artists that he would take a hard line, wanting to release the film, regardless of whether it got the appropriate approvals. UA agreed to support the film and Otto forced the MPAA's hand; they announced that the film would not receive a seal. UA resigned from the MPAA and sent the film out without a seal. 

Despite this setback, the film was able to find theaters willing to show it. Frank Sinatra, who was becoming more conservative, was uncomfortable with the situation, as most films released this way were "stag" films. He soon forgot his reservations when the film became a huge success and he received a nomination for a Best Actor Oscar.  This film would eventually be one of the things that would break the stranglehold of the Hayes Office. It would finally receive full approval in 1961 and lead to the establishment of the current rating system.

Starfleet Welcomes Eddie Murphy?

In 1985, no star was bigger than Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop had been a huge hit the previous year and he had his pick of any project he wanted. Having just signed a mega deal with him, Paramount Pictures was eager to start lining up projects for their newest star. It quickly came to the attention of the studio that Eddie was a huge fan of Star Trek after he had requested that copies of the 1960's television show be made available to him. Paramount had acquired the show as part of a deal to buy the neighboring Desilu Studios from Lucille Ball. While previously seen as just something the studio had to purchase to get Lucy to agree to sell her facilities to them, the show had become quite a franchise for the company. Could the studio's big star and its biggest franchise actually team up? Paramount executives certainly hoped so.

 

At the time, the studio was in pre-production on Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, a film in which the Starfleet crew would visit contemporary San Francisco as part of their mission to take some whales to the future with them. Paramount thought this would be a perfect opportunity to put Eddie Murphy into the world of Star Trek. The script would have had Eddie Murphy play a conspiracy theorist marine biologist who would help the Starfleet crew with their mission. As a result, a more lighthearted script was produced. When it was presented to Eddie, he wasn't happy. He didn't want to play a 20th Century character; he wanted to actually be in Starfleet. Eddie had thought he would be playing a serious character in a serious Star Trek movie. Paramount didn't think the public would want to see him in a serious role and they weren't willing to risk finding out if they would. Eddie was encouraged to choose a different project and he made The Golden Child instead.

 

Meanwhile, Star Trek 4 went into production retaining its more lighthearted tone, though strangely recasting the Eddie Murphy role with Catherine Hicks. She wouldn't be a conspiracy theorist, however. The film did amazingly well; earning the best box office of the films starring the original cast. This would inspire Paramount to give the greenlight to an all new television show- Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

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